DIRTY PRETTY THINGS (2002)
Sky Movies 1, 8pm
A punchy thriller set in the hotel basements and grimy bedsits of contemporary London, Dirty Pretty Things marked a return to topical social drama by Stephen Frears. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Audrey Tautou play members of Britain’s invisible cash-in-hand army of cleaners, prostitutes, asylum seekers and taxi drivers. Frears has almost directed a Mike Leigh film, except for the escapist romance and the grisly subplot about illegal organ donors. With delicious irony, the Oscar-nominated screenplay was written by Steven Knight, one of the creators of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? (97 min)
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STARDUST (1974)
ITV1, 12.40am
The concluding chapter in the producer David Puttnam’s highly regarded two-part drama about the rise and fall of British rock superstar Jim Maclaine (David Essex), Michael Apted’s acutely observed sequel to That’ll Be the Day traces Maclaine’s spectacular journey from provincial contender to doomed glam-rock legend. Adam Faith almost steals the film as Maclaine’s manager, their long- standing friendship now soured by money and success. (111 min)
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ME YOU THEM (2000)
Channel 4, 3.05am
On paper, Andrucha Waddington’s four-way Brazilian sex comedy sounds like a potentially rich source of laughs. Darlene (Regina Casé) returns to her home village and marries a lazy goat herder (Lima Duarte). Before long she has several children by different fathers, even moving her husband’s cousin (Stênio Garcia) and a local stud (Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos) into their shack. But the screenplay to Me You Them by Elena Soarez is too bittersweet to be all-out comedy. Not so much a feminist fable of rampant sexual appetite but an engaging, absurdist drama about poverty, hardship and economic necessity. (104 min)