Festive firsts
This year’s live-action Jungle Book is new on Sky Cinema Premiere (from Christmas Day, 1.30pm/8pm), and an even bigger Disney hit, Frozen, arrives on BBC1 (Christmas Day, 3.10pm), along with Penguins Of Madagascar (Christmas Eve, 4.50pm) and How To Train Your Dragon 2 (Boxing Day, 4.30pm). For adults, meanwhile, the main debuts are Dallas Buyers Club (Christmas Day, C5, 10.30pm) and Pride (Boxing Day, BBC2, 10.30pm).
Super stars
Sky Cinema Premiere puts a modern spin on superheroism with Deadpool (Boxing Day, 2pm/8pm), but it also delivers traditional Marvel action in Captain America — Civil War (Friday 30, 12 noon/8pm). Cap’s previous film, The Winter Soldier (Friday 30, BBC1, 8.30pm), and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Thursday 29, ITV, 5.50pm) offer further costumed adventures, but for truly old-fashioned comic-strip fun, what can beat 1980’s camp Flash Gordon (Thursday 22, More 4, 9.45am)?
Hanks a lot
Hollywood’s Mr Nice Guy is fairly easy to find among this year’s films. Sky Cinema Greats fills Friday 23 with several of his hits, including Bridge Of Spies (6am/3.55pm) and his Oscar-winning Forrest Gump (11am/9pm), and as well as appearing in ITV’s premiere of Captain Phillips (see Three of the best), he plays Walt Disney in one of BBC2’s new acquisitions, Saving Mr Banks (Friday 23, 8.30pm). He also meets a mermaid in Splash (Christmas Eve, BBC2, 1pm) and teaches baseball to Madonna in A League Of Their Own (Friday 30, C4, 9.35am).
Complete sets
BBC1 has all the Indiana Jones films: the first three come in daily afternoon slots — beginning with Raiders Of The Lost Ark (Tuesday 27, 1.35pm) — but the dodgier fourth movie, The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, is relegated to late night (Thursday 29, 11.20pm). ITV takes a daily trip through the stories of JK Rowling’s boy wizard, beginning with Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone (Christmas Eve, 1.30pm), while Channel 4 does the same with the three Swedish films based on Stieg Larsson’s Millennium novels, starting with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Tuesday 27, 12.40am). And as befits a series about whizzing through time, you can do the Back To The Future trilogy in a single day on Sky Cinema Greats (Tuesday 20, 6am/6pm).