NETWORK (1976)
Sky Cinema 1, 8pm
Sidney Lumet’s powerful, prescient black comedy about the dumbing down of American television has been eclipsed by real developments in the media over the past 30 years. Peter Finch became one of the film’s five Oscar winners as Howard Beale, an unbalanced TV anchorman who grabs huge audiences with his increasingly angry on-air rants. Faye Dunaway also picked up an Academy Award as an executive who uses terrorism, suicide and murder to boost ratings. (120 min)
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RAINING STONES (1993)
More4, 10pm
He may have just won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his Irish period drama The Wind that Shakes the Barley, but Ken Loach was working in a more familiar contemporary social realism vein when he made Raining Stones. On a grim Manchester housing estate, Bob (Bruce Jones) struggles to deal with unemployment, poverty and family life. Fortunately, Jim Allen’s script allows for a few laughs between the bitter life lessons. Ricky Tomlinson and Julie Brown co-star. (90 min)
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COYOTE UGLY (2000)
ITV1, 11pm
A sugary little fairytale from the blockbuster action producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Coyote Ugly follows a wannabe songwriter (Piper Perabo) from New Jersey to Manhattan in search of her music business dreams. The East Village drinks dive where she ends up working is based on a real bar, although the director David McNally transforms it into a fantasy palace packed with wall-to-wall supermodels. Risible hokum, best enjoyed in a post-pub stupor. (100 min)