THE DISH (2000)
Channel 4, 1.45pm
Inspired by real events, The Dish celebrates the warm-hearted provincial pride felt by the small Australian backwater of Parkes in New South Wales when its vast radio telescope was chosen to relay the global broadcast of Neil Armstrong’s historic 1969 Moon walk. Sam Neill stars as the telescope’s unflappable, pipe-smoking manager in this gentle comedy about national self-esteem. In reality, the Parkes telescope was just a back-up, but Rob Sitch’s likeable period piece is less concerned with historical accuracy than in re-creating the innocence of a bygone age. (101 min)
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FROM HELL (2001)
Five, 10pm
The Jack the Ripper story has inspired dozens of films, but From Hell adds modern-day conspiracy theories and a deluxe gloss to the usual Gothic shock tactics. Working from the acclaimed graphic novel by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, the American directing duo Albert and Allen Hughes conjure up a compellingly creepy vision of mist-shrouded Victorian London. Johnny Depp stars as Inspector Frederick Abberline, the opium-addicted detective tracking the Ripper, ably supported by Robbie Coltrane’s police sergeant and Heather Graham, who plays the prostitute Mary Kelly. This smart cocktail of fact and fiction pays knowing homage to Sherlock Holmes, Hammer films and The Elephant Man. (122 min)
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HONEYMOON IN VEGAS (1992)
BBC One, 11.35pm
Andrew Bergman’s shamelessly absurd romantic comedy stars Nicolas Cage as a commitment-phobic private detective who unwisely trades a weekend with his fiancée (Sarah Jessica Parker) to a playboy gangster (James Caan) in a Vegas poker game. What follows is a disjointed, mildly amusing series of madcap stunts as Cage’s remorseful hero struggles to win back his future wife. There are some spectacular comic set-pieces, especially an airborne flock of skydiving Elvis lookalikes, but such laboured silliness wears thin. (96 min)