SHALLOW HAL (2001)
Five, 8pm
This slightly softer, more romantic comedy than usual from the gross-out specialists Peter and Bobby Farrelly stars Jack Black as a superficial would-be Casanova who is hypnotised to see only the inner beauty in women. The jokes are hit and miss, but the Farrellys score a major comic coup by casting Gwyneth Paltrow in a sumo- sized fat suit. (113min)
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THE FULL MONTY (1997)
Channel 4, 9pm
Social realism meets feel-good escapism in Peter Cattaneo’s phenomenally successful feature debut, a whimsical but unassuming British yarn that struck a populist nerve around the world. Robert Carlyle plays Gaz, a Sheffield loser and unemployed divorcé who reluctantly assembles a motley team of male strippers to make ends meet. Tom Wilkinson, Mark Addy and Hugo Speer co-star. (91min)
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ENIGMA (2001)
BBC One, 10.15pm
Based on the celebrated bestseller by Robert Harris, Michael Apted’s best-of- British retro-thriller stars Kate Winslet, Dougray Scott and Jeremy Northam. Fictionalising events among the top secret wartime code-breaking team at Bletchley Park, it was adapted by Tom Stoppard and produced by Mick Jagger, who also has a brief cameo. (119min)
MultiChannel
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THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF YOUR LIFE (1950, b/w)
BBC Four, 10pm
Alastair Sim, Joyce Grenfell and Margaret Rutherford co-star in Frank Launder’s perky farce about bureaucratic mix-ups and school evacuations during the Blitz. A forerunner of the St Trinian’s comedies, it features many of the same crew and cast members. (81min)
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MEET JOE BLACK (1998)
More4, 10.10pm
A glossy update of the 1934 comedy Death Takes a Holiday, Martin Brest’s supernatural fairytale stars Brad Pitt as a benign angel of death sent to take a billionaire magnate (Anthony Hopkins) on his 65th birthday. But matters are complicated when Death falls for the businessman’s daughter (Claire Forlani). Sadly, Brest overloads this promising dramatic set-up with too many ponderous, adoring close-ups of Pitt’s permanently glazed expression. (178min)
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THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984)
ITV4, 11.30pm
Decades of cult fame have not taken the edge off Rob Reiner’s brilliantly observed mockumentary about a mediocre British heavy rock band touring America. Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer improvise most of the hilarious dialogue in their commendably plausible English accents. (82min)