THE GOOD DIE YOUNG (1954, b/w)
Channel 4, 1.40pm
Lewis Gilbert’s superior crime thriller stars Laurence Harvey as a louche London gambler whose luck is about to run out. Recruiting a motley gang of down-at-heel prizefighters and former GIs, including Richard Basehart and Stanley Baker, Harvey’s desperate playboy plans an armed robbery to fund his lavish lifestyle. But there is no honour among thieves in Gilbert’s compelling heist drama. (88min)
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MY SON THE FANATIC (1997)
BBC One, 11.45pm
Written by Hanif Kureishi, the director Udayan Prasad’s culture-clash drama becomes ever more topical as the years pass.
A Pakistani-born Bradford taxi driver, the easygoing Parvez (Om Puri), forges a touching relationship with a local prostitute, Bettina (Rachel Griffiths), while his alienated son Farid (Akbar Kurtha) becomes increasingly rigid in his hardline Islamic views. Kureishi and Prasad make some subtle and often very funny points about the need for mutual tolerance in an increasingly polarised world. (87min)
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MultiChannel
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THE GODFATHER: PART III (1990)
Film4, 9pm
The belated, bloated final chapter in Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather trilogy falls far short of its two predecessors. But there is still plenty to enjoy here, especially Al Pacino’s lyrical performance as a guilt-ridden Michael Corleone eking out his autumn years in Italian exile, and a dramatic set-piece in a grand opera house. Pacino’s co-stars include Diane Keaton, Andy Garcia and Coppola’s own daughter Sofia, now a successful director herself, who stepped into a role vacated by Winona Ryder. Before Coppola relented, Paramount tried for years to make a third instalment without his involvement, negotiating with everyone from Martin Scorsese to Sylvester Stallone. (162min)