CALENDAR GIRLS (BBC iPlayer). A true story. It’s the full monty all over again, but this time it’s the women who are taking off their kit. Middle-aged members of a Yorkshire Woman’s Institute (the stellar cast includes Helen Mirren, Julie Walters, Celia Imrie) pose nude for a calendar to raise millions for charity. It’s innocuous, gentle, charming and very English.
THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS (BBC iPlayer). This fascinating British World War II espionage thriller directed by Ronald Neame in 1956 is based on fact. Military Intelligence (led by Clifton Webb) successfully fool Nazi Germany into thinking the Allied invasion will be of Greece rather than Sicily.
LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY (YouTube). Young American boy becomes an English Earl and melts everybody’s heart by his goodness, devotion and kindness. Frances Hodgson Burnett’s children’s classic, an immensely popular tearjerker, often staged and filmed, is expertly adapted and directed. 10-year-old Freddie Bartholomew’s remarkably confident performance ensured a big box office success in 1936.
AN INSPECTOR CALLS (StudioCanal). J B Priestley’s play, a socialist tract on capitalist greed, is arguably the best murder mystery since Sophocles’ Oedipus, the tension coming from the total predictability of the plot as one family finds themselves getting more and more involved in a young woman’s suicide. Warning for those who know the play: this 1954 film version adds unnecessary flashbacks which negate a major surprise and waters down the social point Priestley is making.
CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (BBC iPlayer). Paul Greenglass directs this excellent thriller which is based on a true story. A US unarmed container ship (captained by Tom Hanks) gets highjacked by Somali pirates (headed by Barkhead Abdi) in the Indian Ocean in 2009. The drama is totally gripping. The tension is enormous.
NOTHING BUT THE BEST (StudioCanal). Clive Donner directs this disappointing1964 British satire. An ambitious lower-middle-class estate agent (engagingly played by Alan Bates), keen to climb the social ladder, seeks guidance from his mentor, an indolent wastrel toff (Denholm Elliott). The arrogant upper crust accents are perfect but the storyline is ruined when it takes an unbelievable murderous twist
CAGE OF GOLD (SudioCanal). This British 1960s film is well below the standard you would expect from Ealing Studios. Young widow (Jean Simmons) marries a decent doctor (James Donald) only to find her crooked first husband (David Farrar) is not dead and wanting to blackmail her.
SOMETHING IN THE WATER (StudioCanal). Do we actually need yet another shark movie? I don’t think so. Sharks are fed-up with the continuing bad press they get. The twist this time is that It’s an all-female cast aimed at female audiences.
To learn more about Robert Tanitch and his reviews, click here to go to his website. 
