Best films to watch on TV today, tonight and this week

There are plenty of options – old and new – to pick from this week, from Christopher Nolan's early masterpiece Memento to classic Ealing comedies like The Lavender Hill Mob, so there really is something for everyone.

If you're wondering where to find some of the best films on the terrestrial channels this week, we've got you sorted with our picks for the next seven days.

With so many amazing films airing, we've compiled a list of the best flicks for you to choose from below.

Friday 13th December

Mermaids - 8pm, ITVBe

Romantic comedy starring Cher, Bob Hoskins and Winona Ryder. It's 1963: after uprooting her family to a small coastal town in Massachusetts, restless single parent Mrs Flax becomes romantically involved with a local shopkeeper. At the same time, her elder daughter is worried that her own tentative romance may compromise her religious calling. Read our full review

Commando - 9pm, Film4

Action adventure starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Special Forces Colonel John Matrix retires to his mountain home and steadfastly refuses to return to active service. But when his daughter is kidnapped by South American revolutionaries, Matrix must undertake his most important mission - to rescue her. Read our full review

The History Boys - 11:05pm, BBC Two

Drama based on the hit play by Alan Bennett, starring Richard Griffiths, Frances de la Tour and Stephen Campbell Moore. Sheffield, 1983: the ambitious headmaster of Cutler's Grammar School engages Irwin to coach his eight star pupils for the Oxbridge entrance exams. In contrast to his eccentric colleague, Hector, the new recruit has an iconoclastic approach to education that meets with suspicion and resistance. Read our full review

My Week with Marilyn - 12:30am, BBC One

Drama based on a true story, starring Michelle Williams and Eddie Redmayne. In 1956, Hollywood sex symbol Marilyn Monroe arrives in Britain to co-star with Laurence Olivier in his film adaptation of The Prince and the Showgirl. But as the behaviour of the notoriously mercurial Monroe begins to drive Olivier to distraction, she's befriended by young production runner Colin Clark and the two become confidantes. Read our full review

Saturday 14th December

The Lavender Hill Mob - 2:05pm, BBC Two

Classic Ealing crime comedy starring Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway. Meek, respectable Henry Holland supervises gold bullion deliveries to the bank where he is a trusted employee. But behind his modest exterior lurks a criminal mind harbouring unbounded ambition. His dream of stealing one million pounds worth of gold bars starts to assume reality when he teams up with foundry owner Pendlebury and two professional crooks. Read our full review

The Train - 3:25pm, BBC Two

Second World War drama starring Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield and Jeanne Moreau. France, 1944: with Germany facing defeat, Colonel von Waldheim is ordered to transport many priceless works of art from a Paris gallery back by train to the Fatherland. But the French Resistance has other ideas. Read our full review

Independence Day - 3:55pm, Channel 4

Sci-fi adventure starring Will Smith, Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum. The Earth faces its greatest challenge when alien spaceships take up positions above major cities. While world leaders speculate on the intentions of the visitors, cable-TV boffin David Levinson discovers that a signal emanating from the alien vessels is in fact a sinister countdown and the future of the human race hangs in the balance. Read our full review

Zulu - 5:50pm, Legend

Historical war drama starring Stanley Baker, Michael Caine and Jack Hawkins. In 1879, Cetewayo, ruler of the great Zulu kingdom, inflicts a heavy defeat upon the British army at Isandhlwana and marches towards the small garrison of Rorke's Drift, where two officers desperately rally their meagre forces. Read our full review

The Silence of the Lambs - 10:30pm, ITV4

Classic psychological thriller starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. Promising FBI student Clarice Starling is assigned to help in the search for the serial killer known as "Buffalo Bill", a brutal murderer who skins the bodies of his female victims. Starling seeks the assistance of Dr Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter, a sociopathic former psychiatrist held in a maximum security hospital for the criminally insane. Read our full review

Sunday 15th December

The Great Escape - 3:05pm, ITV1

Classic Second World War adventure based on a true story, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough and Charles Bronson. In an attempt to contain rebellious PoWs, the Nazis transfer the leading troublemakers to a seemingly escape-proof security camp. However, with the finest escape team in military history now under one roof, the German guards are hard pressed to prevent the Allied prisoners from breaking out. Read our full review

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - 5:05pm, BBC Two

Comedy drama starring Bill Nighy and Judi Dench. A group of impoverished British pensioners decide to try and make the pennies go further by spending their retirement at what they believe to be a luxury hotel in Jaipur. But the establishment run by the irrepressible Sonny proves to be something quite different. Read our full review

The Day After Tomorrow - 5:50pm, Channel 4

Disaster movie from Independence Day director Roland Emmerich, starring Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal. When climatologist Jack Hall tries to warn Washington that the planet is facing an imminent, catastrophic climate shift, government officials fail to take him seriously. But, when the Earth abruptly plunges into a new ice age, it soon becomes clear that the human race is facing extinction. Read our full review

No Time to Die - 8pm, ITV2

Spy adventure starring Daniel Craig, Rami Malek and Léa Seydoux. After narrowly surviving an attempt on his life, James Bond believes his lover, Madeleine Swann, has betrayed him. Five years later, he is drawn out of retirement and back into her life when a new global threat - a deadly biological weapon - emerges. But with Bond's nemesis, Blofeld, behind bars, who is the mysterious figure intent on using this terrifying new technology? Read our full review

Triangle of Sadness - 10pm, BBC Two

Satirical comedy drama starring Charlbi Dean and Harris Dickinson. Following a major argument, up-and-coming influencer couple Yaya and Carl join a luxury cruise holiday on a superyacht. Their unstable relationship is further challenged when a nautical disaster leaves the couple, along with a handful of fellow passengers, stranded on a remote beach. Read our full review

Monday 16th December

The 39 Steps - 2:30pm, BBC Two

Classic thriller starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. An innocent man accused of murder is pursued by both the police and an international spy ring. The beleaguered Richard Hannay finds himself fleeing across the desolate Scottish moors handcuffed to a beautiful woman. Read our full review

Speed - 10pm, Film4

Action thriller starring Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper and Sandra Bullock. A demented extortionist's plan to collect a huge ransom by planting a bomb in an LA skyscraper is thwarted by the reckless bravery of SWAT daredevil Jack Traven. Undeterred, the unhinged bomber sets Traven a sterner test - an even more deadly device on board a commuter-filled bus that will explode if the bus's speed drops below 50mph. Read our full review

Memento - 11:05pm, Film4

Thriller starring Guy Pearce and Carrie-Anne Moss. Leonard Shelby is determined to avenge the rape and murder of his wife, but is hampered by short-term memory loss following a blow to the head. Forced to record everything with copious notes, Polaroid photographs and even tattoos, Leonard's obsession leads him into a world where no one can be trusted. Read our full review

Tuesday 17th December

Funny Face - 2:30pm, BBC Two

Musical comedy starring Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire. Famous fashion photographer Dick Avery takes his latest beautiful discovery on a working trip to Paris, but she soon proves to be a far from perfect model. Read our full review

The Mask of Zorro - 3:05pm, Film4

Swashbuckling action adventure starring Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins. Twenty years after his last appearance, legendary hero Zorro returns to battle Don Rafael Montero, now the self-styled ruler of mid-19th-century California. But is this the original "Robin Hood of Mexico" or a younger incarnation who now defends the rights of peasants? Read our full review

The Northman - 9pm, Film4

Historical action adventure starring Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman and Claes Bang. Viking nobleman Amleth spends years in exile, bent on pursuing revenge against his uncle Fjölnir, who murdered Amleth's father and married his mother, Gudrún. When he hears of Fjölnir's own exile into the Icelandic wilderness, Amleth spies his chance... Read our full review

Wednesday 18th December

The Tall T - 3pm, Great Movies Action

Western starring Randolph Scott, Richard Boone and Maureen O'Sullivan. The courageous Pat Brennan and newlyweds Doretta and Willard Mims are taken hostage at a stagecoach station by bandits, whose ruthless leader, Usher, has no qualms about killing anyone who gets in his way. Read our full review

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa - 9pm, Film4

Comedy starring Steve Coogan. Norwich DJ Alan Partridge is unconcerned when his local radio station, North Norfolk Digital, is bought out by a multinational. But when he finds out that it's either himself or fellow DJ Pat Farrell who must go, Alan makes sure that it's his colleague who gets the boot. However, when a shotgun-wielding Farrell decides to hold the staff hostage, it's up to Norwich's most famous son to save the day. Read our full review

Die Hard 2: Die Harder - 10:40pm, BBC One

Action thriller sequel starring Bruce Willis and Bonnie Bedelia. Christmas Eve: while waiting for his wife's plane to land at Dulles International Airport in Washington DC, detective John McClane becomes involved in a deadly and dangerous mission to outwit a bunch of ruthless terrorists who have taken over the busy airport in a bid to rescue a drugs baron. Read our full review

Thursday 19th December

Fiddler on the Roof - 1:45pm, BBC Two

Musical comedy drama starring Topol and Norma Crane. Tevye, a poor milkman living in the Ukrainian village of Anatevka before the revolution, is determined to find good husbands for his five daughters. He will consult the matchmaker of course, but he might have a word about it with God as well. Read our full review

The Last of the Mohicans - 10:55pm, Film4

Period adventure inspired by James Fenimore Cooper's classic novel, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeleine Stowe. Hawkeye and Uncas are the sons of Chingachgook. They fight as mercenaries in the power struggle between the French and British in the New World, but suddenly find themselves involved in bitter intrigue and betrayal, where far more than land is at stake. Read our full review

Die Hard with a Vengeance - 11:40pm, BBC Two

Action thriller starring Bruce Willis, Jeremy Irons and Samuel L Jackson. Following a terrorist explosion in a New York department store, suspended police officer John McClane and Harlem shopkeeper Zeus Carver become unwitting players in a deadly game of "Simon Says". Read our full review

Friday 20th December

Now, Voyager - 1:50pm, BBC Two

Classic romantic drama starring Bette Davis, Paul Henreid and Claude Rains. Following a nervous breakdown, dowdy and repressed Charlotte Vale undergoes psychiatric treatment and emerges transformed. However, beauty and confidence are no defence against the heartache she experiences when she falls in love with Jerry Durrance, a married man. Read our full review

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - 3:45pm, Film4

Musical comedy starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell. Despite already being engaged to a millionaire, showgirl Lorelei Lee continues to flirt with wealthy men when she sails to Paris with her best friend Dorothy. Read our full review

Star Trek - 6:35pm, BBC Two

Science-fiction adventure starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto. Rebellious youth James Kirk is persuaded to join the Starfleet Academy, where he befriends Dr Leonard "Bones" McCoy and clashes with officer Spock. When an evil Romulan arrives from the future, the young crew of the USS Enterprise find themselves in the thick of the action. Read our full review

The Duke - 11:15pm, BBC Two

Comedy drama based on a true story, starring Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren. In 1961, Newcastle taxi driver Kempton Bunton mounts a campaign to have the BBC licence fee revoked for pensioners. In order to drum up awareness, he travels to London, steals a painting from the National Gallery and holds it hostage. But how long before the law catches up with him? Read our full review

If you have Netflix, we have rounded up the best movies on Netflix and the best series on Netflix to watch now – and Disney Plus viewers can check out our best movies on Disney Plus guide. Got Prime Video? We also have the best movies on Amazon Prime.

Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.