Saturday

I, Tonya, BBC Two, 9.30pm

Think sports black comedy and you’ll probably conjure up an image of Slap Shot (Paul Newman in the world’s most violent and unscrupulous ice hockey team) or Caddyshack (Chevy Chase and Bill Murray playing a round, literally and metaphorically). They’re both fictitious. Although the world of real sport can be outrageously funny – check out those YouTube clips of the daftest own goals – film-makers tackling the true-life stories real sports throw up generally see them not as material for comedy but as a form of morality tale: characters battle adversity and through strength and determination win against the odds. You know the kind of thing.

Although it centres on real people and real events, not much of that morally-uplifting stuff goes down in I, Tonya, Australian director Craig Gillespie’s sort-of biopic of figure skating bad girl Tonya Harding and the headline-grabbing scandal she became embroiled in ahead of the 1994 Winter Olympics.

If you weren’t born at the time or had your eyes somewhere other than the US figure skating scene – there was also the small matter of a World Cup that year, at which Ireland famously beat Italy – Harding was implicated in an attack on figure skating rival Nancy Kerrigan. It was undertaken by two goons, apparently at the behest of Harding’s ex-husband and her former bodyguard.

Using a mockumentary style and regularly breaking the fourth wall, Gillespie’s film tells the story of Harding’s childhood, her early career as a figure skater, the rivalry with Kerrigan, the events leading up to the attack and the aftermath. Gillespie’s fellow Australian Margot Robbie plays Harding while Alison Janney (CJ Cregg in The West Wing) plays her domineering mother, LaVona. Both Robbie and Janney were nominated for Oscars at the 2018 Academy Awards, with Janney taking home the Best Supporting Actress gong. Sebastian Stan is Jeff Gillooly, Harding’s husband, and Paul Walter Hauser, later to star in Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-nominated 2019 film Richard Jewell, plays Shawn Eckhardt, Harding’s former bodyguard. Nancy Kerrigan is played by Caitlin Carver. An engrossing study of class, abuse, media over-exposure and, of course, figure skating. Funny, too – and pleasingly grubby. Harding, for the record, went on to have a career as a professional boxer and has appeared on Dancing With The Stars.

Sunday

Doctor Zhivago, BBC Two, 3pm

One of cinema’s all-time greats and based on Boris Pasternak's classic novel, this epic romantic drama from director David Lean is set during the Russian Revolution and follows Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif), a married doctor who falls for Lara (Julie Christie), the beautiful wife of a political activist. He's torn between his commitment to his wife and his passion for his mistress but, of course, the path of true love doesn't run smooth. Weirdly, it was mauled by the critics though it went on to earn 10 Oscar nominations, winning five.

Monday

Wild Honey Pie!, Film 4, 11.15pm

Television premiere for this film by young(ish) English director Jamie Adams. Aspiring playwright Gillian (Girls star Jemima Kirke) and her husband Oliver (Richard Elis) have been together for seven years. They are best friends and are well matched except for a non-existent sex life. Living on the Welsh coast in a house owned by Ollie's mother Janet (Joanna Scanlan), the couple make ends meet from Ollie's occasional DJ gigs and a forthcoming production of Gillian's self-penned play about a young couple experiencing marital woes. In the process of staging the play, Gillian experiments with producer Gerry (Alice Lowe) at the same time that Ollie enjoys an illicit kiss with old flame Rachel (Sarah Solemani). A low-key comedy drama.

Tuesday

Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets, Film 4, 9pm

Gung-ho time-travelling agent Major Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and his sassy partner Sergeant Laureline (Cara Delevingne), are enlisted to deliver a rare creature to Commander Arun Filitt (Clive Owen) aboard the space station Alpha, where hundreds of alien races live in harmony. This vast outpost of almost 30 million residents speaking 5,000 languages is overseen by Captain Neza (Kris Wu) and his crew. Supposedly extinct humanoids infiltrate Alpha and abduct Commander Filitt on Valerian and Laureline's watch, and the heroes conceive a daring rescue plan. Based on Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mezieres' comic series Valerian And Laureline, director Luc Besson's special effects-laden romp brazenly melds elements of Star Wars and Avatar to explore the destruction of otherworldly races in the 28th century.

Wednesday

Kill Bill: Volume 1, 5*, 11.05pm

A female assassin decides to quit the profession, get married and raise a family – only to be shot on her wedding day and left for dead. Four years later, she wakes up from a coma intent on revenge and sets off to wipe out her former colleagues. Her old boss Bill is her main target, but in the meantime she'll make do with a couple of other hit-women. Uma Thurman is on terrific form here in a role created especially for her by Quentin Tarantino (he reportedly gave her the script for her 30th birthday and delayed production when she became pregnant). The director also does her proud with some great fight scenes, keeping the violence nicely stylised. However, it's a shame he had to chop the finished film in two, as it means the ending is a bit of an anti-climax.

Thursday

The Girl On The Train, Film 4, 9pm

Following an acrimonious divorce from her cheating husband Tom (Justin Theroux), Rachel Watson (Emily Blunt) takes regular train journeys past her old house where he is now settled with his mistress Anna (Rebecca Ferguson) and their baby. One morning, Rachel stares bleary-eyed out of the train window and glimpses Tom's neighbour Megan (Haley Bennett) in a clinch with another man. Megan subsequently vanishes and Detective Sergeant Riley (Allison Janney) becomes interested in Rachel's hazy recollection. Psychiatrist Dr Kamal Abdic (Edgar Ramirez) might be able to help Rachel unlock her subconscious but she will soon realise that some memories are best forgotten. Adapted from Paula Hawkins' novel and transposed to America, The Girl On The Train is a smart psychological potboiler anchored by a strong performance from the always watchable Blunt.

Friday

Old School, BBC One, 10.45pm

Mitch (Luke Wilson), Frank (Will Ferrell) and Beanie (Vince Vaughn) are desperate to recapture the glory of their college days. So they buy a house together close to the local university campus, transform the property into an unofficial fraternity house, and encourage students and local men to become members. Within days the trio find themselves back at the centre of university life, partaking in all the wild excesses banned by the official fraternities. Imagine the illegitimate offspring of Men Behaving Badly and National Lampoon's Animal House and you have Old School, a foul-mouthed sex romp about three childhood friends growing old disgracefully and boasting a full complement of naked girls and horny guys. Released in 2003 it probably wouldn’t get made today. A curio, then, from another time.

And one to stream …

Memories Of Murder, Curzon Home Cinema

Re-issued in large part to cash in on director Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar success (with Best Picture winner Parasite) and his on-going cult appeal (see 2013 film Snowpiercer, now a Netflix spin-off series, and 2017 Cannes pleaser Okja), this film follows the South Korean’s 2000 debut and tells the story of a trio of detectives trying to catch a serial killer in rural Gyeonggi Province. It’s based on the real-life crimes of Lee Choon-jae, South Korea’s first serial killer, though at the time the film was released in 2003 the murders he committed were still unsolved. It wasn’t until 2019 when he was arrested for another crime that he confessed to the killings and the cold case was solved.

The year is 1986. The victims are all young women, each one has also been raped and the murders always take place during rainstorms. Other significant details become clear as the investigation progresses, though few of them are turned up by hapless local cop Park Doo-man (Parasite’s Song Kang-ho). If there’s a wrong tree within 10 miles he’ll be there barking up it, often in the company of brutal partner Cho Yon-koo (Kim Roi-ha) whose method of persuading suspects to talk involves a boot to the face then hanging them upside down in their underpants. The case only starts to open up with the transfer from Seoul of Seo Tae-yoon (Kim Sang-kyung), a brooding, intense chain-smoker who views his new colleagues as violent country bumpkins.

So far, so run of the mill police procedural. But don’t think that Parasite was Bong Joon-ho’s first attempt at sly humour, grandiose image-making, social satire and wacko characters with the morals of alley cats. It’s all on display here too, as the comic-looking Song Kang-ho and the taciturn Kim Sang-kyung traipse (and occasionally sprint) through a succession of rain-slicked streets, night-time downpours, bunker-like offices and lush forests. Memories Of Murder may only have been Bong Joon-ho’s second film, but in this genre-subverting treat there’s a strong sense of a master at work.