Paddington in Peru to G20: the seven best films to watch on TV this week

Pick of the week Paddington in Peru A South American immigrant in London has to return to home. But this isn’t a Reform political broadcast, and the marmalade-addicted bear in question has a shiny new British passport. Aunt Lucy has gone missing from her Home for Retired Bears in the Peruvian rainforest, so Paddington and the Browns (with Emily Mortimer taking over as Mrs Brown) fly off to find her.

Less a fish-out-of-water comedy than a fish-back-in-water quest, Dougal Wilson’s film gives Paddington a few slapstick pratfalls but it’s more of a spoof Indiana Jones tale, revolving round the myth of El Dorado, with Antonio Banderas as a boat captain and Olivia Colman as a nun joining the fun. Tuesday 8 April, Netflix *** Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy An interesting study in contrasts could be made between Gary Oldman’s performance as a slovenly MI5 operative in the acclaimed TV series Slow Horses and his serious-minded, tight-lipped George Smiley in Tomas Alfredson’s superbly finessed 2011 drama. John le Carré’s thriller novel about the hunt for a Soviet mole in MI6 must have been difficult to squeeze into a two-hour film but the plot here is almost seamless.



And Oldman is magnetic alongside a top-notch cast including Tom Hardy, Colin Firth and Kathy Burke. Sunday 6 April, 10pm, BBC Two *** Weathering With You After the global success of Your Name (showing on Saturday), Makoto Shinkai doubled down on the teen romance angle in this delightful animated fantasy. Hodaka is a runaway 16-year-old boy in a permanently rainy Tokyo who comes across “sunshine girl” Hina.

She has the magical ability to banish the stormclouds, so they go into business conjuring blue skies for weddings, sports days and the like. But Hina’s skill comes at a heavy cost. A film worth watching just for the play of light, clouds and rain, but as a tale of first love it is just as illuminating.

Sunday 6 April, 1.20am, Film4 *** Magpie This devious psychological thriller about a marriage is based on an original idea by Daisy Ridley and written by her husband, Tom Bateman, so it’s possible the couple are working out some stuff here. Ridley plays Annette, whose daughter Matilda (Hiba Ahmed) wins a role in a movie.

However, it’s her writer spouse Ben (Shazad Latif) who gets to chaperone the child on location – and lust after its Italian star – while Annette is stuck at home with their new baby. Latif is on point as a self-entitled, sexist fool, while Ridley is mesmeric and edgy as the vengeful Annette. Thursday 10 April, Paramount+ *** G20 In a bit of a career switcheroo, Tony-winning actor Viola Davis joins Hollywood’s long line of US presidents turned action heroes in Patricia Riggen’s thriller.

Danielle Sutton is attending a G20 summit of world leaders in Cape Town, South Africa, when the venue is taken over by terrorists led by Rutledge (Antony Starr, AKA Homelander in The Boys). It’s down to Sutton, who’s pretty nifty with a firearm, to save her family, Douglas Hodge’s British PM and, inevitably, the free world. Thursday 10 April, Prime Video *** Fantastic Planet A product of the hippy era in the same vein as Yellow Submarine, French director René Laloux’s extremely trippy 1973 cartoon feature follows the Draags, blue-skinned, red-eyed inhabitants of the planet Ygam.

They have taken humans, who are tinier than them, from Earth to use as pets – but the “Oms” have escaped and now constitute a wild population to be controlled and culled. An allegory of our treatment of animals, the film’s principal pleasures come from the weird and wonderful flora, fauna and far-out fashions on display, rendered in exquisite cutout animation. Thursday 10 April, 10.

45pm, Sky Arts *** Radical Christopher Zalla’s “inspirational teacher” drama leaves the likes of Dead Poets Society in the dust – not least because it’s set in a Mexican border town mired in poverty, corruption and gang violence. Eugenio Derbez is Sergio Juárez, who takes over a sixth-grade class at an institution nicknamed Punishment School. The kids are nonplussed by his unconventional methods – as is the principal – but they quickly become engaged and reveal their hidden potential.

Based on a true story, the film’s setting guarantees heartbreak as harsh realities intrude on them all. Thursday 10 April, 11.40pm, Film4.