MOVE OVER DARLING (1963)
Channel 4, 1.20pm

THE CABLE GUY (1996)
Living TV, 9pm

Jim Carrey began his transition from superstar clown to darker roles with The Cable Guy, an unusually bleak comedy directed by Ben Stiller. Originally intended for Chris Farley, Stiller’s downbeat psychodrama stars Carrey as a lonely, lisping cable TV installer whose unnatural fixation with one of his customers (Matthew Broderick) gradually turns pathological. Critics bristled at Carrey earning a reported $20 million for such a mean-spirited film, but with hindsight it remains one of his most remarkable roles. (96min)

MAGIC (1978)
BBC One, 12.20am

Anthony Hopkins gives an edgy and magnetic performance as an emotionally disturbed ventriloquist on the run from his own fame in Magic. Directed by Richard Attenborough and adapted from his own novel by the screenwriter William Goldman, the plot elevates standard B-movie elements into a classy psychological horror yarn. Corky Withers (Hopkins) is slowly taken over by his own dummy, but Attenborough keeps the viewer guessing as to whether Withers is suffering from schizophrenia or paranormal possession. (107min)

Tuesday

LITTLE MAN TATE (1991)
Five, 3.40pm

When Joe Dante quit over creative differences, Jodie Foster took over the direction of Little Man Tate, a solid but rather earnest drama about a single mother (Foster) struggling to do her best by her unnaturally gifted son. Adam Hann-Byrd makes a strong impression as Fred Tate, the six-year-old mathematics genius shunned by his school peers for being different, despite the best efforts of a child psychologist (Dianne Wiest). Foster directs with ease and economy, and has admitted that she saw parallels with her own alienated showbusiness childhood in Scott Frank’s tearjerking script. (99min)

MAD DOG AND GLORY (1993)
ITV1, 11.05pm

One of the unexpected charms of John McNaughton’s Chicago-set gangster comedy is that Robert De Niro and Bill Murray switched their intended roles, with De Niro playing the socially awkward forensic science expert and Murray the loudmouth Italian-American mobster. After accidentally saving the life of Murray’s hoodlum, De Niro’s shy cop is rewarded with the services of a call girl (Uma Thurman) for a week. It’s an offer that he can’t refuse, but inevitably it leads to trouble. Subtle and understated, Mad Dog and Glory is marred only by an implausible final injection of feel-good sentiment. (97min)

SHOW ME LOVE (1998)
BBC Four, 11pm

Lukas Moodysson broke box-office records in his native Sweden with this tender snapshot of teenage lust and escapist fantasies. In the backwater town of Amal, a lonely high-school outsider (Alexanda Dahlström) nurses a lesbian crush on her classmate (Rebecca Liljeberg). Moodysson and his terrific young cast show how cruel adolescents can be, but also how generous and innocent, too. Show Me Love was originally titled F****** Amal , but was renamed to spare the delicate sensibilities of British viewers. (89min)

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