Streaming
TELEVISION & FILM
Our pick of the best new dramas and films to stream this Easter
DRAMA
All 8 episodes available Thursday Netflix Andrew Scott is a vessel of distilled venom and rage in this handsome new dramatisation of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr Ripley. The feeling that the anti-hero, Tom Ripley, is a rootless demon with nothing to lose comes through strongly when we meet him, trying and failing to earn a living as a mail fraudster in a 1960s Manhattan made to look lonely, quiet and cold. When he is unexpectedly hired to track down a rich man’s errant son (Johnny Flynn) in coastal Italy, a new life begins for Tom as a murderous conman. Scott is superb but the star is writer/director Steven Zaillian (The Night Of), who shoots in black and white and keeps finding unexpected camera angles to ensure that we never feel safe.
THE PICK OF TV & FILM ON DEMAND THIS EASTER
SCI-FI
Series 5 episodes 1 and 2 available from Thursday Paramount+
What has, up until now, been the most earnest of Star Trek spin-offs returns for a final season that’s lighter in tone than what we’ve seen before. In the past, each mission has seen the crew facing a portentous threat that could collapse the galaxy as we know it, but here they’re instead sent off on a fun quest in search of treasure. The first two episodes are heavy on stunt work and spectacle as Sonequa Martin-Green’s Captain Burnham goes full Indiana Jones on various alien worlds. All she’s really missing is a fedora and bullwhip.
SPY THRILLER
Available now To buy/rent
Kingsman director Matthew Vaughn returns to the world of espionage with this star-studded take on the genre. Author Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) has just completed her latest book about super-spy Aubrey Argylle (Henry Cavill, above, with Dua Lipa, who plays assassin LaGrange). However, when a rogue agent (Sam Rockwell) informs her that the plots of her novels are eerily similar to actual events, Conway finds herself forced into a real-world mission. The rather convoluted story is packed with twists and turns, and the game cast is likeable.
DRAMA
Available 29 March Netflix
This feel-good British sports drama is inspired by the Homeless World Cup, a little-known but very real annual football competition. Here, manager Mal (Bill Nighy) oversees an English team made up of homeless people as they play the next tournament in Rome. When Mal spots Vinny (Empire of Light’s Micheal Ward) hanging around the training pitch, he realises that this proud father-of-one has some serious ball skills that might just help them win. Director Thea Sharrock (Wicked Little Letters) avoids the clichés that can accompany sports movies,
