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Entertainment

18th Jan 2025

One of the best crime thriller movies of the 21st century is on TV tonight

Stephen Porzio

The film was written by the creator of Peaky Blinders.

Our TV movie pick for tonight (Saturday, 18 January) is Eastern Promises, the brilliant 2007 crime thriller from director David Cronenberg (A History of Violence) and writer Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders)

The film stars Naomi Watts as a midwife (Naomi Watts) at a London hospital who discovers a diary that belonged to one of her deceased patients containing information that threatens the Russian Mafia.

At the same, a bodyguard and fixer (Viggo Mortensen) for the crime organisation plots to rise through its ranks.

A typically gritty and twisty crime thriller screenplay from Knight is given extra punch here thanks to the hard-hitting, visceral direction from the legendary genre filmmaker Cronenberg.

The performances too are also flawless, particularly Mortensen in an Oscar-nominated turn.

Holding an 89% score on Rotten Tomatoes, Eastern Promises is on TV tonight on BBC One (except Scotland) at 11.40pm.

It should also be available to watch on the BBC iPlayer after it airs.

Here are the other movies airing on TV tonight:

A Few Good Men – Film4 – 9pm

“You can’t handle the truth!”

The Bourne Identity – Sky Showcase – 9pm

The first entry in the great action franchise where Matt Damon plays a mysterious man with amnesia trying to uncover his dark past.

Moonfall – Channel 4 – 9pm

The moon is falling, which is bad news for Earth in this fun if silly disaster flick starring Halle Berry from the director of The Day After Tomorrow.

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny – Comedy Central – 10pm

Jack Black headlines this comedy, telling a fictionalised version of how the titular band was formed.

Terminator Genisys – Channel 4 – 11.30pm

One of the lesser Terminator sequels.

Chopper – Film4 – 11.45pm

The 2000 cult crime drama based on the life of infamous Australian criminal Mark ‘Chopper’ Read (Eric Bana), who wrote his autobiography while in prison.

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