AI: Artificial Intelligence, The Road, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging: films on TV today

AI: Artificial Intelligence ★★★★
11.15pm-1.35am BBC1

This is the film, based on a story by Brian Aldiss, that Stanley Kubrick wanted to make but finally handed over to Steven Spielberg who, after Kubrick’s death, wrote and directed it himself. It’s set in a bleak future where Hayley Joel Osment is a prototype robot who looks and feels like a real boy and is taken in by Frances O’Connor and Sam Robards. Their own son is seriously ill and the needy O’Connor grows to love Osment as her own child, and he loves her. But then the real son recovers, sibling rivalry kicks in and Osment is abandoned in the woods with a robot teddy bear. What transpires is a curious mix of sci-fi, with remarkable special effects, and fairy tale giving off powerful echoes of Pinocchio as Osment seeks a fairy who can turn him into a real boy and reunite him with O’Connor. It’s an ambitious, touching oddity that deep down is about love, rejection, loneliness and aspiration.

The Road ★★★★
11.35pm-1.15am BBC2

A father and son try to survive post-apocalypse America in a brilliantly realised adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel.

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging ★★★★
12.50-2.50pm Film Four

This feel-good tale of teenage life has charm and humour in spades, and Georgia Groome is perfect as the 14-year-old with a gorgeous long-haired cat and a crush on the new boy in town.

Erin Brockovich ★★★★
9.00-11.45pm 5★

Biographical drama starring Julia Roberts as a trailer trash campaigner in a push-up bra with a fruity line in negotiating skills. Brockovich bravely takes on big business, and Roberts won a well deserved Oscar.

The King's Speech ★★★★
9.00-11.20pm More4

Colin Firth set tongues wagging with his impressive performance as introverted stammerer, King George VI, in this handsome period drama.

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