Amy, Inglourious Basterds, Hot Fuzz, Night of the Living Dead, The Pianist: films on TV today

I was disturbed by the way the DVD for this award-winning film was advertised on TV as the perfect Christmas gift, with clips carefully chosen to show Amy Winehouse in her carefree prime. For, while Asif Kapadia’s assiduous two-hour portrait of the tragic but gifted singer/songwriter’s foreshortened life starts off in childish innocence as Amy grows up in north London surrounded by jazz and passes through stage school, the use of existing home movies and archive with new audio testimony (a purist technique the director honed on Senna) is unflinching in its pursuit of unvarnished truth. The self-doubt, addiction to drink and drugs, bulimia and eventual, fame-induced meltdown hove into view gradually, as they do in real life, and the effect is utterly if morbidly gripping. Her death, aged 27, in 2011 rumbles in the background like an approaching thunderstorm and even if you didn’t like her music, or approve of her look, I urge you to see this cautionary and humane film.

Inglourious Basterds ★★★
9.00pm-12 midnight Film4

As his new film The Hateful Eight blasts into cinemas, here's a chance to catch Quentin Tarantino's history-bending war epic with Brad Pitt leading the charge.

Hot Fuzz ★★★★
9.00-11.25pm ITV2

Hollywood action meets English murder mystery when mismatched cops Simon Pegg and Nick Frost try to solve a string of grisly deaths in Gloucestershire.

Night of the Living Dead ★★★★★
10.50pm-12.45am Horror Channel

Classic zombie mayhem from the maestro of the genre George A Romero.

The Pianist ★★★★
12.40-3.10am ITV3

Director Roman Polanski returned to the war-torn ghetto with this Holocaust drama that won Oscars for him and his star Adrien Brody.

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