Ice Age 4, Signs, Nanny McPhee & the Big Bang, Puss in Boots, 21: films on TV today

We have to wait until the summer for Ice Age 5, so in the meantime let’s see how those wizards at Blue Sky animation (who also make the irresistible Rio) stretched the Palaeolithic franchise for part four. It drifted away from ice in 3, with a shoehorned-in subterranean dinosaur adventure, and here, the sloth (voiced by John Leguizamo), mammoth (Ray Romano) and sabre-tooth (Denis Leary) are sent asunder after the squirrel Scrat causes the landmass to break up. Our heroes must rescue Manny (Romano) by setting treacherous sail on a block of ice. Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage voices a primate pirate whose ship’s mate (Jennifer Lopez) provides purring love interest for Leary’s tiger. The wisecracks come thick, the action fast, and although 3D was too slavishly served for the big screen, it retains the manic energy of the series and provides fun cameos for Wanda Sykes, Nick Frost and Aziz Ansari (TV’s Parks & Recreation). The narwhals are great, too.

Signs ★★★
11.25pm-1.05am BBC1

Crop circles throw Mel Gibson's priest for a loop in M Night Shyamalan's last big hit before we lost faith in him…

Nanny McPhee & the Big Bang ★★★★
7.00-9.00pm ITV2

Emma Thompson's dentally challenged nanny returns to help another parent plagued with naughty children. A spoonful of sugar is not on the menu.

Puss in Boots ★★★★
9.00-10.20pm BBC3

After stealing the show as the swashbuckling kitty in Shrek 2, Antonio Banderas gets his own spin-off full of rapier wit and warm, fuzzy charm.

21 ★★★
11.00pm-1.30am Spike

Six maths geeks hit the casinos of Las Vegas in this drama, based on a true story. Kevin Spacey plays the professor who pulls the strings.

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