FRIENDLY PERSUASION (1956)
BBC Two, 1pm
An unusual hybrid of comic western and religious debate from William Wyler, Friendly Persuasion revolves around a crisis of conscience among a pacifist Quaker family when their Indiana town is threatened by Confederate troops during the Civil War. Gary Cooper and Dorothy McGuire play the stuffy parents, Anthony Perkins and Phyllis Love their stubborn children. (137 min)
BASIC (2003)
Channel 4, 10pm
Told in flashback from multiple viewpoints, this military murder mystery reunites the Pulp Fiction duo John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson. The difference here is that Jackson’s hard-bitten US army sergeant is already dead, apparently killed by his own unit on a training exercise, while Travolta plays the boozy DEA agent in charge of finding the culprit.