The Colditz Story (1954)

The story of the escape from the "impregnable" POW camp was a natural for the cinema. John Mills and Eric Portman head the cast in a fine, though now slightly clichéd, movie.

 12.40 pm Film4 Thur 12 Dec

The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)

Mild-mannered bank clerk Alec Guinness and novelty gift manufacturer Stanley Holloway plan a gold bullion robbery and to sneak the loot out of the country disguised as Eiffel Towers. One of Ealing's most joyous comedies, with an Oscar-winning script and perfect performances. Watch out for Audrey Hepburn's bit part.

12.50 pm Film4 Fri 13 Dec, 2.05 PM BBC2 Sat 14 Dec

Ice Cold in Alex (1958)

Small group of Brits get separated from the army during the desert campaign and have to make their way through the desert to Alexandria. In their midst is Anthony Quayle who claims to be South African but might be working for the Germans. Leading the group is John Mills, fighting to keep off the bottle and giving one of his best performances. Classic war film that ages well.

11.00 am Film4 Sat 14 Dec

I'm All Right Jack! (1959)

Though it is best remembered for Peter Sellers' portrayal of the bolshie shop steward Fred Kite, this is a wonderfully even-handed look at the class struggle. Funny and nasty - and though Trades Unionism may have changed, human nature certainly hasn't.

1.00 PM Sky Arts Sat 14 Dec

The 39 Steps (1935)

The pinnacle of Alfred Hitchcock's British career, this film has all the classic elements we've come to expect: innocent man falsely accused (Robert Donat), beautiful blonde (Madeleine Carroll), well known locations (the Forth bridge) and bags of suspense and humour. It's been re-made twice since but why did they bother when the original is so perfect?

2.30 pm BBC2 Mon 16 Dec

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)

Sherlock Holmes gets the Hammer treatment ("It's ten times the terror in Technicolor!"). Peter Cushing makes a fair Holmes though the production looks cheap and the hound is a bit disappointing.

4.25 pm Sky Arts Mon 16 Dec

The Gift Horse (1951)

Another fifties war film. It's the Navy and it has Trevor Howard, Jack Hawkins, Richard Attenborough, Bernard Lee... Make your own plot.

11.00 am Film4 Tues 17 Dec

The Ladykillers (1955)

Classic Ealing comedy, but am I the only one who thinks it over-rated? Little old lady accidentally outwits a gang of thugs and ends up with the loot. Katie Johnson is the old lady and Alec Guinness (overplaying) is the leader of the gang. 

12.15 pm Sky Arts Tues 17 Dec

The Story of Robin Hood and his Merry Men (1952)

Chirpy-enough Disney re-telling of the Sherwood forest story with Richard Todd as Robin and Peter Finch as the Sheriff.

Noon, Talking Pictures TV Wed 18 Dec

The Mouse That Roared (1959)

Fondly-remembered comedy in which a tiny European duchy declares war on America in order to benefit from aid after they lose. Peter Sellers plays three roles and the whole thing is enjoyable but it's never as good as you think it was.

12.40 pm Film4 Thur 19 Dec

Hobson's Choice (1953)

Charles Laughton in one of the few good roles of his later career as the domestic tyrant tamed by his eldest daughter. David Lean gets the best from a cast that includes Brenda de Banzie, John Mills and an impossibly young Prunella Scales.

6.50 pm Talking Pictures TV Fri 20 Dec

Went the Day Well? (1942)

If Sam Peckinpah had made a film for Ealing, this would be it. A bunch of British soldiers billeted on a quiet English village turn out to be German infiltrators. They shoot children and vicars and mow down the Home Guard when they are discovered. The villagers fight back. You won't forget the sight of dear old Muriel George attacking a soldier with an axe, or Valerie Taylor shooting a traitor in the back. Magnificent.

3.35 pm Talking Pictures TV Sat 21 Dec

Scrooge (1951)

A Christmas Carol must be Dickens' most adapted work. It's been parodied and animated and plagiarised many times and is now an inseparable part of the holiday season. Alastair Sim gives the definitive performance in the title role.

10.55 am Channel 5 Sun 22 Dec, 9.30 am Channel 5 Christmas Eve, 3.00pm Talking Pictures TV Christmas Day 

The Weaker Sex (1948)

Home Front drama with Ursula Jeans holding her family together through the war.

Sentimental but effective. 

1.15 pm Talking Pictures TV Mon 23 Dec

Great Expectations (1946)

Probably the best Dickens adaptation in cinema. Like the book the first third is the best but the rest is still pretty good.

9.50 am BBC2 Christmas Eve

Piccadilly Incident (1946)

The incident is an air-raid which brings two people together. However, the war that brought them together also tears them apart.

The film that first teamed Anna Neagle with Michael Wilding was a huge smash hit.

10.15 am Talking Pictures TV Boxing Day

Brief Encounter (1945)

Some find it silly, but for those who are willing to give themselves up to it this is cinema's most masterly exploration of middle-class repression.

12.10 pm BBC2 Fri 27 Dec

Carry On Up the Khyber (1968)

Probably the team's finest hour. When Charles Hawtrey gives the game away to Indian natives that the feared Devils in Skirts actually wear underwear, the British army's tenuous grip on India begins to loosen.

10.35 am ITV3 Sat 28 Dec, 3.10 pm TV3 Mon 30 Dec

Carry On Dick (1974)

You'll know, if you've read My site that I make an exception for the Carry On films when it comes to chronology. It makes up for all the po-faced serious dramas from the fifties I now have to watch thanks to starting this site. This is an okay entry in the series. It's the last with Sid James, and the last watchable one. Sid is a vicar by day and Dick Turpin by night. Most of the regulars are here (Williams, Windsor, Jacques, Sims, Connor, Bresslaw) and there's even an appearance by former Miss World Eva Reuber-Staier.

12.25 pm ITV3 Sat 28 Dec, 11.50 am ITV3 New Year's Day

Carry On Doctor (1968)

With virtually no plot to get in the way, this is a relentless collection of hospital gags and as such is utterly irresistible. Most of the regulars are here and newcomer Frankie Howerd fits right in. Highlights include Charles Hawtrey's phantom pregnancy and Dr Williams' forced operation. Classic stuff from the team.

2.10 pm ITV3 Sat 28 Dec, 11.30 am ITV3 New Year's Eve

Carry On Camping (1969)

This is the one that contains one of the most seminal of all British film moments when Barbara Windsor finally loses her bikini top. Most of the gang are present and it also contains Round the Horne's Betty Marsden's best film role as the nagging wife from hell. 

4.05 pm ITV3 Sat 28 Dec, 1.40 pm ITV3 New Year's Day

Carry On Up the Jungle (1970)

A parody of all those dreadful jungle epics. An expedition goes in search of a lost child brought up by apes. And who better to portray the rugged heroism and animal sexuality of the Tarzan-like figure than Terry Scott!

12.05 pm ITV3 Sun 29 Dec, 9.50 am ITV3 New Year's Eve

Carry On Again Doctor (1969)

Jim Dale is the accident-prone doctor forced to work in a mission abroad. Sid James is the man who supplies him with a slimming cure with which to get rich. This is probably the best of the Carry On medical films and features Dale going down the stairs on the hospital trolley and Charles Hawtrey getting into drag as Lady Puddleton.

1.50 pm ITV3 Sun 29 Dec, 10.00 am ITV3 New Year's Day

Carry On Follow That Camel (1967)

This Foreign Legion tale only got the Carry On label in order to drum up trade. It has most of the series regulars but stars Phil Silvers. 

3.30 pm ITV3 Sun 29 Dec

School for Scoundrels (1960)

Oneupmanship comes to the screen as Ian Carmichael and Terry-Thomas use the rules to win the hand of Janette Scott (or whichever part of Miss Scott that cad Terry-Thomas is after).

Plot-wise this is just a series of episodes loosely strung together, but it's such enormous fun who cares.

10.30 am BBC2 Mon 30 Dec

Carry On Henry (1971)

With the Six Wives of Henry VIII a mega-hit on TV, it was only natural that the Carry On team would take on the Tudor monarch. And who better to play him than Sid!

11.30 am ITV3 Mon 30 Dec, 11.40 am ITV3 Thur 2 Jan

The Titfield Thunderbolt (1952)

This cosiest of Ealing comedies concerns the closure by BR of a branch line and some villagers determination to keep it open. It was something of a disappointment at the time and it's not got the bite of the best of Ealing, but it benefits from the nostalgia factor and from having one of the most memorable trains in cinema history.

Noon BBC2 Mon 30 Dec

Carry On Matron (1972)

Not one of the best, but put the gang in a hospital setting and you can't really go wrong. Sid's a crook trying to nick the hospital's supply of contraceptive pills. Son Kenneth Cope has to drag up as a nurse to get in. Hattie Jacques gets the title role at last, but it's not worth having.

1.15 pm ITV3 Mon 30 Dec

Lazybones (1935)

Ian Hunter, penniless and idle, goes in search of a heiress.

6.00 am Talking Pictures TV Fri 3 Jan

Scrooge (1951)

A Christmas Carol must be Dickens' most adapted work. It's been parodied and animated and plagiarised many times and is now an inseparable part of the holiday season. Alastair Sim gives the definitive performance in the title role.

12.20 pm NFT2 Sat 21 Dec, 6.10 pm NFT2 Sun 22 Dec, 2.30 pm NFT2 Sun 23 Dec