Films
Scooby-Doo
(Raja Gosnell, 2002) 11.25am, 7.20pm, Sky Movies 2
The adventures of a computer-generated version of the cartoon canine are just the thing for school kids at half-term, and possibly nostalgia-ridden adult fans of the Hanna-Barbera 70s series too. The likes of Freddie Prinze Jr and Sarah Michelle Gellar are among the hound's support cast as the gang of teenie-sleuths set out to solve the mystery of Spooky Island; it has its moments, but you'll hardly be howling with laughter.
About A Boy
(Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz, 2002) 8pm, Sky Movies 1
He may have spiked up the floppy hair and dropped a rung down the class ladder, but Hugh Grant's Will is still the self-centred slacker we've come to love or hate. The story, adapted from a Nick Hornby novel, also has an air of predictability, with Will's determined defence of his singles status gradually breached by a troubled boy (Nicholas Hoult), his depressed mum (Toni Collette) and a single mum he fancies (Rachel Weisz). More surprising is that American Pie directors, the Weitz boys, and Robert De Niro's Tribeca production company should take it on, and make such a genuinely funny, moving and all-round good job of it.
Fearless
(Peter Weir, 1993) 9pm, TCM
A Peter Weir journey into the mystic, which starts with a plane crash. Many die, but Max (Jeff Bridges) survives, and is transformed by the experience into an exalted, Christ-like figure. He can no longer relate to his beautiful, ballet-teacher wife (Isabella Rossellini), and is drawn to a fellow survivor, the shrill Carla (Rosie Perez), the only person who understands him. Weir's odd mix of heavy symbolism and passages of haunting, otherworldly beauty is reminiscent of The Last Wave; Bridges is in his element as the distracted, increasingly weird Max, and there's brilliant support from Rossellini and John Turturro as a psychiatrist.
John Q
(Nick Cassavetes, 2002) 10pm, Sky Movies 1
An overblown urban drama that cynically employs America's health service inequities for its emotional impact is redeemed by a typically powerful performance from Denzel Washington. He plays a hard-up factory worker whose insurance won't cover his ailing son's heart transplant, so he hijacks the whole hospital emergency department to get the job done. A starry cast includes Robert Duvall, James Woods, Ray Liotta and Anne Heche, but Washington is the only authentic presence.
Paul Howlett
Sport
Live International Football
7.30pm, Sky Sports 1
The finest U21 footballing talent in England take on their Dutch counterparts at the KC Stadium in Hull. After failing to reach the finals of the U21 European Championships, which take place this summer, the pressure is on the manager David Platt to bring the best out of such Premiership regulars as Chelsea's Glen Johnson and Peter Whittingham of Aston Villa. The Dutch, however, have a fine tradition in producing young stars of their own, and an awkward evening awaits.
John Ashdown
