Channel 4's blog

Monday 23 June

The price of basic foodstuffs is increasing dramatically and the surging costs are being felt by consumers in the UK who are seeing their highest food bills for years. Dispatches investigates the causes of these price rockets and the impact it is having on shoppers and food producers. Jay Rayner, food critic, journalist and author, asks why the UK has become so reliant on food imports and if enough is being done to stem the problem of price inflation. The film features the stories of how two families are dealing with increasing prices, and looks at ways to eat more economically.

Sunday 22 June

Concluding episode of Tony Robinson’s fascinating and sometimes bizarre journey to discover the origins of our laws and what we do to people when they break them. The 18th century was a golden age for business, when property was king but the fear of crime meant that 200 offences, including pick-pocketing, were punishable by death. Tony relives the theatre of a public execution, but also finds a London cupboard containing the preserved body of a man who inspired us to stop stringing people up and start locking them up instead.

Saturday 21 June

Kevin Rodney Sullivan’s romcom is loosely based on the classic Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner but with the races reversed. Theresa Jones (Zoe Saldana) takes her white fianc? Simon Green (Ashton Kutcher) home to her parents, suave suburbanites Percy and Marilyn (Bernie Mac and Judith Scott). But she hasn’t mentioned Simon’s colour and while her parents are welcoming, they’re also wary of his intentions, with Percy testing him to see if he’s worthy of their daughter’s hand.

Friday 27 June

Asian cinema continues to challenge the complacent west and never better than with Korean director Park Chan-Wook’s visceral thriller. Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-Sikan) is an obnoxious drunk bailed from the police station yet again by a friend. But he’s abducted from the street and wakes up in a cell, where he remains for the next 15 years, drugged unconscious when human contact is unavoidable, otherwise with only the television as company. And then, suddenly released, he is invited to track down his jailor with a denouement that is simply stunning.

Thursday 26 June

Matthew McConaughey plays Dirk Pitt, an adventurer who, along with sidekick Al Giordino (Steve Zahn), is searching for an American Civil War ironclad buried in the Sahara desert’s sands (it sailed there when the region was more temperate, obviously). But they get diverted into helping scientist Dr Eva Rojas (Penelope Cruz) stop a plague that threatens to destroy all ocean life.

Wednesday 25 June

Martin Lawrence plays Malcolm Turner, an FBI agent assigned to protect Sherry Pierce (Nia Long) and her son from her psychotic ex-boyfriend Lester (Terrence Howard), who’s escaped from prison and is after her and the money from his last job. Scared, she flees to her grandmother’s home but when Big Momma (Ella Mitchell) is called out of town before Sherry turns up, Turner disguises himself as a 350lb pensioner to take her place and be close to the action.

Tuesday 24 June

In the Films to See Before You Die strand, Paul Kaye introduces one of the best cop films from recent times. Russell Crowe stars as Bud White, a tough LA cop working alongside cynical Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) and promotion-hungry Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) whose lives and work intertwine in 50s Los Angeles. Danny DeVito, as a scandal mag hack, acts as the viewer’s guide in Curtis Hanson’s Oscar and BAFTA-award-winning film, as the three cops try to solve a murder through their very different methods but realise that the graft, corruption and venality of Tinseltown will pull them all down unless they pull together.

Monday 23 June

Directed by Robert Rodriguez from Quentin Tarantino’s script, this cult horror movie sees brothers Richard and Seth Gecko (Tarantino and George Clooney) hijack the Rev Fuller’s (Harvey Keitel) mobile home to get them to a midnight party at the Titty Twister, Mexico’s most famous brothel. But at dusk the brothel turns out to be a far cry from what the brothers thought it was, and blood flows before dawn.

Sunday 22 June

In what is widely regarded as his best film, Steven Seagal plays lowly Navy chef Casy Ryback on board the USS Missouri, a nuclear-armed battleship. But when the ship is seized by terrorist William Stranix (Tommy Lee Jones) and renegade officer Commander Krill (Gary Busey), Ryback reveals his true identity: he’s an ex-SEAL seeing out his time as a chef after an “incident”. Using all his old skills, he takes on the baddies and foils their plan to sell the weapons to the Middle East.

Thursday 26 June

J.D. becomes scared that he is not masculine enough to set an example for his son, especially after Dr. Cox gives him a hard time about being a whiney man-child.