Freeview film of the day: Trainspotting

Trainspotting ★★★★★
10.05-11.55pm C4

The British Film Institute reckons this is the 10th best British film ever made and it is indeed a cracking good movie, directed by Danny Boyle, a dark comedy drama that is very funny and quite horrifying. Ewan McGregor leads a bunch of heroin addicts in economically depressed Edinburgh in the 1980s, his closest friends being Jonny Lee Miller and Ewen Bremner. Also in their group is Robert Carlyle, a non-addict but violent psychotic. The storyline deals largely with the junkies’ – especially McGregor’s – attempts to clean up their act, both in Edinburgh and London, and in so doing shows the drastic and, in one lavatory scene, comically disgusting effects of a heroin high. It’s a superbly made film, which established the careers of Boyle and McGregor and gave a screen debut to Kelly Macdonald. The sequel, T2 Trainspotting, opens in cinemas on Friday.

For more of today’s free-to-air films, see our TV listings

Order your copy of the Radio Times Guide to Films 2017