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Who needs Netflix and Prime? BBC iPlayer has a terrific collection of films to watch – here’s our updated list of what to watch right now (and when they’re leaving the service).

Whilst all eyes tend to be on streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime when it comes to movie updates, on the quiet the BBC iPlayer service continues to play host to a limited, diverse selection of films. What’s more, a good number of them you can download to your tablet to watch on the move.

So, without further ado, welcome to the weekly updated iPlayer film list. This list will be updated every week with the test available data from the BBC, in order of how long you have left to watch (so you can prioritise your viewing pleasure)

New! – denotes all new movies this week!

Brand-new This Week: Romeo + Juliet, The Third Man,...

William Russell, one of the earliest companions in BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who, has died aged 99. He passed away on June 3.

The Doctor Who X account posted the news, writing: “We’re sad to report the passing of William Russell, a legend in #DoctorWho history – who played one of the first and original companions to the Doctor, Ian Chesterton.”

Current showrunner Russell T Davies, who is into his second stint at the helm, also posted his condolences to X.

“An absolute legend, for Doctor Who and the whole of television,” he wrote. “In 1963, William created the template for the Doctor’s companion, and that’s still going strong, 61 years later. He’s adored by fandom, and will never be forgotten.”

Born in 1924, Russell quickly gained prominence in the UK when he was cast as lead in ITV’s The Adventures of Sir Lancelot in the mid-1950s.

In 1963, he landed the Doctor Who role,...

Operation Mincemeat is inspired by the true events leading up to the Allied forces invading Sicily in 1943, but how faithful is the movie to Operation Mincemeat's true story? Operation Mincemeat is based on the book of the same name by historian Ben Macintyre. However, the same deception operation was also the subject of the 1953 book The Man Who Never Was (adapted into a 1956 film) written by intelligence officer Ewen Montagu, who co-led the effort and is portrayed by Colin Firth in Operation Mincemeat. Historically, the operation was set in motion by Montagu and fellow intelligence officer Charles Cholmondeley (Matthew MacFadyen), along with secretaries Hester Leggett (Penelope Wilton) and Jean Leslie (Harry Potter’s Kelly Macdonald).

Operation Mincemeat was a plan to trick Hitler into believing the Allies would invade Greece instead of Sicily. Invading Sicily to enter continental Europe was the sound choice, so the Axis powers were understandably reinforcing their position there,...

George Seaton connected an ideal cast to this true-life WW2 story so good that a lazy script and slack direction can’t sink it. William Holden is the American-Swede who spies for the Allies, ruining his own reputation and schmoozing with Nazis that will kill him if he slips up. Wonderful Lilli Palmer is the patriot-agent who steals his heart. The locations are impressive but one inspired scene captures with perfection the utter depravity of fascist power. If ever a WW2 movie needed a remake, this one qualifies.

The Counterfeit Traitor

Region-free Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 118

1962 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 141 min. / Street Date April 27, 2022 / Available from /

Starring: William Holden, Lilli Palmer, Hugh Griffith, Carl Raddatz, Ernst Schröder, Charles Régnier, Ingrid van Bergen, Helo Gutschwager, Wolfgang Preiss, Werner Peters, Erica Beer, Stefan Schnabel, Klaus Kinski, Eva Dahlbeck.

Cinematography: Jean Bourgoin

Production Designer: Ellen Schmidt

Art Directors: Hal Pereira, Tambi Larsen, Mathias Matthies

Film Editors: Hans Ebel,...

Long before movies routinely created ‘worlds’ with their own twisted fantasy logic, only a few paranoid thrillers, usually odd genre items, tried out twisted stories of deceptive ‘hidden realities.’ Like an extended Twilight Zone entry, this lively James Garner war pic morphs into a bizarre conspiracy worthy of Philip K. Dick. If only it weren’t so “L-a-o” — Literal And Obvious.

36 Hours

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1965 / B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date April 11, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Taylor, Werner Peters, John Banner, Russell Thorson, Alan Napier, Oscar Beregi, Ed Gilbert, Sig Ruman, Celia Lovsky, Karl Held, James Doohan.

Cinematography Philip H. Lathrop

Art Direction Edward Carfagno, George W. Davis

Film Editor Adrienne Fazan

Original Music Dimitri Tiomkin

Written by George Seaton, Carl K. Hittleman, Luis H. Vance from a story by Roald Dahl

Produced by William Perlberg

Directed by George Seaton

Released...

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Get the feeling someone is looking over your shoulder? This quiz won’t help! This week we’re investigating the subtle (and not-so-subtle) art of spying in the movies.

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The plot of Hitchcock’s North by Northwest was suggested by this spy film.

The Man Who Never Was I Was Monty’s Double Odd Man Out Correct

Clifton Webb starred in Ronald Neame’s 1956 film...

Here's a video montage showing off several library scenes from classic films and TV shows. This library supercut was created by YouTube user bryangreenland. Does anyone go to the library anymore?Enjoy!

The films and TV shows in the video include:

Seinfeld, Sesame Street, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, The Golden Girls, No Man of Her Own, The Shawshank Redemption, Philadelphia Story, Philadelphia, Harry and the Hendersons, Party Girl, Ghostbusters, Clean Shaven, Phineas and Ferb, The Music Man, Mr. Bean, Shadow of a Doubt, The Breakfast Club, Only Two Can Play, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Twisted Nerve, The Man Who Never Was, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Jag, The FBI Story, Wings of Desire, Se7en, Harry Potter, With Honors, All the President's Men, Strike Up the Band.

Release Date: Dec. 13, 2011

Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $27.99

Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Classic musical Stars and Stripes Forever, finally on high-definition Blu-ray, isn’t one of the biggest musical films, like Irving Berlin’s White Christmas or Holiday Inn, but it has cache. Released in 1952, Stars and Stripes Forever was nominated for three Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture Musical/Comedy.

The movie is a biography of 19th century composer John Philip Sousa (played by Clifton Webb, The Man Who Never Was), who is the leader of the Marine Corps Band in the 1890s. There he meets Private Willie Little (Robert Wagner, TV’s Two and a Half Men), the inventor of an instrument called the Sousaphone, and Little’s girlfriend, showgirl Lily (Debra Paget, Cleopatra’s Daughter).

After Sousa leaves the Marines, the three form a band. Although Sousa would rather write ballads, his marches bring him fame and success.

I just finished the book Operation Mincemeat, about one of the best-executed bits of deception ever employed, which was first turned into the book and movie The Man Who Never Was in the 1950s. Long story short: British intelligence - working from an idea pitched by one Ian Fleming - created a phony spy out of a dead man and threw the Nazis off the course of an actual invasion in 1943.

So being in the WWII mindset already, that's probably why this news about Hitler stuck with me. The documentary Swastika was finished by Australian filmmaker Philippe Mora in the 1970s, but thanks to its Cannes premiere - at which a near-riot broke out - the film hasn't been seen much since. But that's about to change.

A remastered and partially redubbed version of Swastika is getting distribution in Germany and the United States, backed by producers Sandy Lieberson and David Puttnam.

Producer, director and cinematographer of many well-loved British film classics, including Oliver Twist, Tunes of Glory and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

The producer, director, writer and cinematographer Ronald Neame, who has died aged 99, played an important role in British cinema for more than half a century. The critic Matthew Sweet once called him "a living embodiment of cinema, a sort of one-man world heritage site". Neame was assistant director to Alfred Hitchcock on Blackmail (1929), the first British talkie; he was the cinematographer on In Which We Serve (1942), Noël Coward's moving tribute to the Royal Navy during the second world war; he co-produced and co-wrote David Lean's Brief Encounter (1945) and Great Expectations (1946); and he directed Alec Guinness in two of his best roles, in The Horse's Mouth (1958) and Tunes of Glory (1960). As if this wasn't enough, Neame also conquered Hollywoo d with one of the first and most successful disaster movies,...

British filmmaker Ronald Neame, whose career dates back to serving as assistant cameraman on the first feature film made with sound in Great Britain, Alfred Hitchcock's "Blackmail," has died, according to reports. He was 99.

No details were available.

His directing credits ranged from "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972) to "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1969), for which Maggie Smith won the Oscar for best actress.

As a producer, Neame was involved with three British classics: "Brief Encounter" (1945), "Great Expectations" (1946) and "Oliver Twist" (1948). "Brief Encounter" and "Great Expectations" were the fruition of a production partnership called Cineguild that Neame had formed with David Lean and Anthony Havelock-Allan.

As a screenwriter, Neame earned Oscar nominations for the screenplays of "Brief," adapted from a Noel Coward play, and "Expectations," from Charles Dickens' novel. He shared those distinctions with Lean and Havelock-Allan.

Cineguild broke up in 1947 with a fall-out between Neame and Lean when...

Acquarello:

Now on DVD: Chantal Akerman in the Seventies

David Cairns:

The Forgotten: Sunday, Lovely Sunday

The Forgotten: The Dumb Bomb

The Forgotten: The Man Who Never Was

The Forgotten: It Was So Nice Inside His Head

Fernando F. Croce:

“One for Them”? Scorsese’s “Cape Fear”

Now on DVD: “Il posto” (Ermanno Olmi, 1961)

Now on DVD: “Point Blank” (John Boorman, 1967)

Adrian Curry:

Movie Poster of the Week: "Do It Again"

Movie Posters of the Week: The Best of Rotterdam

Movie Poster of the Week: "The Art of the Steal"

Movie Poster of the Week: "I Am Love" and the Curious Case of Tilda Swinton

Marie-Pierre Duhamel:

Berlinale: Zhang Yimou's "A Woman, A Gun And A Noodle Shop" Review

Berlinale. Philip Scheffner's "Day of the Sparrow" Review

David Hudson:

Rotterdam 2010: 4 in the Running for Vpro Tiger Awards

Berlinale. "Apart Together" Review + Roundup

Berlinale. "The Ghost Writer" Review + Roundup

Berlinale.