Digital: Pick of the Day

STEPHEN FREARS went on to make such big-budget Hollywood offerings as Dangerous Liaisons and Accidental Hero, but he first made his name with gritty British dramas like My Beautiful Laundrette (8.15pm FilmFour). Showing in FilmFour's "Made in Britain" season, this landmark movie was penned by Hanif Kureishi. It features Daniel Day-Lewis (right) in his breakthrough role as a former National Front member who falls for an ex-school friend (Gordon Warnecke). Together, they open a laundrette.

Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (10pm FilmFour), the second half of a Frears double-bill, was also written by Kureishi. Seen as an attack on Thatcherism, it centres on an Indian politician (Shashi Kapoor) returning to Britain to visit his son (Ayub Khan Din) and daughter-in-law (Frances Barber). He is instantly shocked by the social decline he witnesses.

James Rampton