Digital: Pick of the Day

JODIE FOSTER, educated at Yale, is one of Hollywood's most thoughtful actresses. She displays that brightness in Contact (7.30pm Sky Premier, right), an intriguing sci-fi film from Robert Zemeckis. She plays a dedicated astronomer who is convinced that she has picked signals from another planet instructing her how to travel there through space. The impressive supporting cast features Matthew McConaughey, James Woods and John Hurt.

The centrepiece of a Hitchcock night is the marvellous thriller, The Man Who Knew Too Much (8pm FilmFour). This 1934 movie stars Leslie Banks and Edna Best as a couple whose daughter is kidnapped after they have witnessed the murder of a spy. In an unusual move, the film was later remade by the same director with James Stewart and Doris Day in the leads

James Rampton