ALAN Parker's Midnight Express (Pearl, 9.30pm) is riveting from the word go. Its fault, if it has one, is that it often turns into a bit of a wallow in prison atrocities, something that may have been an indulgence on Parker's part.
Nevertheless, both he and editor Gerry Hambling won British Film Academy Awards for their work. The script was written in the early 1970s by an up-and-coming director called Oliver Stone.
So here is a film with all the right credentials, yet the producers chose a complete unknown to play the lead. Brad Davis is Billy Hayes, a naive American student on a back-packing mission through Europe who gets arrested at an airport in Turkey for carrying hashish and finds himself thrown in jail and forgotten.
Davis is given the task of displaying almost every emotion known to man. John Hurt is outstanding as the drug-addled Englishman and Randy Quaid's portrayal of a deranged American is thoroughly believable. As the psychotic prison official, Hume Cronyn comes close to Jack Nicholson in The Shining as a fruitcake personified.
In prison, a good night is one when someone doesn't get beaten or raped. Billy's father (Mike Kellin) attempts to get his son out of jail, but the Turkish legal system is hell-bent on making him an example to other potential smugglers. When he is sentenced to more years than he has fingers, Billy makes plans to take the 'midnight express' - that is, to escape.
ALL the cliches and stock characters are wheeled out for another made-to-order disaster epic, Airport '77 (World, 9.30pm). This is the third in the four-part airport series and not bad, if you like that sort of thing.
James Stewart is the businessman whose private jet is sabotaged and crashes into the sea and sinks, forcing a daring rescue attempt. Usual mix of hysteria, drama and guest stars with nothing to do. Jack Lemmon is the pilot.