The Shape of Water, Channel 4, 9.30pm
Drawing on influences as varied as Mike Leigh’s film Happy-Go-Lucky and legendary 1950s monster flick The Creature From The Black Lagoon, Mexican horror maestro Guillermo del Torro spins this extraordinary feat of imagination and image-making which wowed the 2018 Oscars with 13 nominations and four wins including Best Picture and Best Director.
It was in Happy-Go-Lucky that del Torro saw and was impressed by British actress Sally Hawkins and it was with her in mind that he wrote the character of his heroine – Elisa Esposito, a mute cleaner at a secret government laboratory to which a strange amphibian creature has been sequestered after its capture in a South American river. And here’s where The Creature From The Black Lagoon comes in, a childhood obsession of del Torro’s and a film he was planning to remake at one time.