In exceedingly trying circumstances - I’m piggybacking on borrowed hardware because my computer has crashed big-time and is being held captive in the dungeon of the repair shop here in Bimshire - BC on TV takes the form (hopefully, for today only) of a straightforward declaration of what I think are the three best films of the day and a list of options.

There are three very clear top-runners in the pack.

You have two chances (10.30am & 9.45pm Cinemax) to see today’s best film Locke, a thriller set entirely in the front seat of a BMW, give or take a few establishing shots. This is nail-biting tension that would please even the Fast & Furious crowd - okay, maybe not them; they’d consider it a waste of a Bima. For the discerning grownup, though, it’s hard to top.

The Imitation Game (1.05pm Cinemax) features what might be the best screenplay ever written, from a technical point of view, as well as a whole heap of excellent performances in its superb retelling of the story of Alan Turing, the troubled man who invented the computer.

And, for anyone lucky enough not to have seen it before, the DirecTV Channel screens the entire season one of Sally Wainwright’s excellent police crime drama series, Happy Valley, starting at 2pm. If you’ve got six hours to spare, you could hardly find a better way of spending them this year.

An impressive list of Also-Rans has something for everyone but the documentary crowd, with a Hitchcock suspense classic (Dial M for Murder 11.33am TCM), a modern fantasy fable playing to Jim Carrey’s real and impressive dramatic talent (The Truman Show, 9.40am FoxCom) and an outrageously offensive, and even funnier, Farrelly Bros comedy (The Heartbreak Kid, 6.10pm FoxCom).

There are also three excellent family films, the third film in what is probably the best animated franchise ever (Toy Story 3, 9.26am HBOF) and the first two in the original Ralph Machhio Karate Kid one (The Karate Kid, 1.32pm, II, 3.52pm TCM).

The superhero lovers - yes, they exist, and BC on TV is often in their number - could do far worse than the brilliantly cast Paul Rudd in Ant-Man (9pm, HBOP) and the sci-fi crowd ought to love the special edition of the old Richard Dreyfuss epic (Close Encounters of the Third Kind 11.15am MaxPrime).

Crime lovers get a slick modern reworking of Blind Terror, in which victim and villain are nicely reversed (Don’t Breathe, 1.14pm) and B-film enthusiasts get one of the most entertaining low-brow horror films ever shot (The Butterfly Effect, 2.44pm HBOP); discerning horror/fantasy fans, though, will be better served by the first of the last of Harry Potter (& the Deathly Hallows Part I, 3pm HBOP).

Quentin Tarantino fans have his most recent flick (The Hateful Eight, 2.15pm HBOC, 3pm HBO) but people who really appreciate the Western genre will prefer the far more groundbreaking John Ford Jimmy Stewart/John Wayne classic (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, 5.55pm FoxClas).

People who don’t get enough war in the television news can opt for a Brad Pitt feature that is far better than its box office performance reflected (Fury, 12.40 midday, HBO).