New to Rialto in December

The latest 35 Days instalment starts a six-week run tonight on Sky’s Rialto channel.

As with it so predecessors, series five of the Welsh whodunit opens with a murder, in this case, at a wedding, then rewinds 35 days to reveal the killer.

“It begins as a whodunnit – right off the bat, actually – then lurches into a domestic noir, where each of the character’s lives is unpicked and their flaws and secrets are laid bare,” The Killing Times said.

And you just can’t help but become involved – the characters are all so well-written, and their reaction to tragedy and life so believable … Unlike some Welsh crime dramas, 35 Diwrnod doesn’t use the landscape, or isn’t glacially-paced – it’s unashamedly high-concept, the television equivalent of a page-turning thriller.

Unfortunately for fans of the classy foreign TV dramas that Rialto specialises in, 35 Days is this month’s only premiere, with Sunday’s final of Brassic being replaced by British movies A Guide to Second Date Sex, A Bump Along the Way and Beats.

Lined up for Saturday nights are Beautiful Boy, The Professor and the Madman, Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot and The Clovehitch Killer.

Mondays will be devoted to Festival Favourites From South America: Florianópolis Dream, Retablo, Birds of Passage and My Best Friend.

Wednesdays will showcase restored French classics — Hotel America, Blazing Sun, Last Year at Marienbad, Mr Klein, Belle de Jour — while documentaries with global themes will anchor Thursdays: Honeyland, Leftover Women, In My Blood It Runs, Made in Boise and La Mami.

Rounding off the week will be a Gus Van Sant retrospective, with Finding Forrester, Paranoid Park and Restless.