Tonight in HD: May 6

Sky Movies Premiere: Limitless (Sky Movies, 8.30, 5.1) Bradley Cooper has the hangover from hell in this boundlessly entertaining satirical thriller from Neil Burger, the writer/director of The Illusionist. He plays a struggling scribe who’s at his wits’ end with writer’s block when he takes an experimental drug that gives him a quadruple-digit IQ – but with lethal consequences. What he does with his new-found but perilous powers makes for that rare treat: high-concept escapism that sustains its inspiration with smarts, suspense and unpredictability, climaxing with a twist that will leave you as high as the hero. Funny, enthralling and fabulously filmed, it looks sensational in HD. Robert De Niro and Sucker Punch’s Abbie Cornish co-star. ✮✮✮✮

Network Movie Premiere: Sherlock Holmes (TV2, 8.30, 5.1) With this brazen reinvention of a literary icon, the doyen of detective fiction becomes fodder for the kind of Hollywood malarkey that prizes spectacle over even elementary deduction. No doubt Sherlock Holmes stalwarts would like nothing less than to release the hounds of the Baskervilles on writer/director Guy Ritchie for dumbing down and dirtying up the hitherto erudite Baker Street duo. But it’s nonetheless an appealingly cast and meticulously mounted diversion for sceptics and converts alike. Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law and Rachel McAdams star. ✮✮✮

Pretty Little Liars (TV2, 5.30, 5.1) It’s the Halloween before Alison went missing and the friends hope to score an invite to Noel’s Halloween party. ✮✮

The War at Home (TV2, 6.30, R) Dave has to deal with mood swings and PMS when Vicky and Hillary’s menstrual cycles start in full swing. ✮✮✮

The Food Truck (TV One, 7.00) Chef Michael Van de Elzen tries his hand at takeaway breakfasts to sell from his trusty Bedford at the Puhoi Axemen’s Carnival, outside the famous Puhoi Pub. ✮✮✮✮

The Big Bang Theory (TV2, 7.00, 5.1, R) When Leonard and Sheldon meet a 15-year-old physics prodigy, Sheldon is distraught that this boy genius is younger and smarter. ✮✮✮✮

Mike & Molly (TV2, 7.30, 5.1) When Victoria is arrested for various driving violations, Molly and Joyce ask Mike to help spring her from jail. ✮✮

The Big Bang Theory (TV2, 8.00, 5.1, R) The guys compete in the university’s physics bowl, but since Sheldon’s only focus is to prove his mental superiority, the guys kick him off the team. ✮✮✮✮

Touch (TV3, 8.30, 5.1, F) Martin attempts to find Teller’s mysterious workshop and winds up aiding another professor, Logan, to win big at poker. ✮✮✮

Call the Midwife (TV One, 9.30) Jenny is placed on the district nursing roster for a few weeks to extend her experience of community practice. During her rounds she attends to Joe, a gentle old soldier, and a friendship forms. ✮✮✮

The Almighty Johnsons (TV3, 10.30, R) A rescue mission, a roast chicken, a very small car and, for one particular person, the weirdest day ever. ✮✮✮

Enlightened (TV One, 10.35, 5.1) A disturbing dream leads Amy to confront the emptiness in her life and her lingering feelings for Levi. ✮✮✮

Sky Movies Premiere: The Last Exorcism (Sky Movies, 10.20, 5.1) A troubled exorcist allows a documentary crew to record his last duel with the Devil. As Rolling Stone observed: “For a movie made from spare parts – take The Exorcist and attach to The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity – The Last Exorcism delivers the heebie-jeebie goods.” Even the New York Times thought it had merit: “An unusually restrained and genuinely eerie little movie perched at the intersection of faith, folklore and female puberty.” (2010) ✮✮✮