Manhunter

Couch Potato Pickings

On ITV1 tonight at 11.45pm

http://youtube.com/v/czVMfUd5dFI This film introduced the world to Thomas Harris's serial killer Hannibal Lecter, but it doesn't star Anthony Hopkins. No, Brian Cox plays Lecter, and because he's not Hopkins and not so well-known, not so celebrated, and not so parodied, he's less familiar and therefore, I think, all the more terrifying in the role.

Manhunter is based on Harris's book Red Dragon, which was also adapted into a film in 2002, and starred Anthony Hopkins. Which version is better - the one that sees Hopkins in his Lecter role for the third time or tonight's stylishly scary movie? Click here for more about the film.