Chris Noonan's zesty, loveable story of a lonely piglet's path to acceptance and then glory at a bucolic farm remains a genuine example of that rare beast: the great family movie. The movie captures a storybook sensibility, mixing both the fantastic and the daft, while always maintaining more than a hint of darkness. In that sense, along with a gruff sheep dog (voiced by Hugo Weaving) and maddening sheep, it is a particularly Australian experience, even if the farming milieu has British overtones for an American audience. James Cromwell is the stoic farmer, with Magda Szubanski as a comic matriarch, but it's the old-fashioned filmmaking skills that make the wide circle of animals into engaging characters that supplies the standout performances.  Craig Mathieson

Movie: Ex Machina (2015)
Masterpiece Movies (pay TV), 8.30pm

A brittle, telling invocation of masculinity told through the lens of near future science-fiction, Ex Machina thrusts humble programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) into the physically and mentally isolated world of Nathan (Oscar Isaac), his code savant boss who has retreated into the lab to create an artificial intelligence. The result is Ava (Alicia Vikander), a mix of moulded polymers and glowing cable shaped into a female form but rightly possessed of otherworldly instincts. Alex Garland, making his directorial debut, previously wrote the screenplay for 28 Days Later and Never Let Me Go, and he makes the existential queries of the plot – Nathan's role is to test Ava, although she soon starts testing him – sing with suggestion and the codes of male competition. The danger that ultimately lurks inside Ex Machina is misogyny.  Craig Mathieson

Pay: Dead 7
Syfy, 8.30pm

A low-budget zombie movie starring some of the biggest boy-band stars of the '90s? Yep – and it's great fun too. In the post-apocalyptic Wild West created by Backstreet Boys' Nick Carter, the zombies don't all wander around aimlessly. Many are under the control of a scary witch who sends them to attack the last outposts of the living. Clearly, it's time for tough guy Jack (Carter) and tough girl Daisy Jane (Carrie Keagan) to kick some undead butt. Their posse will include a handsome hunk (98 Degrees' Jeff Timmons), a Mexican sharpshooter (Backstreet Boys' Howie Dorough) and a vigilante ninja (O-Town's Erik-Michael Estrada). 'N Sync's Joey Fatone brings delectable shavings of ham as a hard-drinking rogue, and Backstreet Boys' A.J. McLean is an enjoyably unhinged baddie.  Brad Newsome

Orphan Black marathon
SBS2, 10.40pm

SBS will fast-track the fourth season of this Canadian conspiracy thriller from Tuesday April 19. But if you need to catch up on the story so far, here's your chance with two big blocks of episodes from season three screening on Friday and Saturday nights. For the uninitiated, the set-up of this dark and often violent sci-fi series sees streetwise hustler Sarah (Tatiana Maslany) discovering, after witnessing a suicide, that she's a clone and that someone's intent on destroying her and her biological sisters. As the drama has opened out to take in covert military operations, a fierce religious cult and brother clones, it's pervaded by a spooky sense of menace, which is sometimes lightened by Sarah's childhood pal, the sassy Felix (Jordan Gavaris).  Debi Enker