9pm, TCM

James Mason took the dodgy Humbert Humbert role after David Niven, Rex Harrison, Noel Coward and all turned it down, no doubt blanching at the challenge of the arrogant paedophile from Nabokov's witty, wicked novel. Mason comes over as broadly sympathetic, if stuffy, while Sue Lyons scoffs her way through as the knowing nymphet - whose age is nervously increased to 14 from the book's 12. Better are Shelley Winters as her frustrated mum and Peter Sellers as the menacing Quilty. It lacks Nabokov's acidity and is hamstrung by being filmed in England - very obviously not its American mid-west setting - but is a braver stab than Adrian Lyne's later version.