Digital, Cable and Satellite Television: Pick of the Day
FILMFOUR'S clever "Icons" season is showing Taxi Driver (10pm) - and it's easy to see why. Robert De Niro's disaffected cabbie (right) - the central figure in Martin Scorsese's nihilistic, corruscating vision of urban decay - is one of cinema's most memorable characters. The scene in which the mohican-clad De Niro- sickened by the depravity he sees around him on the streets of New York - threatens his reflection in the mirror is rightly regarded as a modern classic. Famous for the depth of his research, De Niro reportedly gained a taxi driver's licence so he could carry it around in his pocket and bring a greater sense of authenticity to the role.
With his deeply sad life - which culminated in his cutting his own ear off - Vincent Van Gogh is often seen as the archetypal tortured artist. His life and works are anatomised on tonight's Biography (8pm History Channel).
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