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As happens every year around this time, the cable spectrum has been heavily laced with programming throughout the week commemorating Veterans Day. HBO trundled out its full epic and brutal miniseries The Pacific for a one-day re-run broken up by the debut of the James Gandolfini-hosted documentary War Torn 1861-2010, a disturbing look at the psychological scars America’s soldiers have suffered in every conflict since The Civil War; The History Channel ran an all-day marathon of Ww II in HD, sprinkling its commercial breaks for the week with commemorative spots; AMC ran a day of war movies like The Enemy Below (1957) and A Few Good Men (1992) under the umbrella, “Vets Best” ; and so on.

The bulk of memorializing programming focused on World War II – unsurprising, in that it remains, to this day, America’s greatest, defining, and least morally problematic war. Even 65 years later, despite a half-century of...

Slap on your blinkers as Karen Krizanovich gallops through the best equine clips on film

They're not just for little girls: horses in films symbolise life (The Red Pony), death (Gone With the Wind), bravery (Hidalgo) and comedy (The Mask of Zorro). Even the use of horses' heads – think The Godfather, The Tin Drum – make for indelible cinematic moments.

Equines bring emotional power to the big screen and a connection to magic and nature that few other animals seem to possess: Shadowfax in The Lord of the Rings, Black Beauty, and those four chariot horses named after stars in Ben-Hur. Their profound (and upsetting) use in Russian cinema (October by Eisenstein, Andre Rublev by Tarkovsky) is countered by Oliver Hardy's comic reincarnation as a horse at the end of The Flying Deuces and by Us TV's popular talking horse, Mr Ed (here rubbing noses with Clint Eastwood).

With Spielberg...

Spent all your money on Christmas presents? Feeling a bit of a Scrooge? From carols in Cambridge to live acts in Liverpool, here's our pick of the UK's cultural freebies

Bp Portrait award 2009, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

A chance to see 56 contemporary portraits from one of the most prestigious painting competitions in the world, a selection of intimate images of friends, family and celebrities selected from over 1,900 artists this year. Also exhibited is the work of Emmanouil Bitsakis, the 2008 Bp Travel award winner.

Open from 12 December to 21 February 2010

Earth from the Air, Southgate shopping centre and city centre, Bath

Throughout December and January, an exhibition of over 120 pictures will be displayed on the streets of Bath. The largescale images, created by French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand, document the effects of climate change and population growth. Running concurrently is another free street gallery by award-winning wildlife photographer and conservationist Andy Rouse,...