Iconic classic voted 'the best film of all time' to air this weekend - where to watch for free

The critically acclaimed film, The Shawshank Redemption, is set to grace our television screens this weekend, giving fans another opportunity to indulge in the 1994 prison drama.

The movie will be broadcast on Sunday 3 November at 10pm on Two, and for those who can't tune in at that time, it will also be available on BBC .

The plot revolves around a banker who is wrongfully sentenced to life in Shawshank State Penitentiary for the murder of his wife and her lover. Despite maintaining his innocence, he is forced to endure a life behind bars, cut off from the outside .

Over the next twenty years, he becomes embroiled in a money laundering operation within the prison, orchestrated by one of the wardens.

The film boasts an impressive cast including Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, William Sadler, Clancy Brown, Gil Bellows and James Whitmore.

READ MORE:

READ MORE:

Frank Darabont, who later directed The Green Mile, The Majestic and The Mist, helmed the film.

The story is based on Stephen King's novel Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, published in 1982.

Upon its release, the film was met with widespread critical acclaim, with many praising the narrative, performances by Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, the score, screenplay and cinematography.

The Shawshank Redemption received seven Academy Award nominations in 1995, marking the most nominations for a Stephen King adaptation at the time.

The beloved flick The Shawshank Redemption not only scooped nominations galore, but it also snagged gongs from the American Society of Cinematographers, Heartland International Film Festival, and Hochi Film Awards.

That's not all - the film boasts a phenomenal 9.3 out of 10 rating on IMDB based on three million reviews, even pipping cinematic heavyweights like The Godfather and The Dark Knight to the post as it took the top spot in IMDB's Top 250 Movies list.

A tide of enduring adoration keeps swelling for this classic, with one Rotten Tomatoes critic penning: "If this is a feel-good movie -- and by the end it certainly is -- then at least it challenges us to dig deep for those good feelings when everything inside those mausoleum walls is unrelievedly harsh and grey."

Echoing the sentiment, another commented: "The Shawshank Redemption is both resigned and inspirational, grittily realistic and vaguely surreal, matter-of-fact and operatic. Somehow, these opposites are combined into a remarkably smooth and lyrical composition."

Catch the iconic The Shawshank Redemption airing this Sunday 3 November at 10:00pm on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.