In a special edition of the programme, Francine Stock looks at a growing number of films aimed at an older audience, known within the industry as the 'grey pound'. Billy Connolly and Tom Courtenay discuss their retirement home comedy, Quartet, the directorial debut of Dustin Hoffman. Francine visits the set of Roger Michell's latest, Le Weekend, starring Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan as a retired couple trying to rekindle the romance of their honeymoon. Analyst Charles Gant reveals the films ...
Jan 03, 2013•28 min
In a special edition, Francine Stock and guests discuss difficult books adapted for the big screen. Deepa Mehta talks Midnight's Children, Ang Lee reveals the challenges of making Life of Pi, and Walter Salles discusses On the Road. Meanwhile, Sir Christopher Frayling, critic Tim Robey, and screenwriter Tony Grisoni look back over the years at cinema's attempts at realising 'unfilmable' books. Producer: Craig Smith.
Dec 27, 2012•28 min
Francine Stock meets with Ang Lee to discuss Life of Pi, the hugely anticipated big screen adaptation of Yan Martel's novel. Ewan McGregor reveals his reluctance to take on the part of a father searching for his family in the aftermath of the 2004 Asian tsunami in The Impossible, directed by Juan Antonio Bayona. Critic Nigel Floyd picks out his favourite films showing on television over Christmas. And Peter Jackson talks about his involvement with West of Memphis, a documentary focusing on the c...
Dec 20, 2012•28 min
Francine Stock talks to Sir Peter Jackson about his new film The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey, the first in a trilogy of films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien, which was published 75 years ago this year. Sir Ian McKellan reprises his role as Gandalf from The Lord of The Rings trilogy, and the film also stars Andy Serkis as Gollum, Christopher Lee as Saruman and Cate Blanchett as Galadriel. Critic Alice Tynan on Hobbit mania: with commemorative stamps and ...
Dec 13, 2012•28 min
Francine Stock meets with director Martin McDonagh and actor Sam Rockwell to discuss their new film, Seven Psychopaths. Neil Brand deconstructs the distinctive score for Akira Kurosawa's 1961 samurai Western - Yojimbo. We sample a fine Bordeaux, the French film Tu Sera Mon Fils (You Will be My Son), a dynastic drama set in a vineyard, starring Niels Arestrup. As Britain's largest independent cinema chain, Picturehouse, joins forces with Cineworld, what does this mean for cinemagoers? Clare Binns...
Dec 06, 2012•28 min
This week Francine meets with Ralph Fiennes who, fresh from Skyfall, is now rattling his leg-irons as Magwitch in Mike Newell's Great Expectations. Critic Ben Walters casts an eye over several films dealing with gay and transgender issues from Laurence Anyways and Keep the Lights On to the documentary, Call Me Kuchu, which paints a harsh picture of life as a homosexual in Uganda. Then two go psycho in a motorhome in Ben Wheatley's Sightseers. Comedy duo Alice Lowe and Steve Oram on their horror ...
Nov 29, 2012•28 min
Colin Firth on his new film Gambit, and why he never expected to play posh people. The man behind Festen, Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, discusses his timely drama The Hunt, about a nursery teacher accused of wrongdoing. Cinema owner Kevin Markwick tracks the origins of advertising on the big screen, unearthing ads from as far back as the 1890s. And critic Peter Bradshaw on the power of The Passion of Joan of Arc, Carl Theodor Dreyer's classic from 1928. Producer: Craig Smith....
Nov 22, 2012•28 min
Francine Stock and guests look at Michael Haneke's latest, Amour, starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva who face the end together in their Paris apartment. Is Haneke the greatest living European filmmaker? Dr Catherine Wheatley and critic Jonathan Romney consider. Bradley Cooper discusses his dance around disruptive personality disorders in the romcom Silver Linings Playbook. Fashion journalist Chris Laverty pulls apart Ben Affleck's garb in Argo. And from 1970, there's romance - w...
Nov 15, 2012•28 min
Ben Affleck on directing and starring in his Iranian hostage thriller, Argo. Director Sally El Hossaini on her award-winning debut, My Brother The Devil, set in the crime-ridden estates of Hackney. And director Paul Thomas Anderson talks about The Master, his enigmatic film that's generating so much debate. Producer: Craig Smith.
Nov 08, 2012•28 min
Francine Stock meets with French director Jacques Audiard to discuss his award-winning film Rust and Bone, an ominous story on the sunlit Cote d'Azur. Irish charmer Chris O'Dowd, on playing the impromptu manager of an Australian girl group, The Sapphires, touring war-torn Vietnam. Neil Brand is behind the piano to deconstruct Jonny Greenwood's score to one of the most anticipated films of the year, Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master. And historian Ian Christie looks at the Ealing films with a dar...
Nov 01, 2012•28 min
Daniel Craig on being James Bond, working with Sam Mendez and Her Majesty the Queen. Actor Martin Compston discusses his new film Sister, set in the seedy underbelly of the Swiss ski slopes. Is Stanley's Kubrick's film The Shining just a horror film? Or is it about the Holocaust, the moon landing, or the massacre of Native Americans? A new documentary, Room 237, claims it's about all three - and more. We hear from its director, Rodney Ascher. Plus Sir Christopher Frayling and critic Adam Smith d...
Oct 25, 2012•28 min
Apocalypse looms in the waterlogged deep south of America - director Benh Zeitlin talks Beasts of the Southern Wild. Cinema owner Kevin Markwick gives a potted history of the ad reel. Filmmaker Sally Potter discusses her latest, Ginger and Rosa, a teenage drama set at the start of the Cold War. And critic Scott Jordan Harris reveals his film of the year - a three hour epic - Woody Allen: A Documentary, directed by Robert B. Weide. Producer: Craig Smith.
Oct 18, 2012•28 min
Veteran actor Martin Landau discusses his role as the wise - if sinister - science teacher in Tim Burton's retro-fable Frankenweenie. Author Michael Morpurgo reflects on the two very different screen treatments of his books, War Horse and Private Peaceful. We reveal the winner of the first Wellcome Trust Screenwriting Prize, intended to encourage more and better scripts about science. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the team behind Little Miss Sunshine, discuss their new film Ruby Sparks, abo...
Oct 11, 2012•28 min
Francine Stock discusses the long-awaited screen adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road with the film's director, Walter Salles. Author and film historian, David Thomson, outlines his fears for the future of cinema. Clare Stewart, new director of the BFI London Film Festival, on her vision for this year's festival. Critic and journalist Karen Krizanovich on Sam Fuller's Park Row from 1952, a feisty flick chronicling the early days of the New York newspaper industry. Producer: Craig Smith....
Oct 04, 2012•28 min
This week Francine Stock meets with Kylie Minogue to discuss her transformation in to a French New Wave starlet in Leos Carax's Holy Motors. Joseph Gordon Levitt describes his preparation for playing the young Bruce Willis in Looper, a film that travels forward (and back) sampling previous sci-fi thrillers. Tahar Rahim, star of A Prophet and Free Men, discusses Arab stereotyping on the big screen. And, Neil Brand is behind the piano to look at the trick of referencing and recycling classic score...
Sep 27, 2012•28 min
Francine Stock discusses prototype vibrators with Jonathan Pryce, star of Hysteria. Critic Adam Smith reassesses Peter Falk and Gena Rowlands in John Cassavetes A Woman Under The Influence. Oliver Stone's Savages sees Benicio del Toro in a familiar role as the bad-ass Mexican; he discusses Hispanic stereotypes. And an oddity from North Korea - Comrade Kim Goes Flying - the first ever UK/Belgian/North Korean co-production. Producer: Craig Smith.
Sep 20, 2012•28 min
In a programme specially recorded at Toronto International Film Festival, Francine Stock reports back on the best, the most expensive, the most moving and the maddest of the nearly 300 films on show. She speaks to Roger Michell about his latest film, Hyde Park on Hudson, set in 1939 as the first British monarch to visit the US (Sam West as King George VI) arrives at the president's upstate New York country house (Bill Murray as FDR). Jack Kerouac's iconic novel On The Road finally makes it to th...
Sep 13, 2012•28 min
Francine Stock talks to Joe Wright about "Anna Karenina" - adapted for the screen by Tom Stoppard and starring Keira Knightly, Jude Law and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Sandra Hebron discusses the numerous screen adaptations of Tolstoy's epic novel, including Clarence Brown's 1935 version starring Greta Garbo and Frederic March, and the Alexander Korda picture produced in 1948 with Vivien Leigh, Ralph Richardson and Kieron Moore. John Hillcoat and Nick Cave discuss Lawless. Lawless is directed by John ...
Sep 06, 2012•28 min
Matthew Sweet meets with actor Toby Jones to discuss the weird word of the Berberian Sound studio, director Peter Strickland's love letter to Italian horror films of the 1970s. How do you make money from a British film? Producers Lisa Marie Russo and Matthew Justice discuss. Plus, Mark Gatiss rounds off his selection of favourite biopics with Gods and Monsters, starring Ian Mckellan as director James Whale. Producer: Craig Smith.
Aug 30, 2012•28 min
Matthew Sweet meets with director James Marsh to discuss his IRA drama Shadow Dancer, starring Clive Owen and Andrea Riseborough. Northern Ireland correspondent for the Independent newspaper David Mckittrick looks at the portrayal of the IRA on film. Mark Gatiss continues his selection of biopics - this week, Carey Grant as Cole Porter in Night and Day. Director Bart Layton on his compelling drama-doc The Imposter, which tells the story of a Frenchman who convinces a Texan family he is their son...
Aug 23, 2012•28 min
Matthew Sweet meets with Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger to talk action heroes, male masculinity, and 19th century poetry. Star of The Birds and Marnie, Tippi Hedren, discusses her troubled relationship with Alfred Hitchcock. And Mark Gatiss selects another of his favourite biopics - Stephen Frear's Prick Up Your Ears, a study of playwright Joe Orton and his doomed relationship with his lover, Kenneth Halliwell. Producer: Craig Smith.
Aug 16, 2012•28 min
Matthew Sweet meets with Jeremy Renner to discuss his role as the lead in The Bourne Legacy. We take a trip back in time with Austin Vince from The Adventure Travel Film Festival. Academic Melanie Williams champions an early kitchen sink drama from 1957, Woman in a Dressing Gown. And Mark Gatiss is back for the summer to pick 4 of his favourite biopics - first up, Lewis Gilbert's Carve Her Name With Pride, starring Virginia Mckenna. Producer: Craig Smith.
Aug 09, 2012•28 min
Matthew Sweet and guests look back at the film career of Ivor Novello, one of the most popular British entertainers of the 20th century. With contributions from actor Simon Callow, composer Neil Brand, academic Lawrence Napper, and former criminal Frankie Fraser. Producer: Craig Smith.
Aug 02, 2012•28 min
New figures show that UK cinema ticket sales increased again last year, by 61% in the past decade. What have we been watching in 2012? Francine Stock discusses with industry analyst Charles Gant and cinema owner/manger Kevin Markwick. Plus your favourite films. Industrial devastation becomes a thing of beauty in Antonioni's Red Desert from 1964. Director Mike Hodges, who made Get Carter, appreciates Antonioni's striking use of colour. And the search for Sugarman, a new documentary about a myster...
Jul 26, 2012•28 min
Francine Stock talks to Christopher Nolan about The Dark Knight Rises. Nigel Havers recalls Chariots of Fire, while film composer Neil Brand deconstructs that famous Vangelis score. Writer Iain Sinclair and artist Andrew Kotting discuss their pedalo odyssey, Swandown. Producer: Craig Smith.
Jul 19, 2012•28 min
Francine Stock talks to Steven Soderbergh about his latest film, Magic Mike, starring Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey, as male strippers in Miami. He also discusses the reasons why he's quitting the film business. Three generations of film critics - Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian, blogger Charlie Lyne, and student Hattie Soper - discuss the changing nature of their work. The film Margaret, starring Anna Paquin, Matt Damon and Mark Ruffalo, received rave reviews upon its release last year,...
Jul 12, 2012•28 min
Francine Stock meets with Welsh actor Rhys Ifans, who explains why he's adopted an English accent for his role as the villain in The Amazing Spiderman. As the Wellcome Trust and the BFI launch a scheme to encourage more scripts set in the world of biology and medicine, critic Tim Robey and script editor Katy Leys discuss the scientist in film. Director Bobcat Goldthwait on what's eating America in his new film, God Bless America. Actor Willem Dafoe discusses his role in The Hunter, as a mercenar...
Jul 05, 2012•28 min
Francine Stock talks to veteran director William Friedkin about his new film, Killer Joe, starring Matthew McConaughey as a Texan cop and assassin for hire. Critics Robbie Collin and Jamie Dunn report from Britain's oldest film festival in Edinburgh. Journalist Anthony Baxter explains why he remortgaged his house to make a documentary about Donald Trump's golf course on the east coast of Scotland. The independent director behind such films as Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness, and Palindromes,...
Jun 28, 2012•28 min
Francine Stock meets with actor, screenwriter and puppeteer, Jason Segel to discuss his new film The Five Year Engagement and the box-office success, The Muppets. Critic Scott Jordan Harris dissects Carol Reed's IRA drama from 1947, Odd Man Out, starring James Mason. Director Nadine Labaki on her new film, Where Do We Go Now?, which puts the religious tensions between Christians and Muslims in Lebanon under the microscope. Veteran British director Stephen Frears talks about his gambling comedy, ...
Jun 21, 2012•28 min
Francine Stock meets with David Cronenberg to discuss his latest Cosmopolis, starring Robert Pattinson. The man behind Chariots of Fire, director Hugh Hudson, on his ill-fated film from 1985 - Revolution, starring Al Pacino. Director Regan Hall and dramatist Roy Williams on Fast Girls, a film about four girls vying for medal glory on the running track. Producer: Craig Smith.
Jun 14, 2012•28 min
