The Film Programme

With Antonia Quirke.As cinemas are set to re-open on May 17th, Antonia Quirke visits The Uckfield Picture House that has been run by the same family for over six decades. She talks to its owner Kevin Markwick about a year that has seen his business shut for 70% of the time, and discovers why he is optimistic about the future.Sound Of Metal director Darius Marder reveals the reasons why he distorted the hearing of his star Riz Ahmed with the help of a ear piece and an app.Director Chloe Zhao discusses the influence of John Wayne on her Oscar winner Nomadland.If you are going to your local cinema on May 17th, we'd like to hear about your experience. You can write or record your thoughts and email them to thefilmprogramme@bbc.co.uk

With Antonia QuirkeDirector Brett Harvey reveals how he made a feature film Long Way Back just after he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. And how he managed to direct the movie suffering the effects of the insomnia caused by the illness, and why he made a short film called Hand about his condition.Lisa Immordino Vreeland, the director of Truman And Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation, talks about what she discovered about the friendship and rivalry between Truman Capote and Tennessee WilliamsHow many world famous composers does it take to make a film score ? At least half a dozen, if that film is Lawrence Of Arabia. Neil Brand reveals why so many legends of 20th century classical music were hired to write the score for David Lean's epic, only for the job to go to a relative unknown called Maurice Jarre.

With Francine StockFrancine considers the changing role of the actress in Hollywood and European cinema, from muse to producer. She hears from Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Sandra Bullock, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Cate Blanchett, Fanny Ardant and Anna Karina.

With Antonia QuirkeThe Film Programme has exclusive behind the scenes access to some of the most exciting and innovative film-makers in this country. For the past year, Mark Jenkin has been recording audio diaries for us, as he follows up his award-winning hit Bait with the supernatural tale Enys Men, a film that has been delayed and re-imagined during the pandemic. Father and daughter artists Andrew and Eden Kötting have just finished a new animation called Diseased And Disorderly, also made during lockdown, and they describe how their unique collaboration works.

With Antonia QuirkeNomadland won the BAFTA and Golden Globe for Best Film and is hotly tipped to win the Best Picture Oscar too. Director Chloe Zhao reveals how she cast many of her actors on a road trip across the American West. Zhao's previous film The Rider was The Film Programme's film of the year in 2018, and Antonia revisits her interview with its star Brady Jandreau, a real life rodeo rider and horse whisperer.Mark Jenkin is recording an exclusive audio diary for The Film Programme as he begins to shoot Enys Men, his follow-up to his BAFTA winner Bait. As the first day of principal photography approaches, Mark is beginning to lose sleep.

With Antonia QuirkeThe Power is set in a spooky hospital during the electrical blackouts of the early 70s. Antonia visits the set, itself a spooky old hospital, and meets director Corinna Faith and producer Rob Watson, who reveals that the set itself might be hauntedMaria Djurkovic, the production designer who re-created the Anglo-Saxon mounds in Sutton Hoo for The Dig, reveals exactly where she was when she discovered that she had been nominated for a BAFTA at this weekend's ceremony.Cinema owner Kevin Markwick looks forward to the films that will be released, when (hopefully) cinemas will re-open from May 17thWoody Strode was one of the first Black Americans to play in the NFL after World War II and went on to become a Hollywood actor in films like Spartacus and Sergeant Rutledge. Writer Nat Segnit tells the story of his life.

Antonia Quirke considers the phenomenon and future of the so called film junket, the movie publicity process whereby film stars are serially interviewed in expensive hotels by a succession of film journalists and presenters. She looks back at the promotional encounters she's had with a cast of big Hollywood names including (in order of appearance) Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck, Bradley Cooper, Annette Benning, Willem Dafoe, Glen Close, Timothee Chalamet, Jeff Bridges and Greta Gerwig.Producer: Harry Parker

Francine Stock talks to Christopher Plummer, Warren Beatty, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Jack Nicholson and Peter O'Toole about their long careers in the movies and how a maverick attitude has helped. They reflect on their approaches to acting, how they adapted over the years and the changes they've seen in the film industry.

Antonia Quirke talks to Francis Lee, director of Ammonite, starring Kate Winslet, about the palaeontologist Mary Anning. They discuss his controversial imagining of a lesbian relationship for Anning, the importance of sound in cinema and why he has never seen his own film on the big screen.Antonia also looks at the work of MIMC, a film makers' collective in the Scottish borders and discovers the part it plays in its members' lives both socially and cinematographically.And director Mark Jenkin continues his audio diary and reveals why going on holiday just before shooting commences might not be a bad thing.Producer: Harry Parker

With Antonia QuirkeMark Jenkin takes us on a scouting trip for his new film, Enys Men, going deep into an abandoned mine in Cornwall.Production designer Suzie Davies explains how she re-created the Cold War in Crouch End Town Hall for the new Benedict Cumberbatch thriller The Courier.The last thing you might expect to survive lockdown would be a video shop. And yet Twentieth Century Flicks in Bristol is still hanging on in there. Co-owner Dave Taylor reveals his survival tactics and his new found love for Tom Hanks movies.

With Antonia QuirkeAntonia presents a guide to the universe of The Coen Brothers with help from the siblings themselves. From Film Programme interviews over the last twenty years, Joel and Ethan discuss old Hollywood movies, haircuts and communism.

With Francine StockDirector Kevin Macdonald reveals the influence of The Battle Of Algiers on his latest drama, The Mauritanian, the true story of Mohamedou Ould Salahi, who was held at Guantanamo Bay detention camp for 14 years without charge.Photo credit: Tatiana Lund

With Antonia QuirkeCinematographer Seamus McGarvey has had an eventful 12 months, from being told to pack his bags overnight and get a flight to America to work on a major Hollywood movie, to catching Covid in Los Angeles, and then working on an entirely different movie in Sicily. He recounts it all in an exclusive audio diary for The Film Programme.1917 was the biggest hit in British cinemas last year, and it belongs to a long tradition of films that appear to be shot in one take. Antonia looks at the history of one shot movies, and hears from 1917 cinematographer Roger Deakins, Victoria director Sebastian Schipper, Utoya: July 22 film-maker Eric Poppe, and Birdman star Michael Keaton.Production designer Maria Djurkovic reveals some trade secrets and explains how she built a Greek village in a British studio for the ABBA musical Mamma Mia.

With Antonia QuirkeThis year sees the 20th anniversary of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. To mark the occasion, Antonia revisits her encounter with Christopher Lee in 2001 and hears from London Voices, the choir who sang Elvish on the soundtrack.Bait director Mark Jenkin continues his exclusive series of audio diaries as he prepares to make a film in lockdown. This week, he begins to scout locations for his supernatural drama Enys Men.There's another Scene Stealer from writer Nat Segnit: the actor who rarely made it to the final reel, Elisha Cook Jr.

Script supervisor Angela Allen on what it was really like to work with Marilyn Monroe, Orson Welles and John Huston, and why Monroe believed she was having an affair with husband Arthur Miller.With Antonia Quirke.

With Francine StockFrancine reflects on the career of Leslie Caron, who is 90 this year, and hears about her adventures in La La Land with Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Cary Grant.

With Antonia QuirkeThe Dig production Designer Maria Djurkovic reveals how she re-created the famous burial mounds in Sutton Hoo in a field just outside Guildford.Director Mark Jenkin reveals what it's like to make a film in lockdown. He's currently in pre-production on Enys Men, but has to use online maps to do a recce, had to cut out a scene involving 200 extras because of social distancing rules, and must wait for an actor to get their vaccine before he can shoot a crucial scene.What's it like to let a film crew in your home and return it to its 19th century glory ? Antonia visited a house in the south of Watford that doubled as William Turner's Chelsea residence for the film Mr Turner, with the production designer Suzie Davies.

With Antonia QuirkeBrothers Bill and Turner Ross discuss their film Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, set in the last night of a bar on the outskirts of Los Angeles, that resides somewhere between fiction and documentaryNeil Brand reveals how a little known movie called Chappaqua changed the course of contemporary classical musicKenneth More was one of the most popular actors in Britain in the 1950's, but he's never been the subject of a biography. So, Nick Pourgourides decided to do something about it. The result, More, Please has just been published.

With Antonia Quirke.Legendary actress Ellen Burstyn talks about Pieces Of A Woman, the film that might make her the oldest person to be nominated for an Academy Award in the history of the Oscars.Deepa Mehta, the director of the Earth, Fire and Water trilogy discusses her new drama Funny Boy, set around the time of Black July, the outburst of sectarian violence that led to civil war in Sri Lanka.

With Francine StockFrancine rifles through The Film Programme archives to hear from director Richard Lester about working with The Beatles on A Hard Day's Night and Help ! And why he didn't work for several years after the 60s had ended.