The Film Programme

With Ben Bailey SmithActor and writer Ben Bailey Smith has worked on numerous film sets and rarely hears a working class accent unless it's an upper class actor attempting the Cockney dialect or if it's an electrician working behind the scenes. He asks writer Danny Leigh just just how much the class system plays its part in the British film industry.The Uckfield Picture House in Sussex has been run by the same family for 50 years, but the pandemic and lockdown is starting to threaten its future. Its owner, Kevin Markwick, has recorded a series of audio diaries for the programme as he prepares to open his doors for the first time in four months.Caitlin Benedict, the presenter of NB: My Non-Binary Life, presents their choice of films to stream this week: Disclosure, A Fantastic Woman, Disobedience and Portrait Of A Lady On Fire.

With Antonia QuirkeFilm producer Luc Roeg talks about his only acting role, as a seven year old boy alongside Jenny Agutter in Walkabout. He reveals what it was like to be directed by his dad, Nic, and why he really didn't like swimming naked in the film's most famous scene.Coky Giedroyc, the director of How To Build A Girl, gives her tips for young female filmmakers on how to survive and thrive in a male dominated industry.Writer Nat Segnit pitches a remake of La Grande Bouffe, in which some middle class friends eat themselves to death over a long weekend, to industry insiders Clare Binns, Rowan Woods and Lizzie FranckeDirector Carol Morley introduces her final choice for Friday Film Club, the online movie club that she set up when the cinemas closed down.

With Antonia QuirkeAs cinemas across the world are pinning their box-office hopes on Christopher Nolan's Tenet this summer, Antonia looks again at the director's breakthrough hit Memento, and travels back to the year 2000 when Nolan talked to Radio 4 for the first time.Filmmaker Mark Jenkin has to wait a year to shoot his follow-up to Bait as a result of the pandemic. In the meantime, he has dreamt up a new movie and is recording an audio diary of the film-making process. This week, he is grappling with a story that exists across various dimensions of timeComposer Neil Brand continues his series of rejected scores with the very public controversy that surrounded the release of 1984 in 1984.While many cinemas are still closed, drive-ins have become extremely popular. Antonia experiences one for herself, armed with a bucket of popcorn.

With Antonia QuirkeDirector Mark Jenkin sends his latest audio diary as he embarks on a new project, while he waits another year to start shooting his follow-up to the award-winning Bait.This week's recommendation for a film to stream is High Life, a movie about lockdown and living in isolation, as convicts are sent into space for a scientific experiment. From the archives, director Claire Denis explains that her original idea was to make a film about a deadly virus.Cinema owner Kevin Markwick explains why he is not going to open the doors of the Uckfield Picture House quite yet, despite the devastating impact that the coronavirus has had on the family business.Poet Simon Barraclough cannot wait for cinemas to re-open. He has watched at least 98 films during lockdown, but explains, in verse, why watching a film on your television can never be the same as going to the cinema.

With Antonia QuirkeWhat does a film-maker do when they can't make a film ? Three directors share their audio diaries, in which they chart their lives in lockdown. Mark Jenkin was about to start shooting his follow-up to Bait when Covid 19 intervened. He now has to wait a year until he can begin again. Carol Morley set up her own on-line film club because she was missing the communal feeling of watching a film with an audience. Andrew Kotting's film The Whalebone Box was about to be released in cinemas just at the moment when they closed down. He was planning to go on tour with the film and catch up with friends and family around the UK and Ireland.

With Francine StockJune 29th is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ray Harryhausen, the special effects supremo who gave us a seven headed hydra, a a sword fighting skeleton and a lizard from Venus in such classics as Jason And The Argonauts, The Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad and 20 Million Miles To Earth. To celebrate the anniversary, Francine remembers the time she visited Ray in his London home and heard how he did all the effects himself, moving his fabulous beasts one painstaking step at a time.

With Antonia QuirkeThe Film Programme's recommendation for films to stream this week are three movies that shed some light on race relations in America. The three films are: BlacKkKlansman, Sorry To Bother You and Monsters And Men. Antonia delves into The Film Programme archives and hears from directors Spike Lee, Boots Riley and Reinaldo Marcus Green.

With Antonia QuirkePersepolis director Marjane Satrapi talks about Radioactive, her biopic of Marie Curie, and explains why she also wanted to recognise the work of Marie's husband Pierre.The sun never sets in the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Lapland, but like many festivals, this year it had to go online. Caitlin Benedict and Antonia Quirke revisit last year's festival and talk to programme manager Milja Mikkola about the painful decision not to hold the festival in the small town of Sodankyla for the first time in over 30 years.The Film Club choice of a movie to stream this week is the Ealing comedy Kind Hearts And Coronets, in which Denis Price tries to kill 8 members of an aristocratic family, all played by Alec Guinness. Legendary cinematographer Douglas Slocombe explains how he managed to film six Alec Guinesses in one shot.

With Antonia QuirkeAntonia's recommendation for a film to watch while the cinemas are closed is The Garden by Derek Jarman. The garden itself and the adjacent cottage have just been saved for the nation after a successful campaign and Antonia recalls her pilgrimage to Dungeness on the 25th anniversary of the film-maker's death, when she spoke to collaborators Simon Fisher-Turner, Spencer Leigh and Seamus McGarvey, and critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh. Antonia raids the programme's archive to hear from director Ken Russell, who gave Jarman his first job in the film industry.

With Francine StockThis week's lockdown choice is not a movie, but a whole movement, the British New Wave. Francine picks four kitchen sink classics - Saturday Night And Sunday Morning, A Taste Of Honey, The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner and Billy Liar - for listeners to watch this week. And she hears from the stars of the New Wave - Sir Tom Courtenay, Shirley Anne Field and Murray Melvin.

With Antonia Quirke.This week The Film Programme recommends not just one lockdown movie, but a whole life-time's. The life and work of Agnes Varda, including masterpieces Cleo From 5 To 7, The Beaches Of Agnes and Faces, Places. We hear one of the last interviews Agnes gave in this country and from JR, her co-director on Faces, Places, who became her best friend, even though there was 50 years between them.Neil Brand continues his series on rejected film scores, with the epic fail of Troy, the blockbuster that sacked its composer at the last minute.

With Antonia Quirke.For this week's film club, Antonia recommends Terence Stamp's movies from the 1960s and hears from the man himself about celebrity, meeting his idols and why he left the film industry at the end of the decade.Adrian Smith from The Cult Film Club in Eastbourne tells us what happened when the club went online and ended up with 600 people taking part in the same film quiz

With Antonia QuirkeThis week's recommendation for a film to watch in lockdown is There Will Be Blood. Antonia hears from director Paul Thomas Anderson, stars Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Dano and composer Jonny Greenwood. Neil Brand reveals the story behind the score for Flash Gordon and why one composer became seriously ill with the stress of the job.Jon Naylor and Katie Hobbs tell us how they set up The Travelling Symphony Movie Club especially for the lockdown.

With Francine StockThe Film Programme's recommendation for a film to watch in self isolation this week is Raging Bull. Editor Thelma Schoonmaker and director Martin Scorsese guide Francine through the making of a classic.

Antonia Quirke plunders the Film Programme archive and hears from the makers of Women In Love: Glenda Jackson, Ken Russell and cinematographer Billy WilliamsAnd there's another round of Pitch Battle, as Lizze Francke, Rowan Woods and Clare Binns give their verdict on Gavia Baker Whitelaw's pitch to remake Avatar.

With Antonia QuirkeAs part of The Film Programme's guide to what to watch during self isolation, Antonia presents a special on the 1950 crime drama Night And The City. She plunders the Film Programme archives and hears from stars Richard Widmark, Herbert Lom, Googie Withers and director Jules Dassin

With Francine Stock."I Am Spartacus" is one of the most famous lines in film history and Francine tells the backstory of that line and how involved the so-called Hollywood witch-hunt. She hears from actor Kerry Shale and historians Pamela Hutchinson and Colin Shindler.

With Antonia Quirke.Before the national lockdown, Antonia went to Hastings to visit film-maker Andrew Kotting just as he discovered that cinemas were shutting down and his latest film The Whalebone Box would not see the light of a projector for the foreseeable future. But, like a number of new releases, it will be available to stream insteadFranz Waxman won an Oscar for his score for A Place In The Sun, but he might not have composed all the music on the soundtrack, as Neil Brand reveals.

The latest releases, the hottest stars and the leading directors, plus news and insights from the film world.

With Antonia QuirkeIn November 2019, far right protesters tried to stop the premiere of Georgia's first LGBTQ film And Then We Danced. They fought with riot police and attacked cinema-goers in Tiblisi. As the film is released in this country, its star Levan Gelbakhiani talks about what it was like to be in the eye of the storm and why the cast and crew needed bodyguards during the making of the movie.Directors Kleber Mendonca Filho and Juliano Dornelles discuss their modern day western Bacurau, in which the inhabitants of a remote Brazilian village are hunted by wealthy tourists for sport.In the latest episode of Pitch Battle, critic Pamela Hutchinson pitches a remake of a forgotten 30's comedy that has something to say about today's gender politics. Industry insiders Lizzie Francke, Rowan Woods and Clare Binns decide whether or not to give the project the all important green light.