The Film Programme

Antonia Quirke and Caitlin Benedict visit the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Lapland, where the sun shines for 24 hours in summer and films are shown every hour of the day. There they speak to Iranian exiles Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Marzieh Meshkini, Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles, French auteur Arnaud Desplechin and Mark Jenkin from Cornwall.Along the way, they meet the people who make the festival possible, the volunteers, and find out why all the directors are expected to get into a sauna and go skinny dipping.

With Antonia QuirkeWriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce talks about his Scrabble-based drama Sometimes, Always, Never and reveals why the film took 12 years to go from script to screen.Neil Brand continues his series on famous film scores that were last minute replacements with the story of Oliver Stone's Platoon and Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings.Voice coach Penny Dyer reveals what lessons she gave Helen Mirren to talk like the Queen, and helps Antonia rediscover her Manchester accent.

With Antonia QuirkeAsif Kapadia, the director of Amy and Senna, discusses his latest documentary, Diego Maradona, and reveals why he's never wanted to touch anyone more than he wanted to touch the footballer's legendary left foot.Sir Christopher Frayling talks us through the soundtrack of Once Upon A Time In The West and how Ennio Morricone was influenced by a symphony of metal ladders.In the latest edition of Pitch Battle, Gavia Baker-Whitelaw pitches a novel called Swordspoint to a panel of movie insiders, Lizzie Francke, Rowan Woods and Clare Binns. They decide whether Ellen Kushner's book is a suitable case for the movie treatment.

Visual effects artist Paul Franklin on 1979's Alien, and its influence on his Oscar winning work on Inception and Interstellar.Francine Stock also hears from Alien's producer Ivor Powell, editor Terry Rawlings, who died in April 2019, and the film's director Ridley Scott.

With Antonia Quirke.Actor turned director Olivia Wilde talks about her debut feature a high school comedy Booksmart, and reveals why she asked her two leads to live together before they started filming.The Film Programme follows husband and wife team Geoff and Sarah Bird as they set up their first film festival, and take over the town of Skipton, showing movies on a barge, in the castle and down the pub.Film buyer Clare Binns and movie critic Tim Robey report from this year's Cannes Film Festival.

With Antonia Quirke.Director Brian Welsh discusses Beats, his acclaimed drama set in the 90s rave scene in Glasgow. He explains how to film a rave. You just hold a party and invite one thousand extras.Novelist Jonathan Coe enters the fray of Pitch Battle as he pitches an adaptation of Henry Fielding's Amelia. But what will the panel of Lizzie Francke, Rowan Woods and Clare Binns think of "Tom Jones for the Me Too generation" ?Choreographer and movement coach Scarlett Mackmin talks about her work with Rosamund Pike which involved taping her shoulders down for A Private War and reveals which Hollywood star was reluctant to strut his stuff in a Hollywood movie.

With Antonia Quirke.Mads Mikkelsen reveals why his training as a ballet dancer and gymnast helped him to play a plane crash survivor in Arctic, which was shot in the frozen wastes of Iceland during the winter.Claire Denis discusses her controversial science fiction drama. High Life, which has left some audience members reeling in the aisles.Writer Anna Cale reveals the moment she recognised herself in a movie and the impact it had on her love life.

With Antonia Quirke.Writer Rebecca Lenkiewicz talks about Colette, the true story of the author who had to use her husband's name to publish her novels. And she reveals the difference between writing for the screen and for the stage, and why she really doesn't like handing in a movie script not knowing how it will turn out.Berlin in the 1920s was one of the most socially progressive pockets of the 20th century, and the movies were just as out there. NB presenter Caitlin Benedict uncovers the secrets of gender and sexuality in Weimar cinema with Pamela Hutchinson and Morgan M Page. Neil Brand recounts the tale of the original score for Apocalypse Now, composed by David Shire, who was, at the time, Francis Ford Coppola's brother-in-law.

With Francine Stock.Maria Djurkovic, the award winning production designer of The Hours, Billy Elliot and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, reveals the film that's been a major influence on her career, Time Of The Gypsies. She is joined by her creative partner Tatiana Macdonald, whose favourite film also happens to be Emir Kusturica's Balkan odyssey about the adventures of a Romany child.Damian Le Bas, author of The Stopping Places: A Journey Through Gypsy Britain, reveals what he and his friends and family think of the film.Jonathan Romney offers a beginner's guide to the controversial Serbian director.

Antonia Quirke reunites three cast members of Barbra Streisand's cult classic Yentl - Kerry Shale, Danny Brainin and Gary Brown. And in a radio exclusive, they sing the song that was cut from the final version. Super-fan Liza Ward explains why she has seen Yentl between 50 to 100 times and how she can remember every line of dialogue.Styx is an ethical thriller, in which a single-handed yachtswoman come across a sinking ship full of refugees, but is told by the coastguard not to intervene. Director Wolfgang Fischer reveals the moral dimensions of his drama and discusses the difficulties of filming on the high seas.Acting coach Martin Ledwith reveals the secrets of his job and why it doesn't involve telling actors how to act.

With Antonia Quirke.Writer Paul Laverty explains why he followed up I, Daniel Blake with a bio-pic about Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta. Yuli is directed by his partner Iciar Bollain, and this is their fourth collaboration as writer and director. They explain how they first met on the set of Ken Loach's Land And Freedom.Gordon Stainforth, the music editor of The Shining, reveals some little known facts about its famous score and why Stanley Kubrick was not the control freak that he's often been made out to be. Neil Brand reveals the differences between the music on the soundtrack and the original score composed by Wendy Carlos.

Jessie Buckley talks about Wild Rose, the story of a Country And Western singer from Glasgow, in which she stars and sings and writes her own songs. She tells Antonia Quirke what was it was like to reach the final of talent show I’d Do Anything in 2008, and why she gave up a career on the West End stage to go back to drama school.Author and screenwriter Ronan Bennett reveals the moment he saw himself reflected on screen, in the prison drama The Jericho Mile.Writer Iain Sinclair pitches a 1960's London novel as a suitable case for the movie treatment. Industry insiders Clare Binns, Rowan Woods and Lizzie Francke pass judgement on the pitch.Antonia reflects on her recent encounter with the legendary director Agnes Varda, whose death was announced last week

BAFTA winning actor, writer and director Jessica Hynes tells Francine Stock about Satyajit Ray's The World Of Apu; the third part of the Indian filmmaker's Apu Trilogy, released in 1959, and her Moving Imagine pick.

With Antonia QuirkeRalph Fiennes and producer Gaby Tana discuss The White Crow, their drama about Rudolf Nureyev's defection to the West. Ralph explains why so much of the film is in Russian and why he believes that if Schindler's List was made now it would not feature British actors doing German accents.Patricia Clarkson discusses her role as a cop in philosophical crime drama Out Of Blue and why people still come up to her and say "brush my hair".Writer and broadcaster Carl Anka tells us why Bugs Bunny is really black.

A film and poetry special with Robin Robertson and Hannah Sullivan. And in a radio exclusive, Sheila Atim and Toby Jones perform Bob Dylan’s Brownsville Girl.

With Antonia Quirke.Indie darlings Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck reveal why they decided to make a blockbuster movie, Captain Marvel.In the latest instalment of his series on movie scores that were last minute replacements, Neil Brand takes us behind the scenes of Chinatown.In a new series of Pitch Battle, The Film Programme asks writers to nominate a novel that should be adapted for screen but hasn't yet received the movie treatment. Poet Bridget Minamore is the first contender and her pitch is heard by film industry insiders Clare Binns of Picturehouse, development consultant Rowan Woods and Lizzie Francke of the BFI

Director Deborah Haywood chooses Danny Boyle's Trainspotting and tells Francine how she came to first see it and love it. Trainspotting producer Andrew Macdonald and "best baddie ever" Robert Carlyle join the conversation to reveal how Irvine Welsh's book became the iconic film.Main image: Rob Baker Ashton

Antonia Quirke and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh embark on a pilgrimage to Dungeness to pay their respects to film-maker Derek Jarman on the 25th anniversary of his death. Along the way, they hear from colleagues of the artist and activist, like actor and director Dexter Fletcher, costume designer Sandy Powell and composer Simon Fisher Turner.

With Antonia Quirke.Rosamund Pike reveals the lengths she went to in order to play the legendary war reporter Marie Colvin in A Private War.Oscar winning director Barry Jenkins discusses If Beale Street Could Talk, his follow-up to Moonlight and explains what the two films have in common.Neil Brand recounts the fight over war movie Battle Of Britain, when Sir William Walton's score was replaced at the last minute. And how he only found out when he read it in a newspaper.On the podcast, historian Ian Christie tells us about Robert Paul, the film pioneer who made Muswell Hill the centre of the movie universe for a brief moment.

Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Tim Robey review Barbara Stanwyck's Mad Miss Manton