Episodes
Francine Stock and Antonia Quirke co-present the final edition of The Film Programme. They discuss the future of cinema in the age of streaming, and hear from David Oyelowo, Matt Damon, Rebecca O'Brien and Sally Potter. They also reveal their favourite last scenes in the history of the movies.
Published 09/30/21
Published 09/30/21
With Antonia Quirke Oscar winning cinematographer and director Chris Menges takes us behind the scenes of Local Hero, The Mission and Kes, and reveals how he ended up in a Zanzibar prison with Michael Parkinson. Bait director Mark Jenkin records his last audio diary about the making of his horror movie, Enys Men, which was delayed by a year because of lockdown and was filmed during the pandemic. Listeners nominate their favourite final scenes and composer Neil Brand chooses his two...
Published 09/23/21
With Antonia Quirke Producer Emma Thomas reveals the conversation she had with partner Christopher Nolan that led to the making of Batman Begins, the film the changed the course of the superhero movie. Robert Shaw's son Ian takes us behind some of the scenes in Jaws that form the basis of his new play The Shark Is Broken, and explains why the famous Indianapolis speech had to be filmed twice In his last ever diary entry before the programme ends on September 30th, cinema owner Kevin...
Published 09/20/21
Mark Gatiss tells Antonia Quirke what it was like to work with his hero Anthony Hopkins on The Father, and how he persuaded him to reprise a famous scene from one of his classic films as a birthday present for fellow League Of Gentleman member Reece Shearsmith. Sean Barton reveals some secrets from the editing suite and how he made the audience gasp in a famous scene from Jagged Edge. Annette director Leos Carax explains why the star of his film about a two year old singing sensation is...
Published 09/14/21
With Antonia Quirke You might think that fewer movies would be made during a pandemic, with continual testing and all the restrictions on social distancing. In fact, the British film industry has never been busier, and production designer Maria Djurkovic explains why that's the case. Script supervisor Angela Allen reveals all the unpaid jobs she did during her five decades in the film industry, from second unit director to editorial consultant to Katherine Hepburn's double in The African...
Published 09/02/21
In the final edition of Moving Image, Francine Stock talks to Hossein Amini about the film that has obsessed him since the first time he saw it in 1995. Heat was the first film to bring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino together in the same scene and it's had an influence on the writer of Drive, The Wings Of A Dove and McMafia ever since.
Published 08/26/21
Jude Law talks about his latest release The Nest, a suspenseful family drama set in Surrey in the 1980s, what he really likes about making movies and what acting in Contagion taught him about pandemics. Egyptian director Ayten Amin describes working with non-professional actors in her feature film Souad about young girls and their relation with social media. Mark Jenkin's filmmaking audio diary continues with his experiences shooting smoking chimneys and mantlepieces. Presenter: Antonia...
Published 08/19/21
With Antonia Quirke 94 year old director Alvin Rakoff talks about giving Sean Connery his big break, why his friend Peter Sellers wired his home for sound and what it was like directing Laurence Olivier in A Voyage Around My Father Author Anna Cale and historian Matthew Sweet talk about the phenomenon that was Diana Dors and reveal how her life would have changed if she had only married Bob Monkhouse.
Published 08/12/21
Juliet Stevenson revisits a moving and tearful scene from Truly, Madly, Deeply which broke new ground in the portrayal of grief. Matt Damon and director Tom McCarthy talk about researching for Damon's role as an oil rig worker in their new film Stillwater. Mark Jenkin continues his movie making audio diary as he tries, with difficulty, to film pick-up shots to be cut into the production after the main photography has been completed. Presenter: Antonia Quirke Producer: Harry Parker
Published 08/05/21
My Beautiful Laundrette, written by Hanif Kureishi and directed by Stephen Frears, was one of the early films produced for Channel 4. First screened in 1985, it tells the story of a young British Pakistani, Omar, played by Gordon Warnecke, who is given a failing laundrette to run by his entrepreneurial uncle. Omar recruits an old school friend Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis) to help him turn the business round and a gay relationship between them develops. Francis Lee, director of God's Own Country...
Published 07/29/21
With Antonia Quirke Antonia reveals the favourite phone box scenes as chosen by Film Programme listeners and talks to writer/director Bruce Robinson about the phone box in Withnail And I that has now become a shrine for fans of the movie. A phone box in Uist is one of the stars of Limbo, a new drama about an asylum seeker who has to wait on one of the islands while he finds out if he can stay in this country. Director Ben Sharrock and producer Irune Gurtubai reveal what is like filming in...
Published 07/22/21
With Antonia Quirke Director Carol Morley asked Film Programme listeners if any of them knew Muriel Box, Britain's most prolific female director and arguably most neglected. And she heard from Muriel's daughter, grandson and family friend. Carol tells Antonia why she believes Muriel deserves more recognition for her ground-breaking work. Antonia is on a mission this summer to tell people how much she loves their work, to take the opportunity while she can. This week, she tells Jude Law how...
Published 07/19/21
With Antonia Quirke Actor and producer David Oyelowo reveals how he made his directorial debut, The Water Man, almost by accident. And why, thanks to raw data, streaming has lead to greater diversity of content and changed the minds of white film executives. Gosford Park turns 20 this year. Robert Altman's whodunnit was like a who's who of British acting talent - Maggie Smith, Alan Bates, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Eileen Atkins, Derek Jacobi and Tom Hollander. The Rev star takes...
Published 07/08/21
With Antonia Quirke Festen director Thomas Vinterberg discusses the personal tragedy behind his latest film, Another Round. Friendship's Death is a 1987 movie about a journalist and an alien who meet in a hotel room in Jordan and discuss art, ethics and artificial intelligence. Its producer Rebecca O'Brien reveals how she got the film made for £180,000 and whether or not that kind of avant-garde work would get financed today.
Published 07/01/21
With Francine Stock What was it like working behind the Iron Curtain, when every dot and comma of a script had to be passed by the censor. Francine delves into the archives and hears from Milos Forman, Andrzej Wajda, Agnieszka Holland, Miklos Jancso, Jerzy Skolimowski, Krzysztof Zanussi, Jiri Menzel and Andrei Konchalovsky.
Published 06/24/21
With Antonia Quirke Stanley Tucci reveals how his latest film Supernova is the story of a long-lasting friendship, both on and off screen. He's been friends with his co-star Colin Firth for over twenty years, and Stanley reveals how he asked Colin to be in the film without the director's knowledge. The Reason I Jump is a documentary that focuses on the experiences of non-speaking autistic people and director Jerry Rothwell explains how he used sound to immerse the viewer in a different...
Published 06/17/21
With Antonia Quirke. Ousmane Sembene has been called the father of African Film, single-handedly starting a movie industry in Senegal. As his 1968 film Mandabi is re-released, Samba Gadjigo and Jason Silverman, who saved the print from destitution, reveal how a life-threatening injury as a dock worker changed the course of Sembene's life. The Godfather changed the course of film history, its huge success helped to usher in a new generation of directors, the so-called Movie Brats, like...
Published 06/10/21
With Antonia Quirke Ben Whishaw reveals why he went up to complete strangers on Tottenham High Road for his latest film Surge, and why nobody seemed to recognise him. After Love is the story of a Muslim convert who discovers that her husband was leading a double life. Writer/director Aleem Khan reveals how much of the story is autobiographical, and how much isn't.
Published 06/03/21
With Francine Stock Actor and writer Toby Jones discusses the film that still resonates with him almost 30 years after he first saw it, In The Soup. Alexandre Rockwell's comedy beat Reservoir Dogs to the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Festival in 1992, but while Quentin Tarantino's movie went on to box office glory, In The Soup was so badly forgotten that within a decade only one battered copy remained. Toby reveals the part he played in helping Rockwell's movie survive.
Published 05/27/21
With Antonia Quirke As cinemas opened for the first time in 5 months, have concerns about the so-called Indian variant made people think twice about visiting their local picture palace ? Antonia takes a mini-tour of London cinemas and hears from Kevin Markwick, owner of the Uckfield Picture House, and from listeners who went to the flicks on opening day: Simon Barraclough, Ruby Phelan, Pamela Hutchinson and Michael O'Kelly.
Published 05/20/21
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...
Published 05/13/21
With Antonia Quirke Director 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...
Published 05/06/21
With Francine Stock Francine 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.
Published 04/29/21
With Antonia Quirke The 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...
Published 04/22/21