The Film Programme

The Film Programme episodes:

• 09.30.2021

  The Last Picture Show

  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...

  
• 09.23.2021

  Chris Menges, Local Hero

  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...

  
• 09.20.2021

  Emma Thomas: How Batman Began

  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...

  
• 09.14.2021

  Mark Gatiss: Anthony Hopkins superfan

  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...

  
• 09.02.2021

  Maria Djurkovic

  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...

  
• 08.26.2021

  Hossein Amini on Heat

  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...

  
• 08.19.2021

  Jude Law, Ayten Amin and Mark Jenkin

  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...

  
• 08.12.2021

  Alvin Rakoff

  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...

  
• 08.05.2021

  Juliet Stevenson on Truly, Madly, Deeply

  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...

  
• 07.29.2021

  Francis Lee on My Beautiful Laundrette

  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...

  
• 07.22.2021

  Bruce Robinson: Withnail and me

  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...

  
• 07.19.2021

  Carol Morley on Muriel Box

  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...

  
• 07.08.2021

  David Oyelowo

  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...

  
• 07.01.2021

  Thomas Vinterberg

  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,...

  
• 06.24.2021

  Iron Curtain Directors

  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...

  
• 06.17.2021

  Stanley Tucci

  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...

  
• 06.10.2021

  Ousmane Sembene

  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...

  
• 06.03.2021

  Ben Whishaw

  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...

  
• 05.27.2021

  Toby Jones

  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...

  
• 05.20.2021

  Cinema: open for business

  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...

  
• 05.13.2021

  Cinema: The Comeback

  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...

  
• 05.06.2021

  How I directed a movie with Parkinson's Disease

  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...

  
• 04.29.2021

  Judi, Nicole, Sandra, Kristin, Cate, Fanny, Anna and Francine

  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.

  
• 04.22.2021

  Mark Jenkin & The Köttings

  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...

  
• 04.15.2021

  Chloe Zhao

  With Antonia Quirke Nomadland 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...

  
• 04.08.2021

  The Power

  With Antonia Quirke The 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...

  
• 04.01.2021

  Antonia and the stars

  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...

  
• 03.25.2021

  Rogue Males

  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...

  
• 03.18.2021

  Francis Lee on Ammonite

  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...

  
• 03.11.2021

  Location, Location, Location

  With Antonia Quirke Mark 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...

  
• 03.04.2021

  The World of the Coens

  With Antonia Quirke Antonia 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.

  
• 02.25.2021

  Kevin Macdonald on The Battle Of Algiers

  With Francine Stock Director 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....

  
• 02.18.2021

  Seamus McGarvey's Lockdown Diary

  With Antonia Quirke Cinematographer 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...

  
• 02.11.2021

  Christopher Lee on The Lord Of The Rings

  With Antonia Quirke This 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...

  
• 02.04.2021

  Angela Allen

  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.

  
• 01.28.2021

  Leslie Caron

  With Francine Stock Francine 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.

  
• 01.21.2021

  The Dig

  With Antonia Quirke The 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...

  
• 01.14.2021

  Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets

  With Antonia Quirke Brothers 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 documentary Neil Brand reveals how...

  
• 01.07.2021

  Ellen Burstyn

  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...

  
• 12.31.2020

  Richard Lester

  With Francine Stock Francine 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...

  
• 12.24.2020

  Christopher Nolan & Tom Shone

  With Antonia Quirke Director Christopher Nolan and author Tom Shone discuss Tom's book The Nolan Variations, and the influence of artists Escher and Francis Bacon on movies like Inception and The Dark Knight Rises. And Nolan reveals why he has...

  
• 12.17.2020

  Lesley Manville

  With Antonia Quirke Lesley Manville reveals how her Oscar nomination for Phantom Thread led to her latest role as a psychotic American matriarch in Let Him Go A tale of two Picturehouses over one year: Kevin Marckwick, the owner of...

  
• 12.10.2020

  David Byrne

  With Antonia Quirke David Byrne discusses the film version of his Broadway musical American Utopia which was directed by Spike Lee. And he reveals why he's a changed man since his last concert movie Stop Making Sense. Bait director Mark...

  
• 12.03.2020

  Tom Burke on Orson Welles

  With Antonia Quirke Actor Tom Burke reveals how he perfected the voice of Orson Welles for his new film Mank, about the making of Citizen Kane. Rob Savage explains how he made a horror movie called Host, when every member...

  
• 11.26.2020

  Heaven's Gate

  With Francine Stock Heaven's Gate is a symbol of Hollywood excess and financial mismanagement. One of the biggest disasters in film history, Michael Cimino's epic is said to have killed the studio that produced it, United Artists. Francine scours through...

  
• 11.19.2020

  Ron Howard

  With Antonia Quirke. Ron Howard talks about the challenges of making films about real people, and what it was like to act opposite John Wayne and discovering the secret of his famously laconic acting style. Film-maker Carol Morley makes the...

  
• 11.17.2020

  Sarah Gavron

  With Francine Stock In this month's edition of Moving Image, director Sarah Gavron talks about the unlikely film that influenced Rocks, her realistic drama about the life of a teenager in East London. The film is After Life, a Japanese...

  
• 11.17.2020

  Being A Human Person

  With Antonia Quirke. When Fred Scott began his documentary on the making of Roy Andersson's About Endlessness, he had no idea about the drama behind the scenes that he was about to uncover. When Marion Stokes died, she left behind...

  
• 11.12.2020

  A Bout De Souffle

  With Antonia Quirke. Steve James, the director of Hoop Dreams, looks back at his ground-breaking documentary about the lives of two African-American teenagers as they try to realise their dreams of becoming professional basketball players. To celebrate the sixtieth anniversary...

  
• 10.22.2020

  Shirley

  With Antonia Quirke Antonia continues her look at women and horror with directors Josephine Decker and Natalie Erika James. Relic was inspired by Natalie's experience of looking after her grandmother who had been diagnosed with dementia. Shirley is the story...