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 [email protected]

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 Tennessee Williams

How 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 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.

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 made during lockdown, and they describe how their unique collaboration works.

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 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 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 the set itself might be haunted

Maria 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 17th

Woody 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 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 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.