The Film Programme

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 fin...

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 pro...

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 sta...

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 ...

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...

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 complete...

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 bet...

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 an...

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 opp...

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 ...

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 h...

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 gene...

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 pl...