Film critic Mark Kermode reveals the economic realities behind the film industry.
Development Hell
In the first episode of the series, Mark finds out about the journey from script to screen – a path littered with obstacles.
Many films langui
Read more…In this evening’s programme, Stephen Fry explores why we move the time by one hour twice a year.
In actual fact, here in Britain at the time of posting; we will be putting them back an hour on the 25th of this month.
Nearly a century after dayli
Read more…Going To The Flicks
A 2-part Archive on 4, 15 and 22 January 2011
Radio 4 Extra, 10 and 17 January 2015
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Barry Norman is one of Britain's best loved film broadcasters, but for this series he is not so much interested in the films as in expl
Art critic Louisa Buck lifts the lid on Painting By Number kits, the 'How To Craze' that swept the world in the 1950's, and promised to turn 'Everyman into a Rembrandt'.
The pretension was laughed at by the art establishment, but appreciated by
Read more…British prisoners during the Second World War had a remarkable ally in the shape of MI9.
Presenter John Stephen Dalziel investigates the organisation whose job it was to smuggle information and devices into camps, thereby ensuring the success of s
Read more…Matthew Sweet embarks on a mission to understand the dawning of the age of `Black Aquarius', which saw occultism and spirituality become hugely popular in the UK in the 1960s and 1970s. He investigates historic parallels to this sudden craze for a
Read more…Matthew Sweet enters a whole new cinematic world that sighted people know little or nothing about - audio description. It's the voice in your ear that tells you what's happening if you can't see the pictures.
The audio description profession has
Read more…In Part One, Steph McGovern explores the history of salt, beginning with how it is produced and the root it has taken in language. She hears of the product's impact in revolutions across France, America and India, and talks to history professor Pe
Read more…In 1997, a newly discovered and previously unpublished poem by the much-loved American poet Emily Dickinson appeared in the Sotheby’s auction catalogue. There was great excitement at the idea that a new work by this iconic artist had come to light
Read more…Storyteller and broadcaster Clive Lawton presents off-beat portraits of some of the Bible's greatest prophets
1/5 Is Jonah and the Whale a knockabout caper, or a story of universal assertions and values?
2/5 Clive Lawton profiles Isaia
Read more…The archive of Richard Burton is a rich treasure. The performances are by common consent amongst the most compelling of any age, given in a voice that many have felt to be an aural equivalent of heaven. Hamlet, Under Milk Wood, Who's Afraid of Vir
Read more…Edgar Wallace's life seems the stuff of fantasy. An illegitimate child in London, largely self-educated, he was the newspaper boy who became one of the most famous writers in the world. He sold millions of books, but he was plagued by debts. He fa
Read more…Children's author Anthony McGowan examines the tangled story behind the beloved children's stories.
Once upon a time in Kassel, two brothers set out to record the traditional oral tales of their country.
To their horror, they realised that the s
Read more…By Alan Harris. (Docudrama)
It's 1801 and Lighthouse keepers Howell and Griffith are posted to 6 weeks on the Smalls - a desolate rock 20 miles off the Pembrokeshire coast. But the two men share a past. Because of what happens next, lighthouses would
It doesn’t seem like it was 50 years ago I saw this film as a 16 year old.
In this celebration of Julie Andrew's starring role in the screen version of The Sound of Music, Mark Kermode looks back at the evolution of the movie.
Featuring archived i
Read more…Think "Science with a laugh track."
All eleven seasons of this show which covers every imaginable topic in the sciences, explainuing abstruse topics in language we can all understand, often with jokes and humorous side tracks.
I've assembled and t
Read more…Astronomer Dr Lucie Green takes an audio tour of the Universe revealing a host of hidden noises, from the crackle of lightning on Venus to the sound of bells inside the Sun.
The previously silent world of outer space is changing. Astronomers are u
Read more…Author, journalist and academic Diane Roberts examines the impact of one of the most successful Hollywood movies of all time, 75 years after its release.
Using previously un-broadcast extracts from archive interviews with cast and crew, conducted b
Roger Law investigates the lucrative business of art forgeries in modern China. The village of Dafen acts as a hub, with artists producing thousands of copies of masterpieces to be shipped worldwide.
From 2008.
Produced by Mark Rickards
Size 25
Read more…Cabaret queen Ute Lemper takes a tour of the seductive, smoke-filled cabaret clubs of Berlin, past and present A century after cabaret first arrived in Berlin, the city is still synonymous with the art form. Lemper traces the development of cabaret a
