documentary
DVD: The Miners' HymnsTuesday, 14 June 2011
Bill Morrison’s film, mostly edited together from archive material, serves as an elegy to Britain's recent industrial past. The older footage has been handsomely restored, and often it’s only the clothes that give a sense of period. It focuses on... Read more... |
Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die, BBC TwoTuesday, 14 June 2011
The argument in Terry Pratchett's BBC Two documentary Choosing to Die boiled down to the sanctity of life versus the quality of life. Pratchett's own reasoning, that he has Alzheimer's disease and would prefer to choose the manner and timing of his... Read more... |
Life in a DaySunday, 12 June 2011
A teenage boy howls casually at the full moon; elephants in a river take a midnight dip, glossy with water and moonlight; a drunk on a park bench can’t hold back the laughter as he listens to an iPod. What were you doing on 24 July, 2010? It’s a... Read more... |
Interview: Film Director Ron PeckTuesday, 07 June 2011
The identity of British independent film, and its future directions, has always been a matter of some contention – and with the ongoing transfer of authority on funding issues from the now-defunct UK Film Council to the British Film Institute, it’s... Read more... |
Tactical Questioning, Tricycle TheatreMonday, 06 June 2011
Verbatim theatre has been the flavour of political theatre for the past two decades, and no theatre has done more to promote this style of public witnessing than the Tricycle in Kilburn, north London. Its artistic director, Nicolas Kent, has created... Read more... |
SennaFriday, 03 June 2011
Notwithstanding legends of earlier generations such as Fangio or Jim Clark, it's Ayrton Senna whose name commands the most mystique in the annals of Formula One motor racing. Nor is his reputation limited merely to so-called "petrolheads". Away from... Read more... |
Wonderland: The Men Who Won’t Stop Marching, BBC TwoWednesday, 01 June 2011
Not long after the Good Friday Agreement, BBC Northern Ireland broadcast a charming drama featuring a tale of two drums. An Ulster Protestant was too wedded to the marching season to join his wife on holiday in Donegal, so she wrought her revenge by... Read more... |
Set The Piano Stool on Fire: on filming Alfred BrendelWednesday, 01 June 2011
When Alfred Brendel first mentioned Kit Armstrong to me, in early 2008, I knew there was a film there. He was brimming with excitement: Kit had come to him with an interpretation of a Chopin Nocturne that displayed a command and maturity that was... Read more... |
Queen - Days of Our Lives, BBC TwoTuesday, 31 May 2011
Despite selling 300 million albums, being memorialised in stage musicals and computer games and with a feature film about their early career in the works, Queen are still moaning about the press. It's a theme that simmered steadily through this two-... Read more... |
Rio BreaksTuesday, 31 May 2011
There have been stunning films about surfing, like Riding Giants, and also at least one masterpiece about the slums of Rio - City of God. This documentary combines both. It focuses on the lives of two teenage boys, Fabio and Naama, and their dream... Read more... |
The Joy of Easy Listening/ The Prince and the Composer, BBC FourFriday, 27 May 2011
Once upon a time, "easy listening" was a term of abuse and contempt, intended to evoke everything uncool, unhip and musically middle-aged. It meant pipe, cardigan, golf and Bing Crosby, and it was the last thing you'd hear before you were felled... Read more... |
Paul Merton's Birth of Hollywood, BBC TwoFriday, 27 May 2011
Paul Merton started his three-part series on the origins of the American film industry with a deliberately clichéd shot, greeting us while standing with the Hollywood sign in view. But he quickly whizzed over to New York City, the true location of... Read more... |
