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Ellen and Mark investigate the relationship between graphic novels and film, asking if the graphic novel is an inherently cinematic artform. Mark talks to critic and lifelong comics fan, Kambole Campbell about the history of comics and graphic novels on the silver screen. Mark then speaks to graphic novelist, Joff Winterhart, about his 2012 graphic novel Days of The Bagnold Summer, and its 2019 film adaptation directed by Simon Bird. The film stars Monica Dolan and Earl Cave as mother and son spending a bittersweet summer together. Mark talks to Joff about what it was like seeing his graphic novel on the big screen. Ellen talks to multimedia artist Sook-Yin Lee, about her film adaptation of the graphic novel Paying For It. A comic that examines the breakdown of her relationship and written by no other then her ex partner, cartoonist Chester Brown. Producer: Queenie Qureshi-Wales A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

As movie megastar Tom Cruise returns to our screens, and the world awaits the revelation of the next James Bond, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode examine the evolution of the leading man. Critic and broadcaster Christina Newland talks to Mark about the changing face of the Hollywood heartthrob, from the silent era's 'Latin lover’, Rudolph Valentino, to contemporary stars Timothée Chalamet, Michael B. Jordan and Glen Powell. Ellen speaks to acclaimed casting director Susan Shopmaker, whose eye for talent has helped shape the careers of some of the hottest actors working today, including Jeremy Allen White, Riz Ahmed and Callum Turner. And Ellen also talks to a real-life leading man - actor Jason Isaacs. Jason’s many celebrated roles have included Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter series, an Emmy-nominated turn in The White Lotus, and playing the archetypal leading man Cary Grant in the biographical ITVX series Archie. Producer: Jane Long A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode consider the role of natural history film and TV today.  Ellen speaks to the wildlife cinematographer, Sophie Darlington ASC who has spent decades recording wildlife for primetime documentaries for the BBC, National Geographic, Netflix and beyond. Meanwhile, Mark talks to Ed Sayers, director of recent feature film Super Nature, a global love letter to the natural world, filmed on Super 8. Mark also speaks to the Oscar-winning director of My Octopus Teacher, James Reed. Producer: Mae-Li Evans A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

From Butch and Sundance to Maverick and Goose, Woody and Buzz to Frodo and Sam, male friendships have long been at the heart of many of our favourite screen stories.  But in recent years, stories about male friendship seem to have taken on new significance. They’ve become a way of exploring emotional vulnerability and what it means to be a man in an era shaped by debates around the manosphere, toxic masculinity and the male loneliness epidemic. Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode revisit some of film and TV’s most memorable male pairings, and ask how today’s filmmakers are responding to what many describe as a crisis of masculinity. Ellen speaks to critic Matt Schimkowitz, staff writer at US website The AV Club, about how male friendships have featured in Hollywood movies, from classic comedy double acts like Laurel & Hardy and Abbott & Costello, to the chaotic camaraderie of the Jackass movies. Mark speaks to writer-director Bruce Robinson, who mined his own very personal experiences of male friendship to create the cult 1987 film Withnail & I, about two out-of-work actors living in Camden Town at the end of the 1960s. And Mark also speaks to Jack Rooke, creator of the Channel 4 comedy-drama Big Boys, which found fresh emotional depth in the familiar male ‘odd-couple’ dynamic. Drawing on Jack’s own time at university in the early 2010s, the series concluded in 2025 with a highly-acclaimed episode sensitively exploring the long shadow cast by suicide. Producer: Jane Long A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Screenshot makes contact with film and TV’s enduring fascination with UFOs and extraterrestrial life, from the Cold War paranoia of Invasion of the Body Snatchers to the quietly unsettling recent TV series Pluribus. Mark speaks to film critic Kim Newman about the history of aliens onscreen, from their arrival in 50s B Movies to The X-Files. Ellen then talks to director John Sayles about his 80s film, Brother From Another Planet, and how the idea came to him in a dream. Ellen then talks to musician and alien movie obsessive, Mike Skinner, about his favourite alien films. Producer: Queenie Qureshi-Wales A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

On the 40th anniversary of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode look at films that confine their action to a single day (and occasionally, night). From the high-stakes urban odyssey of Martin Scorsese's After Hours to the quiet contemplation of Agnès Varda's Cléo from 5 to 7, what difference does a day make to cinema? Ellen talks to screenwriter and novelist David Nicholls, whose international bestseller One Day followed a couple who meet on 15th July 1988, revisiting their lives on the same date every year for the next two decades. She also talks to creative writing professor and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Kim Krizan, who co-wrote Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, the first two films in director Richard Linklater's time-constrained romantic drama trilogy. Meanwhile, Mark speaks to writer-director and Ferris Bueller superfan Emma Seligman, whose breakthrough feature Shiva Baby wrought extraordinary tension and comedy from the course of a single afternoon. And Mark also speaks to Danish-Norwegian director Joachim Trier. Now perhaps best known for Oscar nominees Sentimental Value and The Worst Person In The World, Trier made one of modern cinema's finest single-day films with 2011's Oslo, August 31st, which follows recovering heroin addict Anders over the course of a day and night. Producer: Jane Long A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode revisit the decade that transformed Britain’s image around the world, focusing on how film and TV captured - and helped shape - the spirit of Swinging London, from Blow-Up to Alfie. Mark speaks to the "Face of 1966", model and fashion icon Twiggy, about what she was watching as the sixties started to swing - and how closely the films of the era reflected the world she experienced. Meanwhile, Ellen speaks to cultural historian Matthew Sweet about why Richard Lester and The Beatles proved such a turning point, and how films including The Sorcerers and Two Gentlemen Sharing offer a different perspective on the Swinging Sixties story. And Mark also talks to the iconic actress Rita Tushingham, whose remarkable run of 1960s films - including The Knack... and How to Get It, A Taste of Honey and Smashing Time - mirrored British cinema's shift from gritty black-and-white social realism to vibrant pop culture. Producer: Jane Long A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

As the world’s longest-running prime time TV medical drama Casualty turns 40, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode look at the small screen’s long love affair with hospitals. Mark speaks to media academic Dr Hannah Hamad about the evolution of the hospital drama, from the reassuring bedside manner of 1950s and 60s series like Dr Kildare and Emergency Ward 10, to the relentless intensity of American hits ER and The Pitt. Ellen talks to psychiatrist-turned-screenwriter Dr Grace Ofori-Attah about Malpractice, the ITV drama she began writing while still working as a junior doctor, and about the relationship between the realities of modern medicine and the stories we see on screen. And to mark Casualty's 40th anniversary, Ellen also speaks to the series creators, Paul Unwin and Jeremy Brock, about its origins, the controversies it has weathered, and why it continues to stay relevant four decades on. Producer: Jane Long A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

From Disney classics such as Cinderella and Snow White, to the fantastical The Red Shoes, darker tales from European cinema like Bluebeard or Pan's Labyrinth, or stories within stories such as The Princess Bride or The Fall - Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore the magical spell fairy tales have continued to cast over cinema history. Featuring interviews with director Julia Jackman, Tarsem Singh and cultural historian, Sir Christopher Frayling. Producer: Queenie Qureshi-Wales A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

The anarchic comedian, writer and filmmaker Mel Brooks turns 100 years old this June. Across a career spanning more than seven decades, Brooks has turned cinematic satire into an art form, through razor-sharp spoofs like Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein and Spaceballs. But while these films are now acclaimed as all-time comedy classics, the broader genre of the spoof has often struggled for respectability. Not least Scary Movie - one of the most commercially successful film franchises of recent years, despite widespread critical panning. With Scary Movie 6 on the horizon, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode ask - what makes for a truly great movie spoof? Critic and Screenshot regular Anne Billson talks Ellen through a selection of spoofs, from classic Hollywood-era films from the Marx Brothers and Bob Hope, to the parody boom of the 2000s, including films like Date Movie and Epic Movie. Mark talks to David Zucker - one third of the filmmaking trio Zucker Abrahams Zucker -about the landmark disaster spoof Airplane!, and why he believes the recent attempt to revive the team’s hit The Naked Gun series missed the mark. And Ellen speaks to Keenen Ivory Wayans, the creative force behind the Wayans entertainment dynasty, and the director of a string of spoofs, including I’m Gonna Git You Sucka and Scary Movie - about why he feels his films have been misunderstood. Producer: Jane Long A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Screenshot marks the 25th anniversary of the whimsical romantic comedy about a shy Parisian waitress trying very hard to improve the lives of those around her. Why does Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s film continue to enchant audiences a quarter of a century on? And how did Amélie embody the ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’? Mark speaks to the director himself, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, to explore the films legacy and revisit how it was received at the time. Ellen talks to comedian Susan Wokoma and film critic Hannah Strong on how the film embodied the twee era and indie film-making and whether Amélie was ever a manic pixie dream girl. Producer: Mae-Li Evans A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode head back to class to learn how teachers have been depicted on screen, from Goodbye, Mr Chips to Adolescence. What can film and television teach us, if anything, about what it takes to be a good teacher? Mark speaks to east London-based teacher and film critic Charlotte Harrison about the enduring appeal of inspirational mentor figures in cinema, from Sidney Poitier in To Sir, with Love to Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society, and how far these stories reflect - or distort - the realities of life in the classroom. She also highlights the films and TV series that come closest to capturing the day-to-day experience of teaching. Ellen talks to Guz Khan, star of Man Like Mobeen, who first honed his crowd-control skills in a Coventry classroom before turning to stand-up comedy and acting, about how screen depictions compare with his own experience as a teacher. She also speaks to British television legend Sir Philip Redmond about Grange Hill, the groundbreaking, long-running school drama he created in 1978, whose characters - from Mr Bronson to Mrs McClusky - became as familiar to generations of British pupils as their real-life teachers. Producer: Jane Long A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4.

Screenshot lays bare the long, often controversial history of nakedness in film and TV, from shocking and titillating moments, to those that reveal deeper truths about our bodies, vulnerabilities and desires. Mark speaks to film critic Pamela Hutchinson about the history of nudity throughout film history. They discuss some of cinema's most notable and shocking films as well as how changing attitudes are effecting what we see on screen. Ellen then speaks to writer and film director Bridgett M. Davis, about her 1996 film, Naked Acts. A film ahead of its time, it explores the nuances of nudity on screen for women, and Black women in particular. Mark then talks to director Tim Mielants about his existential comedy, Patrick, which takes place in a nudist camp. Producer: Queenie Qureshi-Wales A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Ellen and Mark step into the ring to explore cinema's most heavyweight genre, fifty years on from Sylvester Stallone's smash-hit film Rocky. What is it about the boxing movie that makes it not just a sports movie, but a genre of its very own? Critic Christina Newland gives Mark a punchy rundown of how boxing movies throughout history - from Body And Soul to Raging Bull - have tackled themes of race, class and identity. Ellen speaks to former world cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew, who moved from the ring to the big screen in 2016, acting in the Creed films. And Ellen also talks to actor Amir-El Masry, who played the Yemeni-heritage, Yorkshire-born maverick boxing champion Prince Naseem Hamid in the electrifying 2026 biopic Giant. Producer: Jane Long A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Alexander Graham Bell made the first ever telephone call 150 years ago this spring. That single moment of connection would transform communication - and provide storytellers with a rich device for drama, comedy, intimacy and tension. Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode trace the history of the phone on screen, and examine how the movies have handled the thorny problem of the smartphone. Mark speaks to author and critic Kim Newman about some of the most iconic telephone calls in cinema, from Dr Strangelove to Scream. Meanwhile, Ellen delves into how film and TV are responding to the smartphone age, with the help of critic Kayleigh Donaldson. And she speaks to American filmmaker Janicza Bravo, whose 2015 film Zola made inventive use of the cellphone. Producer: Jane Long A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4