The Summer of British Film (BBC Two Season)

[Milky Tears]

Trailer has been running all week and the season appears to start at the end of the month:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pre.../10/film.shtml

The Summer Of British Film
British Film Forever
Day and time to be confirmed BBC TWO
www.bbc.co.uk/britishfilm
www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/meandmymovie
www.www.youtube.com/group/bbcminimovies

From Gandhi and Four Weddings And A Funeral, to Brief Encounter and Bend It Like Beckham, Britain has been a major player in world cinema for over 100 years and continues to produce award-winning talent. The Summer Of British Film on BBC Two is a season dedicated to home-grown cinema, encompassing all genres from thriller and comedy, to the kitchen-sink drama.

This unique television event celebrates the rich heritage of British film and has at its centrepiece British Film Forever, a seven-part primetime series for BBC Two.

Jessica Hynes (ne Stevenson, Shaun Of The Dead) guides viewers through the series examining British film by genre, with highlights from over 200 exclusive interviews from leading actors and directors including Sir Michael Caine, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Kate Winslet, Ewan McGregor, Gurinder Chadha and Richard Curtis. The series is being made with the support of the British Film Institute and the UK Film Council.

As well as being an enjoyable romp through the greatest films and stars, the series looks at what makes British films unique and what they reveal about British culture.

To complement British Film Forever, BBC Two is dedicating itself to the nation's finest by screening around 70 British films, from the premire of A Cock And Bull Story, through to favourites such as Billy Elliot, Gregory's Girl and From Russia With Love, to classics and rediscoveries, including The 39 Steps, This Sporting Life, Whistle Down The Wind and Witchfinder General.

To celebrate the season, the UK Film Council, in partnership with the BBC, is backing the release of seven of Britain's greatest films which will play at cinemas across the UK on Tuesdays from 31 July to 11 September....

Full BBC Press Release

70 British films on BBC Two!! You'd think there would be at least half a dozen rare gems in there somewhere!? Bond on the BBC as well!!


Week 31 (28 July-3 August 2007) Programme Info:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pro...ed_britishfilm

THE SUMMER OF BRITISH FILM
British Film Forever – Guns, Gangsters And Getaways:
The Story Of The British Thriller Ep 1/7
Unplaced
Day and time to be confirmed BBC TWO
www.bbc.co.uk/britishfilm

British Film Forever is the flagship series of BBC Two's Summer Of British Film season. This new, seven-part primetime series examines British film by genre: Thriller, Romance, Social Realism, Costume Drama, Horror/Fantasy, War and Comedy. Narrated by Jessica Hynes (ne Stevenson, Shaun Of The Dead), this is the biggest series on British film ever made, with over 200 exclusive interviews from the giants of the big screen.

As well as being an entertaining journey through the greatest films and stars, the series reveals untold stories from behind the scenes and examines what makes British film unique and what it reveals about British culture.

This first programme launches the series with a 100-minute opener. The British Thriller has produced some of the world's best talent: the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock; the king of cool, Michael Caine; and the world's most successful thriller franchise – James Bond.

There are exclusive interviews with Sir Michael Caine, Lord Attenborough, Bob Hoskins, Ewan McGregor, Guy Ritchie and Daniel Craig. Some of the major films featured are The Third Man, The Long Good Friday, Get Carter and Shallow Grave. Contributions also come from Mischa Barton, Kate Winslet, Richard E Grant, Danny Boyle, Charlie Higson and Simon Callow.

I demand a big list of films right now!

Starts Saturday 28th July @ 9:05pm, according to Radio Times website.

[Pip Madeley]

Are they showing Holiday On The Buses?

[Milky Tears]

Mutiny pisses all over it.

[Pip Madeley]

Don't be daft, barely two minutes into "Holiday" you get a slapstick car crash, some baps and Michael Sheard.

It's British.

[Paul Monk]

Surely a good reason to show a load of Hammer films

[Dirk Gently]

A good excuse to show the Confessions Films.

[Pip Madeley]

Let's hope they don't show Carry On Columbus.

[Dirk Gently]

That was on about a month ago, on Channel 5 I think.

[Milky Tears]

Films on BBC Two during Week 31 (28 July-3 August 2007):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pro...ms/index.shtml

BBC Two
Saturday

1315 The Thirty Nine Steps (Hitchcock)

1440 The Lady Vanishes (Hitchcock)

2245 Dirty Pretty Things (Frears)

2415 Gumshoe (Frears)



Sunday

1030 Young and Innocent (Hitchcock)

1150 Obsession (Dmytryk)

2100 From Russia With Love (Young)

2415 Noose (Greville)



Monday

2530 A Cottage on Dartmoor (Asquith)



Tuesday

2320 The Ipcress File (Furie)

2505 Pulp (Hodges)



Wednesday

1135 Odd Man Out (Reed)

2350 Helldrivers (Enfield)

2535 Clash By Night (Tully)



Thursday

2405 Following (Nolan)

2515 Scarlet Thread (Gilbert)

Gumshoe is worth a look.

[Milky Tears]

FULL SEVEN WEEK FILM LIST IS NOW UP

Daleks!

[Pip Madeley]

No "Holiday" then.

Least we get "Carry On Camping".

[Wayne]

Tuesday, August 28 - The Gorgon

Hurrah! I can finally get a decent digital recording of this, since they seem to be so reluctant to release it on DVD.

[Milky Tears]

Shamelessly bumping this thread less than 90 minutes before tonight's opening episode


A couple of Best Of British film lists from this week's Radio Times (I got the Caine cover):

YOUR GREATEST BRITISH FILMS
1. Monty Python's Life Of Brian
2. The Full Monty
3. Four Weddings and a Funeral
4. Trainspotting
5. Lawrence of Arabia
6. Shaun of the Dead
7. Withnail & I
8. Brief Encounter
9. Zulu
10. Monty Python and the Holy Grail

And the genre covered by tonight's episode:

THRILLER
1. Casino Royale (2006)
2. The 39 Steps (1935)
3. Get Carter (1971)
4. The Long Good Friday
5. The Third Man
6. Don't Look Now
7. Dr. No
8. Mona Lisa
9. Brighton Rock
10. The Lady Vanishes

Based on over 2,500 votes in the radiotimes.com poll to find Britain's favourite films, from combined shortlists drawn up by Barry Norman and Andrew Collins.

The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes were both on BBC Two this afternoon.

Barry Norman wasn't impressed with the results!

I'll post the Romance list before next week's episode.

[Jon Masters]

Pity - I thought the docu last night was fairly dull - mostly the usual suspects with nothing particularly new to say. Seems to have a fairly wide definition of 'British film' to include anything starring a British actor or was filmed in Britain - I expect Star Wars will manage to be included somehow in the future .

for all the old films though - even though Robert Powell's 39 steps is much better

[Milky Tears]

Jessica Baked Beans raped my decent voice-over lovin' childhood! Sounds as if she had a spweech impwediment during some of it.

[Larry]

Originally Posted by Radio Times
YOUR GREATEST BRITISH FILMS
1. Monty Python's Life Of Brian
2. The Full Monty
3. Four Weddings and a Funeral
4. Trainspotting
5. Lawrence of Arabia
6. Shaun of the Dead
7. Withnail & I
8. Brief Encounter
9. Zulu
10. Monty Python and the Holy Grail


looking at these films i'm supprised Bridge Over The River Kwai, has not made it into the top 10.

[Milky Tears]

Kwai only appears in their War Top Ten.

LOVE & ROMANCE
1. Four Weddings and A Funeral
2. Gregory's Girl
3. Brief Encounter
4. The English Patient
5. A Matter of Life and Death
6. Mrs. Brown
7. Ryan's Daughter
8. My Beautiful Laundrette
9. Far from the Madding Crowd
10. The French Lieutenant's Woman

Too many Glenda Jackson scuddy buff scenes in last night's doc.

[Dave Tudor]

I watched the first documentary the other night, and thought it was pretty good, although it would have been nice to see a few more obscure films featured - mind you, you can't get much more obscure than 1907's 'Rescued By Rover'!

As much as I like Jessica Stevenhynes (or whatever she's called these days) I'm not really sure she was the right person to narrate the programme. I know it's just a matter of personal preference, but I'm not keen on the more irreverent approach to these sorts of documentary which seems to be fashionable these days.

I must admit that I haven't watched any of the featured films on television, but it is a great season, and I have to take my hat off to BBC Two for celebrating British film in this way. I will, though, try to see as many of the seven films which are showing at the cinemas as possible. I only learned of these releases when a friend asked if I wanted to go and see 'Goldfinger' last Tuesday. I've not seen a classic Bond film in a long while, and it's certainly the first time I've seen one at the pictures - I was very impressed, not just at how good the film itself is, or the sheer thrill of seeing sixties Bond on the big screen, but also the stunning quality of the new print which was used. It looked like it was made yesterday!

Since no fewer than four of my favourite films of all-time are being re-released in theatres - 'Billy Liar', 'The Dam Busters', 'The Wicker Man' and 'Withnail & I' - I'm going to make every effort to get myself along to the cinema each week.

Just a pity, really, that they're not doing a sci-fi category, as it would have been a perfect opportunity to re-release '2001' - now that would be worth seeing on the big screen!

[Carol Baynes]

I only learned of these releases when a friend asked if I wanted to go and see 'Goldfinger' last Tuesday. I've not seen a classic Bond film in a long while, and it's certainly the first time I've seen one at the pictures - I was very impressed, not just at how good the film itself is, or the sheer thrill of seeing sixties Bond on the big screen, but also the stunning quality of the new print which was used. It looked like it was made yesterday!

See, your Aunty Carol was right after all.

I'm looking forward to all these. I might have to book another week off work, cancel all social arrangements and dump my boyfriend first though.

[Captain Tancredi]

I saw 'Goldfinger' on the big screen at the Hyde Park Picture House in Leeds a few years ago- they went through these phases of showing a feature film with a Looney Tunes-type cartoon and a Pathe newsreel from the same year every now and then- and the rather fun thing was that it was around the university summer ball season, so a lot of guys turned out in their dinner suits with water pistols, which added to the occasion.

Haven't watched one of the Saturday night programmes all the way through yet, but then again they've started with sex and violence and I don't particularly enjoy watching either. I don't think it's asking quite enough questions, though, and particularly not why?- why we're good at making small, intimate, emotionally intense films about people in everyday situations, why we had the Hammer and Carry On-led boom of the 1960s and so on. It's not sufficient to say "these are a lot of British films and they're good"- in this day and age when it's important not only to recognise our own national identity but also to be able to see beyond it, I'd like to see something which said "these films- which incidentally happen to be very good- could only have been made in Britain". And I'm not sure that they're not- like the BBC itself- at some level based on a puffed-up sense of cultural superiority which says that we [I]have[I] to have a national broadcaster and a national film industry.

[Joe Meredith]

Did anyone see the horror documentary on Saturday night? There was a short clip near the beginning where a van crashed into a car and something flew through the windscreen of the van and through the car driver (or summat like that!) - does anyone know what film its from? They didn't feature it afterwards.

[Milky Tears]

It didn't look familiar at the time and I haven't checked my recording yet.

It's catch-up time:

SOCIAL REALISM
1. Trainspotting
2. Kes
3. Quadrophenia
4. Secrets & Lies
5. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
6. Billy Liar
7. Nil By Mouth
8. Look Back In Anger
9. If...
10. The Wind That Shakes The Barley

COSTUME DRAMA
1. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
2. Pride & Prejudice (2005)
3. Oliver Twist
4. The Madness of King George
5. Great Expectations (1946)
6. The Remains of the Day
7. A Passage to India
8. Emma
9. Women in Love
10. The Go-Between

HORROR AND FANTASY
1. The Wicker Man (1973)
2. 28 Days Later...
3. Carry On Screaming
4. Quatermass and the Pit
5. Dog Soldiers
6. Don't Look Now
7. Dracula (1958)
8. The Company of Wolves
9. Dracula - Prince of Darkness
10. The Innocents

Based on over 2,500 votes in the radiotimes.com poll to find Britain's favourite films, from combined shortlists drawn up by Barry Norman and Andrew Collins.

Alex Cox isn't happy with the season so far...

A very British cop-out

I thought Saturday's Horror & Fantasy effort was the best episode yet. Always good to see Pete Walker, Barbara Shelley, Jimmy Sangster and John Hurt, but what's happened to Ingrid Pitt? I know she was ill a couple of years ago. Has she had a stroke?

There's been some rarely seen gems shown on BBC Two during the past month - films like Gumshoe, Pulp, Sky West and Crooked, Hungry Hill, The Pumpkin Eater, The Whisperers, Flame In The Streets, The Boys, Hindle Wakes and The Leather Boys. The Quatermass Xperiment is another one that hadn't been on for a while.


The Damned is on tonight at 11:30pm, The Gorgon tomorrow and The Sorcerers on Thursday night.

[Dave Tudor]

With some great clips and an impressive array of interviewees, tonight's war movies documentary was a particularly good episode in what has been an excellent series (even though I've still got about three editions to catch up on!). However, the narration still continues to spoil things: the script is awful, and I'm afraid Jessica Stevenson is just not the right voice for this.

'The Dam Busters' is out in cinemas this week, and I'd love to go and see it. Unfortunately, my local Cineworld seems to have started showing the films at around six o'clock, so unless I go straight from work, there's little chance of me getting to see it.

A friend and I went to see 'The Wicker Man' last Tuesday, but, not realising that it was on at such a ludicrously-early time, we missed it, and so went to see 'Transformers' instead - very enjoyable, although it featured neither Edward Woodward, innuendo-laden folk songs, nor Britt Ekland's tits.

It didn't even feature Christopher Lee dressed as a woman. How disappointing.

[Wayne]

Dang it, I keep missing these documentaries!




(By the time this post loads, i'll probably've missed another one)

[Pip Madeley]

Watched tonight's comedy-themed documentary... interesting selection, some films I've seen many times (Withnail & I, Life Of Brian), some I really don't want to bother with (The Full Monty, Bend It Like Beckham)... and hurrah for 'Holiday On The Buses' being mentioned - highest grossing film in 1973 Britain says it all.