The Film Programme

With Francine Stock. Selma recounts the life of Martin Luther King for the first time on the big screen. Its director Ava DuVernay tells Francine what she thinks of the controversy in the United States about the film's portrayal of President Lyndon B Johnson, which some critics say is unfair and unbalanced. Actor Eddie Marsan talks about the research he undertook for Still Life, in which he plays a funeral officer who has to track down the relatives of people who have died alone. And he reveals why he's refused every offer to play an East End gangster. February is the month of S + M in the cinema, with 50 Shades Of Grey and The Duke Of Burgundy being released within weeks of each other. The Film Programme takes a strict look at the subject with director Peter Strickland.

With Francine Stock. Director Paul Thomas Anderson discusses the challenges of writing Inherent Vice, the first ever movie adaptation of a novel by reclusive writer Thomas Pynchon. Billy Elliot director Stephen Daldry talks about the dangers of filming in the favelas of Rio for his caper movie Trash. And reveals why he ripped up the script and let his child actors improvise and decide their own ending. Listeners sing word-perfect renditions of the Odeon Film Club song and ABC Minors anthem, five decades since they last sang them. They recall a paradise free from parental control, where you could to go to the toilet as often as you liked. Francine consults neuroscientist Professor Jeffrey Zacks about the reasons she cries helplessly when she watches the final moments of Louis Malle's war memoir Au Revoir Les Enfants.

With Francine Stock. Novelist Alex Garland discusses his directorial debut Ex Machina and tells Francine why he thinks Professor Stephen Hawking is wrong to worry that the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. Liz Fraser is known as one of the Carry On girls, even though she only appeared in four of the series. As her film debut, I'm All Right Jack, is released on DVD, she spills the beans on stereotyping, Peter Sellers, and the unions. Director J.C. Chandor reveals why he set his crime drama A Most Violent Year in 1981, statistically the most violent 12 months in the history of New York city.

With Francine Stock. Arsenal fan Nick Hornby reveals what appealed to him about Cheryl Strayed's memoir Wild, about her 1000 mile hike through mid America, and why he was never tempted to try the walk himself. Jazz drumming is the unlikely subject for a movie, but Whiplash has won numerous awards in festivals across the world. Its director Damien Chazelle and star J.K. Simmons discuss the film's theme of how music teaching can turn into bullying.

With Francine Stock. Into The Woods stars James Corden and Emily Blunt discusses what it was like to sing on screen for the first time. Director Bennett Miller reveals the reasons he cast Steve Carrell against type as a multi-millionaire who sponsored an American Olympic wrestling team with tragic consequences. As a retrospective of Eric Rohmer's career continues at the BFI Southbank, Boyhood director Richard Linklater and critic Antonia Quirke consider the quiet genius of films like The Green Ray and Claire's Knee.

With Francine Stock. Batman star Michael Keaton discusses the similarities between his career and that of his character in Birdman, an actor making a come-back after finding fame playing a winged super-hero. Director James Marsh reveals what Stephen Hawking really thought of his bio-pic The Theory Of Everything. Enemy, in which Jake Gyllenhaal plays a man haunted by his doppelganger, is the second movie released in the last 12 months about doubles. The other, The Double, was based on a story by Dostoevsky and directed by Richard Ayoade, who explains the technical difficulties of getting an actor to talk to himself.

The Film Programme’s Francine Stock and Adam Rutherford from BBC Inside Science join forces for a special Christmas day programme celebrating science in the movies. Francine meets Paul Franklin, the special effects wizard behind blockbuster Interstellar, and discovers how he worked with theoretical physicist Kip Thorne to create the most detailed simulation of a black hole ever produced. But can Hollywood ever really be faithful to science and should it be? Professor Sidney Perkowitz, one of the authors of Hollywood Chemistry, considers what happens when physics gets warped by cinema. Christopher Frayling explores the scientist on screen, from Frankenstein to Dr Strangelove; and can science save celluloid? Adam visits the archives of British Film Institute to uncover the science behind film preservation. Adam and Francine subject themselves to a psychological experiment that tracks their eye movements as they watch a film on the big screen.

With Francine Stock. Angelina Jolie reveals why she's planning to give up acting to concentrate on directing, and describes the moment she discovered that her neighbour Louis Zamperini was an Olympic athlete and ex-prisoner of war, and what it was like showing him her film about his life, Unbroken, just before he died. Actor Pal Sverre Hagen, known as Norwegian's Ryan Gosling, reveals what it was like to recreate Thor Heyerdahl's epic voyage across the Pacific for the film Kon-Tiki, while Thor Heyerdahl Jr reveals what he thinks is wrong with the account of his father's famous adventure. Composer Danny Elfman and director Kevin Macdonald share their memories of their first visit to the cinema.

With Francine Stock Composer Danny Elfman talks about his long collaboration with director Tim Burton that's included Batman and Alice In Wonderland. Nick Hornby recites all of the lyrics to the ABC's Minors Song, the theme tune to a kids club that showed cartoons and the work of the Children's Film Foundation. Sound designer Ben Burtt reveals just how many elements went into the making of E.T.'s voice, including a few animals, a professor, and his wife snoring in bed. Three Film Programme experts buy each other the perfect Christmas present - a DVD of what they consider the best film of the year The Night At The Museum trilogy, about an Egyptian curse that brings relics to life, concludes in the British museum. It's an appropriate location, because the British Museum is itself the subject of an ancient Egyptian curse, as Professor Roger Luckhurst explains.

With Francine Stock. Director Kevin Macdonald on Jude Law's Scottish accent in his submarine drama Black Sea. And how geo-politics caught up with a film that's partly set in Crimea. Jason Reitman discusses the moral panic about social media in his ensemble piece Men, Women And Children. And reveals his 70 year old mother's texting habits. FX maestro Ben Burtt reveals the identity of the language that the Ewoks speak in the Star Wars saga. Neil Brand shows us the part that music played in dramatising the final showdown between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker in Return Of The Jedi

As 2001: A Space Odyssey is re-released in cinemas, Francine Stock presents a special edition on Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece. 'My God, it's Full of Stars' were the last words of Dave Bowman before he journeyed through the Stargate, according to writer Arthur C. Clarke but it's an apt description for this edition of The Film Programme. Francine journeys through time and space to uncover the mysteries of this 1968 classic. Searching for the mind of HAL. and lost alien worlds among the delights of the Stanley Kubrick Archive at London's University of the Arts. Joining Francine on her voyage of discovery are 2001 chronicler Piers Bizony, former urbane spaceman Keir Dullea and the woman who built the moon! Other voices include production designer Harry Lange, make-up genius Stuart Freeborn, editor Ray Lovejoy, all now so much stardust, as well as those of lead ape 'Moonwatcher' (Dan Richter) & Stargate deviser Douglas Trumbull. Open the Pod Bay Doors HAL!

Francine Stock talks to Julianne Moore about her role in the new HUNGER GAMES movie, MOCKINGJAY Part 1. Director Randall Wright shares his experience of working with and making a film documentary about David Hockney and continuing The Story Of The Sound Effect series, Randy Thom talks about the importance of alien sound in CONTACT. And with news of an extended Franchise Francine talks to Chris Miller and Phil Lord, the directors of THE LEGO MOVIE, about the success of their film, the trick of appealing to both young and old audiences and their childhood triumphs as master builders of spaceships made from plastic bricks.

Francine Stock talks to Tommy Lee Jones about his new film THE HOMESMAN, a gritty take on the Western in which the harshness of frontier life and the impact it had on women are central to the story. She also discovers why set designer Maria Djurkovic is such a valued member of the teams in the many projects she undertakes, including this week’s release THE IMITATION GAME. There's the latest in the series of Sci-Fi Sound FX secrets, today the heavy breathing that has made Darth Vader one of the most memorable villains in cinema history and Steve James, director of the Documentary LIFE ITSELF, explains why his subject, the film critic Roger Eberts was worth the cinematic treatment.

British director Mike Leigh discusses his latest film Mr Turner. With a career spanning over 40 years, he tells The Film Programme why he has wanted to make a film about the artist for over 20 years, and why actor Timothy Spall was the only man for the job. In the run up to the London Korean Film Festival, Film critic Anton Bitel discusses Korean 1960 classic 'The Housemaid'. Seen as utterly shocking by cinema goers at the time, it has been rediscovered and its restoration has attracted a new audience. Francine Stock presents a new series running throughout The Film Programme for the next two months- The Story Of The Sound Effect. To mark the BFI's season Days Of Fear And Wonder, the programme will hear from the people who created some of the most famous sound effects in the history of science fiction cinema. This week, Gary Rydstrom on Jurassic Park. Continuing The Cinema Memory series, Girlhood director Celine Sciamma recalls the first film to make her cry - E.T.

Director of The Babadook, Jennifer Kent explains how she used the psychological to create horror, and talks about the challenges in casting kids. Film critic Kim Newman takes a look at children in horror films, from The Innocents to The Exorcist. British actor Riz Ahmed discusses his new role in Nightcrawler and discusses the role that instant internet news plays in todays media and our responsibility as consumer of it. Francine Stock presents a new series running throughout The Film Programme for the next two months- The Story Of The Sound Effect. To mark the BFI's season Days Of Fear And Wonder, the programme will hear from the people who created some of the most famous sound effects in the history of science fiction cinema. This week, Ben Burtt on the lightsaber.