Ian Nathan presents as usual and he talks to Stephen Wooley, Stephen Armstrong, producer Paul Webster and the film critic Christina Newland. Ian introduces this episode about famous people with telling us how "cinema has helped to make them legends". Mmm. The first part is about royalty on screen and I agreed that the royal houses had provided a great source for films. It starts with the 1934 film The Rise of Catherine the Great. We see a clip from 1937's Victoria the Great and told about other royal films. However we then jump forward to 2021 to see an extract from Spencer which I had avoided.
The next part was about politicians. But we start with 1900's Joan of Arc and 1928's The Passion of Joan of Arc. Again a huge jump forward to 1992 and Spike Lee's Malcolm X. Christina said that this was one of her favourite biopics and it certainly looks impressive. Fast forward to the Triumph and Tragedy section. Scott of the Antarctic from 1948 and then back to 1933's Queen Christina, a powerful Greta Garbo movie. Fast forward to 1980's The Elephant Man.
Lots to talk about in the part about music films. Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn in The Coal Miner's Daughter from 1980, Val Kilmer excelling as Jim Morrison in 1991's The Doors and Sammy Davis Jr as Miles Davis in A Man Called Adam from 1966. The film industry gets their own section at the end. The Magic Box from 1951 has Robert Donat in the audience watching silent movies. But it's Stephen Armstrong who says "Hollywood does love Hollywood and their film makers". We then have a brief look back at British cinema history and Laurence Olivier appears. And the British film A King in New York from 1957 starring Charlie Chaplin before the much better Chaplin in 1992 starring a brilliant Robert Downey Jr in "a superb performance". And finally we see Tommy Lee Jones in 1977's The Amazing Howard Hughes. Stephen Armstrong says the best actors just capture the character rather than doing an impression. How very true.
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