Made in England

Anthony Newley stars as a nightclub compere who has just a few hours to raise £300 to pay a gambling debt or face the violent consequences in The Small World of Sammy Lee (1963) .  Writer and journalist Darren Richman joins to discuss the film.  Host: Jack McInroy   Guest: Darren Richman Theme music: Harlow Family Group  Films featured on upcoming episodes of Made in England: h...

Decades after the outbreak of the rage virus, the UK is quarantined from the rest of Europe and overrun with zombie-like Infected (and worse) in... 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) .  Writer Alex Garland and director Danny Boyle started the series in 2002 with 28 Days Later and returned in 2025 for 28 Years Later, which starred Alfie Williams as Spike, a teenager coming of age in post-a...

The Dashwood sisters find their prospects of marriage suddenly diminished by their family loss of fortune, in Emma Thompson’s adaptation of Sense and Sensibility (1995) . Thompson won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and is also part of the stellar cast, which includes Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant and Hugh Laurie. Ang Lee directed what is widely considered to be among the very best...

Tom Cruise is forced to live, die, repeat in the sci-fi action thriller Edge of Tomorrow (2014) . Adapted from Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s light novel All You Need Is Kill, the film was directed by Doug Liman from a script by Jez and John Henry Butterworth and regular Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie.   Journalist Drew Taylor and filmmaker Charles Hood , who together are Light the Fuse...

Richard Widmark stars as Harry Fabian, a conman trying to rustle up a few quid to break into wrestling promotion, in Night and the City (1950) . Based on Gerald Kersh’s novel of the London underworld, the film was made in England with American money, produced by Twentieth Century Fox and directed by the blacklisted Jules Dassin. Night and the City is atmospheric, exciting and gritty, and according...

Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998) stars Derek Jacobi in the title role and Daniel Craig as George Dyer, Bacon’s lover and muse. Directed by John Maybury. Writer, historian and broadcaster Sir Christopher Frayling joins to discuss the film. Christopher’s latest book, The Hollywood History of Art, which features this film, is available now from reelartpress.com . ...

Charles Laughton stars as Rembrandt (1936) , in Alexander Korda’s biopic of the Dutch old master.  Writer, historian and broadcaster Sir Christopher Frayling joins to discuss the film. Christopher’s latest book, The Hollywood History of Art, which features this film, is available now from reelartpress.com . Christopher will also appear on the next episode of Made in England, talking about Lov...

The Wicked Witch of the West gets to tell her side of the story in the Wizard of Oz prequel, Wicked (2024) . Adapted from the hit stage musical, Wicked follows Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande) on their journey from Shiz University to the Emerald City.  Tamiko Dooley , composer lyricist and poet, joins to discuss the film. Tamiko is the creator of Flyology, a new musical. Fol...

Naked (1993) stars David Thewlis as Johnny, a charming and articulate but vicious misfit, drifting around London on a nocturnal odyssey, colliding with a succession of desperate and dispossessed characters. Mike Leigh’s script is scintillating and it’s arguably his best directorial work too. The film won the best director and best actor prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. Alonso Ruizpalacios , wri...

A married man starts an ‘affair’ with two schoolgirls in bawdy Thatcher-era comedy, Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1987) . Written by Andrea Dunbar based on her own play, directed by Alan Clarke, and starring Siobhan Finneran, Michelle Holmes and George Costigan.  Film writer Adam Lowes joins to discuss the film.  Host: Jack McInroy   Guest: Adam Lowes Theme music: Harlow Family Group ...

At 9.30pm on 23rd September 1984, with the Cold War still ongoing, the BBC broadcast nuclear fallout drama Threads . Written by Barry Hines and directed and produced by Mick Jackson, the film went well beyond looking at the effect of a nuclear bomb on buildings and people, it examined, in unrelenting and unflinching detail, what it would do to the very fabric of society. The Cold War may be over,...

Hitmen Jay (Neil Maskell) and Gal (Michael Smiley) take on a new assignment, but what starts as an easy task soon unravels, revealing darker things beneath, in Ben Wheatley’s Kill List (2011) .  Heather Parry , author of Orpheus Builds A Girl and Carrion Crow, joins to discuss the film. Heather writes about film (and other things) at https://heatherparry.substack.com Host: Jack McInroy  ...

Steve Coogan stars as Tony Wilson in Michael Winterbottom’s comedy music biopic about the rise and fall of Factory Records, 24 Hour Party People (2002) .  Writer and editor Paul Wilson (no relation) joins to discuss the film.  Host: Jack McInroy   Guest: Paul Wilson Theme music: Harlow Family Group  Films featured on upcoming episodes of Made in England: https://letterboxd.com/...

Two brothers, Aston (Robert Shaw) and Mick (Alan Bates), take in a tramp (Donald Pleasence) and offer him the role of caretaker in their run down flat, in Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker (1963) .  Barney Farmer, novelist and writer Viz comic strip Drunken Bakers, joins to discuss the film. Barney’s books are available from Wrecking Ball Press: https://wreckingballpress.com/authors/barney-farmer...

Brian, a lonely inventor in rural Wales, builds himself a robot out of an old washing machine, but what happens when his companion wants to move on? Brian and Charles (2022) is written by and starring David Earl and Charles Hayward, and directed by Jim Archer.  Artist Babak Ganjei joins to discuss the film.  Host: Jack McInroy   Guest: Babak Ganjei Theme music: Harlow Family Group&n...

Moviedrome premiered on BBC 2 in May 1988, on a mission to show cult films to counter ‘the abysmal drek that passes for entertainment in contemporary cinema’. The show was hosted by Alex Cox, director of Repo Man and Sid & Nancy, who offered balanced and thoughtful intros to the films.  A new season at the BFI brings some of Moviedrome’s most popular selections to the big screen and BFI p...

November 1932: A group of wealthy guests and their servants gather in an English country house for dinner, music, and, inevitably, murder, in Robert Altman’s upstairs-downstairs comedy mystery, Gosford Park (2001) . The film was a hit with critics and audiences, becoming Altman’s biggest hit since M*A*S*H, and won several awards, including an Oscar for screenwriter Julian Fellowes. One of the most...

The devil is unearthed in 18th Century England, inspiring the village youth to rape, murder and satanic worship, in one of the granddaddies of folk horror, The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971) .  Dean Puckett , writer-director and lecturer at Falmouth University, joins to discuss the film. Dean’s feature debut The Severed Sun is at select cinemas and streaming on demand in the US from 16 May. The...

With his former boss about to be released from jail, an East End mobster reflects on a life of crime, obsession and betrayal, in Gangster No. 1 (2000) . Malcolm McDowell and Paul Bettany both play the titular role at different stages of life, ih a cast that includes David Thewlis, Saffron Burrows and Eddie Marsan. From the writers of Sexy Beast and director Paul McGuigan.  Gareth Simms , co-h...

It’s a double bill of Molly Dineen documentaries: Heart of the Angel (1989) about the inner workings of Angel tube station for BBC’s 40 Minutes strand, and Geri (1999) , a portrait of Geri Halliwell following her departure from the Spice Girls.  Leo Leigh , writer-director of Sweet Sue , joins to discuss the films. You can see Leo’s documentaries and shorts on his website. Host: Jack McInroy...

Gina McKee, Molly Parker and Shirley Henderson are sisters searching for connection and direction in Michael Winterbottom’s tapestry of urban melancholy, Wonderland (1999) . Michael Nyman’s score and Sean Bobbit’s cinematography make it one of the most atmospheric and memorable films of its era.  Filmmaker and curator Nia Childs joins to discuss the film.  Host: Jack McInroy   Guest...

Dirk Bogarde stars as Melville Farr, a barrister targeted by blackmailers, in noir thriller Victim (1961) . Made at a time when it was illegal to be gay, Victim challenged the British film censors with an empathetic depiction of London’s gay community, and is the first film to use the word ‘homosexual’.  John Airlie , Associate Lecturer in Film and Media at Birkbeck College, University of Lon...

In wartime England, three modern day pilgrims - a melancholy ‘land girl’, a plainspoken American GI, and a resourceful British sergeant - are waylaid in the English countryside where they have to solve a bizarre local mystery before going on to Canterbury to get the blessings they seek, in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s A Canterbury Tale (1944) .  Writer , journalist and podcaster Da...

Two young lovers, reeling from recent breakups, connect over the course of an eventful day in South London, in the award-winning romantic comedy, Rye Lane (2023) .  Corrina Antrobus , author of I Love Romcoms and I Am A Feminist, joins to discuss the film.  Host: Jack McInroy   Guest: Corrina Antrobus Theme music: Harlow Family Group  Films featured on upcoming episodes of Made...

Tom Hardy plays Britain’s most notorious prisoner in Nicolas Winding Refn’s English language breakthrough film, Bronson (2008) .  Joe Greenwood , host of 10TB Hard Drive podcast, joins to discuss the film, and Refn’s career. Listen to 10TB Hard Drive on Spotify , Apple Podcasts , or Acast .  Host: Jack McInroy   Guest: Joe Greenwood Theme music: Harlow Family Group  Films featu...