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• Hitmen

  The last few years have seen a number of new entries on the cinematic hit list, from David Fincher’s The Killer to Richard Linklater’s Hit Man. TV has also seen its fair share of hitmen in the last year; the reboot of the 2005 Brad and Angelina film Mr and Mrs Smith; Eddie Redmayne donning various elaborate disguises in a Day of the Jackal update, as well as Black Doves. It seems these days hitmen are among TV and film’s most wanted. Mark talks to critic Christina Newland about the history of crime cinema's enigmatic icon, exploring everything from cult oddities such as Branded to Kill to the female assassin of the 90's such as Nikita and The Long Kiss Goodnight.Ellen goes deep on cult classic Le Samouraï with Kill List and A Field in England director Ben Wheatley and academic Ginette Vincendeau; they discuss the relationship between hitmen and samurai in cinema.Produced by Queenie Qureshi-Wales A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

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• Mike Leigh

  Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore the visionary world of veteran British filmmaker Mike Leigh, as he returns with Hard Truths - his first film in six years. Born in 1943 and raised in Salford, Leigh started his career in the theatre, before moving to TV in the 1970s, making a string of plays and films for the BBC. Since his very first film Bleak Moments in 1971, Mike Leigh has been at the cutting edge of British screen culture, creating a diverse body of work which ranges from the exquisitely excruciating 1970s comedy of manners Abigail’s Party, to his epic biopic of the 19th century painter Mr Turner. Ellen attempts to get to grips with Leigh’s singular creative process - which involves assembling a group of actors and getting them to research and develop their characters in detail. She speaks to Mike Leigh himself about how he approaches each of his films, and about the unmade big budget project he’d still like to see realised.Mark learns about an actor’s role on a Mike Leigh project - speaking to Hard Truths lead actor Marianne Jean Baptiste, who was Oscar-nominated for her role in Leigh’s 1996 film Secrets & Lies. And Mark also speaks to American independent filmmaker Sean Baker - whose latest film Anora is shaping up as a major Oscar contender - about the profound impact Leigh's 1993 film Naked had on his career. Produced by Jane Long A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

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• Time Travel

  How does film and TV make time travel real? Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode take a quantum leap into the world of time travel and time loops on screen, from Back To The Future to Groundhog Day. Mark speaks to theoretical physicist Sean Carroll about how movies like Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Interstellar have handled the science of time travel - and whether it really is just the stuff of fantasy. And he talks to Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Knives Out director Rian Johnson about the dramatic allure of playing with time, and about Rian's 2012 film Looper, which starred Bruce Willis as a criminal sent back to the past to be eliminated by his younger self. Meanwhile, Ellen explores a sub-genre less concerned with mechanics and physics, and more with emotion and moral dilemmas - the time loop story. She speaks to Black Doves screenwriter Joe Barton about his time loop TV series The Lazarus Project. And film critic Anne Billson runs her through some examples of the genre she finds most - and least - captivating, from Palm Springs to About Time.Produced by Jane Long A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

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• Therapists

  Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore how therapists have been portrayed on screen throughout cinema and television history. From the benign care of Claude Rains’ Dr Jaquith in Now, Voyager (1942), and the neuroses of Woody Allen, to the deadly Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs (1991), they survey the archetypes, the foibles, and the dramatic potential of the psychotherapist - both fictional and real.Mark speaks with Richard Hughes, the TV producer and director turned psychotherapist, about his favourite screen therapists. And actor and writer Brett Goldstein talks about his Emmy nominated TV show, Shrinking, which features a therapist going off the rails.Ellen speaks to Dr Orna Guralnik from the TV show Couples Therapy about what it's like conducting real therapy sessions on screen and what film and TV gets wrong about its depiction of therapy. ‘Therapy Speak’ is everywhere on social media, but it’s also present in many film and TV shows - Ellen discusses its rise with journalist Billie Walker.Produced by Freya Hellier A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

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• Musicals

  In the year that Jacques Demy’s beloved Umbrellas of Cherbourg turns 60, Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones reflect on their favourite aspects of the screen musical.According to some, we’re currently in the midst of a movie musicals revival, with Jon M Chu’s Wicked hot on the heels of Emila Perez and Joker: Folie à Deux, but will any of them match what Ellen considers to be the pinnacle of the form, the 1950s Hollywood musical? Her love of the classic MGM musicals primed Ellen to be a huge fan of the TV show Crazy Ex Girlfriend when it came along. This is the musical sitcom that took all of these essential elements of the 1950s Hollywood musical, then recombined them with a very 21st Century approach to relationships and mental health. Ellen speaks with Crazy Ex Girlfriend creator and star Rachel Bloom about Disney, writing jokes for the screen, and spontaneous singing. But it’s essential to pay proper tribute to the classics, and in particular the work of American lyricist and producer Arthur Freed. Ellen sat down with writer, filmmaker and actor Manuela Lazic to talk about Freed’s masterpiece, 1952’s Singin’ in the Rain which stars Gene Kelly, who also co-directed with Stanley Donen. And Mark meets Janis Pugh, director of Chuck Chuck Baby, a low budget, British indie charmer set in a chicken processing factory that is deeply influenced by Jacques Demy’s 1964 French hit The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Janis Pugh is not alone in her love of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It follows the story of two young lovers whose future together is interrupted by the Algerian war, with the French dialogue entirely sung and set perfectly to the music of Michel Le Grand. Writer and editor of Little White Lies, David Jenkins, is a huge fan of Jacques Demy, and he speaks with Mark about the film’s influences and legacy.Produced by Freya Hellier. A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

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