The Essay

Journalist and author Susan McKay returns to Londonderry to explore what 'City of Culture' status has meant to the place of her birth. Known as both Derry and Londonderry, the walled city became the inaugural UK City of Culture in 2013, and Susan examines what rebranding and reimagining has meant to a place that endured some of the worst episodes of the 'troubles' throughout her school days. As its search for identity continues, what has the city gained from its year in the limelight, and has anyone beyond its ancient walls noticed?

What happens when cinema shuts up? Matthew Sweet explores those moments when the talkie stops talking and cuts the music dead: the final minutes of William Wyler's Roman Holiday; the heist in Rififi; Oliver Hardy's long despairing look into the camera lens. He also listens hard to those cinematic sounds being silenced by digital technology from the fizz of a reel-change to the wear and tear on a film's soundtrack and asks what we have lost now that cinema is no longer a physical, photochemical medium.

The writer and film critic David Thomson explores how film composers create mood and how the best music evokes a place beyond reality.

The American academic and social critic Camille Paglia on the film scores which have inspired her since childhood including the work of Bernard Herrmann, John Dankworth and Max Steiner.

The novelist Jonathan Coe explores how a joint concert with Arthur Honegger led to the composer Miklós Rózsa writing for film, including the scores for 'Ben-Hur', 'Spellbound' and 'The Lost Weekend'.

The live music and sound effects, the unruly audiences, the performers paid to interpret mysterious foreign intertitles, the usherettes spraying the audience with disinfectant. Matthew Sweet explores the sound-world of cinema's beginnings, from the orchestras of big-budget epics to the small improvising bands of the fleapits - and discovers how their ghosts haunt the modern cinemagoing experience.First broadcast September 2013.

Continuing the Sound of Cinema season, writer A L Kennedy contemplates the inconveniences of love in the 1945 Powell and Pressburger romance 'I Know Where I'm Going!', set on a remote Scottish island.Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, together known as The Archers, were one of the most influential and audacious film-makers of the 1930s and 40s. Their groundbreaking works include: 'The Red Shoes', 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp', 'A Matter of Life and Death' and 'Black Narcissus'.A L Kennedy is an award-winning writer and stand-up comedian.Producer: Justine Willett.

Continuing the Sound of Cinema season, Ian Christie on the 1943 Powell and Pressburger film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, a film that has been called Britain's answer to Citizen Kane.Ian Christie knew Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger well, and was instrumental in bringing their films to a new audience in the 1980s. Here he looks at their unusual relationship through one of their greatest films.Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, together known as The Archers, were one of the most influential and audacious film-makers of the 1930s and 40s. Their groundbreaking works include: 'The Red Shoes', 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp', 'A Matter of Life and Death' and 'Black Narcissus'.Ian Christie is an acclaimed film scholar, who has written several works on the films of Powell and Pressburger.Producer: Justine Willett.

As part of BBC Radio 3's Sound of Cinema, a week of essays written and presented by historian and columnist Simon Heffer on classic British taboo-breaking films which depicted a society changed profoundly by war.In Heffer on British Film, he puts the case for five films from the decade after the war which show British cinema dealing with gritty social issues and dramatic high standards before the 60s were underway - including It Always Rains on Sunday (1947), The Browning Version (1951), Mandy (1953), The Long Memory (1952), and Yield to the Night (1956), the subject of his final essay in the series.Yield to the Night was widely regarded as the pinnacle of Diana Dors' career - the film on which her reputation as a serious actress rests. She plays a murderess Mary Hilton sentenced to hang, spending her last days in the condemned cell in a British women's prison. It was released a year after Ruth Ellis was executed and bore an uncanny resemblance to her case but it was actually based on a novel of 1954 - a year before Ellis murdered Blakely.Mary is a married woman who drifts into an affair with a good-looking piano player Jim Lancaster (Michael Craig) The problem is the affair is one-sided. Jim is smitten with another - Lucy Carpenter - who is way out of his league. But Mary is so hopelessly in love, she starts to believe Lucy deserves to die. And she has Jim's gun. But she shoots not her boyfriend, but her boyfriend's lover.The story of events leading to murder is told in flashback and there is little doubt that the screenplay draws liberally on the Ellis case - the murderess withdrawing her revolver from her handbag in the street, and emptying its chambers into her victim with shocking calmness. A glamorous, bottle-blonde young woman, Mary, like Ellis, had difficulties with men all her life and makes no attempt to escape justice.The film focuses almost entirely on her experience of prison - the British equivalent of Death Row - awaiting execution, and on her relationship with the various female prison warders, and in particular with MacFarlane (Yvonne Mitchell). Mary is a likeable young woman and the warders grow fond of her. Decidedly anti-capital punishment and downbeat in mood, the film won critical acclaim, particularly for the skilled acting of Dors, who had previously been cast solely as the stereotypical "blonde bombshell".Producer: Mohini Patel.

As part of BBC Radio 3's Sound of Cinema, a week of essays written and presented by historian and columnist Simon Heffer on classic British taboo-breaking films which depicted a society changed profoundly by war. The cinema of the 30s was nakedly and unashamedly escapist in a way that the cinema of the late 40s and early 50s - in an age of lost innocence and social upheaval - simply couldn't be. This was a period when British cinema was forced to embrace change and reflect reality.Taboos it had left untouched could no longer be ignored if film was to remain relevant. Families had broken up because of bereavement and adultery. Subjects considered unsuitable for a cinema audience - marital breakdown , criminality, revenge, failings in the justice system, and disability - suddenly became popular with British screenwriters and studios. Social realism was the order of the day.In Heffer on British Film, Simon Heffer puts the case for five films from the decade after the war which show British cinema dealing with gritty social issues and dramatic high standards before the 60s were underway - including It Always Rains on Sunday (1947), The Long Memory (1952), The Browning Version (1951), Yield to the Night (1956) and the focus of today's essay - Mandy (1953).Ealing Studios' Mandy, directed by Alexander Mackendrick was based on the book 'The Day Is Ours' by Hilda Lewis, with screenplay by Nigel Balchin and Jack Whittingham. It's the story of a girl, Mandy Garland, who is diagnosed with a congenital hearing defect and starred Phyllis Calvert, Jack Hawkins and Terence Morgan.As her parents Harry and Christine Garland come to terms with the fact that they have a deaf-mute daughter, they enrol her in special education classes to try to get her to speak. As she struggles to express herself and learn how to lip-read, her parents argue over the best way to deal with her condition and their marriage comes under severe strain. This is compounded by hints of an affair between Christine and Searle (Jack Hawkins) , the headmaster of the school for the deaf where Mandy is enrolled. Although it may be too late for the little girl to make great strides, the specialist training eventually pays off to the point where Mandy says her own name for the first time.While the drama revolves around the parents' sharply conflicting views of what to do for their child, the unpretentious, documentary style adopted by MacKendrick reveals the world through the eyes of the little girl as she responds to the strange way adults around her conduct themselves and the sensitive guidance of her school. And, thanks to the wonderful performance he draws from Mandy Miller, the slow but sure development of this youngster is at the heart of the film.Producer: Mohini Patel.

As part of BBC Radio 3's Sound of Cinema, a week of essays written and presented by historian and columnist Simon Heffer on classic British taboo-breaking films which depicted a society changed profoundly by war. The cinema of the 30s was nakedly and unashamedly escapist in a way that the cinema of the late 40s and early 50s - in an age of lost innocence and social upheaval - simply couldn't be. This was a period when British cinema was forced to embrace change and reflect reality.In Heffer on British Film, Simon Heffer puts the case for five films from the decade after the war which show British cinema dealing with gritty social issues and dramatic high standards before the 60s were underway - including It Always Rains on Sunday (1947), Mandy (1953), Yield to the Night (1956), The Browning Version (1951) and the subject of today's essay - The Long Memory (1952).The Long Memory was Robert Hamer's follow-up to the success of Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), one of the driest black Ealing comedies ever made. Hamer wrote the script for this thriller with Frank Harvey, adapting a novel by Howard Clewes. It portrays Britain as depressed, worn out by war, and full of the poor, dispossessed, transient, and criminal. It tells the story of Phillip Davidson (John Mills) fresh out of prison after serving twelve years for a murder he didn't commit and obsessed with revenge. An early flashback provides us with the details: a smuggling job goes sour, and Davidson is blamed for the death of a man who, in fact, is not dead. His girlfriend, Fay (Elizabeth Sellars), played a significant part in securing that conviction. She was coerced by her father to lie about the identity of the man who was burned in the boat fire that followed the altercation. And one of the film's neat little twists, she subsequently goes on to marry the very policeman superintendent originally in charge of Davidson's case. Davidson makes his home in a remote shack on the Kent Marshes, and grimly sets about the task of seeking out his former tormentors. The action alternates between his search and the slow unravelling of the idyllic domesticity of the policeman's life. Davidson gets involved with local waitress Ilse, played by Norwegian actress Eva Bergh, a refugee her from being raped one night and a touching relationship develops between them, forcing Davidson to re-evaluate his need for revenge.Producer: Mohini Patel.

The cinema of the 30s was nakedly and unashamedly escapist in a way that the cinema of the late 40s and early 50s - in an age of lost innocence and social upheaval - simply couldn't be. This was a period when British cinema was forced to embrace change and reflect reality. Taboos it had left untouched could no longer be ignored if film was to remain relevant. Families had broken up because of bereavement and adultery.In Heffer on British Film, Simon Heffer puts the case for five films from the decade after the war which show British cinema dealing with gritty social issues and dramatic high standards before the 60s were underway - including It Always Rains on Sunday (1947), The Long Memory (1952), Mandy (1953), Yield to the Night (1956) and the subject of today's essay - The Browning Version (1951).Anthony Asquith's adaptation of Terence Rattigan's unforgettable play. The Browning Version, outlines personal, marital and institutional failure with a clarity and honesty unusual for the time, if not unprecedented. A heart-breaking story of remorse and atonement, The Browning Version is a classic of British realism and the winner of best actor and best screenplay honours at the 1951 Cannes Film Festival. It's set in an English public school on the last day of the summer term. The once-brilliant classicist, Andrew Crocker-Harris, played by Michael Redgrave, is about to leave his post after 18 years because of ill-health, to take a less demanding job and begins to feel that his life has been a failure. His students despise him - the boys and staff alike nick-named him 'The Crock' - and his wife Millie, played by Jean Kent, is carrying on an affair with another master at the school.Diminished by poor health, a crumbling marriage, and the derision of his pupils, the once brilliant scholar is compelled to re-examine his life when an unexpected gesture of kindness from a pupil of a copy of Browning's translation of the Agamemnon overwhelms him and brings a ray of hope. He must confront his utter failures as teacher, husband, and a man. Long-repressed emotion, disappointment and humiliation are released and the way is paved for a series of surprising revelations and decisions.Producer: Mohini Patel.

As part of BBC Radio 3's Sound of Cinema, a week of essays written and presented by historian and columnist Simon Heffer on classic British taboo-breaking films which depicted a society changed profoundly by war.In this first programme Heffer explores the Britain depicted by director Robert Hamer in what he describes as his 'stunning film noir' "It Always Rains on Sunday"."The period between 1945 and 1955," says Heffer, "was when the British cinema started to grow up. The films reflected a world that existed rather than one self-appointed moral arbiters wished existed. The treatment of class became radically different. Hamer brought a mathematician's precision and a poet's touch to his work. He was the most original directorial talent working in Britain, whatever fans of Michael Powell and David Lean might argue. He combined acute visual sense with a regard for and an understanding of the English language, matched by none of his rivals."The cinema of the 30s was nakedly and unashamedly escapist in a way that the cinema of the late 40s and early 50s - in an age of lost innocence and social upheaval - simply couldn't be. Taboos it had left untouched could no longer be ignored if film was to remain relevant. Families had broken up because of bereavement and adultery. Subjects considered unsuitable for a cinema audience - marital breakdown , criminality, revenge, failings in the justice system, and disability - suddenly became popular with British screenwriters and studios. Social realism was the order of the day. And in "It Always Rains on Sunday" from 1947, Hamer depicts a gritty world of shrewish housewives, spivs, chancers, petty thugs and avuncular but determined policemen who patrolled the streets of London's tough Bethnal Green district.

In the final essay of this series, Mike Figgis reflects on the lessons he learned while working on big studio films in Hollywood and on how those experiences shaped his own approach to directing.Mike Figgis is an Academy Award nominated film director, writer, and composer. His films include, Suspension of Disbelief (2013), Love Live Long (2008), Cold Creek Manor (2003), Hotel (2001), Miss Julie (1999), One Night Stand (1997), Leaving Las Vegas (1995), The Browning Version (1994), Internal Affairs (1990) and Stormy Monday (1988).The series is produced by Sasha Yevtushenko.First broadcast in February 2012.

Josie Rourke, the Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, reminds us that working in theatre isn't always plain sailing. In her essay, she looks at what happens when disaster strikes and things go wrong. It's in these situations that a director is truly tested.Josie Rourke trained with directors Peter Gill, Michael Grandage, Nicholas Hytner, Phyllida Lloyd and Sam Mendes. Before coming to the Bush she worked for five years as a freelance director and was the Associate Director of Sheffield Theatres and Trainee Associate Director at the Royal Court. At the Royal Court she directed Loyal Women by Gary Mitchell. She was the tour director of The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler. For the Royal Shakespeare Company she directed Believe What You Will and King John.Rourke was the Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre between 2007 and 2011, where she also directed many of its hits including Nick Payne's If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet. In 2011, Rourke directed a production of Much Ado About Nothing at Wyndham's Theatre, starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate. She became Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse in January 2012 and her first production as director was George Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer.The series is produced by Sasha Yevtushenko.First broadccast in February 2012.

Tony Award-winning director Bartlett Sher explores how a director must search for the play's 'inward sound' when creating theatre.Bartlett Sher has been nominated four times for the Tony Award, winning it in 2009 for the Broadway revival of South Pacific. Sher was previously the Artistic Director at the Intiman Playhouse in Seattle and is now Resident Director at the Lincoln Centre in New York. His recent work in the UK includes the ENO production of Nico Muhly's opera Two Boys.The series is produced by Sasha Yevtushenko.First broadcast in February 2012.

In the second of five essays, the theatre director Emma Rice explores the role of the director as storyteller, and elaborates on the undertaking that transforms a text into a fully-fledged production.Emma Rice is the Joint Artistic Director of Kneehigh Theatre. For Kneehigh, she has directed for The Red Shoes (2002 Theatrical Management Association [TMA] Theatre Award for Best Director); The Wooden Frock (2004 TMA Theatre Award nomination for Best Touring Production); The Bacchae (2005 TMA Theatre Award for Best Touring Production); Tristan & Yseult (2006 TMA Theatre Award nomination for Best Touring Production); Cymbeline (in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company for The Complete Works festival); A Matter of Life and Death (Royal National Theatre production in association with Kneehigh Theatre); Rapunzel (in association with Battersea Arts Centre); Brief Encounter (tour and West End; Studio 54, Broadway); and Don John (in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Bristol Old Vic). She was nominated for the 2009 Olivier Award for Best Director for Brief Encounter.Emma's latest work includes Oedipussy for Spymonkey; Steptoe & Son; the West End production of Umbrellas of Cherbourg; Wah! Wah! Girls for World Stages in association with Sadler's Wells and Theatre Royal Stratford East; and, in spring 2013, The Empress at the RSC.The series is produced by Sasha Yevtushenko.First broadcast in February 2012.

In the first essay of the series, Roger Michell reflects on the mix of emotion he feels on the first day of any production, and beckons us to follow as he travels to the location of his 2012 film Hyde Park on Hudson.A James Cameron film. A Rupert Goold production. The director has become an acclaimed and authoritative figure - even a star in his own right - but the job itself remains the subject of speculation: what does a director actually do? And what is the mysterious 'process' that sees them from idea to first night? In this Essay series, five innovative practitioners of stage and screen reveal the daily grind of a craft which, despite books and interviews on the subject, remains opaque.Roger Michell's career has spanned theatre, television and film. Earlier in his career, he worked at the Royal Court and the RSC, where he eventually became a resident director. He continues to divide his time between theatre and film, and recent stage productions include Rope (The Almeida) and Tribes (Royal Court). For BBC television he directed The Buddha of Suburbia (1993) and Persuasian (1995). Some of his films include Notting Hill (1999), Changing Lanes (2002), The Mother (2003), Enduring Love (2004), Venus (2006) and Morning Glory (2010), as well as Hyde Park on Hudson (2012).The series is produced by Sasha Yevtushenko.First broadcast in February 2012.

Five contemporary novelists examine the craft of Dickens's prose, and reflect on how the giant of British nineteenth-century fiction is both a role model and a shadow looming over their own writing. Taking as their starting point a favourite extract from one of Dickens's novels, each writer discuss Dickens's themes, narrative techniques and writing craft, and tells us what they themselves have learnt from it. They offer thoughtful, unusually engaged and focused critical appreciation of Dickens's skill, as well as valuable insights into their own work and how they themselves wrestle with the subject and technique under discussion. In the final programme in the series, novelist Justin Cartwright reflects on the significant place Christmas occupies in Dickens's work, and argues that this is a direct result of his experiences as a child and not simply an expression of sentiment.First broadcast in December 2011.

Five contemporary novelists examine the craft of Dickens's prose, and reflect on how the giant of British nineteenth-century fiction is both a role model and a shadow looming over their own writing. Taking as their starting point a favourite extract from one of Dickens's novels, each writer discuss Dickens's themes, narrative techniques and writing craft, and tells us what they themselves have learnt from it. They offer thoughtful, unusually engaged and focused critical appreciation of Dickens's skill, as well as valuable insights into their own work and how they themselves wrestle with the subject and technique under discussion. In the fourth programme in the series novelist Alexander McCall Smith salutes Dickens's mastery of the episodic form, something he himself used with great success in his novels 44 Scotland Street, published over several years in a daily newspaper, and Corduroy Mansions, published in daily episodes online.First broadcast in December 2011.

Five contemporary novelists examine the craft of Dickens's prose, and reflect on how the giant of British nineteenth-century fiction is both a role model and a shadow looming over their own writing. Taking as their starting point a favourite extract from one of Dickens's novels, each writer discuss Dickens's themes, narrative techniques and writing craft, and tells us what they themselves have learnt from it. They offer thoughtful, unusually engaged and focused critical appreciation of Dickens's skill, as well as valuable insights into their own work and how they themselves wrestle with the subject and technique under discussion. In the third programme in the series, novelist, essayist and performer A L Kennedy takes an extract from Nicholas Nickleby as her starting point for a provocative exploration of poverty and misery - themes which loom large in Dickens's work, and which are never far from her own fiction.First broadcast in December 2011.

Five contemporary novelists examine the craft of Dickens's prose, and reflect on how the giant of British nineteenth-century fiction is both a role model and a shadow looming over their own writing. Taking as their starting point a favourite extract from one of Dickens's novels, each writer discuss Dickens's themes, narrative techniques and writing craft, and tells us what they themselves have learnt from it. They offer thoughtful, unusually engaged and focused critical appreciation of Dickens's skill, as well as valuable insights into their own work and how they themselves wrestle with the subject and technique under discussion. In the second essay in the series, Booker-shortlisted novelist Romesh Gunesekera takes an extract from David Copperfield as a starting point for an exploration of Dickens's writing about childhood and the move from childhood into adulthood, a theme which has been significant in his own writing.First broadcast in December 2011.

Five contemporary novelists examine the craft of Dickens's prose, and reflect on how the giant of British nineteenth-century fiction is both a role model and a shadow looming over their own writing. Taking as their starting point a favourite extract from one of Dickens's novels, each writer discuss Dickens's themes, narrative techniques and writing craft, and tells us what they themselves have learnt from it. They offer thoughtful, unusually engaged and focused critical appreciation of Dickens's skill, as well as valuable insights into their own work and how they themselves wrestle with the subject and technique under discussion. Beginning the series is Tessa Hadley, writing on Rooms and Reality. Taking as her starting point the description of the Clenham's house in Little Dorritt, she explores how Dickens paints the reality of his world through his characters' houses, and reflects on how significant houses are her own writing. Other writers in the series are A L Kennedy, Alexander McCall Smith, Romesh Gunesekera and Justin Cartwright.First broadcast in December 2011.

Wagner and AdornoProfessor John Deathridge explores the posthumous reputation of Wagner in the 20th Century as seen through the lens of the philosopher Theodor Adorno who had pertinent things to say about Wagner's appropriation by the fascists, his infamous anti-semitism, and the related issues of German culture post-World War 2, the culture industry and mass culture in general.

Wagner and NietzscheMichael Tanner looks at the relationship between two titans of German culture, the 55-year old composer Richard Wagner and the precocious 24-year old philologist, who was destined to become the great philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. Out of their heady late-night chats about Schopenhauer, Euripedes and Socrates came Nietzsche's first book, The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music. The relationship was to darken and turn sour in later years when Nietzsche accused Wagner of "slobbering at the foot of the cross" in his final opera, Parsifal. But to the end Nietzsche was to regard his encounter with Wagner as one of the most important events of his life.

Wagner and SchopenhauerProfessor Christopher Janaway on Wagner's life-changing encounter with the pessimistic philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. In 1854 he read Schopenhauer's masterwork, The World as Will and Representation; and it hit him like a thunderbolt. Wagner discovered a thinker who endorsed his own developing views on the role of music and gave him a new way to think about his perpetual struggles with desire and erotic love. It also convinced him of the futility of political agitation. It can be argued that Wagner bent these ideas to his own purposes; and that Tristan and Isolde, written in the aftermath of this great encounter, is really a Schopenhauerian experiment gone wrong: instead of losing desire and attachment, the two lovers intensify both to the extreme. It was only in his last opera, Parsifal, that Wagner finally produced a music drama that seems in many respects at peace with the ascetic ideal of his philosophical hero, Arthur Schopenhauer.

Wagner and the Philosophy of Revolution:Professor Anthony Grayling looks at the crucial years before and after the Dresden uprising of 1849 when Wagner was manning the barricades with revolutionaries such as Mikhail Bakunin. After the death of the philosopher, Hegel, in 1831, a group of his followers, the Young Hegelians argued that the forces of freedom and reason would continue to conquer everything in their way. Into this heady mix came the attacks on religious orthodoxy of Ludwig Feurbach and the political and economic theories of Proudhon. Wagner drank this all in greedily. And during his years of exile in Switzerland these ideas bubbled away and were reborn in his own philosophical essays concerning the artwork of the future aimed at remaking society along utopian socialist lines.

Wagner and German IdealismProfessor Roger Scruton explores the philosophical background that influenced the young Richard Wagner. The German universities of his youth were in a state of intellectual ferment in the aftermath of the greatest philosopher of modern times, Immanuel kant. Out of this came a school of philosophy known as German Idealism. Wagner was particular influenced by the most famous of these philosophers, Hegel. And, even though Wagner was later to radically revise his philosophical views, the ideas of Hegel can still be traced in his great cycle of music dramas, The Ring: the notion that nothing human is permanent, and all must perish in the spirit's ongoing search for self-knowledge. And the essence of this spirit, Hegel argued, is freedom. Wagner took this idea one step further. Freedom, for Wagner, was not only a political phenomenon, it was also a profound spiritual reality, revealed in the moment of sacrifice.