

Screenshot
BBC Radio 4
Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode guide us through the expanding universe of the moving image revealing fascinating links and hidden gems from cinema and TV to streaming and beyond.
Episodes
Mentioned books

May 13, 2022 • 43min
Doris Day
Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode celebrate one of the great doyennes of Hollywood in what would have been her centenary year. Cultural historian Christopher Frayling joins Mark to revisit the rare career retrospective interview he conducted with Day in 1989. And Ellen speaks to Queer cinema expert Emma Smart and singer Rufus Wainwright about the importance of both Doris Day and Judy Garland, who would also have turned 100 in 2022, to LGBTQIA+ communities.Plus actor and writer Tracy-Ann Oberman shares her favourite Doris Day film in Viewing Notes. Screenshot is Radio 4’s guide through the ever-expanding universe of the moving image. Every episode, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode journey through the main streets and back roads connecting film, television and streaming over the last hundred years.Producer: Hester Cant
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

May 6, 2022 • 42min
Indigenous film
Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore the history of indigenous and native people on screen.In 1922, silent film Nanook of the North was released. Written, directed and filmed by a white man, the docudrama claimed to show the daily life of an Inuit hunter and his family in the Canadian Arctic - but all wasn't quite as it seemed. A century on, Screenshot explores the representation of indigenous people on screen, and who gets to tell their stories, with film critic Jesse Wente who founded the Indigenous Screen Office. Ellen also talks to director Leah Purcell about reimagining the Australian classic, The Drover's Wife, as an Indigenous, feminist Western. And Mark speaks to the producers of Waru, Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton, about their quest to bring Maori and Pasifika stories to a wider audience.
Producer: Marilyn Rust
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Apr 29, 2022 • 43min
The Erotic Thriller
Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore cinema's steamiest genre - the erotic thriller - 30 years on from the release of Basic Instinct. Mark reappraises recent best director Oscar-winner Jane Campion's oft-overlooked 2003 erotic thriller In The Cut, with the help of the film's author and co-screenwriter Susanna Moore and the film critic Maria San Filippo. And Ellen speaks to film historian Karina Longworth and intimacy coordinator Ita O'Brien about the highs and lows of the erotic thriller, and how we're dealing with sex on screen in the 21st century. Also, Basic Instinct 2 star David Morrissey shares his Viewing Notes.Screenshot is Radio 4’s guide through the ever-expanding universe of the moving image. Every episode, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode journey through the main streets and back roads connecting film, television and streaming over the last hundred years. Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Apr 22, 2022 • 43min
The Wire and David Simon
Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore the influence of David Simon and The Wire, as the Baltimore-set opus celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.Beginning his career as a police reporter for the much respected Baltimore Sun, David Simon eventually became disillusioned with changes being made at the paper and spent a year embedded with the Baltimore Police Department’s Homicide Unit. That resulted in the book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, which became the basis for the TV show Homicide: Life On The Street. Simon followed that with another book, The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, which was adapted for TV as The Corner, and then created The Wire, which changed television forever. Simon has since been behind the shows Generation Kill, Treme, The Deuce and The Plot Against America. His latest project We Own This City sees him return to Baltimore, this time to tell the true story of the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force and the corruption surrounding it.Ellen looks at the influence of David Simon’s work with a focus on unconventional casting - Simon repeatedly casts non-actors, and people with first hand experience of the subjects he explores. She speaks with casting director Pat Moran, who has worked alongside Simon on several projects. She also talks to Ronan Bennett and Gerry Jackson. Ronan is the creator and writer of Top Boy and Gerry is the series’ story consultant. Gerry is a fitness trainer but his knowledge of Hackney and connection to the local community helped Ronan to write Top Boy, and to find local talent to feature in the show, in an echo of The Wire. And Mark goes back 20 years to speak to someone who was there when The Wire began. Actor Clarke Peters was on the show for all five seasons, playing fan favourite Detective Lester Freamon and delivering some of the show’s greatest lines. Mark also talks to Professor Liam Kennedy, editor of The Wire: Race, Class, and Genre - a series of essays exploring the show's portrayals of race, drug war policing, deindustrialisation, and the inadequacies of America’s civic, educational, and political institutions.Also, Top Boy star Ashley Walters shares what he’s been watching. Screenshot is Radio 4’s guide through the ever-expanding universe of the moving image. Every episode, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode journey through the main streets and back roads connecting film, television and streaming over the last hundred years.
Producer: Tom Whalley
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Apr 15, 2022 • 43min
Easter
Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones explore Christianity on screen, from faith films to nunsploitation.Mark speaks to priest Father Peter Malone and controversial director Paul Verhoeven about two very different cinematic depictions of the crucifixion - Pasolini's Gospel According to Matthew and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. And Ellen takes a look at nuns in the movies, from The Bells of St Mary's to The Devils, with the help of film critics Sister Rose Pacatte and Pamela Hutchinson. Screenshot is Radio 4’s guide through the ever-expanding universe of the moving image. Every episode, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode journey through the main streets and back roads connecting film, television and streaming over the last hundred years.Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Apr 8, 2022 • 43min
Trains on screen
Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode jump on board to explore the role of trains on our screens.This week sees the release of Compartment No 6 - a strange and touching romance set on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Trains have played a recurring role in film, right from the inception of the genre. Mark is joined by silent film specialist Bryony Dixon and composer Neil Brand to talk about the appeal of the railway for the pioneers of cinema.And Ellen talks to Compartment No 6 director Juho Kuosmanen and critic Anna Smith about the cinematic opportunities for connection, contemplation and romance while riding the rails. Screenshot is Radio 4’s guide through the ever-expanding universe of the moving image. Every episode, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode journey through the main streets and back roads connecting film, television and streaming over the last hundred years.
Producer: Freya Hellier
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Apr 1, 2022 • 43min
Hoaxes, fakes and pranks
Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore hoaxes, fakes and pranks on screen for April Fool's Day.Mark is joined by documentarian Morgan Neville and Anna Bogutskaya for a deep dive into Orson Welles’ 1973 docudrama about forgers and fakery, F for Fake.And Ellen looks back at small screen hoaxes, from the 1970s sci-fi mockumentary Alternative 3 to the terrifying BBC1 Halloween drama Ghostwatch via a sprinkling of Noel's House Party, with the help of writers David Ambrose and Mark Gatiss.Also, critic and filmmaker Mark Cousins shares his Viewing Notes.
Screenshot is Radio 4’s guide through the ever-expanding universe of the moving image. Every episode, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode journey through the main streets and back roads connecting film, television and streaming over the last hundred years.
Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Jan 28, 2022 • 43min
Sesame Street and kids' TV
Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street is released in the UK on 31 January. This feature length documentary provides a rare window into the first years of the ground-breaking children’s TV show.
Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode embrace the nostalgia of the television that shaped their childhoods.
Mark explores the impact of Sesame Street with Street Gang’s director, Marilyn Agrelo. He also reflects on one of the UK’s most popular children’s TV programmes, Play School, with one of its beloved presenters, Baroness Floella Benjamin.
And Ellen tests her theory concerning a unique connection between the world’s most popular children’s Youtube channels and early cinema with film historian, Pamela Hutchinson.
Screenshot is Radio 4’s guide through the ever-expanding universe of the moving image. Every episode, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode journey through the main streets and back roads connecting film, television and streaming over the last hundred years.
Producer: Hester Cant
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Jan 21, 2022 • 42min
Boiling Point and the one-take film
The adrenaline-inducing film Boiling Point is out in cinemas and online. Shot in a single take on a single night at a London restaurant, the movie has inspired Ellen and Mark to take a closer look at one-shot films and those that appear to be. What does the one-shot do for a movie? Is it any more than showing off?Boiling Point stars Stephen Graham as an under-pressure chef whose life is unravelling over a busy night in the restaurant. Ellen talks to director Philip Barantini, himself a former chef, about his decision to film the feature as a “oner” and the pressures that caused. On the front page of the script for 1917 Sam Mendes had written, "This is envisioned as a single shot,". Mark speaks to legendary cinematographer Roger Deakin about how he realised the director's vision for the First World War epic.And, fresh from her victory at the British Independent Film Awards, Boiling Point star Vinette Robinson shares what she’s been watching in Viewing Notes.Screenshot is Radio 4’s guide through the ever-expanding universe of the moving image. Every episode, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode journey through the main streets and back roads connecting film, television and streaming over the last hundred years.Producer: Marilyn Rust
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Jan 14, 2022 • 43min
Nightmare Alley and film noir
Film noir Nightmare Alley is released next week. It's director Guillermo del Toro's remake of the 1947 film - a baroque tale of carnival hucksters, psychiatrists and betrayal.Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore the connections sparked by Nightmare Alley and film noir. Mark speaks to Guillermo del Toro about his five favourite classic noir films, including Fallen Angel and Born to Kill. And Ellen looks at how neo-noir movies subverted and reframed the genre from the 1970s onwards, with the help of critics Imogen Sara Smith and Amon Warmann.Screenshot is Radio 4’s guide through the ever-expanding universe of the moving image. Every episode, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode journey through the main streets and back roads connecting film, television and streaming over the last hundred years.Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4


