Discovering Film

I like this show but this is not the first time I've noted the insistence that all positive characteristics or talents are "the best of British", any fool would know Oscar Wilde was Irish. That was not an oversight just another f up unfortunately. Tiring also is the highs and how wonderful every actor is, then there's a hiccup then a graceful retirement. Why not call some actors out for what they were. Some were on hard drugs,ditched their families,promiscuous,jail time its rarely discussed etc Everything is narratee as pompously as possible and every narrator agrees with each other, its beyond scripted.

Towards the end the narrator says he died aged 93 in 1996 when in fact he was 83 as he was born in 1912 which is stated at the beginning, sloppy......

This, and its sister show about directors are both going downhill now the show has moved on from classic Hollywood. Yet there are many legends - such as Jean Arthur and Louise Brooks, to name but two of many, who haven't been covered while mediocre actors who debuted in the 80s are covered. What is there to discover about Emma Thompson, Matthew Broderick, and Julia Roberts? These stars are all relatively fresh, especially as this show is mainly just clips without showing us more of the context like it used to.

I'm also puzzled as to why the show has become so narrowly focused on Hollywood. They used to explore world cinema, with shows on the likes Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale. Now they seem to bypass legends of world cinema.

There's little left to discover in these shows, the magic has gone, but legends past and global icons are still out there to be rediscovered if the programme makers can find the attitude they used to have.

Although generally speaking this is an interesting series about the actors in question it is the barrage of so called experts who can't possibly know the biographical stuff,that spoil it.In particular the Eli Wallach episode has Bonny Greer ,better known as an author and political pundit who appears to know all about Wallach.Who could've guessed? .She's not alone.Various individuals some about 20 years old,seem to know stuff too.Amazing! It's almost as if they'd been fed the stuff. This habit is not confined to this series.If you ever watch rock star biogs on BBC4, it is amazing how much these people know who weren't born until after the subjects career had finished. Could it possibly be a way to get the yoof to watch?

This enjoyable, inclusive series celebrates all actors from Ernest Borgnine, Peter Lorre and Claude Rains to stars such as Jean Simmons, Claudette Colbert and Carole Lombard, to Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Laurence Harvey and Richard Widmark...names etched in the memories of previous generations, and who all deserve their place in the hall of fame of the great actors of the 20th Century.... I was encouraged to write when reading a review below stating the contributors were in their "20's" and were "so called experts" and were picked to appeal to the youth. Inaccuracy is irritating when criticising people and their knowledge on the subject. Hate a programme of course. But these are the 20 year old so-called experts. Derek Malcolm, going to the cinema in the 1950, Guardian film critic over 25 years, a jury member of the Berlin Festival in 1977 & host of a BBC film show in the 80's & one the great British Film Critics who interviewed everyone from Charlie Chaplin to Fritz Lang. Ian Nathan one of the UK's best known film writers, and former executive editor of Empire film magazine, he is the author of Anything You Can Imagine: Peter Jackson. Neil Norman a playwright, and film critic since the 1970's, Bonnie Greer OBE, writer and critic who studied theatre in Chicago under David Mamet, and at the Actors Studio in New York with Elia Kazan in the 1970's brings her passionate and unique perspective of the subjects. Stephen Armstrong writes for the Guardian, the Sunday Times, GQ, Elle, and the New Statesman, as well as appearing on Radio 4 and highly regarded writer and critic.