Discovering Film

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.

Why is that american in the series talking about Sean Connery? She doesn't seem to know anything about him and just says the most general things anyone can say about films and acting. The other commentators speak with enthusiasm about Sean Connery but she seems quite clueless. Has she seen any of his films? It's embarrassing to watch.

It's obvious the people roped into to comment on the actors are chosen for certain reasons. Not because they are experts on the subject but because they fit the type of person which is fashionable to have onboard. So it is more important to have talking heads that match a certain type of person rather than for their expertise. The whole thing weakens the series and it cannot be deemed as a serious source of information regarding classic films.

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.

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.

Great series apart for Ian Nathan say you know all the time. 27 times when spwaking of Ian Hendry and arms all over th place making the same meaningless gestures.