From Tony Hancock to Martin Luther King, Yoko Ono to Salman Rushdie, Face to Face interrogated some of the key figures in 20th-century culture. From its start in 1959, to its return 30 years later, it pushed contributors into revealing places and gave insights into their characters. It reduced What’s My Line star Gilbert Harding to tears, and Evelyn Waugh into a sweating heap. It also saw Paul Eddington discussing the cancer that eventually killed him, and Edith Sitwell describing her connection to Dylan Thomas.\n\nDavid Herman, who produced Face to Face on its TV return in 1989, takes us through his memories, including an emotional screening of Spielberg’s Schindler’s List with Jeremy Isaacs and meeting Yoko Ono at the Dakota hotel. David also recalls John Freeman’s groundbreaking original and explains why it was right to resurrect the show. He brings to life a programme that has firmly established itself in British TV history.
Source: BBC 4
Michael Aspel Remembers The War Game
TV presenter Michael Aspel looks back on one of the BBC’s most controversial programmes of the 1960s, The War Game. Directed by Peter Watkins, with Michael providing some ...
30-07-2025
BBC 4
Helen Mirren Remembers The Little Minister
Dame Helen Mirren looks back on one of her earliest television roles in the BBC’s 1975 adaptation of JM Barrie’s The Little Minister, a tale of religion and romance ...
27-07-2025
BBC 4
Helen Mirren Remembers Gosford Park
Helen Mirren looks back on her role in Robert Altman’s acclaimed and multi-award-winning 2001 film Gosford Park, written by Downton Abbey\ncreator Julian Fellowes. The cri ...
24-07-2025
BBC 4
Patrick Marber Remembers After Miss Julie
After years of success in comedy, writing for programmes like The Day Today and various Alan Partridge projects, Patrick Marber took many by surprise when he revealed in 1995 th ...
23-07-2025
BBC 4
Debbie Horsfield Remembers Cutting It
Twenty years ago, BBC viewers found themselves gripped by a tale of personal and professional rivalries, rooted in the perhaps unlikely setting of two competing Manchester hair ...
16-07-2025
BBC 4
Nicholas Shakespeare Remembers Mario Vargas Llosa
Described as one of the finest writers of his generation, Mario Vargas Llosa was at the forefront of South American fiction that made its mark in the mid-20th century. Mining ev ...
14-07-2025
BBC 4
Debbie Horsfield Remembers Poldark
In 2015, Aidan Turner's charismatic portrayal of Ross Poldark set the nation’s viewers’ hearts racing, thanks in no small part to the work of screenwriter and execut ...
09-07-2025
BBC 4
George Gallaccio Remembers Miss Marple
Joan Hickson’s portrayal of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple in the BBC’s 1980s classic adaptations is still considered by fans to be the definitive version of th ...
05-07-2025
BBC 4
Frank Mcguinness And Julie Nicholson Remember A Song For Jenny
Julie Nicholson wrote A Song for Jenny after her daughter was killed in London’s 7 July bombings in 2005. A decade later, Julie’s book was adapted into an acclaimed ...
02-07-2025
BBC 4
Amanda Root And Sophie Thompson Remember Persuasion
Actors Amanda Root and Sophie Thompson look back on their roles in the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion, a story of missed opportunities and lost love. \ ...
26-06-2025
BBC 4
Jimmy Mcgovern Remembers Priest
Screenwriter Jimmy McGovern looks back on his acclaimed, but controversial, 1995 drama Priest, explaining how an initial desire to explore the notion of celibacy for Catholic pr ...
30-04-2025
BBC 4
Laurence Rees Remembers The Nazis: A Warning From History
Laurence Rees' landmark 1997 series explored the reasons why Germany fell in thrall to the Nazis. Combining astonishing archive, storytelling and interviews with figures at the ...
19-05-2025
BBC 4
Adrian Lester Remembers Company
Actor Adrian Lester looks back on the 1996 Donmar Warehouse production of Stephen Sondheim's musical Company. \n\nFirst performed over 50 years ago, Company still has the power ...
30-03-2025
BBC 4
Katharine Schlesinger Remembers Northanger Abbey
Katharine Schlesinger looks back on the filming of the 1987 adaptation of Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen's ode to the gothic and her love letter to literature. \n\nKatharine talk ...
25-06-2025
BBC 4
Romola Garai Remembers Emma
Hot off the heels of her Olivier Award win, actress Romola Garai shares her experiences of filming the popular 2009 series Emma. \n\nThe four-part Austen adaptation was a stunn ...
18-06-2025
BBC 4
Patrick Marber Remembers After Miss Julie
After years of success in comedy, writing for programmes like The Day Today and various Alan Partridge projects, Patrick Marber took many by surprise when he revealed in 1995 th ...
23-07-2025
BBC 4
Debbie Horsfield Remembers Cutting It
Twenty years ago, BBC viewers found themselves gripped by a tale of personal and professional rivalries, rooted in the perhaps unlikely setting of two competing Manchester hair ...
16-07-2025
BBC 4
Jimmy Mcgovern Remembers The Lakes
Writer Jimmy McGovern looks back on The Lakes, his 1997 drama that showed viewers one of Britain’s most-loved beauty spots in a whole new light, riddled with crime, drugs, ...
16-04-2025
BBC 4
Grey Granite With Vivien Heilbron
First broadcast in 1983, Grey Granite was the third and final part of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s A Scots Quair trilogy that the BBC adapted for television. Leading actress Viv ...
26-02-2025
BBC 4
Amanda Root And Sophie Thompson Remember Persuasion
Actors Amanda Root and Sophie Thompson look back on their roles in the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion, a story of missed opportunities and lost love. \ ...
26-06-2025
BBC 4