29 APRIL – 5 MAY 2023

Three popular members of the arts fraternity passed away last week: Harry Belafonte, aged 94, the actor, singer and activist who made a cameo appearance in our film BlacKkKlansman; Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna Everage) and Len Goodman. I had the pleasure of meeting Len Goodman during my time as manager of the Regent. You might recall, in addition to Strictly, he hosted a BBC series called Holidays of My Lifetime. He brought the actor Ian Kelsey back to Lyme Regis and they asked permission to film in the cinema. He was very friendly, affable and came across as quite a modest chap who will be missed by many. 
JOHNNY O’CLOCK (1947) Saturday 29 April 9.30-11.25pm TP (Channel 82)    
Dick Powell made a very successful conversion from a light leading man in 1930s musicals to a cynical, weary character in film noir and private-eye thrillers in the 1940s (RKO’s Murder My Sweet is a classic), before moving into directing and television. Here, he plays a gambler who becomes a murder suspect; the future U-I star Jeff Chandler has an uncredited role. The director whose debut this was is Robert Rossen, who often wrote the scripts as well. Whilst he only directed 10 films, they included Body and Soul (still one of the great boxing films), All the King’s Men and the tremendous Paul Newman film The Hustler. There is an overlap, too, with our film Trumbo – Rossen was blacklisted and one of his other films was The Brave Bulls (1951) which was referenced in that fascinating drama.
THE ROAD DANCE (2021) Monday 1 May 11.00pm-12.55am BBC 2    P         
The Road Dance is a period drama, set in 1916 on the Isle of Lewis. Sensitively directed and well acted, it tells the story of 16-year-old Kirsty (Hermione Corfield), whose life changes radically after a sexual assault. John MacKay wrote the source novel. 
I’M YOUR MAN (2021) Wednesday 3 May 11.15pm-1.25am Film Four    P       
Here is your chance to catch a German comedy that didn’t quite make one of our seasons. Alma (Maren Eggert) agrees to take part in a social/AI experiment where a humanoid robot comes to live with her for three weeks . . . .