Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema

In a revealing look at one of the defining genres of British cinema, Mark argues that comedy films win laughs by tapping into our abiding national preoccupations. We love to root for the underdog or 'little man', a key figure who appears in countless guises. We delight in seeing class and manners satirised and subverted. We’re fascinated by films that mix comedy and crime. We enjoy home-grown pastiches and parodies that take the big beasts of Hollywood down a peg. And then there’s the infamous phenomenon of the British sex comedy... From side-splitting classics to overlooked gems, Mark shows how making fools of ourselves can make for seriously good cinema.

Mark looks at a genre combining his twin passions; music & movies. Pop movies encompass many forms, from drama and comedy to fantasy and documentary, producing some of the most potent, emotive moments in popular culture. There’s the classic pop star vehicle, where the biggest acts play themselves, or a version of themselves, in exuberant films promoting their brand and help sell their music. Then there's pop biopics, dramatised accounts of the stars’ lives, dazzling us with musical set pieces while playing on our fascination with fame's darker side. Even rock documentaries, or 'rockumentaries', feature recurring themes and situations, both on and off stage. We also see what happens when actors play musicians, or when musicians take on acting roles, and celebrate some of the true cinematic oddities coming from pop stars putting their wildest ideas on screen. Rebellion, romance, anarchy, excitement. Mark shows how the fusion of pop music and movies has been a double act like no other.

Mark Kermode invites you on an entertaining journey into the weird and wonderful world of cult movies, filled with some of the strangest, most truly original and unexpected moments in cinema. Film-makers don’t decide what becomes a cult movie, argues Mark. We - the audience - do. Mark looks at the qualities a film needs to acquire cult status, and the main types of cult movie, from films that are so bad they’re good, to groundbreaking masterpieces of foreign language cinema. Some cult films set out to shock and break taboos; others are camp classics embraced by audiences who find new or hidden meanings in them. Mark also explores the strange phenomenon of cult films about actual cults, and looks at the future of cult cinema in an age when even the most obscure and offbeat movie is just a download away.