Westerns

Once upon a time in the cinema, about one fifth of all Hollywood releases were cowboy films, and the Western dominated so much that it seemed that every major star would pull on a Stetson, saddle up and - if they were lucky - ride off into the sunset. In this episode of Talking Pictures, Sylvia Syms looks back through the BBC’s archives to tell the story of what is perhaps cinema’s most enduring and most visual genre. It’s a tale covering the golden age of the 1940s and 50s, the European influence of the spaghetti westerns, and the stars that keep the western alive and popular even today, told through classic interviews with some of the biggest names to ever draw a six-shooter, including Gary Cooper, James Stewart, Yul Brynner, Paul Newman and, of course, the two giants of the genre, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.