2. The British are Coming!

Available for over a year

Director Sir Christopher Nolan and cultural historian Sir Christopher Frayling continue their story of the Adland Five – five British directors who burst into Hollywood in the 1970s and 1980s, having transformed the world of advertising. Hugh Hudson, Adrian Lyne, Alan Parker, Ridley and Tony Scott changed the look and feel of modern cinema, bringing the visual grammar of their TV ads – 30-second spots for beer, brandy and beef burgers – to the big screen. Ridley Scott was the first of the group to make a seismic impact in Hollywood with Alien in 1979. But in this episode, the focus turns to 1982. Scott’s Blade Runner, released that year, was not an immediate success, but would go on to transform the look of cinema – and advertising – with its rain-soaked cityscapes and luminous billboards. For Nolan, the atmosphere, imagery and scope of Alien and Blade Runner would shape his own approach to world-building in films like The Prestige and The Dark Knight. And also in 1982, Chariots of Fire won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film’s vision of British Olympic glory became an international phenomenon, but its evocation of national identity in the early years of Thatcher’s Britain raised as many questions as it answered. So when screenwriter Colin Welland declared at the Oscars, “The British are coming!”, was he right? Together, Christopher Nolan and Christopher Frayling argue for a reappraisal of the Adland Five – as pioneering cinematic subversives, whose instinct for spectacle and mastery of audience engagement was forged in the discipline of the television commercial. Producer - Jane Long Executive Producer - Freya Hellier Additional research - Edward Charles, Heather Dempsey and Queenie Qureshi-Wales Sound mix - Jon Calver A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4