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From Butch and Sundance to Maverick and Goose, Woody and Buzz to Frodo and Sam, male friendships have long been at the heart of many of our favourite screen stories. But in recent years, stories about male friendship seem to have taken on new significance. They’ve become a way of exploring emotional vulnerability and what it means to be a man in an era shaped by debates around the manosphere, toxic masculinity and the male loneliness epidemic. Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode revisit some of film and TV’s most memorable male pairings, and ask how today’s filmmakers are responding to what many describe as a crisis of masculinity. Ellen speaks to critic Matt Schimkowitz, staff writer at US website The AV Club, about how male friendships have featured in Hollywood movies, from classic comedy double acts like Laurel & Hardy and Abbott & Costello, to the chaotic camaraderie of the Jackass movies. Mark speaks to writer-director Bruce Robinson, who mined his own very personal experiences of male friendship to create the cult 1987 film Withnail & I, about two out-of-work actors living in Camden Town at the end of the 1960s. And Mark also speaks to Jack Rooke, creator of the Channel 4 comedy-drama Big Boys, which found fresh emotional depth in the familiar male ‘odd-couple’ dynamic. Drawing on Jack’s own time at university in the early 2010s, the series concluded in 2025 with a highly-acclaimed episode sensitively exploring the long shadow cast by suicide. Producer: Jane Long A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

On the 40th anniversary of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode look at films that confine their action to a single day (and occasionally, night). From the high-stakes urban odyssey of Martin Scorsese's After Hours to the quiet contemplation of Agnès Varda's Cléo from 5 to 7, what difference does a day make to cinema?Ellen talks to screenwriter and novelist David Nicholls, whose international bestseller One Day followed a couple who meet on 15th July 1988, revisiting their lives on the same date every year for the next two decades.She also talks to creative writing professor and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Kim Krizan, who co-wrote Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, the first two films in director Richard Linklater's time-constrained romantic drama trilogy. Meanwhile, Mark speaks to writer-director and Ferris Bueller superfan Emma Seligman, whose breakthrough feature Shiva Baby wrought extraordinary tension and comedy from the course of a single afternoon. And Mark also speaks to Danish-Norwegian director Joachim Trier. Now perhaps best known for Oscar nominees Sentimental Value and The Worst Person In The World, Trier made one of modern cinema's finest single-day films with 2011's Oslo, August 31st, which follows recovering heroin addict Anders over the course of a day and night. Producer: Jane Long A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode look at one of the most beloved screen genres of them all - the courtroom drama. From classics like 12 Angry Men and A Few Good Men, to modern examples such as Saint Omer and Anatomy Of A Fall - what are the tricks and tropes of trials in cinema and TV?Mark speaks to film critic and programmer, Christina Newland, about the history of the genre. They discuss everything from To Kill a Mockingbird to Legally Blonde as they examine how the genre has evolved.Ellen then speaks to critic Kim Newman about how TV courtroom dramas and reality TV turn audiences into jurors themselves. Ellen also speaks to Ronald Gladden, the star of the TV show, Jury Duty. Producer: Queenie Qureshi-Wales A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore a once-popular genre of cinema which flourished in the mid-20th Century with films like Now Voyager, Mildred Pierce and All That Heaven Allows, and is still alive and kicking today - albeit often in unexpected ways.Ellen speaks to film critic Pamela Hutchinson about the melodramatic women's pictures of the 1930s, 40s and 50s, and about why the melodrama genre may be thriving in the current day, in the form of the male melodrama. Meanwhile, Mark talks to two directors from either side of the Atlantic, both well acquainted with the 21st century melodrama.British-Moroccan director Fyzal Boulifa talks about the influence of a 1950s Joan Crawford melodrama noir on his 2022 indie film The Damned Don't Cry, and about the post-revolutionary roots of the melodrama form. And American indie darling Todd Haynes discusses how melodrama runs through his filmography, from 2002's Far From Heaven, which reimagined the world of director Douglas Sirk for a 21st Century audience, to the ‘queer-melodrama’ classic Carol.Producer: Jane Long A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Mark and Ellen celebrate 50 years of the ground breaking TV drama, The Naked Civil Servant. Mark speaks to Rob Halford of Judas Priest about how The Naked Civil Servant changed his life. Mark then talks to filmmaker and drag queen Amrou Al-Kadhi about how forward thinking the show was and its influence on their own work. Ellen talks to historian Stephen Bourne about the impact of The Naked Civil Servant on British television.Producer: Jane Long A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Viewers are so used to seeing death and dying on screen, often in dramatic or unrealistic ways. Ellen and Mark explore how films and TV are drawn to personifications of death, why we need more realistic depictions and who is making them. Mark speaks to film critic Kim Newman about the way in which personifications of death have been portrayed throughout cinema history, from The Seventh Seal to the Final Destination series. Mark then talks to director Kristen Johnson about her film, Dick Johnson is Dead.Ellen talks to academic Michele Aaron about how death and dying has been depicted in film and if we need more realistic depictions.Producer: Hester Cant A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4