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Alexander Graham Bell made the first ever telephone call 150 years ago this spring. That single moment of connection would transform communication - and provide storytellers with a rich device for drama, comedy, intimacy and tension. Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode trace the history of the phone on screen, and examine how the movies have handled the thorny problem of the smartphone.
Mark speaks to author and critic Kim Newman about some of the most iconic telephone calls in cinema, from Dr Strangelove to Scream.
Meanwhile, Ellen delves into how film and TV are responding to the smartphone age, with the help of critic Kayleigh Donaldson. And she speaks to American filmmaker Janicza Bravo, whose 2015 film Zola made inventive use of the cellphone.
Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode swap film reels for fishing reels, to ponder why fishing onscreen has got us hooked. The net is cast wide to consider everything from industrial scale fleets showcased in films like The Perfect Storm and long running series, Deadliest Catch, to more leisurely endeavours like The River Runs Through It, and the BBC’s Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing.
With guests, Mark Jenkin, John Lurie and Gagga Jónsdóttir.
Mark speaks to Cornish film director Mark Jenkin about why fishing has continued to have such a strong presence in his films, and how the industry has often been romanticised onscreen. Jenkins 2019 feature debut Bait dramatised clashes between tourists and locals in a once flourishing fishing village, and in his newest film, Rose of Nevada, a fishing vessel lost for 30 years mysteriously reappears in a derelict harbour.
The actor, painter and frequent Jim Jarmusch collaborator, John Lurie, shares with Ellen how his 90s cult TV show, Fishing With John, hauled away the conventions of late night cable fishing shows, and what it was like onboard with the actors, Dennis Hopper and Willem Defoe.
Ellen also talks to the Icelandic writer-director, Gagga Jónsdóttir, about her documentary, Strengur, and some of her unexpected cinematic sources of inspiration. The film follows the journey of four teenage girls challenging traditional gender roles on the River Laxá, as seventh generation angling guides.
Producer: Mae-Li Evans
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

As a new adaptation of Emily Bronte's Yorkshire-set novel Wuthering Heights hits cinemas, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode look at how the area known as God's Own Country has been depicted in film and television.
Mark speaks to Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker about his love for the 1969 Ken Loach film Kes, and about why the city of Sheffield was the perfect setting for the post-apocalyptic TV drama Threads.
And Mark also speaks to Clio Barnard - the writer-director behind such acclaimed films as The Arbor, The Selfish Giant and Ali & Ava - about why she is repeatedly drawn to Yorkshire in her film-making.
Meanwhile, Ellen talks to Sally Wainwright, the prolific TV writer who has made her name with a series of insightful, essential television dramas set in Yorkshire, from At Home with the Braithwaites to Riot Women.
Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

For more than six decades, in the face of censorship and even imprisonment, Iranian filmmakers have produced some of the world’s best-loved cinema. And now, with the legendary Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s latest film It Was Just An Accident up for Oscar and BAFTA Awards, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode review this extraordinarily rich and unique cinema history.
Mark speaks to the British-Iranian director Babak Anvari about his supernatural-thriller film Under the Shadow, inspired by his experiences growing up during the Iran-Iraq War, and how and why Iranian cinema has had such a huge impact on film culture.
Ellen talks to Sepideh Farsi, who was forced to leave Iran for Paris as a teenager, about her 2009 documentary, Tehran Without Permission, which she made entirely independently on a Nokia cameraphone.
And Ellen also meets Hassan Nazer, an Aberdeen-based Iranian director who came to the UK as a refugee and whose 2022 film Winners is a love-letter to his country’s film-making tradition.
Producer: Artemis Irvine
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

From Norma Desmond to Mrs Robinson, the older woman has long been a provocative icon of cinema. And older woman-younger man relationships are still raising eyebrows and garnering headlines, thanks to recent films like Babygirl, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy and Marty Supreme.
Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode look at what happens when the woman is older in an age gap relationship, and ask - why is the older woman still such a provocative proposition?
Ellen speaks to critic and cosmopolitan older woman Anne Billson about the evolution of the older woman through film history, from Sunset Boulevard to Something's Gotta Give.
Mark talks to actor Anne Reid about her controversial first lead film role, in 2003's The Mother - about a sexagenarian grandmother who starts a relationship with her daughter's boyfriend, played by Daniel Craig.
And Mark also talks to Matt Greenhalgh, the screenwriter behind Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool, which told the story of Hollywood star Gloria Grahame's real late-in-life romance with the 28-year-old Liverpudlian actor Peter Turner.
Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4