 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
| |
SHEPPERTON BABYLON
Wednesday 7 June 2006 9pm-10pm; rpt 12.20am-1.20am; 3.10am-4.10am; Saturday 10 June 12.40am-1.40am (Fri night) |
|
|
|
A secret history of British cinema's golden age, telling how the rise of the talkie went hand-in-hand with a new interest in celebrity gossip.
The film studios of London are awash with cocaine-fuelled sex, extortion, suicides, and bizarre accidental deaths - not to mention the behind-the-scenes dramas that don't make it into the Sunday papers. It's the 1930s; the British talkie has just been born.
For nine brief years the British film industry went into overdrive - new stars burned like comets, old stars faded from view. The industry was invaded by chancers, pornographers, fraudsters and conmen. And the cause? An insignificant-sounding piece of paper called the Cinematographic Act (1927), which forced cinemas to show British films.
With the birth of the talkies came a new kind of film star - the kind that talked, that cinema audiences felt they knew personally. The silent era had allowed stars to keep more of their secrets - to hide behind identities invented for them by the studios. Now they had to be heard as well as seen, such deceptions were more difficult to maintain. The film reveals how the press helped to foster a sense of closeness to this new generation of stars, only to exploit the most intimate details of their private lives, feeding a public appetite for scandal, and creating modern celebrity culture.
The lives of the actors and actresses may have been scandalous, but they were more than matched by the sleazy behaviour of producers and directors. We'll reveal what was going on away from the prying eyes of the press, with tales from the casting couches at Elstree Studios to the high-society drinking clubs where film stars went to buy wraps of cocaine.
Shepperton Babylon is based on Matthew Sweet's eponymous book and the documentary is narrated by Charlie Higson.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
