Clint Eastwood's 1992 film Unforgiven, starring Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman and Eastwood himself as both actor and director, won the Best Picture Oscar.

Paul Gambaccini reflects on Clint’s extraordinary career, from the epitome of the lonesome cowboy to respected Hollywood director.

When the screenplay of Unforgiven landed on his desk, he optioned it, then sat on it for two decades, developing his directoral skills, gathering a team of experts around him at Malpaso Productions, and waiting till he himself was the right age to take the leading role.

Film editor Joel Cox, cinematographer Jack N Green, actor Jaimz Woolvett and screen writer David Webb Peoples tell of the experience of working with a legend as director and star.

While biographer Richard Schickle, and critics David Thomson and Kenneth Turan ruminate on how Clint Eastwood, the eternal cowboy, became Best Picture director.

Series about how some of the greatest Oscar-winning films were made, and what they tell us about the history of the time.

Producer: Sarah Jane Hall

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2010. Show less