It happened one night in February 1935 that a film, that had been largely ignored by the critics, romped for the first time in Oscar history to all five top awards. In this final programme in the current series, Paul Gambaccini tells the story of the triumph of “It Happened One Night”. It was the ‘sleeper hit’ of 1934, that captured for its stars Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable the Oscars for best acting, and for its director, the soon-to-be legendary Frank Capra, the best director gong. The story of how and why Colbert almost missed the Tinseltown ceremony and Clark Gable only made the film because his boss wanted to punish him are two of the surprising twists in the story of this Depression-era classic romantic comedy.

Producer: Simon Elmes Show less