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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Front Row: Films 'based on a true story'

Films 'based on a true story'

28/12/2010

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Films 'based on a true story'

Kirsty Lang reports on why so many films and TV dramas are 'Based on a True Story'.

Kirsty Lang on why the phrase 'Based on a True Story' is so appealing to film-makers and TV producers, and interviews with Peter Weir, Peter Morgan and Hilary Swank.

2010 saw a large number of films that were based on real events, individuals or true stories, including Eat Pray Love, Made in Dagenham, The Social Network and Mr Nice. Early 2011 sees the release of Danny Boyle's 127 Hours about the mountaineer Aron Ralston who cut off his own arm after being trapped in a canyon by a boulder, and Conviction, starring Hilary Swank, about a woman who dedicated her life to overturning her brother's real-life conviction for murder.

Kirsty Lang talks to film-makers Peter Weir and Danny Boyle; actress Hilary Swank; screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who wrote The Social Network, about the origins of Facebook; Peter Morgan, whose writing credits include The Queen; Ronan Bennett, co-writer of The Hamburg Cell; and producers Alison Owen and Jeff Pope about the boom in films based on true stories.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.

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