Free Thinking

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Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

The ideas shaping our lives today - with artists and thinkers in debates and interviews.

The ideas shaping our lives today - with leading artists and thinkers in extended interview and debate.

Free Thinking: Billy Wilder

Billy Wilder

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, Billy Wilder

Matthew Sweet, novelist Jonathan Coe and others discuss the director of Some Like It Hot.

Author Jonathan Coe, Phuong Le, Melanie Williams & Paul Diamond, the son of Wilder's long time writing partner, discuss a career which included Sunset Boulevard & Some Like it Hot.

Mr Wilder & Me is the title of the new novel from Jonathan Coe, who won the Costa Prize for his book Middle England.  He is one of Matthew Sweet's guests in a programme exploring the life and work of the Austrian born director behind Hollywood hits including Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity and Some Like it Hot.  They are joined by film critics Phuong Le and Melanie Williams and Paul Diamond, the son of Billy Wilder's long time writing partner I.A.L. Diamond who worked on scripts for Some Like It Hot; The Apartment (which won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay);  Irma la Douce; and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.

Jonathan Coe's Mr Wilder & Me is out now. 

In the Free Thinking archives and availble to download as Arts & Ideas podcasts you can find Matthew Sweet discussing films including Tarkovksy's Stalker https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0775023
the career of Cary Grant https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hn1z
Silent Film Star Betty Balfour https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04007l1
Laurel and Hardy's The Music Box https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001xwd

You can also find him discussing the stage adaptation of Jonathan Coe's novel The Rotters' Club in an event recorded at the Birmingham Rep Theatre https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b076b15h

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

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