Welcome to our programme

Please join us for a feast of great drama as we big-screen the whole of Series 2 of Steven Knight’s gangster drama Peaky Blinders, starring Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Sam Neill and Helen McCrory.

Entrance is free. The famous Richard Booth’s Bookshop Café will be serving refreshments throughout the day.

The screenwriter and creator of the hit gangster drama talks about the Selby family, tribal war, and the crime-world of post-war Birmingham. Knight is screenwriter of Dirty Pretty Things and Locke. Introduced by Caryn Mandabach.

We will also be screening all six episodes of Series 2, starring Cillian Murphy, Sam Neill, Helen McCrory and Tom Hardy, from 1pm at Richard Booths Bookshop Cinema in Hay.

What’s the relationship between a writer and a lead actor? Screenwriter Sally Wainwright and her star Sarah Lancashire have collaborated on Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax. They talk to the BBC’s Creative Director.

The cultural historian demonstrates the rise of China-phobia in popular culture with the help of some film clips. Frayling chronicles the entry of Dr Fu Manchu, known as ‘the yellow peril incarnate in one man’, into world literature a century ago and asks why the idea developed unfairly that China was a threat to Western civilization, and why such images continue to distort our image of its people. Frayling also explains how we neglect the history of popular culture at our peril if we are to understand our deepest desires and fears. Chaired by Sarah Crompton.

We are thrilled to welcome the inspired and hilarious improv show in which Eric and a cast of comics act out a famous movie. They’ve done Die Hard, Pretty Woman, all the Harry Potters, and for tonight they want the Hay audience to choose the movie. Let us know what you’d like them to take on – we’ll go with the best nomination on our Facebook page.

Update 15.05.15 - Film Choice is Mary Poppins.

The prolific and inspiring creator of game-changing books, comics, films and songs talks about his work. His latest book is Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances.

Come and join us in the late Georgian-Gothic setting of St Mary’s Church for a special screening of FW Muranu’s great 1922 classic silent movie, with live organ accompaniment by Richard Williams. The screening raises money for the church organ. Numbers are limited. 

Just because you can say funny things doesn’t mean you can write funny things. Three of the best comedy writers spill the beans on what makes a good script. The writers Will Smith (The Thick of It and Veep) and Steve Punt (The Now Show, The Mary Whitehouse Experience) talk to Marcus Brigstocke.

The historian and author of The Story of the Jews introduces a screening of André Singer’s documentary. When Allied forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps, their terrible discoveries were recorded by army cameramen, revealing for the first time the horror of what had happened. Using British, Soviet, and American footage, the Ministry of Information’s Sidney Bernstein collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock to make a film that would provide evidence of the Nazi’s unspeakable crimes. Yet, despite initial support from the British and US governments, the film was shelved. In this compelling documentary by André Singer (executive producer, The Act of Killing), the full story of the filming of the camps, and the fate of Bernstein’s project, can finally be told.

Come and join us in the late Georgian-Gothic setting of St Mary’s Church for a special screening of Anthony Asquith’s great 1929 classic silent movie, with live organ accompaniment by Richard Williams. The film is a psycho-thriller replete with obsession and jealousy, much influenced by German Expressionism, and is one of British cinema’s most highly regarded silent films, the last to be made in the silent period. The screening raises money for the church organ. Numbers are limited.

The star, screenwriter and producer of the television drama discuss the stories and period of Jennifer Worth’s best-selling books with Virginia Nicholson.

The theatre and film director writes about people, politics and the arts with candour and wit. He talks about Thatcher and Pinter, Brando and Winslet. He has an acute eye for the telling detail that reveals truths about his subjects, and a warm generosity that celebrates the brilliance of his colleagues.

Before becoming the world's most notorious dictator, Kim Jong-Il ran North Korea's film industry. He directed every film made in the country but knew they were nothing compared to Hollywood. Then he hit on the perfect solution: order the kidnapping of South Korea's most famous actress and her ex-husband, the country's most acclaimed director.

In a jaw-dropping mission the couple were kidnapped, held hostage and then 'employed' to make films for the Dear Leader, including a remake of Godzilla. They gained Kim's trust – but could they escape?