474 Film **

First  viewed :  30  December  1980

I  first  caught  this  long  running  BBC  staple  at  the  end  of  1980  when  a  review  of  the  films  of  the  year  followed  a  highlights  compilation  from  the  latest  series  of  Not  The  Nine  O  Clock  News  on  BBC 1. It  was  probably  the  first  time  it  had  been  on  at  a  decent  hour. I  think  I  had  been  to  the  cinema  earlier  that  day. I  had  wanted  to  see  Airplane  with  my  friend  Michael  but  he  had  declined  the  suggestion  so  I  went  by  myself. I  couldn't  get  into  Airplane   so  ended  up  watching  the  extended  edition  of  Close  Encounters  of  the  Third  Kind  instead. I  remember  the  programme  spent  a  lot  of  time   bigging  up  Being  There , the  last  film  of  the  recently  deceased  Peter  Sellers.

It  had  already  been  running  for  nearly  ten  years . Film  71  started  out  as  a  regional  programme  in  the  south  east  with  a  variety  of  presenters, including  Jacky  Gillott  who  had  committed  suicide  earlier  in  1980 , but  since  Film  72   it  had  been  a  late   night  national  programme  with  a  regular  presenter  in  Barry  Norman.

Barry  Norman  was  the  peoples'  critic, with  a  vaguely  liberal  world  view  and  a  willingness  to  go  against  the  grain  with  his  honest  opinions  for  example  disdaining  Blue  Velvet  or    Robert  Redford's  Oscar-nominated  performance  in  Out  of  Africa . Though  he  generally  gave  short  shrift  to  Michael  Winner's  films, he  did  back  him  in  the  censorship  row  over  scenes  in  The  Wicked  Lady.  It's  a  shame  that  when  interviewing  Hollywood  royalty  he  became  unnecessarily  obsequious. It  was  hard  to  watch  him  tell  Michelle  Pfeiffer  she  was  one  of  the  most  beautiful  women  in  the  world  or  Tom  Cruise  that  he  should  have  won  the  Best  Actor  for  Rain  Man  rather  than  Hoffman  , without  squirming..

Of  course  reviewing  several  films  a  week  for  a  year  was  a  tall  order  so  Bazza  was  allowed  a  number  of  sabbaticals. Among  the  stand-ins  I  recall  were  Iain  Johnstone  the  original  producer  of  the  series  in  1982, Michael  Parkinson,  who  walked  out  of  the  gory  medieval  saga  Flesh  and  Blood,  in  1986  and  Russell  Harty  who  I  recall  waxing  lyrical  about  The  Colour  of  Money  in  1987.

Barry  Norman  quit  in  1998  to  work  for  Sky  instead. He'd  long  been  annoyed  by  the  programme  being  bounced  around  the  schedules  and  at  65  probably  had  an  intimation  his  time  would  be  up  soon  anyway. His  place  was  taken  by  Jonathan  Ross. I  thought  Ross  was  a  reasonable  choice  because  he  certainly  had  a  deep  interest  in  film  even  if  his  tastes  were  a  bit  leftfield  but  somehow  I  got  out  of  the  habit of  watching  it  during  his  tenure. It  was  interrupted  by  his  suspension  over  "Sachsgate"  which  I'm  gobsmacked  to  realise   is  now  eight  years  ago ! He  left  two  years  later  to  be  replaced  by  Claudia  Winkleman  and  co-host  Danny  Leigh.  Empire  magazine   trashed  her  in  an  article  as  a  lightweight  who  would  dumb down  and  perhaps  doom  the  programme but  she's  held  her  own  so  far.

Barry  Norman  was  three  years  at  Sky  before  retiring  in  2001.