Painters and Painting

2025 marks 250 years since the birth of JMW Turner - the great 19th century landscape artist, whose expressive, atmospheric paintings transformed British art. His life and genius was also unforgettably brought to the screen in Mike Leigh’s 2014 film Mr Turner, starring Timothy Spall. Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode look at the long relationship between cinema and painting. Mark speaks to cultural historian Professor Sir Christopher Frayling on Hollywood's approach to the history of art, from Kirk Douglas as Van Gogh to Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo. He then talks to actor Timothy Spall on how playing JMW Turner led to a parallel career as a painter. Ellen explores the relationship between painting and cinematography with cinematographer Sir Roger Deakins. She also speaks to artist Cathy Lomax on the painterly in cinema - and the cinematic in painting. Producer: Jane Long A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

You can listen to Painters and Painting online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Painters and Painting is an episode from Screenshot by BBC.

This episode is 42:28 long.

This episode was published on Oct 3, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Screenshot when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.