BBC Four kickstarts film seasons with a focus on RKO Pictures

The first film season will focus on RKO Pictures, one of the Big Five major film studios of the Hollywood Golden Age with BBC Four scheduling the seminal six-part series The RKO Story: Tales From Hollywood presented by Edward Asner. The documentary reveals the behind the scenes stories of RKO Pictures and features interviews with stars which include Katharine Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Robert Mitchum, Lucille Ball and Jean Simmons.

It will begin on Thursday 21 April and will be the first time the critically acclaimed series will be shown on the BBC in over a decade. To accompany the series, audiences will be able to watch a selection of RKO films that will be scheduled to air on BBC Four and will be available on iPlayer.

The films, which will also begin from 21 April and chosen to air alongside corresponding episodes of the documentary where they are discussed, include King Kong, Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House, The Outlaw, Top Hat, The Gay Divorce, Bringing Up Baby, My Favourite Wife, Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Suspicion, Angel Face, Cat People, I Walked With A Zombie and The Thing From Another World.

BBC Four is the home of the archive and the purpose of the film seasons are to unearth notable, distinctive series that provides audiences with the opportunity to watch rare, complementary programming.

Later this year, BBC Four will be scheduling film seasons with complementary documentaries that commemorate Hollywood Women, Black History Month and the Best of British.

BW2

Notes to Editors

• There will be no episode of The RKO Story: Tales From Hollywood on 28 April due to live sport on BBC Four. The documentary will begin again on 5th May with episodes airing weekly.