Cinema Essentials

Based on the novels by Bernard Cornwell, the TV series Sharpe  provided Sean Bean with his most famous role as Richard Sharpe, a British army officer fighting against the French during the Napoleonic Wars. The series followed Sharpe's wartime exploits across 14 feature-length television films, originally broadcast between 1993 and 1997. These were followed by two additional two-part stories set in India and broadcast in 2006 and 2008. 

The Young Alfred Hitchcock's Moviemaking Masterclass  explores Alfred Hitchcock's approach to filmmaking from almost every angle, breaking the process down into its essential elements. These include scripting, casting, working with actors, camera work, editing and set design. The author also looks at the director's use of sound, music - including both music scores and diegetic music - and even film promotion and marketing, appropriately calling Hitchcock not only the master of suspense, but also "the master of marketing". The book also looks at Hitchcock's working methods and preferences, including his working with screenwriters to develop stories into scripts, his storyboarding of particular sequences and even his visualising of a film before it was made, with Hitchcock often claiming that actually making the film was the dull part.

Peter Sellers was one of the great comedy stars, and one of the great comic character actors, of the 20th century. Originally coming to prominence in the 1950s in the BBC radio series The Goon Show , his remarkable repertoire of voices soon found him coming to the attention of film makers. 

Yes, it's the return of Movie Quiz, back after a break of an amazing 3 years.  This time we have 12 films all featuring famous actors playing policemen or women. How many can you name?  I'm rating this quiz as moderately difficult. The answers are at the bottom of the page.