Terence Davies

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode celebrate the life and career of the much-loved Liverpudlian screenwriter and director Terence Davies, who died earlier in 2023 at the age of 77.

From an astonishing trilogy of early short films, to his final feature, 2021’s Benediction, Terence Davies seamlessly blended personal recollections with wider essential truths. His subjects ranged from autobiographically inspired portraits of postwar working-class life in Liverpool in films like Distant Voices Still Lives and The Long Day Closes, to intimate portraits of real-life authors, most remarkably the American poet Emily Dickinson in A Quiet Passion.

Mark speaks to Scottish actor Jack Lowden, who played poet Siegfried Sassoon in Benediction, about his relationship with Davies. He also talks to critic and historian Lillian Crawford about why the director's work resonates so deeply for so many.

And Ellen discusses Davies' relationship to his hometown with two fellow Scousers - author and screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce, and actor Tina Malone, who starred in The Long Day Closes.

Producer: Jane Long A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4