You might expect James Bond's London town-house to be securely guarded, so it took a flurry of e-mails and some guest-list confusion with the doorman to be ushered into the elegant home of Eon Productions, at the Hyde Park Corner end of Piccadilly, for the Launch of the 15th Bradford International Film Festival (on Thursday 26th February 2009). What, you may ask, is the connection between an annual celebration of cinema in a Northern metropolis and the world's longest-running and most lu...

You might expect James Bond's London town-house to be securely guarded, so it took a flurry of e-mails and some guest-list confusion with the doorman to be ushered into the elegant home of Eon Productions, at the Hyde Park Corner end of Piccadilly, for the Launch of the 15th Bradford International Film Festival (on Thursday 26th February 2009). What, you may ask, is the connection between an annual celebration of cinema in a Northern metropolis and the world's longest-running and most lucrative ...

I felt like Liza Minnelli, when she used to sing that saga entitled "Ring them bells" which underlined how after roaming the world you will find love on your doorstep,or with a nearby neighbour.Although hailing from Yorkshire, and for some years contributing to the Bradford Film Festival, I had actually never ever attended the Leeds International Film Festival.(At the National Museum of Photography Film and Television,that was not encouraged- though the current director of the Leeds Festival,a c...