When you think of the great John Burman, a list of classic films simply spring to mind,

the Taylor of Panama, the general, deliverance, hope and glory, the Emerald Forest, Excalibur,

and of course Point Blank, his classic film with Lee Marvin. He is one of the best directors

Britain has ever produced, and he's a subject of a classic retrospective at the BFI right

now, and he received the BFI Fellowship recently, which is the highest honor that the BFI

can bestow. He lives in Ireland currently, but he came to England to pick up the BFI

Fellowship, and we seized upon the chance to lure him into our port booth and have a chat

about his fantastic career. He was talking to Nick DeSemlin, Phil DeSemlin, and myself

Chris Huett, it is a fantastic interview. Please enjoy.

We are delighted to be joined the pop booth by an affordable legend of British cinema,

Mr. John Burman. Hello, sir. How are you? Well, I'm glad to be here. Thank you for

coming in, such a nice indeed. And because you're over this week, you received a huge

honor the other day, the BFI Fellowship down at the BFI Southbank. What does that mean

to you? Well, it means quite a lot, because the BFI has been a big part of my life when

the National Film Theatre opened in 1951 on the Southbank. I was there, I was 18, and

I haunted the place, watching all the glories of the silent cinema. But I do wonder

if you would have liked to have made, for example, a Excalibur with the techniques that

are now available, or perhaps even the Lord of the Rings might have happened for you.

Had you been... Well, yes, I mean, when I was a United Artists had the rights of Lord

of the Rings, and when I went to them and asked them, I said I wanted to make the film about

the Arthurian legend, and they said, well, we've got Lord of the Rings, why did you do that?

And I spent a long time with Rospa Palemberg, we made a script which is months, and part

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