During a career spanning 50 years of film-making, from the silent era into the age of television, Alfred Hitchcock became as famous a public figure as any of his stars. Tonight's programme looks at the first 25 years of an extraordinary and prolific : career, with extracts from his early British films, behind- the-scenes shots of Hitchcock at work, and rare home movie material seen here for the first time on television. His complex personality is explored through interviews with those who knew him and worked most closely with him. Hitchcock himself, characteristically droll, appears in interviews filmed at different stages of his career. Featuring actors James Stewart, Joan Fontaine and Teresa Wright; screenwriters and collaborators Charles Bennett, Rodney Ackland, Albert Whitlock, John Michael Hayes and daughter Patricia Hitchcock.
