About

Meet the Family, voiced by Kathy Burke (Nil by Mouth, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), puts cinematic families on the analyst's couch for a deep dive into what makes some of the most dysfunctional dynasties in cinema tick.

How do film-makers go about dramatising the one thing we all have in life - family? How do you know where to start and finish your story about a family, when every family stretches back through infinite generations? Perhaps, like Lars von Trier, you could start with the end of the world. And what about empathy? How do we know who to root for in a film like American Beauty, which only gives us one side of the story?

Through the lens of films as varied as 8 Mile, Do the Right Thing, Tokyo Story, Aliens, Bicycle Thieves, The Hangover III, Dead Ringers, Home Alone, Ratcatcher, Back to the Future and many more, we zoom in on families in film, discovering how film-makers have imagined them on the big screen - and what that tells us about our place in our own families.

About the director

Catherine is a writer/director/producer who has executive produced over 150 short films, mostly for Channel 4's Random Acts, produced the feature essay documentaries Beyond Clueless and Fear Itself, and written and directed a new hour long essay film, Meet The Family, all about how filmmakers have approached families in film, in all their dysfunctional glory, for BBC4. She has also worked as a film critic for titles including Variety, Little White Lies and Sight & Sound.