Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema — Season 2

The film critic uncovers the cinematic secrets of arguably the biggest genre of the moment - the superhero movie. Drawing on films stretching back more than eight decades, he reveals how these popcorn adventures tap into timeless themes and storytelling traditions, and explores the key elements of all such movies - origins, superpowers, costumes, secret identities, villains and sacrifice.

Mark looks at some of the best films about British history in the order of when they are set, tracing the story of Britain from the Roman invasion to the modern era, via medieval times, the Tudors, the Civil War and the 18th and 19th centuries.

The critic enters a deadly world of jet-setting espionage, double agents and sinister conspiracies as he decodes that most thrilling of genres - the spy movie.