Profile: Sam Mendes, director of Skyfall - the 23rd James Bond film

This year the James Bond film series is celebrating its 50th anniversary and Sam Mendes is the director of the 23rd Bond film, Skyfall.

Radio 4's Profile looks at the life of the British theatre director turned film director who won critical acclaim in Hollywood with five Oscars for his first film American Beauty, which starred Kevin Spacey.

Profile presenter Mary Ann Sieghart speaks to Dame Judi Dench, who Sam Mendes directed at just aged 24 in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, and from actor Simon Russell Beale, who reveals the delight Mendes got from a fart machine used in his production of Twelfth Night.

Radio 4's Profile of Sam Mendes was first broadcast on Saturday, 20 October 2012. Find out more via the Radio 4 website where you can also download. this programme.