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A soldier liberating Bergen-Belsen, a supporter of voluntary euthanasia, who began his acting career as a matinée idol for Rank, won a BAFTA for his role in The Servant, debuted in the West End in a play by JB Priestley, his1961 film Victim saw him playing a barrister fighting blackmailers, and an ageing composer in the 1961 film version of Thomas Mann's novel Death in Venice: today's Free Thinking explores the life and career of Sir Dirk Bogarde (28 March 1921 – 8 May 1999). Matthew Sweet hosts and his guests are actor Wendy Craig, film critic Phuong Le, BFI curator Josephine Botting and writer Mark Ravenhill.

Bogarde won Best Actor in a Leading Role for the 1963 film The Servant, a kind of upstairs downstairs examination of class and fraught relationships, which Harold Pinter adapted from Robin Maugham's novella and Joseph Losey directed. His co-stars included Wendy Craig, Sarah Miles and James Fox. The film has been restored and shown in cinemas around the UK and is now also available on blu-ray DVD. The BFI are curating a season of Bogarde films to screen in December.

Producer: Fiona McLean

You can find a series of programmes exploring film history in the Free Thinking Landmarks playlist including Glenda Jackson remembering the filming of Sunday Bloody Sunday, episodes focusing on Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Jacques Tati and films by Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa and Satyajit Ray.