Spaghetti Western historian Christopher Frayling returns to Scarborough’s Big Ideas By The Sea Festival

His choice of Perge Scelus Mihi Diem Perficias which translates into Proceed, varlet, and let the day be rendered perfect for my benefit, references the phrase Go ahead punk, make my day attributed to the anti-hero character of Inspector Callahan in the Dirty Harry series.

He makes a second appearance at the Big Ideas By The Sea Festival.

Writer, award-winning broadcaster on BBC radio and television and a champion of the study and practice of art and design, he attained a long association with the Royal College of Art (RCA), joining in 1973 as a part-time tutor and appointed Professor of Cultural History in 1979.

He became Rector of the RCA in 1996 until retirement from education in 2010.

A prolific writer and broadcaster, on subjects ranging from the importance of craftsmanship and design; the history of art education; ‘the Gothic’ in literature and film; to the significance of popular Italian cinema of the 1960s; to the importance of production design.

His series for BBC TV include The Face of Tutankhamun; Strange Landscape - a journey through the Middle Ages; and Nightmare - the birth of horror.

His recent books include Frankenstein - the first hundred years; Inside the Bloody Chamber - essays on Angela Carter and the Gothic; Once Upon a Time in the West - Shooting a Masterpiece; and On Craftsmanship – towards a New Bauhaus.

His study of The Hollywood History of Art will be published in the autumn, a companion volume to his book Mad, Bad and Dangerous? The Scientist and the Movies.

His latest BBC radio broadcasts have been for the Archive on Four strand, and the film programme Screen Shots.

Chairman of Arts Council England from 2004 until January 2009, he also served as Chairman of the Design Council, Chairman of the Royal Mint Design Advisory Committee, Chairman of the Crafts Study Centre, an 1851 Commissioner and a long-serving Trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

He was a Governor of the British Film Institute through the 1980s.

His talk at the Big Ideas festival titled Reel Conversations will reflect on his career in art education, broadcasting, film criticism and curation, during which he has had many memorable - and sometimes candid – conversations with key directors, actors and production designers.

He shares some of the highlights, reminisces about the background to his conversations, and discusses what he learnt from them - not least about Hollywood memories.

The cast of characters will include Alfred Hitchcock, Doris Day and Clint Eastwood, with a guest appearance by Lawrence of Arabia – and as Professor Frayling points out - the real one.

Accompanying him on the same day are two other world-class speakers.

The eminent historian Professor Sir Richard Evans (at 2pm) and Scarborough-born industrial designer Richard Seymour (at 3.30pm).

Professor Sir Christopher Frayling appears at St. Mary’s Church on Saturday May 24 at 12.30pm.

The Big Ideas By The Sea festival runs from May 16 to 30.

Visit bigideasbythesea.com for further information and tickets.