The Man With The Jazz Guitar

Sunday 24th February 11:00 AM - Studio (TBTL)
The Man With The Jazz Guitar
Director:Marc Mason
Cert:U Year: 2012 Length:115mins
Country:UK
Deeply inspired by Django Reinhardt, Ken Sykora's musical career was cut short by World War II and rock'n'roll. He moved to broadcasting where he worked on more than 3000 programmes over four decades. At the peak of his popularity in the early 70s he suddenly and unexpectedly quit the BBC and moved his young family to Scotland to run a hotel in 'the middle of nowhere'. Featuring intimate interviews with his three children, close friends and colleagues, Ken is creatively brought to life through a mixture of animation and his radio voice. With exclusive access to Ken's extensive archive, his life of music, food and words is reconstructed using memorabilia and rare sound recordings not heard for more than 50 years.

Thanks to Five Feet Films.

Critics

“...affectionate, affecting and altogether delightful documentary.”

Philip French, The Observer

Score

68.48%

Trailer

Osprey Short Film Awards

Now accepting entries for 2026

A selection of previous festival programme covers
View the programme archive



Keswick Film Festival is supported by Film Hub North with National Lottery funding on behalf of the BFI Film Audience Network.



Film Hub North
BFI Film Audience Network

All programme and film details are correct at the time of publishing but may be subject to change.