Episode 22: A Million Books For Free: A Culture Show Special

Presented by Andrew Graham-Dixon, this half-hour film tells the story of World Book Night. The film follows the preparations for the night, as a million books are printed and distributed to 20,000 givers who have volunteered to hand out 48 copies of their favourite book, which features on World Book Night's list of selected titles. With 25 different books on the special list, there is something for everyone to enjoy, from Nigel Slater's Toast and Seamus Heaney's New Selected Poems to The Spy Who Came In From the Cold by John le Carre. World Book Night is about sharing, through word of mouth, the pleasure of reading. In the film, famous and non-famous readers talk about the books they really love. And as the massive nationwide book giveaway gears up for the evening of Saturday 5 March, BBC cameras capture some of these passionate readers as they hit the streets to encourage other people to take books home and read them.