in host, the phrase "with Jonathan Ross" was appended to the show's title. Ross began presenting the show as Film '99 in March 1999, on a contract reportedly worth £500,000 a year. Ross, described by the BBC as a long-time film buff and fan of cult movies, stated that he had dreamt of doing the job since childhood. To mark the turn of the millennium, the viewers of Film 99 voted in a poll to name their favourite film of the century, with the top 100 published by the BBC and with Star Wars coming top overall. After the millennium, the show switched from the two-digit format to using the full year in the title, i.e. Film 2000, Film 2001... Film 2008 was briefly removed from the schedules during Ross's 12-week suspension from all BBC activities following the Sachsgate controversy. Ross presented the programme for the last time on 17 March 2010. This came after he announced in January 2010 that he would not be renewing his BBC contract, with his BBC One chat show and BBC Radio 2 show both also finishing in July 2010. Claudia Winkleman (2010–2016) In October 2010, Claudia Winkleman took over as host of Film 2010 in a revamped format. This saw the adoption of a live studio format and the introduction of a co-presenter, film journalist Danny Leigh. The first episode of Film 2010 with Claudia Winkleman aired on Wednesday 13 October at 10:45 pm. Regular contributors also included film critics Catherine Bray, Chris Hewitt, and Antonia Quirke. BBC Radio 5 Live's Mark Kermode had been tipped as a likely successor to Ross for the show. However, in March 2010, Kermode said that he han't been contacted about hosting the show which he said "requires a mainstream sensibility", and instead Winkleman was announced as a surprise choice for the presenter's role. Damon Wise of Empire feared that Winkleman's appointment represented a rejection of film knowledge as a requirement of a host for the show, and that it might foretell the demise of the series in the same manner as Top of the Pops, "another flagship BBC show that was allowed to slide out of existence." The Guardian stated, through her recent hosting of Sky Television's coverage of the Oscars, Winkleman had "proved both a passionate and engaging advocate of cinema," while her husband Kris Thykier is a film producer with credits on several mainstream