66 episodes

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode guide us through the expanding universe of the moving image revealing fascinating links and hidden gems from cinema and TV to streaming and beyond.

Screenshot BBC Radio 4

    • TV & Film
    • 4.6 • 19 Ratings

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode guide us through the expanding universe of the moving image revealing fascinating links and hidden gems from cinema and TV to streaming and beyond.

    Pumping Iron: Gyms and Bodybuilding

    Pumping Iron: Gyms and Bodybuilding

    As rising British director Rose Glass (St Maud) brings us Love Lies Bleeding - a film about female bodybuilders - Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones examine the precedents, including the action stars of the 80s like Schwarzenegger who broke out of the gym and into the mainstream, as well as how gyms make a rich setting for drama and action.
    Mark explores what bodybuilders have brought to the screen over the years. He talks to editor of Empire magazine and author of The Last Action Heroes, Nick de Semlyen, about the history of muscles and bodybuilders on screen. Mark then speaks to rising star Katy O’Brian about her breakout role in Love Lies Bleeding and her own background in bodybuilding.

    Ellen looks at how the gym and fitness culture are rich settings for drama. She speaks to film writer Brandon Streussnig about how the gym is portrayed on screen and his favourite gym movies. She then talks to Annie Weisman, the creator of Apple TV’s Physical, about fitness culture in the 80s and its relationship to women's empowerment.
    Producer: Queenie Qureshi-Wales
    A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

    • 42 min
    Interlopers

    Interlopers

    Andrew Scott is the latest in a long line of actors to play Thomas Ripley - the seductive, sociopathic conman created by American crime writer Patricia Highsmith, and immortalised in films from Plein Soleil to The Talented Mr Ripley.
    Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode look at Ripley and other social strivers on screen, asking how these interlopers have insinuated themselves into our hearts and minds.
    Ellen explores what makes Patricia Highsmith’s work so cinematic, with a lifelong Highsmith fan – critic and novelist Kim Newman. And she speaks to Swiss documentary filmmaker Eva Vitija about her 2022 film Loving Highsmith – a fascinating look at the author’s life and artistry, told through her unpublished diaries, and interviews with her friends and former lovers.
    Mark Kermode looks beyond Highsmith’s work, to explore how the 'Ripleyesque' figure has endured. He discusses cinema’s most notorious interlopers, from The Great Gatsby to Saltburn, with Manuela Lazic, a French critic, writer and filmmaker.
    Mark also talks to two of his favourite filmmakers, Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor. Christine and Joe’s newest film Baltimore – about the debutante turned IRA member Rose Dugdale – is just one of many stories about interloping and identity that they’ve brought to the screen over the years. They tell Mark why the theme fascinates them.
    Producer: Jane Long
    A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

    • 42 min
    Censorship

    Censorship

    As the British Board of Film Classification publishes its new guidelines, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode delve into the long, chequered history of film censorship and classification in the UK.
    Mark speaks to BBFC President (and original Strictly Come Dancing winner) Natasha Kaplinsky about her role, and about her reaction to the new guidelines. And he discusses the Board's controversial history, and some of its most notorious decisions, with ex-BBFC Head of Compliance Craig Lapper.
    Ellen talks to director Prano Bailey-Bond about her debut film Censor, which was inspired by the 'video nasty' moral panic of the 1980s. And pop culture critic Kayleigh Donaldson talks her through some of the differences between the BBFC and its US equivalent, the MPA Ratings Board.
    Producer: Jane Long
    A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

    • 42 min
    Divorce

    Divorce

    Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode look at divorce in film and TV, from His Girl Friday to The Split.
    Ellen looks at comedic takes on divorce, first discussing marriage, divorce and remarriage in the 1930s screwball comedy genre with critic Pamela Hutchinson.
    She then speaks to comedian Rob Brydon, who made what she considers to be the greatest TV programme about divorce - the BBC2 sitcom Marion and Geoff.
    Meanwhile, Mark talks to screenwriter Abi Morgan about her BBC1 series The Split, which follows a family of high-end divorce lawyers working in London.
    He also talks to Los Angeles family law attorney and chief of divorce evolution at Divorce.com, Laura Wasser about how accurate or misleading Hollywood depictions of breakups really are.
    Producer: Jane Long
    A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

    • 42 min
    Dreams

    Dreams

    Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode take a deep dive into the cinematic subconscious to explore dreams in film and television.
    Mark talks to Sandra Hebron, psychotherapist and head of screen arts at the National Film and Television School, about the origins and history of dreams in film.
    He also speaks to director Bernard Rose, best known for his 1992 film, Candyman. They discuss his debut film, Paperhouse, and how it portrays the blurred lines between reality and dreams.
    Taking a look at everything from The Sopranos to The Big Lebowski, Ellen investigates some of film and TV's most memorable dream sequences with help from film critic, Anne Billson.
    Ellen then speaks to independent film director, Tom DeCillo, whose 1995 film, Living in Oblivion sought to subvert the clichés of the cinematic dream sequence.
    Producer: Queenie Qureshi-Wales
    A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

    • 42 min
    British Dystopias

    British Dystopias

    Forty years on from 1984 and the release of the John Hurt-starring big screen adaptation of George Orwell’s novel, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore dystopian visions from British film and TV.
    Mark speaks to film critic Kim Newman about the literary roots of the dystopia, from 1984 to A Clockwork Orange. And he talks to actor Brian Cox about how, in a career that has included roles as Dr Hannibal Lecter and Logan Roy, the prophetic 1968 TV play The Year of The Sex Olympics remains one of the projects he is most proud of.
    Meanwhile, Ellen talks to Ngozi Onwurah, the director of landmark film Welcome II The Terrordome. Released in 1995, the radical British dystopian tale was the first feature directed by a black woman to get a UK cinema release. Ellen and Ngozi discuss why Welcome II The Terrordome was so prescient.
    And Ellen also speaks to Kibwe Tavares, who co-directed new film The Kitchen, about a dilapidated housing estate in a near-future London, with Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya.
    Producer: Jane Long
    A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

    • 42 min

Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5
19 Ratings

19 Ratings

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Fascinating, well-paced podcast by two engaging hosts who know their stuff. Can’t wait to catch up and share widely!

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