THE FRIENDLY MOVIE BANTER

Today I wanted to recommend podcasts of a very popular radio programme on BBC 5 which is "Kermode and Mayo's Film Review". The podcast features two eminent radio hosts, Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo, who, in the space of approximately 1,5 h talk about latest cinematic realeases and movie box office hits. All shows feature guest stars such as Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman (sir?), Dame (see, that I know!) Judi Dench, Daniel Craig to name but few. The banter between those two is witty, insightful and they offer an in-depth analysis in an up-beat, un-snobbish way (you know those capital city intellectual snobs? I guarantee they are not at all like that). The reviews include also letters, mails, tweets etc. from the listeners from all over the world who can express their opinion about the movies presented in the programme and I greatly appreciate the fact that no matter what the hosts' feelings on a movie are, the reviews are very holistic, touching every aspect of the moviemaking from the script to dialogues to casting to infinitessimaly small details like news from behind the scenes and pros and cons are presented no matter if the film is an utter flop or a revelation. And it's done in an elegant, neat, concise and polite way. Hence the title above.

Simon Mayo (left) and Mark Kermode (right).
Photo taken from the webpage of BBC News

The show reminds me in a way of Marek Niedźwiedzki's music hits chart broadcast weekly on Trójka (Polish Nationnal Radio 3), but it's a bit more lively and you can really hear the hosts' passion and enthousiasm for movies. They quite often disagree which adds a nice flavour to the programme. I genuinely recommend listening to it while commuting to keep you engrosed in something pleasant as opposed to contemplating the unappealing faces of Poznanian bus/tram commuters.

BBC 5 Kermode and Mayo's Film Reviews Radio Podcast List can he found here.