Kermode & Mayo’s Take - Did Bridget Jones make Mark cry? + Stephen Graham & Malachi Kirby

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

We hope this week’s podcast will earn your ‘quiet affirmative noises’--whatever they might sound like...??? Listeners to last week’s show may remember one correspondent’s story of a film eliciting this mysterious and elusive sound—and you’ve kindly sent in some examples to clear up this crucial matter for us. Mmhmm. Grown-up Aussie animation ‘Memoir of a Snail’ is first on Mark’s review slate this week--starring Sarah Snook and with a voice cast including Nick Cave and Jacki Weaver, the crafted stop-motion story follows the melancholic life of a reclusive, snail collecting misfit in 1970s Canberra. On a lighter note, to solve all your lovers’ tiffs about what genre to go for this Valentine’s Day movie night, a review of the romcom-slasher hybrid ‘Heart Eyes’. And last but certainly not least—’Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy’, fourth instalment of the British romcom institution starring Renée Zellweger in which Bridget gets back to dating for the first time after the death of Mark (Colin Firth). Our guests this week are Stephen Graham and Malchi Kirby—who star in the Steven Knight-penned Victorian boxing drama ‘A Thousand Blows’, out next week. In it, a bulked-up Graham plays Henry ‘Sugar’ Goodson—the fearsome East End boxer and adversary of Kirby’s Hezekiah Moscow. Hezekiah arrives in 1800s London from Jamaica, hoping to fulfil his dream of becoming a lion tamer at the zoo—but finds himself at the heart of the city’s criminal underworld, orchestrated by Mary Carr (Erin Doherty), ‘Queen’ of the all-female crime gang The Forty Elephants. Simon chats to the stars about getting into the ring together in this gritty drama based on real historical figures, getting ripped, Jamaican heritage and more. Timecodes (for Vanguardistas listening ad-free): Memoir of a Snail Review: 09:54 Stephen Graham & Malachi Kirby Interview: 26:19 Heart Eyes Review: 41:37 Laughter lift: 47:37 Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy Review: 52:44 You can contact the show by emailing [e-mail] or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! A Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts To advertise on this show contact: [e-mail] And to find out more about Sony’s new show Origins with Cush Jumbo, click here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey Simon, there's a bit of an international theme to the Oscars this year, wouldn't you say? Explain? Well, you've got Avian Brody emigrating to America, you've got Rape Finds in the Vatican, you've got Zoe Saldana hunting singing gangsters in Mexico. I know what you're going to say. Here we go, you're going to mention the substance again somehow. Exactly, a French-British-American body horror co-production. Wherever those international titles are taking me or wherever I'm tuning in from, NordVPN can help me unlock

geo restricted films and enhanced streaming. It keeps my online activity safe with encryption and threat protection. And it's the fastest on the market providing smooth streams with no lagging. What's more it's available in 111 countries. How many Oscar contenders does that cover? I think every single one of them probably. Unwrap a huge discount on NordVPN by heading to NordVPN.com slash take plus with our link, you'll get an extra four months free on the two year plan. And it's risk free with Nord's 30 day money back guarantee. Check the link in the description. I know I will. What's up? What's up? Not yet. What's up? I just realized that I hadn't done it for

a while and I heard someone say that the other day and I thought,'s a neglected greeting and so I thought I would come back to it. So here's what I want to know when you do that what's up thing you do it in a sort of what's up voice so as you can probably hear I sound a little bit croaky yeah and I'm wondering whether my croakiness sounds you know he, he's croaky and horrible, or whether it sounds kind of smoky late night and now some jazz. No, it doesn't sound like that. It's like somewhere in between. I think it's a very fine line between sounding incredibly unhealthy and go to bed and sound fantastically. It's only fantastically healthy and go to bed and sound fantastically. It's only fantastically healthy and go to bed.

You have to reduce everything to a level of smut and filth. I have to do that after last week's show. I would like to, this is what you need. I mean, we're not in the same. Oh, is that vocal zone? Vocal zone, the lemon and honey flavor. That's what you need. And if you had them there, you'd you need Dr. Knight nurse or Dr. Vocal Zone? Vocal Zone, the lemon and honey flavor. That's what you need. And if you had them there,

you need Dr. Night Nurse or Dr. Vocal Zone. Yeah. Night Nurse, night nurse. Is that Gregory Isaacs? Is that? Why are you, you were grooving your shoulders there as though you were actually on stage on top of the pops. I was doing my 60s.

I did this thing on stage on Monday. I was on stage with Mario van Peebles and his son Mandela van Peebles and they were talking about their new Western outlaw posse. I said something to Mario. He's the coolest man in the world. His father is Melvin Van Peebles and this is like this kind of the Van Peebles dynasty. He's incredibly cool. I said something and he was pleased about it. I thought he put his hand out to shake my hand. So I shook his fist bump because that's how uncool I am. I didn't know that that's what he was doing. Shake my fist bump sounds like a really revolting name for a movie. I've never felt so. Are they related to Andy Peebles?

Andy Van Peebles and probably Randy Van Warmer. That's amazing, isn't it? There was a pop star whose name was Randy Van Warmer. You left me just when I needed you most. The most self-obsessed, self-absorbed song ever that wasn't written by Paul Anker. Yeah, but Randy Van Warmer. I mean, that's a joke name, isn't it? That's like, I mean, I say, you know, a name like mine, but you know, there is like Theophilus

P Wildebeest or Johnny Dan Builder. Randy Van Warmer. You left me just when I needed you most. Yes, well, have you listened to this song? It's so needy and irritating. That's why I left you, Randy. Also, I didn't want to become Mrs. Van Warmer. Thank you very much indeed. Exactly. Do you know that song, Just Call Me Angel of the Morning? You know that song? I always thought that the next line of that song was just call me angel of the morning

Just brush my teeth before you leave me And what is it brush my cheek I don't want that either Both of those at least if someone brushes your teeth before they go it's quite useful What use is brushing your cheeks? No practical use at all anyway? Later on in this here show what are you going to review? Oh, it's an absolutely packed show. We've got reviews of Memoir of a Snail, which is a fabulous stop motion animation, Heart Eyes, which is a horror comedy romance, and Bridget Jones mad about the boy, which you must have seen all the reports about the pre-sales for it were apparently outstripping Barbie here, despite the fact that in America it's going straight to screaming.

And that's obviously with a colon in the middle. So we're back with our punctuation groove. Anyway, special guest this week, Stephen Graham, the magnificent Stephen Graham and Malachi Kirby who star in a new pugilistic historical drama series which is called A Thousand Blows plus in Le Take Deux, these bonus reviews from Mark. Well, we have a fantastic Valentine's Day reissue of Brief Encounter, which is one of the greatest movies ever made, and a new release Cotton Tail, which is very whimsical, sentimental, poignant and melancholy. So again, it's Valentine's Day, everyone get used to it. A special edition recommendation feature the TV movie of the weekend, Not List. One frame back is related to Bridget Jones, Mad about the boy, which features a star turn

from Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver and in response will give you the top screen cadds of all time. And by the way, moves into corporate voice. I hear there is a really superb companion podcast to that film doing the rounds. It sounds amazing anyway, even though we didn't get a guest from it. Plus your film and non-film questions answered as best we can in questions, Schmestrens. You can get that via Apple Podcasts or head to extratakes.com for non-fruit related devices. It's never been a better time to become a Vanguard Easter. From now through to the end of February, you can get, this must be a misprint, a free month of extra takes to cover the whole

of awards season. Wow. Exactly. So come and enjoy the nonsense with us. Yes, a month long free trial is available. You get the three extra podcasts after the BAFTAs, the SAGs, and of course, the British Podcast Awards of the movie industry, the Oscars, Champagne podcasting, Tapwater Money, and if you are already a Vanguard Easter as always together with a slight delay and one with a gruff voice, we salute you. Will Barron I've never heard that phrase,

champagne podcasting, tap water money. Did Simon Poole make that up? Jason Vale I think so. I think that's what he says to Mrs. Poole when he gets home. I think that's what he says to Mrs. Paul when he gets home. Now last week we had an email from Cathy Hart about an experience when she took her two kids who are the ages 11 and 13 to see the colours within. And it was a follow up from your review and it was a big thumbs up from the Hart family and they liked it very much. Anyway, at the end, they obviously wanted to be code compliant and Cathy said that she wanted to give a sound of quiet affirmation. Yes. And I suggested that it might be quite a nice idea to find out what that sounds like.

Because I think when I gave a sound of like you just did there, a sound of quiet affirmation, you thought it might be the sound that you've been banned from making in your house, which is something like this. Yes. So mine will be, which I'm not allowed to do because that basically means, yeah, that sounds, I don't believe you. And it's a quiet affirmation. I've always thought it's something like, hmm. Yeah, no, that's definitely not right. No, that's absolutely, that's exactly why don't you help me for once. And then also last week you did one that literally sounded like Kenneth

Connor because you went, I don't mean Kenneth Connor, I mean Kenneth Williams. Sorry. So anyway, so as we were floundering in the sea of quiet affirmation, we did ask you for your sound of quiet affirmation and well, we got a few. Is that it? Okay. I didn't know where to... I'm following the names as it goes through. Some of them were definitely sexual, but anyway. We just heard from Alexander Zoller, Heather Wallace, Ollie Ridgely, Noelle Morris, Laura Harris, Mike Odell, Mark Rudroff, Sheldon Hicks, Andrew Godber, Millie Cox, Erin Kelly, and our old friend Ken Ohara, all performing quiet noises of Affirmation. May I request that we hear that again?

Yes. Yes. Before that's played in again, hang on. I just want to say, if Max Richter is listening, the name of your next sequence, your next album could be Sounds of Quiet Affirmation. You could make up like a five day long symphony. Yeah, because Sleep, his album Sleep became the biggest selling classical album of all time, but he hasn't, he's just scratching the surface. That's right. So if anyone from Max Richter's office or indeed Max Richter or someone at Deutsche Grammophon, if they want to get in touch, this is our idea for the next Max

Richter album, Sounds of Quiet Affirmation. We can offer you this from our listeners to begin with. That was like a tennis rally, wasn't it? It was like we're at Wimbledon and the ball is being knocked between two Serbians who were grunting as I hit the ball. Anyway, that's very good. Okay, thank you. Keep them coming in. We'll do volume two of Sounds of Quiet Affirmation. Should we get any that are decent and not too revolting on next week's program? Correspondents at kerbenamayor.com, send us a voice note. That would be a very lovely thing. Movie reviews. Let's talk something exciting that's out there. Yes. So, Mem memoir of a snail.

If you look at the Oscar nominations for best animated feature this year, always the two best categories are animated feature and foreign language feature. So this year it's flow, which I know you love inside out too, which I know all the listeners love Wallace and Gromit vengeance most foul. You can still listen to our interview with the makers of that. That's on the podcast, the live show that we did. Wild Robot and Memoir of a Snail. Memoir of a Snail is out this week. Really worth checking out. An Australian stop motion tragedy comedy from writer-director Adam Elliott. First thing to say, it is not about a snail. The second thing to say is that it's an animated feature,

but in the same way that Guillermo del Toro said, animation is not a genre and also animation is not just for kids. This is not a film for kids. It's rated 15 by the BBFC for strong sex references, nudity and domestic abuse. None of which captures the tone of the film, but does tell you it's not, you know,

we have the little ones in total, it's kind of of look. So Sarah Snook is the voice of Grace, who is a young girl growing up in 70s Melbourne. She lives with her brother Gilbert, he's voiced by Cody McPhee, who loves matches, and her French father, who was a former juggler, but is now a paraplegic alcoholic. Grace was born with a cleft lip and her mother died in childbirth, hence her brother is very, very protective. And she finds comfort in collecting snails, one of whom to one of whom she narrates her life story. And when Percy dies, she and her brother are taken into care and are separated. She gets sent to Canberra, where she's adopted by these people who seem quite nice, but they're swingers. So they're

out swinging all the time. So she's pretty much neglected. Meanwhile, her brother gets sent to Perth, where he's basically looked after by this fanatical religious cult who talk in tongues and essentially subject him to the most horrible abuses for being an evil kid. They are crucially both alone. Here's a clip. I think over time the loss of my family had somehow frozen me. I thought it was safer to just live in a pretend world. Ah, Dad would have been disappointed I'd resorted to trashy novels. It was now just me, some sexy pirates, and a few frisky guinea pigs who mocked my virginity. The stereotype was now complete, Sylvia.

I'd become an unloved recluse. Now, you can tell from that clip sort of the tone of the film, which is that it's, as I said, whimsical, tragicomic. The voice cast includes Jackie Weaver, who is this now elderly former table dancer, Pinky, who takes Grace under her wing. And then the rest of the story is basically Grace's adolescence and her adult life. Eric Banner is in there as a magistrate. Tony Armstrong is Ken to Grace is briefly married. Nick Cave, Nick Cave is Bill Clark, second husband.

Now, because of the fact that it's adult subject matter, the film has drawn some comparisons with Anomalisa, which you remember was the film in which the makers came on the show and that was the whole thing about. How can I ever forget? How can we ever forget that riveting interview? Here's the thing. I think this has less in common with Anomalisa than it does with My Life as a Courgette. Although My Life as a Courgette was a PG rated film, but in terms of its sensibility, it's much closer to this. The only thing I think this does have in common with

the normaliser is that it's dealing with grown up issues of sex and death and that sort of thing. But I actually don't think there is a comparison between them beyond that. The stop motion is beautifully done. I love stop motion anyway, there's something incredibly tactile about it. This deals very frankly with a number of adult subjects Alzheimer's is addressed, but it has that same

piercing, truthful honesty that My Life as a Courgette had. And of course, Celine Chamar was one of the writers on that film. I thought it was just brilliantly done. At times this is funny, particularly in the deadpan narration is very funny, but it's also extremely poignant. At times it's heartbreaking. I thought it was a wonderful film. I thought it was beautifully animated. I thought the voice cast did a great job. I thought it was properly affecting.

I went into it with, I knew nothing at all other than the name, Memoir of a Snail, so I did go in thinking it's about a snail. And it just felt like a really, really smart way of telling a story about somebody's personal internal life and done through the genius of stop motion, which continues to thrive. The fact that there's this and then there's Vengeance Most Foul and, you know, there was Pinocchio recently. I think it is a really wonderful piece of work and I'm thrilled to see that it's up for an Oscar. It's in cinemas, go see it. 15 certificate, not for kids. We have a very good email later on about casting and the voice cast for an animation, which we'll get to. Oscar in Cardiff, Mark and Simon. The film memoirs now was equal parts hilarious and depressing in the best way and is easily Adam's

most adult film yet, particularly for a pivotal scene, which is the first time claymation has disturbed me since Mad God. If you've seen it, you will know which. While I wasn't as big on the choice to have the main character narrate the story compared to the separate narrators present in his previous works. I still love the film and teared up at the end, which is rare for me. In my screening, there was a Q&A with director Adam Elliott. He was lovely and honest with my favourite thing he told us about being how an accident on set left one of the animators with a severed fingertip and how they then decided to put that fingertip in various background shots of the movie. When it releases at home, I shall now have to look for the finger. Okay. I got a signed poster and a photo with Adam himself where for some

reason it looks like he's excited to see me instead of the other way around. It's great to see my favorite filmmaker having developed a cult fan base. And I love getting to meet the shining example of how great and mature adult animation can be. If you want to check out the earlier stuff, I mean, the best known one is Mary and Max, which we reviewed. I mean, that was 2009, but that created quite a stir when that came out. They got an awful lot of acclaim. That's available on streaming services. The Box Office Top 10 this week at Numero Pont Neuf, the seed of the sacred fig, which you reviewed last week. Interesting email from Saham Hosseini. Yes.

Mark and Simon, as someone who comes from a political family, I feel compelled to share my thoughts on the seed of the sacred fig. Two of my uncles were imprisoned in the 1980s, despite being professional soccer players and one of their teammates, Habib Kabiri was executed. One of my uncles was even interrogated by Iran's former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. So there's as an opening paragraph, that's pretty unbeatable. So, yes, first I want to emphasize how difficult it is to make a film in secret in Iran. Filmmakers need official permits for public locations, and if someone reports them, they face serious consequences.

To work around this, productions often submit fake screenplays to obtain permits. Yet, despite these precautions, Mohammad Rusulov couldn't even be physically present on set. He had to direct the entire film remotely, which is why I firmly believe he should have at least been nominated for best director. I also want to highlight how seamlessly the actual protest footage was woven into the fictional narrative. While the story is dramatised, it reflects real events showing how this brutal, bloodthirsty regime has no mercy, even for the family members of its own. Khomeini's grandson was exiled for opposing the concept of supreme leadership and journalist Ruhollah Zam, who fled Iran, was ultimately turned in by his own father.

This is why I strongly disagree with Nima. Nima wrote in her review on last week's program Neema wrote in her review on last week's programme. She wasn't too sure about what she called the thriller bit of the last third. This is why I strongly disagree with Neema's critique of the third act. To me, it was exhilarating, breathtaking and above all, optimistic. The mother and daughter symbolise the resilience of Iranian women who continue to stand against this oppressive regime, and the new generation refuses to be silenced and their fearlessness gives me hope. Thank you for your thoughtful review of the film and delightful podcast, Saham Hosseini. It occurred to me watching the film actually that of course there are no movies as far as I know about, for example, Nazi Germany, which were actually filmed in Nazi Germany. There are no films about Stalin's Russia, which are filmed in Stalin's Russia, you know, secretly. So we're watching this film as an

extraordinarily edgy sensation, which you were talking about last week. It is. And I mean, of course, the story of Jafar Panahi and his, you know, continuing ability to make films despite having been banned from making films and arrested and, you know, under house arrest and all. And in fact, that thing about directing by remote control, that has been done by other directors as well for exactly the same reason that you're basically having to make the film in secret. When I saw Seed of the Sacred Fig, I didn't know at the time the full story about the footage being smuggled out and then the director then escaping on foot to Europe, which is a remarkable story. I share your view of the third act because I thought that the film had earned the right

to do it. I think it's also important that, as you say, it has a positive ending. And I don't just mean positive as in narrative closure. I mean positive as in the narrative allows you to enjoy, which seems like a strange thing to say, the cinematic experience of it becoming a sort of, you know, a thriller for that section. Now, obviously not everyone is going to feel the same way, but both of those emails, the one you've read today and I thought the very thoughtful one we had last week, both said, but it's brilliant. Whatever reservations you might have about it, it's

brilliant. I'm so glad that you saw it and felt the same way. Yes, it's just you always watch many thrillers and many movies that are set in oppressive regimes, but very rarely do you ever see one which is actually filmed in that oppressive regime. You know that the person walking past the other side of the street would turn them in if they knew precisely what was going on. It does also lend another dimension to people saying, oh, it's so hard to make a film. If you, yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So if you get a chance, go see The Seed of the Sacred Fig, which was last week's movie of the week. Numero Chateau Le Fete is the fire inside. Which I thought was a decent, solid sports movie with a great soundtrack by Tamar Culley.

Numero Chateau Nerve de Pape is Bring Them Down. Which is, I mean, well acted, terrific performance by Barry Kjogun, but I think too dark and too grim for its own good. It's very hard to recommend. Flight risk is at number 10. Hurrah. Hey, there we go. It's on the way out. Moana 2 is at nine. Still holding in there amazingly. I mean, remember, it was meant to go straight to streaming services. Companion is at number eight. I really enjoyed Companion and we're going to review Heart Eyes later on in the show. And there's a little bit of a kind of stylistic connection, but I really enjoyed it. I just, I wish the trailer had told you less.

Number seven is a new entry, Becoming Led Zeppelin. So I'm going to do a full review of Becoming Led Zeppelin in take two, because I saw it and enjoyed it very much. There's a lot to say about it. So for a full review of Becoming Led Zeppelin in take two, because I saw it and enjoyed it very much. There's a lot to say about it. So for a full review of Becoming Led Zeppelin, that will be in take two. Okay. But in a sentence? It's the story of Led Zeppelin up until Led Zepp2. So from the beginning of the band up until Led Zepp2. So everything in the pre-hammer of the God's era, really. Right. Okay. And I'll leave from Birmingham, thank you for your email. I'll include that email when Mark does the review in take two. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 at 6.

I mean, you know, still there, astonishingly. The Brutalist is at 5. Well, I like it very much. You and I have, I think, a slight disagreement about whether or not it earns its length, because it is, you know, even with taking into account the intermission, it is long. But I do think it's a fine film and I just checked odds checker, it's still up there with the favourites to win best picture at the Oscars. And number four, new entry, September 5. Scott Thomas on this email. I very much enjoyed the excellent review, the excellent interview with Peter Sarsgaard on this week's pod and indeed September 5 itself, which was the most suffocatingly tense cinema watching experience I've had since Uncut Gems,

despite knowing the ultimate outcome, which is a true indication of a fine story well told. However, Simon's chat and Mark's review were sadly punctuated by my internal refrain of where do you go to my lovely and And for a laugh, ha ha ha ha. For younger listeners, this is a number one hit for Peter Saasgard. Saasgard. And not Peter Saasgard. Every time the actor's name was mentioned, I'm hoping sharing this burden somehow eases it. I had never thought of that and now I will do. And it'll undoubtedly extend also to the Scarsgards,

who are nothing to do with the Sarsgards. At the end of the film, my wife pointed out that despite its near constant suspense, the couple on the admittedly very comfortable Everyman Isha sofa next to us have been asleep almost throughout. When the lights came up, they woke with a start and set about their large glasses of wine, perhaps not their first of the evening. Has anyone seen cinema patrons sleep through less slumber friendly fare? Well, you certainly wouldn't fall asleep to September 5th. No, and I'm impressed that it's done as well as it has because it's a challenging subject. It's this horrible event playing out and being covered by essentially a sports team who are trying to do news and finding out on the hoof the responsibilities of doing that. Fantastic film. Number three is Mufasa, The Lion King.

Again, it's done better than I expected. A complete unknown at two. Weird thing with a complete unknown. Apparently it's age demographic, as you kind of expect, is sort of 50 and upwards. But there are also a not, a not insignificant number of young people who were going to, I suppose, because of the Timothy Chalamet thing, but yeah, it's, but it has a broader audience than I thought it would do. And Dog Man is a new entry at number one. Couple of emails here. Dr.

Dan Chalice on our exceedingly popular YouTube channel says it is fast paced, witty, and there's plenty of grownup humor to make it a movie for both kids and adults. I would definitely recommend anyone goes to see it, even if you know nothing about Dog Man. Au contraire, says Robert Neal and Noah, age six, and Isaac, age six. Dog Man, where do we see the version that Mark saw? I have two six year old boys. Daddy, it was so boring, we deserve a treat. Can we go to McDonald's? What? Around, there were around 30 in our showing three families left and we, and we left the

guy in front to snore. I'm envious of him. Just bereft of engagement. Lame jokes. Absolutely no idea what version Mark watched to get the review. It did least enjoyable cinema trips since my children were born and I've seen some rubbish would actively tell families to avoid it. Okay, so there you go. Two contrasting ships. I'm astonished. I mean, believe me, I didn't go in with high hopes. I was told to go and see it by the redactor because he said you've got to go and see it. I said, but there's all these awards contenders out this week. He went, yeah, but you have to go and see this as well. So I did and I laughed all the way through. I mean, you know, I'm not the

target audience, but I laughed all the way through. Correspondence at Codermode.com. We'll be back with Heart Eyes and Bridget Jones, Mad About the Boy and our special guests, Malachi Kirby and Stephen Graham after this. This episode is brought to you by MUBI, a curated streaming service dedicated to elevating great cinema. MUBI is the place to discover ambitious films by visionary filmmakers, all carefully handpicked, so you can explore the best of cinema streaming anytime, anywhere.

Mark, what can people discover on MUBI this month? So we have The Girl with the Needle, which was nominated for best international film at the Golden Globes, which is an absolutely chilling based on a true story by Magnus von Horn. We reviewed it here on the show, we talked about how it looked extraordinary. It was really, really disturbing, really, really got under my skin. There's also the first films first collection, which is now streaming on movie, which includes things like hunger, the debut feature from Steve McQueen with a standout performance by Michael Fassbender and also Pepe Lucy bomb, which includes things like Hongo, the debut feature from Steve McQueen, with a standout performance by Michael Fassbender, and also Pepe Lucy Bond, which is the debut feature from Pedro Almodovar and is an absolutely anarchic riot.

You can try MUBI free for 30 days at MUBI.com slash Kermode Mayo. That's MUBI.com slash Kermode Mayo for a whole month of great cinema for free. What's up, Mark? All's well. how about you? Well, I've been thinking about that cushion that we gave away at our live show. Yeah. That and the pencil case. Imagine if we had a load more that we needed to shift. Imagine the riches. Every bottom or pencil case in the country would be graced in some way by our

presence. Well, when you put it like that, we should have used Shopify. Shopify is the commerce platform revolutionizing millions of businesses worldwide from people selling compasses to comfy cushions. put it like that, we should have used Shopify. Shopify is the commerce platform revolutionising millions of businesses worldwide from people selling compasses to comfy cushions. It covers all your sales channels from a shop front ready POS system to its all-in-one e-commerce platform. It gets you selling across social media marketplaces. Oh, and it's full of the industry-leading tools ready to ignite your growth. Shopify gives you complete control over your business and your brand without learning new

skills in design or coding. And thanks to award-winning help, Shopify is ready to support your success every step of the way. Sign up for a £1 per month trial period at shopify.co.uk slash cur mode. Hi there, Mark. Do you know why hiring the right people quickly is so important? Well, the world of weekly film podcasts is so breakneck that when a vacancy comes up, we need to fill it fast. Good thing that there's Indeed sponsored jobs then when it comes to hiring.

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so it makes a huge difference. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed. And listeners of this show will get a £100 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com slash KermodeMayo. Just go to indeed.com slash KermodeMayo right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Hiring Indeed is all you need. Now this week's guests are Stephen Graham and Malachi Kirby. Stephen will be known to everybody

for basically everything that he's done because he's always fantastic. This is England, Snatch, Boiling Point. Malachi Kirby was also in Boiling Point. Steve McQueen, Small Axe and Black Mirror, they play Sugar Goodson and Hezekiah Mosco in a new Victorian boxing drama called A Thousand Blows. We'll hear from them after this clip. London the Lions then I'm married if you were raised here Or you just got here You learned a fighter Or this city will swallow you whole We just get here from Kingston, Jamaica, we are looking to make some money in the ring tonight

My name is Mary Coff, Queen of the 40 Elephants, the biggest gang of female thieves in the whole of London. You have all the power. Yes. I want that. That is a clip from A Thousand Blows, new TV show on Disney Plus starting on February the 21st. Two of its stars are Stephen Graham and Malachi Kirby and they join me now, Stephen and Malachi. Hello and welcome to the podcast.

Thank you. Thank you, Sauron. Pleasure to be here. And you're both smiling, which is good because in the show you scowl a lot, but particularly you Stephen and you're very scary. No, thank you very much. I think that's fair to say. Introduce us to A Thousand Blows, Stephen. I know you're executive producer on the show and then Malachi will come to you. So where does this story start, Stephen?

It was an idea that was sent to me and Hannah by Tom, who's from Water and Power, a lovely little production company that I worked with. I worked with a wonderful Danny Mays. And Tom said, look, we've got this possible idea. And he sent this beautiful picture of Hezegai in Moscow. And it's a real image from the day from 1880s. And I just saw this man who looks so regal, so poised, so full of grace, so full of dignity, full of humility.

And I had never, ever seen a black man look like that in a photograph from a historical content. And he was in his boxing attire, and he just looked majestic in many ways. And it just made, instantly Hannah was like, wow, this could be an amazing story. And she was the one who came up with the idea for Steve Knight.

She said, I think Steve would write this beautifully. And she sent the image and a little kind of paragraph. And within a couple of days, Steve wrote back saying, I really want to be a part of this and I want to make this story happen. Let's do a Zoom. And we did. And then thankfully he went away

and he created this beautiful, immersive, wonderful script. And that was basically, so that was how it all started, to be honest with you. Wow. So a photograph, a paragraph, a little email to Stephen Knight, and here we are. Malachy, tell us how you got involved and tell us about Hezekiah Mosco. What an extraordinary character. How did you get involved with this show? I just went through the process of auditioning, like everyone else. So interesting story. I had had a chat with my agents about six months prior to getting the script and the

audition. And for the first time in my career, I'd had this clarity about what I wanted to do next. And I told them four things. So I said that I wanted to play a boxer, which I'd never done before. I wanted to play someone who really existed based on a real person. I wanted to do a period drama. And I wanted to film something in London because I've been traveling so much for work outside of the UK and I just wanted to be home because I just miss being home.

And then six months later they get in touch and they say, oh, I think we found something interesting here. Little did I know that all four of those things were going to be wrapped in one project. Playing Hezekiah Mosco, he becomes a boxer. I wouldn't say that he is one, but he becomes one out of necessity. But really he's a Jamaican man. He wants to be a lion to him. He's a dreamer.

He's an intelligent, deeply thoughtful man. He's charming. He held integrity very close to his heart. He's playful. And he exists in the 1880s. And he was a real person. And so, yeah, I saw the script and I was like, OK, this feels like everything that I had... Prayed for.

Prayed for, essentially. But not only that, but it was an incredible script. Like Stephen was saying, like, it's a beautiful, beautiful script. And I just immediately fell in love with this world in some parts that I knew and felt very familiar. And in other parts, it was like it was opening up a London I hadn't seen before. And so it was one of the easiest yeses I've ever said. Mason just off the boat from Jamaica. Why have you come and what is the reason for you two guys

arriving? I think speaking for Alec, he's come pretty much because I've dragged him over. I think he was very happy being in Jamaica, being a successful boxer out there. But he's come essentially because- To follow your dreams and aspirations. Yeah, to follow my dreams, which were to become a lion tamer. Yeah. That's why Hezekiah's come. And he finds a very different reality when he gets here. I think for a lot of people from wherever, but especially from Jamaica, there

was this idea of finding a golden brick road. And that streets are paved with gold. Streets are paved with gold. And that basically England was the queen, basically, that everything was royal and rich. And, you know, he comes into East London, of all places, and he finds it to be very different. But what I love about Hezekiah is that he's not perturbed by that, you know, he's not

perturbed by what you see. Like, he's come far enough and he's like, he's someone that will make something out of nothing, you know, and he comes to a place where he sees opportunity where others wouldn't, I think. Okay, so that's Hezekiah and Mosco. Enter Stephen Graham, although not to the very end of episode one, but with a terrifying face-off between you two guys. Anyway, tell us about Henry Sugar Goodson.

He's a wonderful character, beautifully written by Steve, and for me, he's the polar opposite to myself completely. And you know, just the physical aspect of getting into shape for this role for me he's the polar opposite to myself completely and you know just the physical aspect of getting into shape for this role for me was huge. I'm 51 now, Sides, you know what I mean? So it wasn't easy. Five days a week eating the kind of foods I had to eat and you know I had a great trainer, Rob, and I had a wonderful boxing trainer, Graham, and we kind of really worked on the style and the physicality of him. But for me it was kind of, I wanted to try and create a character, you know we kind of really worked on the style and the physicality of him. But for me it was kind of I wanted to try and create a character you know that kind of bygone man of the era's gone by and the kind of brutality and the brutal nature of London at that particular

time. Do you know what I mean? All three of our characters we also have I need to mention we need to mention Erinn Docherty who plays Mary Car the wonderful Er Eren who's fantastic. And Merica was the head of the 40 elephants. And so each one of these three characters are brought into this world fighting for survival. That's within their nature. And in the context of the boxing element of it, you know, the boxing is kind of like a subtext and a subplot. A dramaturgy to represent what we are doing and the fight that we have to overcome all of these adversities, do you know what I mean? And even through the story itself, boxing is being gentrified. It's going from that kind of working class kind of bare-knuckle fighting brutality in the streets, do you know what I mean? To put some bets on or to

make some money or to be the king of your particular little corner. It's being bastardised and as I say, gentrified. Now it's moving into the whole grounds of the Queensby rules and it's becoming something for the aristocracy to watch the sport, do you know what I mean? And that's kind of one of the elements of our story. Both in incredible shape. And Stevie, you said you're 51, but the first time we see you, you're shot from the back and I was thinking, well, it could be, that can't be Steve, Greg.

But you look incredible, absolutely astonishing. Thank you very much. Do you know what, myself as well, I remember that first day of filming and he would like, do you wanna have a look at his shots? And I don't normally, I'm not one of those actors who normally have a look at their monitors. He went, oh, just come and have a look at this.

And I went, oh, go on. And I was like, oh my, is that me? And I couldn't quite believe it, you know what I mean? But it took me six months to get into that condition, you know what I mean? Malachy, did it take you a lot less time being a far younger man to get into the shape that you needed to be, to fight this terrifying man in the ring? To be honest, I had a lot less time, you know. I think you had the benefit of being a producer, so you knew it was coming. I had a much quicker turnaround. But I tried to keep up.

We did. I tried to keep up, put in the work. I started prepping just before Christmas of 22, and we started filming late January, early February. So yeah, there was just over a month to try and get in shape, but thankfully my first shots weren't, you know, topless. So I had a bit of time before I took my clothes off to, you know, get the abs back in place. And it was the meticulous nature of the fights, you know what I mean? They're choreographed to with an inch of their lives because we have to be dead careful, don't we? You can't catch each other on set, you know what I mean?

Last thing you want to do is break one of Malachi's ribs or him to crack me across the jaw, but you have to, you know, with our stunt coordinators and the fight coordinators, we spent a lot of time rehearsing and practicing. So it was, it was, we had a good few months, didn't we, to get ready for it and get in shape. Yeah, it was great. It's a fairly astonishing fact, I think, that you both, Malachi and Stevie, you both have Jamaican grandparents. Can you, was that something that you bonded over? I mean, I think, that you both, Malika and Stevie, you both have Jamaican grandparents. Can you, was that something that you bonded over?

I mean, that was, that's an astonishing piece of individual history, I think. I think there's probably something unconscious that connected when we came across each other. I didn't know that about you before we met. Like, well, I didn't know it from boiling point because we've worked together on boiling point already. And I didn't know then that you had that Jamaican descent as well. And it made sense when you said it. I was like, yeah, I can see it.

Yeah, it's, yeah, it's, it's kind of, I don't know, it's, like you say, it's a subconscious thing, I suppose, maybe in many ways, do you know what I mean? Because the Jamaican history is referred to, at the moment it's in flashback Malachy, we see flashbacks to some appalling incident. I was looking, is it the Moran Bay Rebellion of 1865? That's what I'm looking at. That would work historically. Is that what your character is thinking of?

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, can I say that? It's not spoiling. Yeah, of course. Yeah. No, that's really...

His parents were killed in that rebellion. You know, going off of that, it's one of the things that I love about Hezekiah is he doesn't come to London with a chip on his shoulder out, you know, based on that. Like he's still full of hope, he's still full of love and peace, even though he's his parents and him himself has been through this atrocious thing, you know, from his childhood. What a beautiful moment of serendipity as well that we're saying this on the 80th birthday, what would have been the 80th birthday of the one and only Mr. Robert Nesta Marley, do you know what I mean?

That's right. And remember when he came to England, look at the change he made, do you know what I mean? Culturally, socially, politically and spiritually, if you look at it in many ways, do you know what I mean? Look at the influence he had when he came to England. And I think the thing was, Sy as well, for me personally, you know, look,

it's the opportunity to be able to tell these stories that we don't normally hear about, do you know what I mean? Not necessarily the underrepresented, but stories that we haven't seen or heard before, but these are actually people who existed and lived at that time period because it's fact. We have a photograph of this man, like I said, right at the very beginning. That's the embryonic stages of where this whole thing came from. This photograph

of this man who had, like I said, he looked so regal and so elegant and so dignified with such humility. And my desire and our aim was to tell that story and see what it was that got him here and why he was here in the first place. Yeah. I was reminded of a quote from Professor David Ola Shoga who said, black history is British history. Of course. And here's one of those stories that needs to be told.

Was he involved in it? Was he giving some advice behind the scenes? Hugely. Yes, yeah. Right at the very beginning, we had lots of meetings with David. He's a wonderful man. Yes, hugely. Behind the scenes. Yes, yes. Right at the very beginning. We had lots of meetings with David. He's a wonderful man. And him and Steve had many conversations.

And as a collective, you know, and all of us as producers, we sat and we, you know, our aim and our obligation was to tell a story truthfully and honestly and get it right, you know what I mean? So we did look into the historical content of it and David was integral to that. You mentioned at the beginning of our conversation, Stephen, 40 Elephants, led by Mary Carr, the extraordinary Erin Doherty. That's almost like, hang on, that's an astonishing story on its own. Was there part of your executive producer mind that thought, this is a spin-off, we need to do more with these astonishing thieves from the 19th century?

What was brilliant about it was when we, obviously, when we approached Steve, Steve said, well, do you know what, I've always been wanting to tell this story about Mary Carden and the 40 Elephants. So within the context of the story that we were telling, she was around the same time. So it was beautifully kind of in that same sense, that serendipity to be able to bring all three of these together. Do you know what I mean? These three stories and these three characters together. But the beauty of Mary, when you see the 40 elephants smash and grab Harrods, they actually did smash and grab Harrods, and they were a wonderful kaleidoscopic collective bunch of women,

do you know what I mean, who basically ran that kind of whole East End, and you're from that area, aren't you? That's what you said about the Elephant Castle. You had no idea that these women ran around those streets and existed. Yeah, I grew up in Battersea and the Elephant and Castle is around the corner. I used to pass it all the time. Yeah, and they're great characters.

They're wonderful characters. And she's phenomenal. And the story that they have, you know, the journey that all of those characters go on as well is fantastic. I should mention, just as I sign off, that Sir Sheronan, when she was on talking about the Outrun, she mentioned that because you were both in Blitz though you weren't in a scene together that she wanted to come to you to talk about your performance in The Virtues and what an inspiration that was. I remember talking to you about The Virtues and what an astonishing performance that

was and there's the influence for Sir Sherona in one of the great films of last year. Just wanted to mention that. Thank you, Sire. And when, I've got all bashful now. When I was in the costume department and I was getting ready for Blitz, Saoirse came in and we had a wonderful conversation and she said those lovely things to me, do you know what I mean? Which was, yeah, I'll find it then. I had to take them kind of confluence for that.

Gentlemen, it's always a pleasure to speak to you. Thank you very much indeed, Malachy Kirby and Stephen Graham. The show is fantastic. Disney Plus from February 21st. Stephen and Malachy, thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much. Thank you. You would think hearing Stephen respond to praise that he's never been praised before. But when you think he's such a lauded actor and he's so watchable in everything, that was his reaction. He's also one of the only two people who call me Psy. It's him and Ben Elton. And obviously I don't really see either of them very often. In fact,

most years go past without me seeing either of them. I think you'll like it if you get to see it. I think it's a very good drama. If it's got, you know, Steve Knight has written it. Yeah, no, I'm very much looking forward to it. I would have seen it this week, but there's a ton of films out this week. But I'm about to go off to Berlin for the Berlin Film Festival. And I have a little window of time set aside to watch it. I do think hearing Stephen Graham being bashful is one of the great joys of life. I mean, it's because he's, you know, such an amazing screen presence.

And as you say, he's done so much great work and it can't be the first time he's heard it, but he literally, he's like, and I mean this in an affectionate way, he's like a kid. He's like a 12 year old going, you know. Imagine how he was when Sir Sheronan actually said it to his face. That would have been, that would have been quite funny. Okay.

Very good. Interesting to know what you think when you see that show when it airs on Disney plus correspondents at ConanMayer.com. Okay. What else is out? Well, it's Valentine's Day, as you may have noticed, or Valentine's Weekend or Valentine's Week, or however it is that they sort of string it out.

So, Heart Eyes, which is the first of two, maybe three Valentine's Day releases. This is a comedy horror slasher, or a comedy, whatever it was, I called it before, from Josh Rubin, who made Scare Me and Werewolves Within, and who said of the film, "'My love of horror is rivaled only "'by my love of romantic comedies.

"'I'm so excited to mount my most challenging genre bender "'to date, a brutal slasher in a nostalgic rom-com universe.'" So the script is by Philip Murphy, Michael Kennedy, Christopher Landon, shot in New Zealand, although honestly you wouldn't know it, for under $20 million. So you know, a comparatively cheap movie opens with a couple in a cheesily orchestrated proposal situation and it's super cheesy and it's super naff and then it turns super bloody because they get gaurally killed by this killer, the heart-ice killer, who is a killer who strikes on Valentine's Day.

The opening killing is kind of like Friday the 13th sort of gore. So lots of blood, lots of entrails. It's rated 18 for strong bloody violence and gore, but none of the sort of cruel nastiness of, for example, the terrifier. I mean, it's popcorn stuff. It's fun. It's three stooges, but it's blood and guts for custard pies. So the Heart Eyes killer apparently strikes on Valentine's Day. Where will he strike next? Well, it turns out Seattle. So here, Ali, played by Olivia Holt, who was recently made her Broadway debut as Roxy Hart in Chicago, is about to get fired from this jewelry company on Valentine's Day because she's masterminded a campaign that is entirely based around doomed

love. So Romeo and Juliet, you know, Titanic, all that sort of stuff, which now looks like a very sick campaign in light of the fact that the Heart Eyes Killer is killing people on Valentine's Day. Mason Gooding, son of Cuba Gooding, who was in Love, Victor and is known from the Scream franchise, is the hip marketeer who is parachuted in to save the company, save the day. He tells Ali, well, we have to have a meeting.

And in order to have a meeting, we must go and have dinner. This is on Valentine's Day. They must go and have dinner at a restaurant. She doesn't want to go, but she goes anyway. And as they leave the restaurant, they are spied by the Heart Eyes Killer. Despite the fact that they are absolutely not a couple,

the Heart Eyes Killer starts pursuing them right back to her apartment where she is attempting to remove a bit of glass from his hand, because he's cut his hand. Here's a clip. Did you go to med school or something? I dropped out actually. I really can't do blood.

Uh, anyway, now I'm considered hemophobic. Oh, that didn't take you for a bigot. Okay, your dad jokes are top notch. I'm being facetious, obviously. Your jokes are cheesy. Ellie! Hold it, hold it, hold it! So she goes to the cupboard, opens the door, there's the heart-eyes killer, everything

kicks off. Here's the thing, I thought this was surprisingly entertaining stuff. I went in with no expectations at all because I knew nothing about it. Nicely sort of anti-romantic and yet still kind of romantic edge. The odd couple affair that the two are not having is funny because the recurrent joke is they keep trying to tell the heart. Why are you chasing us? We're not even a couple, which I think works well. The theatrical slasher stuff is full on. So I mean, it is properly gory in the way of the kind of later Friday the 13th movies. It's gleefully gooey. Horror comedy is something that's very hard to get right. Usually if you make a horror comedy, it's either not funny and not scary.

And yet this, this is never scary, but it's well done. And if you're a gore fan, which I am, then great. But there's lots of sort of razor sharp gags about love and Valentine's Day and the silliness of it all that somehow pulls it all together. So I sat there, as I said, with no expectations at all and thought, well, you know, if I was having to go out for a Valentine's Day date night, this would work really well because I like horror and I like romance. So yeah, it's like love actually with, but with axis. Right. Okay. Well that would get, that could go on the poster. Child 3 was very excited about

Josh Rubin because he doesn't know about the film, but he does know about Josh Rubin's comedy, and his standup. And he showed me a clip of Josh Rubin on a comedy show, and he's asked to do an impression of Mads Mikkelsen, Mads Magelsen, giving an award to a child for reading or something. So Josh Rubin does what I'm reassuringly told by Child One as a very good Danish accent, but does an impression of Mads Magelsen being very threatening and inappropriate. And I didn't know it, but Josh Rubin not only can make films that you like, but he can make people laugh when he's doing his own standup and he's doing his own comedy. Yeah, and I did laugh a lot during Heart Eyes.

Good. I mean, much more than I have done in many alleged comedies, you know. So it's a horror comedy. Speaking of which. It's probably funny. God. Speaking of laughing a lot, let's step into the laughter lift where that comedy will continue.

That's a threat, by the way. And if it doesn't, I've got an axe. Oh, hey, hey, hey, Mark, the good lady, ceramicist, her indoors keeps accusing me. It's quite niche, but she keeps accusing me of being addicted to drinking brake fluid right which is complete nonsense I can stop anytime I want in fact for years I was addicted to soap but I'm I'm clean now I watched it this is good these are good these are good yes I watched a documentary at the weekend called how shipsips Are Made. It was riveting.

Cousin Cecil came to visit at the weekend. It was really very unfortunate. There was a knock on the door late one night. Cousin Cecil, is this your wife? Asked the police officer holding up a photograph. Yes, that's right, says cousin Cecil, whatever's wrong. I'm afraid it looks like she's been hit by a bus. I know, said cousin Cecil, but she's great with the kids. Thank you very much indeed. Very, very Valentine's Day. Very Valentine's Day. Yeah. Josh Rubin would have really applauded at that point. After the ads, if you're going to get any, Mark is going to be reviewing which film with a colon?

Bridget Jones colon mad about the boy. Back after this. There's so many things I want to do and see. Like redoing the basement without having to do it all myself, or doing absolutely nothing with a spectacular waterfall view, of course. So I'm starting here, investing with RBC. When it comes to reaching your goals, personalized advice and performance matter. And now you can get $300 when you invest with RBC. Offer ends March 3rd, 2025. Terms and conditions apply. Invest with RBC. Offer ends March 3rd, 2025. Terms and conditions apply. Invest with RBC Today.

Before we get to Bridget Jones, colon mad about the boy, interesting email from Jane. Hi, top team LTL and your discussion with Ricky Gervais and the seemingly odd casting of him in Dog Man has pushed me over the line to become a first-time emailer so I can throw in my Tuppenceworth re-voice casting for animation. Okay. I've been an animation producer since the last century when they used to use pencils and paper and have been involved in many casting discussions and negotiations along the way. The hours spent in interminable meetings where I've been forced to stifle numerous size and

eye rolls as an exec with little or no hands-on production experience has blurted out some esoteric choice of star to approach for a project still makes me shudder." Some witterings and observations. An experienced animation voice actor has a very particular set of skills and it's extraordinary to watch them work their magic in the recording booth. Many may not be household names, but their talent is undeniable and most pretty much wipe the floor with A-list pods who may be great screen actors, but vocally don't have the range, gravitas, nuance, skill, or comic chops to really sell their on-screen animated character.

It has always blown my mind that large studios, large production companies will spend tens of thousands to millions of pounds to, quote, get a name for their animation project when, A, they cast a good known screen actor, but their voice is so indistinct you've got no idea who the actor is until you reach the credits. B, if the target audience is kids, they really don't know or care how A-list the actor is, and my favorite, C, you cast a really big, popular big fish, but you ask them to give or they insist on giving their character some weird accent rendering their own voice and the reason you cast them completely unrecognizable. The argument sometimes goes that

the publicity from spending vast amounts of cash on a famous cast is that the positive PR and interest generated is worth the massive talent spend. But on the shows I've worked on, I haven't really seen any evidence that a name has led to a huge uplift in viewers. You get Trade Press article when the casting has announced reviews upon its release and that's it. For the amount of money spent on engaging the star, it's not really a gift that keeps on giving. There are obviously many examples where a star name is perfectly cast in a movie as per Robin Williams in Aladdin, The Rock in Moana, and Hanks in the Toy Stories. The right name in the right role can be the difference between a project being

picked up or being left to fester at the roadside, becoming an all-time classic or being forgotten after a couple of weeks. Stunt casting won't disappear anytime soon, but in my opinion, it's the smart casting that consistently hits the mark. Maybe some of that cash that's blown on big names that don't really add value could go to increase the wages of those lower down the food chain in the animation industry. For example, the animators, compositors, and VFX teams who are often underpaid, underworked, and whose talents are very much underappreciated. Radical, I know. Ta ta for now. And that's Jane. Very interesting. And I want someone to get in and get stuck into this because it is a very, you know, the whole, this is an absolutely fascinating area. And you mentioned Ricky Gervais as being a slightly odd piece of cast.

Yeah, I mean, it just, it, it just seemed strange because he didn't, he didn't ever appear to be the voice of the character. It just appeared to be the voice of Ricky Gervais. And I just couldn't quite figure out, you know, exactly what role that was serving Because my feeling was that for the target audience, for Dog Man, they didn't mind whether it was Ricky Gervais or not, I mean, I know he's got the Flannimals series or whatever it's called, but why not just get somebody who would bring more life to that character? And as I said, it's not a criticism of him,

it's a criticism of the casting, it just didn't add anything. Well, let's hear it for the top experienced animation voice actors with a particular set of skills because they'll be the name that you don't know but actually don't care about if you've enjoyed a fantastic animation. Yeah, precisely. Jane, thank you very much. Correspondence at kurbidomeo.com, particularly if this is your area and you are one of the underappreciated,

or maybe you're one of the overpaid actors. You can also get in touch. Speaking of which, Bridget Jones, Mad About the Boy. I haven't seen it, but you have, you lucky, lucky man. You've already called them overpaid actors. Okay, well, there we go. So Bridget Jones, Mad About the Boy, which is the latest screen adaptation of Helen Fielding's literary sensation, which if I remember rightly, it began life as a column, a newspaper column, and then turned into- In The Independent, wasn't it? In The Independent. That's right. When the- Imagine that. That's right. When The Independent was a thing. Anyway, so first film in 2001 was directed by Sharon McGuire with Helen Fielding, Andrew Davis,

Richard Curtis in the script credits, Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones, Colin Firth as Mark Darcy, Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver, sort of loose Jane Austen inspiration going on in the background. 2004 Edge of Reason, which is pretty much the same writing team plus Adam Brooks and Beban Kidron directing. Then there was a big gap until 2016, Bridget Jones' Baby, Sharon Maguire Back directing script by Fielding, Dan Mazza, who's worked a lot with Sacha Baron Cohen and has Dirty Grandpa on his CV, which we shall move on from, and Emma Thompson, the Magisterial Emma Thompson. So now this. Bridget Jones Mad About the Boy, directed by Michael Morris, who we last spoke about when his film To Leslie was the surprise Oscar nomination for Andrea Riseborough. Do you remember this? It was a really tough film, really, really well done,

sort of really proper drama. And then Andrea Reisberg got a best actress nomination and everyone was up in arms because there was no campaign behind it. And it was like, how is this allowed to happen? How have we been allowed for this to happen? So has a sort of, you know, solid back catalog, script by Fielding Again, Mazza and Abby Morgan. Abby Morgan's name is in the credits and Abbey

Morgan most recently wrote Eric, which you absolutely loved and I absolutely loved. And I think you did an interview with Benedict Cumberbatch for that. Correct. That's the last time he was on the show. Yeah. So first things first, there was this article about the presales of Bridget Jones outstripping the presales of Barbie here in the UK. Meanwhile, in America, it's going straight to Peacock. So there is this weird disparity between, you know, in America, it's straight to streaming. So it's obviously considered not worth theatrically releasing, whereas here, the pre-sales are very good. So if you remember, in the previous film, Daniel Cleaver was sort of dead at the beginning.

That's the Hugh Grant character. But then at the very end, there's a headline about him having been found. You know, so he's not in the film, but then he was dead, but then he's not dead. Meanwhile, in this one, Mark Darcy, the Colin Firth character, has died four years ago,

and he was on humanitarian work in the Sudan. So now Bridget Jones is widowed with two kids. So Firth is in the trailer and he's in the film, but he's in the film as a sort of apparition, as a memory, as a kind of ghostly presence. Also, Bridget Jones's father, Jim Broadbent, he's also gone having made her promise to not just survive, but to live her life in the wake of having lost Mark Darcy. So her life is chaotic as ever. She struggles with the kids. We see them at the very beginning. They're bouncing around and doing all this stuff, and she shuts herself in a closet because she says, I don't want to be a mummy right now. She takes the kids to school where there's a teacher called Mr. Wallacher played by Tuotal Ejiofor who does everything with a whistle and disapproves of

the fact that she appears to be chaotic. Also, she turns up at the school gates still wearing her pajamas where all the other mummies are looking very glamorous. She needs a restart. She is told by Emma Thompson, Emma Thompson plays her gynecologist, who she goes to no matter what's going on. Emma Thompson has to keep saying, you do know I'm a gynecologist, who she goes to no matter what's going on. And Emma Thompson has to keep saying, you do know I'm a gynecologist, this is nothing to do with anyway. So she goes to see Emma Thompson, and Emma Thompson says to her, look, you know, this has happened in your life, you need you need a restart, what you need is to is

to go back to work, you know, go back to get your job. So she does that she goes back to work as a TV producer because basically since she lost Mark Darcy, she's kind of just dedicated herself to her kids. And the next thing you know, she starts having an affair with Leo Woodles Rockster, who is this young, very, very hunky, very kind of right on, you know, piece of cheesecake,

who you've probably seen the clip in which he jumps into the pool to save the puppy and everyone's, very kind of right on, you know, piece of cheesecake, who you've probably seen the clip in which he jumps into the pool to save the puppy and everyone's, so she has a fling with him and she goes into work the next day in a state of becrumplement because she has had a fling with him, here's a clip. Did you have sex last night? Yes, I did, okay, I did.

Oh yes, I did. Okay, I did. I had a full night of utterly mind-blowing sex with the tree-rescuing rubbish expert Adonis who might be slightly younger probably and it was amazing! Okay, so what? And then the punchline of that, which is a visual joke, is that she turns around and there's an entire full studio audience behind her who have heard the speech and then give her a round of applause. So it's, you know, we're back in Bridget Jones territory. So Emma Thompson is fantastic. She's only on screen a few times, but every time she's on, she's hilarious. Hugh Grant, who is now back, is still playing the aging

roux. He's got a 20-something girlfriend who is a poet, model, and healer. But he is also now very good friend to Bridget Jones. So when she goes out, he comes over to babysit the kids and the kids love him. The kids think he's a fabulous uncle. And he's got to the point in his life when he started to worry, maybe he spent his whole life being a bit of an ass. And now he's got to the point in his life when he started to worry maybe he spent his whole life being a bit of an ass and now he's estranged from his son, he doesn't have any contact, you know, he wonders whether maybe he's wasted his life. Tuotel Ejiofor who is always fantastic and you know I always really enjoy his films, he's very good as the kind of the uptight school teacher doing everything by the whistle, doing everything by the book who doesn't believe in the soul and

spirituality. There's a whole sort of subplot about the fact that the kids are dealing with this loss and this teacher is just like, yeah, well, everything is to do with its physics and science. It's not so, but you know that there's something else going on behind that. Then Leo Woodle, who was causing White Lotus, does the cheesecake thing very well. He looks fantastic. She falls for him whilst at the same time understanding that they're completely incompatible. But on the other hand, nice to have fun with. It is nice to see After Baby Girl and Idea Review, another film in which the age gap thing is, I mean, it's a deal, but it's not a big deal. I mean, it is really weird that we spent so many decades watching movies in which men in their 50s

would have relationships with women in their 20s and nobody batted an eyelid. And then you reverse the polarities and it's the only thing that anyone talks about. As far as the film itself is concerned, I think, I mean, it's scrappy. At times it plays like a series of sketches and some of the sketches work better than others. There is also in the opening a bit too much performative zaniness, a bit too much spontaneous dancing, a bit too much hopping around bouncing on beds and laughing uproariously, at the beginning I thought, okay, I'm not really going for this.

And there's kind of update stuff because there's gags about Tinder and there's gags about flavored condoms and there's gags about lip plumper, whatever the stuff is that, you know, makes your lips go. But then weirdly about, you know, sort of as it hits its stride,

it settles down into something which is actually about grief. No one was more surprised by this than I was, but the thing about dealing with the loss of a loved one actually starts to emerge as a genuine thing. Like love actually, with which this shares not only cast members, but also a kind of aesthetic DNA, it got me in the feels. And in the second half of the film, I cried like a baby. Tears were rolling down my face

and I was doing the thing about it because I wear glasses. If I, I mean, I love crying in films. I absolutely love it. It's one of my great joys, but I have to take my glasses off to wipe my eyes. So I know that everybody, it was evident I was crying my eyes out. I mean, not crying in sadness. It's just the old thing about tears of laughter, tears of joy. So it's a really weird hodgepodge of a movie. There are bits of it that absolutely don't work, but there are bits of it that just got me. Hugh Grant is hilarious. Every single moment. Apparently he had some hand

in writing the lines for his character. He's terrific. He is in the absolute golden age of his career right now. You think he's never been better. And it's messy and scrappy and bitty and it takes a while to find its feet. And you know exactly where it's going. But then when it does, it just starts working and you laugh, you cry, you come out. I mean, I literally came out, I'm not being funny. My face was sopping wet with crying through it, which I really liked. So it clearly works. What a state to be in.

Sorry. Anyway, Mark, I for one can't wait to hear Bridget Jones mad about the boy, the official podcast, wherever I get my podcast. Yes, I'm looking forward to that too. Even though you would think that maybe the person who put that podcast series together maybe could have got us a guest from that film for this podcast.

Well, that might have happened were it not for the fact that when he was doing that podcast he was off not doing us. You remember that week that he wasn't here. I know. That was it. I'm still seething with resentment. Anyway, that appears to be the end of take one. This has been a Sony Music Entertainment production. This week's team has been Jen,

Eric, Josh, Vicki, Zachy and Heather. The producer was Jen. The redactor is the guy who did Bridget Jones' Mad About the Boy, the Official Podcast. If you're not following the podcast already, please do so wherever you get your podcasts. Also, please find the superb five-part podcast documentary, Bridget Jones, Mad About the Boy, the official podcast, which has been superbly executive produced. Mark, what's your film of the week? Please don't say it's Bridget Jones. Memoir of a Snail.

There you go. Thank you very much indeed for listening. Just on principle. Yes, quite right. Take two has landed adjacent to this podcast, so we'll see you there.