OK, seeing as this line of conversation threatened to drown out the Ricky Gervais thread last night, here it is in its own thread.
Firstly, to explain what we're on about:
We're talking movies of course, in particular any fans out there of the Kermode and Mayo Film Reviews show, as featured on BBC Radio 5 Live every Friday afternoon.
For me, Mark Kermode is one of the funniest film critics out there, raving about sometimes little-known or unloved films he feels deserve to be seen (and not in 3D
), and otherwise ranting about the worst new releases of the week in merciless and brutally honest fashion - a style that has now been referred to as "kermodian."
He has his own list of favourite directors (Herzog, Lynch, Friedkin) and actors (hello to Jason Isaacs, who was at the same school as him) as well as a hate list of people in the industry (apparently Danny Dyer has threatened to beat him up
) and certain movie franchises (namely POTC) so unsurprisingly many of his opinions are biased and outspoken and of course not representative of those of the BBC in general. Combine this with hilariously awful impersonations of famous people and effervescent waving of (by his own admission) his big flappy hands, and you'd have to agree that his witterings are more often than not more entertaining than the films themselves. Hence the term "wittertainment."
When Jonathan Ross left The Film Programme, Kermode has so many fans out there who wanted him to take over - Kermode himself has flatly refused the role as (and I agree) that he would not be suitable for such a programme. Personally, I also felt that if he did agree to go, he would have to take Simon Mayo with him as main presenter - a few fans dislike Mayo for his sometimes snarky interruptions of Kermode in full flow, but I feel he's the other important component of the programme, a comic foil there to keep Kermode in check. (If you managed to see their review of "FRED: THE MOVIE" especially on the webcam stream, you'll see why.
)
The BBC seem to agree with me on the Mayo assessment, as they not only allowed Simon Mayo, who by now had left 5 Live to take over the vacant Radio 2 Drive Time slot, to keep his Friday afternoon radio slot with Kermode, but they expanded what was originally a segment of his old 5 Live show into a whole two hour programme (breaking news permitting) - something that continues during weeks when neither Simon nor Mark are available and they end up getting the (less entertaining) Boyd Hilton and Nigel Floyd with Richard Bacon.
Firstly, to explain what we're on about:
We're talking movies of course, in particular any fans out there of the Kermode and Mayo Film Reviews show, as featured on BBC Radio 5 Live every Friday afternoon.
For me, Mark Kermode is one of the funniest film critics out there, raving about sometimes little-known or unloved films he feels deserve to be seen (and not in 3D
), and otherwise ranting about the worst new releases of the week in merciless and brutally honest fashion - a style that has now been referred to as "kermodian."He has his own list of favourite directors (Herzog, Lynch, Friedkin) and actors (hello to Jason Isaacs, who was at the same school as him) as well as a hate list of people in the industry (apparently Danny Dyer has threatened to beat him up
) and certain movie franchises (namely POTC) so unsurprisingly many of his opinions are biased and outspoken and of course not representative of those of the BBC in general. Combine this with hilariously awful impersonations of famous people and effervescent waving of (by his own admission) his big flappy hands, and you'd have to agree that his witterings are more often than not more entertaining than the films themselves. Hence the term "wittertainment."When Jonathan Ross left The Film Programme, Kermode has so many fans out there who wanted him to take over - Kermode himself has flatly refused the role as (and I agree) that he would not be suitable for such a programme. Personally, I also felt that if he did agree to go, he would have to take Simon Mayo with him as main presenter - a few fans dislike Mayo for his sometimes snarky interruptions of Kermode in full flow, but I feel he's the other important component of the programme, a comic foil there to keep Kermode in check. (If you managed to see their review of "FRED: THE MOVIE" especially on the webcam stream, you'll see why.
) The BBC seem to agree with me on the Mayo assessment, as they not only allowed Simon Mayo, who by now had left 5 Live to take over the vacant Radio 2 Drive Time slot, to keep his Friday afternoon radio slot with Kermode, but they expanded what was originally a segment of his old 5 Live show into a whole two hour programme (breaking news permitting) - something that continues during weeks when neither Simon nor Mark are available and they end up getting the (less entertaining) Boyd Hilton and Nigel Floyd with Richard Bacon.
