Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review (5 Live)
Masters of Man Time with Just for Men (Absolute Radio)
The world is changing: politics, gender, religion, all breaking free of old habits, hellbent on changing their environment, from the locks to the wallpaper to the future. Good, I say. But it’s also nice to have some things that don’t change. Just so life doesn’t get too confusing.
Kermode and Mayo are two of those things. I was with film don Mark Kermode recently, at an event he organised at the ICA. He was the chair, and he was exactly as he always is: knowledgeable, hilarious, opinionated and yet gracious enough to take a back seat when it was someone else’s turn to shine. Mark is one of my favourite British critics. Yours, too, judging by the Observer’s emails.
Anyhow, at this event, Mark pointedly noted that I have never mentioned his 5 Live Friday afternoon show – Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review – in this column. And he was right. I haven’t, because it’s been going for 13 years, is one of the BBC’s most successful podcasts (nicknamed “Wittertainment” by the presenters) and I assume that you all know about it already. But maybe you don’t.
The format is conventional: top 10 films, interview with a star, discussion of the movies coming out that evening, that kind of stuff. Many shows are like this. But Wittertainment has two important differences. The first is its audience. The Wittertainees are a clever, committed, film-buffy crew. And there are loads of them. When Simon Mayo, Kermode’s co-presenter, throws out a challenge – 15 great films with a classification of 15, for instance – they respond instantly, and often with movies that he and Kermode haven’t considered.
There is joy in a familiar show with a longstanding audience, but there’s also a danger that it can become formulaic, too comfortable and in-jokey. Especially – and this is not really a criticism – with a presenter as genial as Simon Mayo, radio’s nicest man. Wittertainment, however, is resolutely un-twee, and that is the second difference. Though Mayo can occasionally be cosy, Kermode cannot: cutesy is beyond his range. His rants when a film isn’t up to standard are one of the show’s delights. Last Friday’s programme began with a mini-argument between him and Mayo, each bickering about whether they always do the same thing on the show. And if that sounds awful, it wasn’t. Wittertainment is properly good.
Films (like computer games, like football, like politics) are great for regular podcasts: there are new ones out every week, so there’s always something to talk about. It can be harder when your subject is less specific. Which brings us to Masters of Man Time With Just for Men: a new, jokey show/podcast hosted by Pete Donaldson and Danny Wallace on Absolute. Wallace is a presenter I am always happy to hear: laugh-out-loud funny without ever being cruel, he is one of broadcasting’s genuine joys. I was sceptical at first, though. The show’s sponsor, Just for Men hair dye, means that the topic is men and men’s stuff: and that’s tricky, because men’s stuff is so comprehensively covered anyway. Football, politics, war, situations where many men gather and get excited: we know about all that. It’s called the news. I understand that non-macho types such as Wallace and Donaldson might want a different approach, but I did wonder whether this show needed a different sponsor, to open it out. Just for Dogs?
Having listened to a couple of podcasts, though, I can report that the man thing is working. This is a funny show. Last week’s sequence about Werner Herzog had me roaring, as did Danny with his short, drunk presentation from the GQ awards. And this week, I very much enjoyed listener James Beckley talking us through his torso, using Gary Barlow as reference. “I’m around a 2005 Barlow,” he commented. “Possibly a little bit moob-esque.”
A couple of other bits… LBC’s new Phone Farage show on Friday had the lovely Nigel giving us his positive take on multiculturalism. He welcomes, he says, people who aren’t born in Britain, because “they brighten the place up, make the food better”. Oh God. I can’t say I’ll be rushing to tune in again… It’s nice to see that 5 Live are trying out a few women in Victoria Derbyshire’s old slot before Peter Allen and Adrian Chiles take over: Sam Walker has been very good, and Clare McDonnell will be there next week. And for all of us who want a digital car radio without paying a fortune, Radioplayer have come up with a neat app and gadget that turns an in-car system into a DAB, controlled via your smartphoneCheck out Mike Hill, Radioplayer’s MD, explaining how it works here (warning: contains self-consciousness).
