Kermode & Mayo have announced they are ‘stepping away’ from the show after 1st April.
A somewhat emotional listenership are speculating if this means podcast only i.e. no longer on the radio, or if it really is THE END?
Any of the Massive know anything, one way or another?
Wittertainment to cease April 1st 2022!
by 26 Comments
Nope, but I hope this means they are just going to monetise it by removing it from the radio and running as a podcast. I’ve listened every week for years and I’d hate to see it go completely.
Looks like you’ll get your wish.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/mar/11/well-be-back-stay-tuned-kermode-and-mayos-bbc-radio-5-live-film-show-to-end-after-21-years
I think it is time, about 5 years ago they disappeared up their own backsides, all this reading of “amusing” correspondence, in jokes and over indulgence of mass market films. It used to be wonderful though before Simon Mayo went to Radio 2
I agree.
I sent to see them at Liverpool Phil some years ago. They were promoting a book. I enjoyed the evening and left feeling I’d had enough.
Who did you send Tiggs?
I hope the Film Review on Friday afternoon doesn’t go as whenever they haven’t been there it’s invariably been better.
There’s something to be said for a programme that is in the listings and has a designated air time on a radio dial.
I used to listen, but it seemed to sink under the weight of the in-jokes pre-lockdown. Good luck to ‘em in a new berth, but no longer a must-listen here.
It has been ‘must listen’ radio for me for the last 10 years.
Sad to see it go but it will no doubt re-appear somewhere else with or without hellos to Jeremy Isaacs.
Erm … Jason Isaacs.
Erm … Jeremy Irons.
Erm…. Gregory Isaacs.
Mornington Crescent!
I always listen to their 2 hour podcast as I have done for years. I particularly like the 25 minutes in the middle where they actually talk about films.
They are both pretty good on music, too.
No way, Jose, not letting that go…
Mayo is to music what his football team – Tottenham Hotpsur plc – are to trophies.
He’s hopeless. The very-embodiment of a dire-1980s DJ.
Might as well ask the cat or the hat-stand.
He still, I think, hasn’t seen Summer of Soul (just this minute won “Best Documentary” at the Baftas, incidentally) despite repeatedly being recommended it/asked if he’d seen it by Kermode.
Kinda shows you where he’s at:
“Have you seen the greatest music documentary ever yet?”
“Erm, no, haven’t quite got around to that.”
I meant music in film…
But, yes, I take your point.
Back when there were about 5 podcasts this was one of the 3 I listened to religiously, along with the Word and Adam & Joe. Only Adam Buxton and WIYE remain on the feed today. Like others above I bailed years ago when they went from charming to insufferable. To be fair to them I’m now a lot less clued-up on what’s worth watching at the cinema (though not such a big problem over the last couple of years).
Exact same as me, except Chart Music has taken the place of The Word podcast. I still listen to WIYE a bit but rarely make it through an episode. Messers Hepworth and Ellen had a tendency to talk over the top of each other and guests, and that’s been amplified since they started doing the podcast virtually.
I’ve been listening to some of the older ones again which were recorded at live events and they’re much better. I’ve noticed that it’s usually Mark Ellen who talks over people.
Always thought Kermode had a smug superior air about him that I found insufferable.
I like Kermode. It’s Mayo who is the prickly, chippy, passive-aggressive one.
I wasn’t going to mention this, because it would be just as petty as they seem to be in holding and nursing grudges and grievances, (see Charlie Kaufmann Anomalisa interview), but for the second episode in a row, Mayo is still going on about a pr company cutting a few minutes off his interview with Helen Mirren. I’m several episodes behind, so if there are yet further references to this in further weeks, I will feel Fonzarelli really has strapped on his waterskis, and it’s not too early for them to pass on the baton.
‘fonzarelli really has strapped on his water skis’! Love it.
I don’t listen to this but I’m put in mind of the Joan Hickson character in Clockwise who spends the whole film talking about her sherry glasses.
Personally, I think they are/were fully entitled to have a dig at Charlie Kaufman, not least because he acted like a prick.
Kaufman publicly acting like a prick was further evidenced when he bitched incessantly about ‘Anomalisa’ ‘being robbed’ of an Oscar by ‘Inside Out’, the excellent kids feature about human emotions. His entire crew, including Dan Harmon, regrettably (speaking as a big fan) displayed a pretty nauseating degree of entitlement. This seemed to be based mostly on the fact was ‘really hard to make’ & ‘took ages’ rather than the fact that the Academy (TM) preferred another film.
It’s their show, so they are entitled to do what they want. Nobody came out of that exchange well, but however good Inside Out was (haven’t seen it) and however much Ketchup and Mayo loved it, to start off an interview by talking at some length about that film, rather than Kaufmann’s was not very tactful. Mayo should know enough about massaging egos by now.