Podcasting and Broadcasting
Over the last 11 years I’ve been a fixture on the Empire podcast, launched two of my own and co-hosted a fourth. I’ve also guested on numerous other podcasts, as well as radio and TV. Here are some handy links if you’d like to know more.
The Empire Podcast
The Empire podcast has been running since 2012, and remains one of the most popular film podcasts in the UK. I am a co-host on the podcast along with my colleague James Dyer, and our host Chris Hewitt. We cover movie news, reviews and filmmaker interviews each week, along with a lot of nonsense and quotes from Predator and Event Horizon and the like. I apologise for everything. This clever poster was done by graphic artist Royalston Design.
The Empire Spoiler Podcast
In the last few years we have turned our popular, in-depth spoiler podcasts into a separate paywalled channel - basically so that Empire would allow us to continue devoting so much time to the podcast. In these episodes, we go into enormously geeky detail on the biggest films around, interview the filmmakers responsible for them, and discuss all the minutiae and twists of the plot. Why kill that one guy? What exactly did happen in Tenet? The answers are all here. Hopefully.
Bah Humbug: A Christmas Movies Podcast
I am a terrible apologist for terrible Christmas movies, and decided to indulge this three years ago and start a seasonal podcast looking at the new Christmas films out each year, from the sublime (Violent Night) to the ridiculous (also Violent Night). The format has varied, but I’ve invited along fellow critics and some of the people responsible for these films to discuss what makes a good Christmas film, and which ones break the mould. Made in association with Stripped Media.
Women Vs Hollywood
I expanded on my book, Women Vs Hollywood: The Fall And Rise Of Women In Film, with this podcast, produced with Stripped Media. The podcast allowed me to interview exceptional women (mostly) who have done exceptional work in film and the related industries, and to widen the book’s focus out to highlight their work and their viewpoints. This was a limited run series which shares a podcast feed with Bah Humbug, so keep scrolling if you can’t see the episode you want.
His Darker Materials
Another podcast with Stripped Media and originally a Spotify exclusive, this is a show that I co-hosted with Dave Corkery that followed the BBC / HBO show His Dark Materials from the first to the last episode, through three seasons. We interviewed almost all the major cast and crew; compared the show to Philip Pullman’s novels, and tried to find out what people’s daemon would be (I quite fancy a raven). If they make The Book Of Dust, we’ll be back. Our cover art here is by Sam Gilbey, and you can find more of his work here.
BBC Radio Ulster: The Ticket
I’ve been covering film for The Ticket for the last few years, which is a fun return to my native Northern Ireland - at least in audio form - each week. With the host, Kathy Clugston, I review the new films out each week as well as covering films on TV. Here’s a picture from my home town because it’s quite hard to picture radio.