Enys Men & Grange Hill

Enys Men

Reegs: intro. He needs to have a magic theme in his mouth.

400th episode.

Dan: Woo ha!

Reegs: re releases and all that

Sidey: Yeah, original content.

Reegs: This actual episode, that's over 17 days by my estimate of what might charitably be described as entertainment hurled into the ether for a largely indifferent audience.

audience content, yeah.

So

first up on this momentous show, why not pop the champagne corks, or depending on your budget, sniff some glue, as we kick things off with a chat about the top five celebrations in movies. After that, our main feature sees us reviewing Friend of the Pod, can I say that? British director Mark Jenkins follow up to the sensational bait as we tackle 2022's ultimate horror.

Ennis Men, a kind of twisted love child of David Attenborough and H. P. Lovecraft. And finally, we'll be rewinding the VHS tape and revisiting classic TV show Grange Hill, the iconic British kids TV series set in a school where innocence goes to Die hormones run rampant, and it's so rough.

Even the rats had ASBOs. All that's left to do is introduce the dad, starting with Dan, who's so old. His first pinup was a cave painting but at least he has wisdom and some of his own teeth. And we also have heartthrob Chris. He's got cheekbones that can cut glass and a voice smoother than Matt Lucas's bikini line, but all the emotional depth of a puddle.

There's also salmon of knowledge, sidey. His takes are hotter than Satan's sauna. Sidey, we recently had to have you completely deprogrammed after you fell deep into a YouTube conspiracy theory where you became convinced that dinosaurs were made up by the CIA to discourage research into time travel.

How are you feeling now? Are you better?

Sidey: better?

I've fallen down a different one.

Reegs: Oh, right. Well, you never know. It might be a recurring thing about your strange

Sidey: right, fair

enough. Oh,

Reegs: Oh, but have you actually got a real one?

Sidey: real

one? No, not, not really, but I've been reading stuff about Kate Middleton.

Oh,

Reegs: Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's

Sidey: Because they could just, surely they

could just stop all that.

Reegs: Yeah, surely it's better to completely perpetuate whatever is going on.

Sidey: All very strange.

Reegs: yeah. And then there's me reading, hello.

Cris: Hello,

Hello. everyone.

Dan: Yeah, it's been a, been a good week for, for you all.

Sidey: Yes.

Cris: been. Yeah,

Dan: yeah, good. Good. Any movie watching beyond the homework?

Cris: Not for me. No,

Dan: No.

Cris: I was busy with work. I've had stuff to do.

Dan: really? Well, I remember that back in the day, I did stuff. But this week I have watched Shogun, which was the James Clavel, Cavill?

Sidey: Henry's brother?

Dan: Henry Cavill, Henry Cavill wrote the book, but it was, you know, Japanese kind of shogun samurai story. It's, it's building into a pretty good series actually on four episodes in.

Yeah.

Cris: piece, isn't it?

Dan: It was on Disney and they drip feed and I've done the amateur mistake of starting to watch a series that hasn't finished yet So now I'm just waiting for them to to push out

Cris: Well, the books, were two volumes and they're thick, like proper thick books, but very good. I really enjoyed the book, so I'm going to wait to watch that one because I

Dan: good

Sidey: I did see the advert for fallout and it Specifically said in all episodes drop on the 15th of april I was like, thank fuck waiting

Dan: Yeah,

we've we've had that kind

Sidey: of

Dan: before, haven't we, where they, you know, drip

Sidey: We know

Reegs: and, this

Dan: you've got it. You're not filming it next week.

Reegs: That's Jonathan Nolan, I think

Sidey: What

Reegs: isn't

Cris: What is that about, Sadie?

Sidey: Zalabal? It was a

video game, but it's like a post apocalypse

world thing. It's got Carmichael in, it, so

it's going

Cris: so Oh, right, yeah. So, you're gonna wank

Sidey: I, Yes.

Reegs: It's got this like weird retro fifties aesthetic it's called. Okay. It should be pretty cool. I

did

Sidey: some movies.

Dan: You did some

Sidey: Yeah, I watched Monuments Men.

Reegs: Yeah,

Dan: Not seen that before? No. Right.

Reegs: to Ennismen.

Sidey: Yeah,

I fell asleep a little

bit, but.

Cris: that George

Clooney and

Sidey: Dog and Bill

Murray Ben, not Ben Affleck, his mate, the other one, Matt

Cris: Matt Damon? I'm pretty sure I've seen that, but I

can't really Are they in the army of some sort,

Sidey: saving art. Yeah.

Cris: Yes, yeah, I've seen that,

Sidey: the Nazis.

Cris: quite good, I

Sidey: And

I watched Madame Web.

Dan: I

Sidey: heard much about

Dan: No,

Sidey: it's been like universally panned, right? Darren Leathy did a write up of it

on our Discord.

And Breachy want to know if it was like,

good worth a watch, or

Boring not worth the

Reegs: it just bad,

Sidey: pretty boring. It's pretty boring. Like a

really, really pathetically weak villain character. Or It's obviously, like I don't know if you've read

anything about it, but it's obviously not the movie that they were going to make. It's been cut up and

Reegs: it, seems like such a bizarre concept

Sidey: strange.

It's really really strange. It's it's odd and

Reegs: very bad as well, I don't

Sidey: first bit the first bit that has Adam Scott and to go Johnson in it, it's, it makes you think I could, I could act, like, I could, this is what

it is, and I could do

that. Like, this version of

Dan: really strange, because he's really good

Sidey: He's really good, she's been in good stuff, and yeah, it's

fucking

awful. But I finished it, when I didn't finish the marvel, so it's better

than that.

Cris: Wow.

Sidey: Reeves, did you

catch anything?

Reegs: No.

Sidey: Cool. Yep.

Reegs: Did we have things from last week? What was last week's top five?

Well, Mel gave us a top five entry for Circle. She also wanted to say shout out to Dan for mentioning Logan's Run. Uh, Who knows? You never know whether it might get mentioned this week. And she once went to a fancy dress party as Jenny Agutta. So from Logan's Run.

So her nomination for,

Dan: that would have been hot

Reegs: Circles was for the Tom Hanks and Emma Watson movie called The Circle, a futuristic social media slash Apple type company with sinister intentions. She thinks it was Bill Paxton's last film to R. I. P.

Dan: Ah, right. Okay

Sidey: How do you pronounce her surname? 'cause I'm sure that's

Reegs: Agata? Agata? It's spelled A G U T T E R, but that might not be

Sidey: agutter, I dunno.

Yeah. Anyway,

Reegs: Yeah,

Dan: He's

Sidey: she's come from a long

line of fitters. Yeah, That fit guttering around

your house.

Yeah. What should we crack on with this week's

top five celebrations? Top

five. Celebrations.

I've got mine categorized

into different sort of kinds of celebrations, if you

like.

Reegs: I've got a few of those sorts of things going on. Yeah, well go

Sidey: I know you worked night and

day on

Dan: Yeah,

should I

Sidey: do you want me to just give you a bit of a

Dan: Oh go on then if you've got something

Sidey: well, I've, I suppose victories

celebrations.

I've got a couple of star Wars. Specific ones. After they

destroy the death

Star.

In episode four, and you hope

they

come

back to the rebel

base and they're so

giddy with

excitement I think it's Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker shouts out

Carrie.

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: Yeah.

it gets the all the names mulled up and they left it in.

Reegs: Yeah. and, they have a big celebration,

Sidey: have really going for it. Yeah, they have they give out tea and medals and all

that.

Reegs: everybody marching and all that shit

shouts

Sidey: just shouts

out in the middle of the

ceremony, which seemed unprofessional. Yeah. and then in

Return of

the Jedi, I can never remember the names of these things now.

they kill a second Death Star.

Yeah.

Bit of Deja Vu. And then they go back to the Forest Moon of

Endor

And in the original version, they fucking party down

with the Ewoks, And

they have the Yub Nub

song. and then in the special editions they just fucking redacted that. And gave it some generic bullshit Music and got rid of the Ewok

Reegs: Yeah, and then the special editions also added scenes of the Empire being toppled across the galaxy only for it to be undone

Sidey: In about three years.

Reegs: Abrams, like 20 minutes later.

Dan: Yeah. Well, I've got a better celebration. It's the deer hunter. The wedding celebration which goes on in, you know, it's a three hour film this obviously it's, it's all around, it gets onto heavier scenes but this is near the, the beginning and it's half an hour of the wedding and reception.

Well, there's not much dialogue, just loads of drinking and singing. It, it was really done in a, in a church an Orthodox church with a priest and everything. They really grabbed as much realism out of it. And they're all having that great time. You know, there's that classic um, I love you baby. And if it's quite all right, so they're all singing it and shaking it as you do at parties.

A little bit of red wines gets spilled on the bride's.

Which is the omen really to the beginning of all this good times coming to an end and everything. But as far as celebrations goes, that's a, that's a hard one to beat and gotta be mentioned.

Cris: Yeah, I've got a celebration in the gladiator. At the beginning, the Roman Empire or the Roman Army, the whatever, 6th and 8th Legion, go to Germania and they have a fight against the Germanic barbarian tribes. And there's a celebration afterwards where everyone's

Sidey: the

face doesn't have that

Cris: Well, when he washes the hands and they're all having a celebration, but the prince is there and the king asks him to Actually, I'm going to die soon and you're going to be, and that's

Sidey: yeah

Cris: an important plot.

I don't know, a twist in the plot or however you call it. So I thought that was a, not so much of a big celebration, but an interesting celebration because it changes the idea of the film straight away

Sidey: film straight away. Well,

Reegs: Well I,

Really liked and I think I probably was the only person who did Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby and went to the cinema and saw it in 3D and Gatsby, of course, in Fitzgerald's novel, was famous for throwing elaborate parties.

So Baz Luhrmann brings these to the screen. Memorably, I think, you know, he brings several of them onto the screen, but memorably, the one where Gatsby is introduced, it's like, Opulence and extravagance and wealth on an almost unimaginable scale of food. There's entertainment, there's live music, there's champagne, probably drugs, most incredible surroundings, fireworks.

And of course, this is the one that gave us that incredible and very overused gif of Leonardo DiCaprio cocking his champagne glass directly at the camera. But yeah, Gatsby's parties are legendary and worthy of potential inclusion in our top five, I'd say.

Sidey: Well, yeah, I had that one in my bonfire slash firework celebration, subset Mulan,

the disney animated one, That has the actual villain being killed by a firework. she has a pet You know disney like sidekick characters a dragon. I think it might have been eddie murphy

voiced it and he sets off the the firework which crashes

into the

villain and kills him and everyone has a big party guardians of the galaxy volume 2

yondu Dies, and

is given the Reaper reaver, whatever they're called traditional

Space funeral ceremony

which involves a load of fireworks in a celebration thing. And

Lord of the rings the fellowship of the ring. They're having a party This is another one with a party at the start of the

film.

Well, it's probably

about 45 minutes in

In hobbiton and they're having a kind of pagan Kind of

thing, I Guess.

And the two I think it's Merriam Pippen set off an enormous firework

Which

Crashes through the

whole celebratory thing and V for vendetta. is a whole

kind of guy

Fawkes

bonfire. so I think

they do destroy

the

houses of

Reegs: Mm-Hmm. Yeah.

Sidey: and everyone is having a big celebration about that.

Reegs: Mm-Hmm. with their anonymous masks.

Dan: well, because my my research took a bit of a downward spiral i'm just going off off the the It the hoof here and I'm thinking the Godfather again.

I know we, we talk about fairly regularly, but there, there's the great wedding scene where everybody's having this big celebration, but mixed within that, you have this other kind of room and it happens at weddings, isn't it? There's always some serious business going on. Everybody's having a good time, but

Sidey: someone's godfathering

Dan: in another room having serious conversations.

Not quite, maybe is, is is as dark as Don Corleone here, but he's, you know, giving people life or death, the thumb up or down, basically he's granting gifts on his his granddaughter's wedding day and people know it's the time to come and sort of get something or, or, or go. And he's, I think one point he's got.

a

guy who an embalmer, isn't he? He's like the funeral guy and his daughter has been raped and beaten. Beaten up by these guys and he says look don it just can't fucking happen like this, you know And don goes right. Don't worry. I'll take care of it and one day I might need you to do me a favor And and then obviously later on when sonny gets shot to pieces he needs to do the best work ever.

So he can have this open casket that they're obviously all keen on on having and everything but Yeah mixed within the celebrations there becomes this

Cris: Yeah, I've got a couple actually.

I've got and I don't know if it's much of a celebration. I felt like a celebration when in Shawshank Redemption when Andy agrees to do the paperwork for the headmaster of the prison and they get ice cold beer. Yeah, that feels like a celebration because it's a great scene. and and the prisoners and the guards.

Agree, like a three, three beers each for each man to have. I thought

Reegs: It becomes a like a local legend,

Sidey: He doesn't take one. He doesn't take one. he just sits there

Cris: he just sits there by himself.

Dan: anymore does he you know, he's

Cris: do that. I thought that was quite a good one. It's not really a gathering of everyone as a celebration, but it's a celebratory moment. And I've got the bear Jew. In glorious bastards, when the scene, when they have that one of the German officers gets beaten with a, with a baseball bat and they all kind of celebrate and he kind of goes mental.

Like he would have been an actual basketball player, but he just beats the shit out of this German officer with a baseball bat. So I thought that was a good celebration from the bastards. And I've got a scene in coach Carter. Yes, and sneak out of the room and they get to a party and that's their celebration and he gets really upset.

But they turn around and say, well, we're winners. So you wanted us to be winners, we're winners. But he doesn't stop there, but that was a an interesting celebration. So

Reegs: I'm a big fan of the big teen party type thing.

And a lot of movies we watched 21 Jump Street had a big party in it that got out of control. Weird science is another one that has an ending with a big party that's got out of control. The cast of Mad Max end up getting pulled in and nuclear missiles

and all sorts of stuff.

Dan: Frank the Tank was Will Ferrell in

Reegs: old

school, yeah, yeah.

And then Project X, did anyone see

Sidey: I haven't seen it.

Cris: I was, I was, I had that,

Reegs: it's like a found footage 2012 movie about three blokes who basically try to gain popularity by having this bad relationship. Mom and Dad go away and they film it all and it gets completely out of control. At one point they, they meet miles Teller as miles Teller and they're like, or do you want to come to this party?

And he's already heard about it. So it's like, Oh shit. He's getting, and it becomes at the end of it. His house gets completely destroyed and there's flame throwers and all sorts of stuff. And it gets bonus points. It's an okay movie, but definitely gets bonus points for the fact that basically it turned into a massive endless party on set because all the extras stayed partying well after the film crew left.

So that's quite good. Almost Famous has the pool jump in the big party, remember?

Sidey: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Reegs: What does he shout? He shouts something as he jumps in. I can't fucking remember it. And then Rian Johnson had Brick and it also has the

High school party type thing going out of control, but it's a bit more classic.

It's like, you know, this live jazz performance and a bit more Noir in keeping with the, his sort of general world that he created in that movie.

Sidey: Cool. I

suppose Kind of obvious is the sport stuff. Like, so I was thinking

Rocky.

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: The first

one, all of them end up with the celebration, I

guess, but Rocky, the first one, he doesn't win. But he does win because he's gone the distance and he's shouting over to Adrian.

Cris: Adrian.

Reegs: won Adrian's heart.

Sidey: It's a very triumphant

he's won everyone's respect, etc, etc, etc. The

Karate kid from 1984, remember that, where he does

the crane.

and he kicks, Johnny and

Reegs: Oh, I was thinking more about the Halloween party that he goes to.

Where he goes as a shower.

Sidey: Yeah, It's a great outfit. It's such a good outfit, Yeah.

And that's first time we see Miyagi

do some badass karate, isn't it? Yeah,

Reegs: bottle tops off, does he? Is that what, no,

Sidey: Well, he has to kind of rescue him, doesn't he?

When He's getting bullied by the gang. And, of

course, Dodgeball. Yeah. when they win, they're all celebrating and they've won loads of money as well because someone bet on them.

Vince Warner put a bet on them,

And, there's a triumphant load of

celebrating, and we get to see the end of,

White Goodman?

he's Got fat

again. So we will revel in that. And chariots of fire, although far fewer chariots than advertised, but, that ends with, them yay.

Dan: Yeah, yeah. Well, there, there was a New Year's party celebration in a film called About a Boy which is

Sidey: Hugh

Grant.

Reegs: Grant.

Dan: he's he's, kind of a strange character because his celebration is is basically at Christmas on his own having a joint front of the TV.

He's living off his father's royalties because he did a he had like one song or something and basically that was how he celebrated and until he he meets I think it's Rachel Weiss at one of these kind of Doos that he goes to in and she go, what do you do? And he's like, oh, I just sort of don't do anything

Sidey: the kid?

Dan: In that film, about a boy,

Sidey: He was in, Mad Max Fury Road, and I think

he's beast,

Dan: Yeah, no he's

Sidey: Holt,

nicholas holt yeah.

Dan: think it is yeah, and

it was just, you know, that, that scene of, of him just living a life of a man who doesn't need to do any work and he just lives on repeat himself

Sidey: that a new year's eve thing

Dan: And it was, it was a New Year's Eve party, I think they'd been

Sidey: i've got a subset.

Dan: Oh,

Reegs: New Year's Eve

Sidey: Yeah,

Dan: this was, this was a real kind of guy's day off celebration, I guess.

Cris: I've

got a celebration. of this, it's a party, it's a hood party in a in Don't be a menace. I'm pretty sure you've seen that when our.

Reegs: Central,

Cris: Yeah, South Central LA.

Reegs: the hood.

Cris: Yeah. And the guy the main character, the one with the, I don't know, shit hair, he meets the first time Doshiki and she says that it's Swahili for doggy style. And they're at a party, like a barbecue type party. Party and it's a celebration for one of the guys that just got out of prison and he still acts like he's in prison where they play poker and he just gives cigarettes under the table and he's

Reegs: got a shive, I think, at the side,

Cris: Yeah, he doesn't really feel like he's not in prison and on a happier note

I've got the last one from me is a bronx tale It's a celebration when the kids the kid throws the dice, there's a, there's a,

Reegs: the Harvey Kittel, right? Is Bronx Tale?

Cris: it's Charles Palminteri.

I don't know if you've seen it, but if you haven't, we need to see it or you probably you have, but there's a scene when the kid kind of looks up to this mafia guy and they're all playing craps in the, in the basement. And Charles Palminteri is this mafia boss and he gives the kid the dice and he shoots them.

Two twos and he wins the money and he feels like, and all the guys with the slick hair and the suits and that they get really excited and they pat him on the back. So. Okay. And that's pretty much it for me.

Reegs: I had a couple of unexpected celebrations Ace Ventura when nature calls.

Have you got that one on your list side when when he decides to leave the Buddhist monastery that he's been calling his home. They have a massive

Sidey: celebration That's right.

Reegs: off in the distance. And then

Sidey: he do a slinky down the stairs.

Reegs: yeah. And in Borat when the hotel staff break the news to him that his wife's died, he breaks out into the massive celebrations, whooping and cheering.

Sidey: celebrations, whooping

Reegs: What about some alternative celebrations, Bunta Eve,

Sidey: you

Reegs: you know what that is? It's where they celebrate pod racing or in the Phantom Menace, isn't it? It's some sort of Bunta Eve celebration, some cultural event and pod

Sidey: racing.

Reegs: got, you got any more? So you had to give us one of your subsection side.

Sidey: sorry. Oh, where he

kills

Reegs: where he kills himself.

Sidey: No,

the, the

openings

Reegs: tracking shot.

Sidey: is, That's all taking place on New

Year's Eve. Sleepers in

Seattle. I think They get, they meet, don't they, on New

Year's Eve? They

finally meet after

stalking

each

other.

Reegs: does, yeah, but I don't like that film.

Sidey: It does, yeah, but I don't like that

film.

About Time, remember

that I think he cried. That takes, the sliding doors

moment is that he fucks up

the moment on a New Year's Eve

party.

The kiss or not to kiss.

or, yeah, that happens.

And

Oceans 11, the

original one, is supposed to, the heist is supposed to happen. On the

thing of New Year's

Eve.

the

Cris: Right, right on

Sidey: midnight.

yeah yeah, so there you go. That's me.

Dan: Well, I would just add in a film that we put in for the pod it was Stephen Beresford's comedy drama Pride

Sidey: Oh,

yes,

Dan: I think we all enjoyed lots of great scenes in that and particularly around this kind of gay and lesbian community

Connecting with the Welsh miners in and around their You kind of northern working man's clubs and everything and and then realizing actually They're like a bit of a laugh as well.

And there's lots of them that You know probably in the closet here as well that are frightened to come out and they they just managed to break down those barriers Through drinking and partying and celebrating together. The little bits, but I really like that film and it was yeah some Definitely worth mentioning here for celebrations What you got weeks anything

Reegs: Just a couple to rattle off quickly. The outrageous parties they had in the Wolf of Wall Street with dwarf tossing and brass bands and dru

Dan: parties

Reegs: the surprise party that kills Mafia boss Momo at the beginning of Get Shorty.

Do you remember that? The Elmore, Leonard Barry Sonnenfeld, John Travolta, all

that

Dan: it's just reminded me of when celebrations go wrong in was it law game of thrones? They had the, the red

Reegs: The Red wedding Unforgettable Red Wedding. House Party, do you remember that? Kid and Play,

Sidey: Yes, yeah, yeah.

Dan: And play. There

Reegs: The last one I had was, oh Gotham's 200th anniversary celebration in Batman, where the Joker rigs all the balloons with Smilex gas

Sidey: Love that

Reegs: that Joker.

Yeah.

Sidey: Joker. Right.

Reegs: Let's get it down.

Dan: Strong.

Sidey: Damn, what are you putting in?

Dan: Tough one actually. I think I will probably go for Pride because we've done it on the pod and if you haven't listened to that episode, it's worth going back and listening.

Sidey: Chris?

Cris: Showshine Redemption.

Sidey: Very good. Riggs I'm

gonna put in the closing credits of Hitch. The

Will Smith . Okay.

Reegs: They

Sidey: They have, They

get married.

The Chick and who's that?

chick? Kevin James. Kevin James. Yeah,

Allegra Cole, I think her name is. And him, They get married. and He's really Biff and she's super cool. Yeah. And Will Smith's there, dancing stuff and it's,

I know that's, you love it.

Reegs: stuff. Occasionally sees him, and he just takes over

Sidey: Yeah. I occasionally

see him doing

The Graham Norton Show. Right. And he just takes over the whole thing and it becomes like it's so

Reegs: cancelled it in my

Sidey: being irritating. Being a prick, yeah, yeah. But I did at least like this film before he got, before I cancelled him in my

own mind.

Cris: mind. Yeah, I was actually quite a big, not a big fan of his, but I did enjoy, yeah, a small fan of his, but now he's a dick,

Sidey: Yeah. Yeah. Big time.

Dan: Dufresne.

word from our sponsor, Galaxy Minstrels. Thank you very much. Their, their brighter futures are right here with you. Just buy a packet today and you will

Reegs: you can have a brighter future

Dan: an hour or less.

Sidey: We have brought back it today because that's one of

the chocolate selections that we have.

Dan: We're sponsored by Whatkinder today. We've got Ginger Snaps, we've got Maltesers.

Sidey: Some sort of Wham thing. And we had m

Dan: Wham

Magic Space

Reegs: Space

Sidey: We had some left over because we all got

together to watch this movie that, we're watching. We're going to talk about, it. we watched it all together last night, didn't we? It's

Reegs: It's the first time

Sidey: episodes. in

Reegs: 400 episodes that we've come together to watch, oh apart from Parasite actually, but yeah, it's the second time.

Dan: well that was, that

Sidey: was

first time we've done it

here.

Dan: that was a, night out, wasn't it? Parasite, and this was a night in. We did, we made the, the man cave into full cinema mode. We brought out the projector and

Reegs: we had some good sound going on, and it was a perfect environment for

Dan: of sponsorship by crisps and sweets and things. Coca Cola I think was also included. It was an evening set up for a festival of film watching.

Sidey: and we watched ns Men.

Dan: Yeah. Well, we've had history with this director, haven't we? Mark Jenkin, who did the fantastic bait that we Reviewed for the pod probably 300 episodes ago Maybe something like that two three hundred episodes ago mark was generous enough to come on to the pod and give us His version of it and and had a great conversation.

You can pick that up and he's coming on again Which is mental, isn't it? So we're going to

Sidey: It's great. Yeah, it's fantastic

Dan: with BAFTA award winning director Mark Jenkin about this new movie, which is the Atmospheric and Haunting Ennismen.

Sidey: Yeah I guess before we find out from the horse's mouth about

it, let's find out what we thought.

Reegs: Yeah Yeah

Sidey: It's kind of a, a

Strange

one

to talk

about.

the way that the film works

Reegs: I, know it's something before it even started, which is who it's published by, which is Neon, and they did Ingrid Goes West that we did last weekend, I, Tonya, Palm Springs, Parasite, amongst others. So they're, they're obviously an interesting production house, like a sort of alternative to A24, I guess, sort of similar type of

Dan: we've done quite a few of those films for the

Reegs: we have, yeah.

Dan: That is interesting. Yeah. So, this isn't your typical film. This isn't going to move.

Sidey: Well, we'd, like you said, we'd watch Bait and we know about the way that Mark Jenkin makes his films. Be that the equipment that he uses and the very hands-on nature of the way he deals with the actual,

Film. Because this

Reegs: Yeah, well, you know, when he talked to us, he talked about processing that actual film, like, in the sink.

He showed us where he did it, like, hand cranking it through,

so

Dan: this is old school filmmaking, it's 16mm,

it's you know, you can imagine the equipment must be big, heavy,

Sidey: It must be a real labor of love. And this film he's written and directed himself and, you know, done all the

behind the scenes stuff you know really

Reegs: And

very distinctively, this one is in color in contrast to Bait, which was monochrome.

And This has a sort of rich visual aesthetic. I mean, it looked great on the projector here just straight away. Didn't it?

Dan: It, it, it really does. It It's got a horror film, you know, feel about it just because of the, the way that the pictures look.

It's

Sidey: Well, it's the story of you

know Of one person in isolation, with kind of freaky shit going on and say like Even before anything freaky. Happens It

just that the setup is perfect. for

Reegs: Yeah, and we, should we, should we get into the,

the detail?

Dan: take us through

Reegs: I think it starts off with a shot of a receiver, a radio receiver. And then the sort of first third of the movie is a kind of repetition a gorgeous repetition, but of the, the same images thematic and by design.

Of a lady, the

volunteer?

Going about the observation of this flower on the coast of Ennismenn, the stone stone men island where they are, this beautiful Cornish

Sidey: Mm-Hmm.

Dan: Yeah. And it's just, it's really rugged. This island. There's, there's nothing on it apart from the house that she lives on. There's been evidence of other people living on it in the, in the sense that it's got a mine.

There's a chimney, there's a little jetty that we see from time to time. But basically it's just. Jagged rocks, Heather,

Reegs: a stone monolith on

Dan: monolith right in the, in the center, which seems to be moving around a little bit, or just the perspective that we get at different times. But yeah, the, the volunteer is in isolation.

Observing the, the

Sidey: Well, her day is is very, very routine, isn't it? Yeah. It's Get up,

she goes out, she does her observations. She

walks in, takes

Reegs: the soil temperature. I think, just quickly, can we talk about the plants? Because I think, right, the nature is obviously first and foremost in this movie. There's many, many shots of like, nature, you know, things growing. Or there's an ant two ants fighting over a leaf, I think.

And then there's loads of really cool shots of plants. Beautiful, stunning coastal close up and then big coastal shots of waves crashing all nature in its in its glory. But the plant, I think, looks kind of artificial, right? Is it like

it?

Dan: a little orchid or

Reegs: It looks kind of out of place in that, and it seems to move towards her a little as she starts to interact with it.

But yeah, anyway, is it?

Dan: She, does, She,

Sidey: she does, that, she takes a soil temperature and

just observes it generally and then she walks back and she

every time she,

she drops a

A rock,

down a mineshaft. I think it

is

In a

very deliberate way

with her hand.

I shouldn't just sort of chuck it. She very carefully does it every single time and the camera

shot is exactly the same just directly over it watching this rock fall And you kind of hear it splash or hit a hit a wall And then it's generator on make a cup of tea

Have

something to

wait, Read, the book.

What

was the book? The,

Cris: The Guide to Survival.

Sidey: to Survival.

and sleep. and that's it.

And we see that

Reegs: yeah.

Dan: write down her observations, which always led with no change. The date, no change, the date,

Reegs: loved this because as we, we reviewed the Wicker Man in the week and it takes place over the same week in time or what can be loosely described as time here, I

Dan: coming up to May, I guess, or, you know, the end of April

Reegs: It starts on April the 18th, 1973, and it's going to run up to May Day, and we'll hear that a few times as well. So yeah, we see her repeat that routine.

Sidey: routine.

Yeah, until,

Is it

One where she looks round and there's a fisherman. Is that the first time when something goes different?

Isn't

Reegs: it the daughter? Well, what I thought, what I thought was a daughter at first and then didn't, there's flashes, images of a girl who appears sometimes in bed, sometimes on the roof in blue,

Dan: yeah, on top, on top of a kind of outhouse just on the, on the side of the house where the generator is, I guess, we get a picture of it and it's like, you get this shot of the house and it's a lovely house. It's got loads of ivy growing up and all the time. got these real close up shots all the way through this.

You know, to to do this film justice, you really do need to watch it because you're not talking a lot about action that's happening. It's just these beautifully crafted shots and close ups of things you probably wouldn't notice on an everyday. There's

Sidey: I mean, there's been no dialogue,

Dan: dialogue, but because it's the same,

You're seeing the same

Sidey: I think that in itself

Dan: slightly differently.

We were talking about it as she's leaving the flowers. There's like a little stone path that goes up

Sidey: Yeah, I was, that, is

that going to give way? at some, Because it's so, the process is so

repetitive. That in itself, for me, was like building up a bit of tension or the

eeriness. I

Cris: looking for the details, no? In that repetitiveness, because it's, it's, it's the same trip past the monolith, it's the same view every time, it's the same thing coming in, put the jacket in the, in the corner, it's the same, it's windy, it's, it's very, very monotonous and, and just repetitive, but

Reegs: And it has a sort of, almost a found footage documentary type feel because of the aesthetic and stylistic choice.

Like, because it's 1973 and because of the use of the technology, it feels like you're watching

Dan: And, and also we say that nothing changes, but also everything changes because

Reegs: Well, no change. She's literally writing no

change over

Dan: writing no change, but you've got the rocks that when she goes down by the flowers, they're, they're more exposed because the tide's further out on the first day.

And then it's becoming more and more covered the way that she walks up the path. She, she takes a different step. So it's slightly different. So although it's the same things, you're noticing. different things that happen within a routine. At one point she goes past the, the well where she drops the stone and she just kind of walks past it a bit quick.

She lobs a stone in and then she goes back and does it as she, she really should do it or this routine that she's made for herself, where she will stretch out the arm over the well and just release

Reegs: Well, it's almost at that point that the island starts to hit back because when this movie does take one of the things we may be struggling with a little bit is there is no traditional sort of three act structure with this.

It's not very. It's more experimental in terms of pacing and plotting. But lots of stuff does happen and we can talk about it. Just all happens kind of in and out of sequence because we'll come to understand that time operates differently here. We'll see it literally with it. Water flowing upwards in a cave at some point and other things that suggest that time is, is running differently in a different way here and lots of other stories will emerge.

Other characters will appear as a milk thing that she has on her container where, where she keeps the tea has these seven ladies on it who will appear behind her at some point on her.

Cris: Well, this is what I wanted to say is that throughout all this repetition you do get glimpses of things that will influence the events that will happen because there's The poster the little painting with the monolith and the people

Reegs: Yes, and the dead. The

Cris: nuns milk condensed milk or something like that There's quite a few details that will show you and there will be you Proven to be coming to life, some of them, or to just influence the story, either in the past or in the future, depending on how you view the

Dan: yeah. I

Reegs: also we get a really big clue quite early on with a news report that she overhears where that talks about a date in the future.

It talks about a wreckage that's going to take place on May the 1st and about a tragedy, a guy who's going to die in a boat, the governor, right? Yes. And at some point, I don't know if it's before or after, I think it's after this, she recovers part of a boat.

Dan: Sign,

Reegs: Sign and mounts it on her mantelpiece that is clearly part of the governor.

It says oven and it's up above the fire.

Dan: you don't, you know, it doesn't explain itself or, or feel like, is this going on in her head?

Is this going on in real life? What do we know about these people that come in? Because intimately through the little bit of dialogue, you do get the radio. kind of cackles into power and, and we find out, Oh, I'm getting low on tea and I'm getting low on petrol. And she, you know, that somebody's coming out on the island.

Once the weather permits,

Reegs: Yes, we know the supply run is every two weeks, yeah.

Yeah,

Dan: So, we, we see Edward row from bait turn up and he's the, the The

Cris: supply

Sidey: well there's one there's one bit

Reegs: Very much like the Norman Wisdom Bulldog breed this

Sidey: is one bit where she looks, when she's looking at the monolith and she turns and you just see his face.

And they she looks back and then it's not there and you're like, That's the first, one of the first

Reegs: That's quite early on

Sidey: When when there's

something like, whoa.

okay

Dan: there's, yeah, there's, there's been a few things that just give you a slight unease and on top of all this, the, the sound is probably what

me most actually

Reegs: Well I really wanted to talk about this because it's all added in post. There's like nothing taken, so every, you know, there's nothing that's captured by accident, if you like, and put in there.

It's all chosen

Dan: even the, the, the, we'll have to ask Mark, but I think even the, the The filming equipment that he's got, the, it wouldn't take any

Reegs: No, I don't think so.

Sidey: it's

Dan: know, it needs to be recorded separately and then added in post.

So,

Sidey: there's a synthy kind of soundscape kind of kind of going over, which to me could have been an Aphex twin.

I was sort of looking at the end of it.

Because he's obviously

a very Cornish man,

and I was wondering if he might have there

might have been a collab, but

it's all Mark

himself, I

think.

to be. Did

Reegs: Didn't

Sidey: candle,

Yeah the bit of candle edit

Dan: As

Reegs: What the other inhabitants, inhabitants or residents of the island, you know, because you talked about there is a tin mine there and we'll see them. The tin miners will, will come to life. She the volunteer will, we'll see them at one point. One of them takes a shit. In her in her toilet. Very bizarre.

And also a group of fishermen, the ones who were killed in the original governor, I guess, accident in 1853.

Cause she finds a, a sort of a monument or a plaque. Yeah. To, to those who died in a rescue. A Mayday Rescue, I think it was, in 1850s,

Dan: 1850, 1870, something. And then you've got this this monolith, as we say, this stone monolith, and the way it's been shot, you can see a face in it you can see a couple of different shapes,

Cris: sometimes

Dan: figures,

Sidey: yeah.

Cris: I, I

Dan: Sometimes it looks like a, a guy wearing a, or, or somebody wearing a long kind of robe and cape. Sometimes you can see distinct features of a

Sidey: See, I

didn't know when I was watching it, if that was me just getting delirious. You know, and I was looking for stuff that wasn't there, or but everyone said it after the

film, so

I was like there must be

A deliberate

Dan: feature

and just if you catch it in the right light at the right time and everything and also he zooms in on this I'm probably say wrongly leeching

Reegs: Lycan.

Dan: lichen Which is this?

don't know. It's just kind of a

Reegs: a fungal mossy type

Dan: patch that grows on rocks

Sidey: Not just

Reegs: Well, not just rocks.

Dan: rocks. But I mean what it is splits rocks it it It kind of changes them. It turns them into soil. It's,

Reegs: soil. It's growing through the monolith itself, isn't it? Because the monolith has a crack. The volunteer has a scar on her. Stomach as does the monolith have a crack

Dan: Yeah, and the house

Reegs: And the house,

Dan: and everything. And yeah, as we as we go into a little bit more as the volunteer or the island maybe is seen to be damaged or things taken away. If you know, the rock wasn't dropped properly, if the flower had been cut.

Reegs: Well, she cuts it, doesn't she? She denies that, but we see her do it,

Dan: well, we see a flower at the monolith one day. It's just there. How it's got there. We don't know. But a little bit like she's questioned in that. And again, one of the few.

The supply

guy comes in and says, I thought you went and cut me. And she, she just smiles and said, I

Reegs: smiles and says, I didn't. After

I see

Dan: her cutting. And again, because of the timelines maybe it's, it's not quite. Meant

Sidey: But I think that's a punishment,

Reegs: it seems

Dan: Well,

it seems the island is, is kind of just, you know, poking back a little bit.

Sidey: That the

flower, She touches it first.

Cris: tries,

Sidey: and that's when it starts to grow, that's when It

starts, It gets,

polluted, You know, contaminated and starts to grow the

lichen on it.

Reegs: Mm.

Dan: Yeah.

Sidey: she first interferes with it because

Reegs: time.

Cris: you can see, a couple of times before she almost stretches her hand and then she pulls it back and just runs away.

Sidey: It's

Dan: like it makes a little

Cris: and then when she actually touches it the next day is got

Sidey: It's like the forbidden fruit, you

know. It's just got to keep going and looking at it, but never touch It

Reegs: and and she is reading, as you pointed out, the blueprint for survival as sort of, it's not a book that I have read, but I know of it as sort of seminal text by the editors of the ecologist about, you know, radical environment, not radical, but environmentalism.

It would have been radical in the, in the seventies for sure. And It's not hard to read a sort of creeping existential fear of nature or contaminating nature or the power of nature into this movie, I think.

Dan: And I think, you know, if, if anything, that may be, you know, that connection with with nature and, and us tampering with it, there may be something within that, that theme

Reegs: there's also a thing about ghosts and the past.

Dan: and the past and, you know, all these different, there's loads, there's loads going on.

It's the red.

jacket that

she's got in contrast to the rest of the landscape, the rugged landscape and the blue skies, the clouds, it pans along clouds which seem to never kind of end and they're all different, but all the same. And there's just tons of different scenes of nature that we really focus in and the camera sometimes will cut away sharply or linger there.

And you're just because of the sounds as well, you're just compelled to kind of keep watching and, and finding interest in new detail within something that's otherwise quite just a normal shot in isolation. But with everything else, it seems to be have a bigger story that you want to know a little bit more about.

Cris: Yeah from now on from the time she touches it I think it kind of gets a little bit more action rather than just repetition of her walk because She writes in her in her diary, whatever the day, 23rd of April or 26 or whatever. And then a lichen has appeared on one of the flowers. And then at the same time that night, she starts having a vision.

And then the monolith looks like it's coming closer. And it feels like each time there's either a different face or a different kind of scenery, but the monolith keeps coming closer. And there's. There's the little girl singing, there's her, her daughter, which we'll later find out that's not her daughter, appears more often sometimes in bed, sometimes on the, on the top of the kind of conservatory structure.

And then she, every, every day the flower gets more lichen on it. And there's, I think five stems and at one point they're all contaminated.

And then, but, but her dreams and her visions. Become more often. And that's where I think it becomes for me, at least it became a little bit confusing because you, I didn't really understand which one is the present, which one is the future and which one is the

Reegs: No,

I think absolutely, but I think that's kind of part of the point.

Cris: I, I, I get that. I was just thinking, is it just me or does, all right.

Reegs: It's very disorientating.

Sidey: It's deliberately ambiguous. I think I think

because

edward rowe is there I think there's a scene of them having sex. Yeah But she's not looking at them.

So they were probably lovers at some point but then

he's dead he's dead now.

Because she finds his coat or She sees him at one point in

the water, then later on sees the, his oil skins and she cleans them up.

And I think it's, as soon as she changes her routine, then everything starts

to change.

Reegs: I think it's the contamination

Sidey: of

Reegs: nature and all that. And eventually, as you were lichen will grow on her and she will also

Dan: which was really, so she's in the, in the shower and and. This kind of scar where she's the the child had fallen through the outhouse in

Reegs: Well, you're not going to find that out till quite near the

end, I

Cris: Yes.

Dan: that that's right.

But we we see this scar and we're able to link it now that this is the same Kind of person because she's got this same scar, but yeah, the lichen starts. She just sees it like a like a little scab It's just kind of a raised bit that's growing on it. And then the next time she checks herself

Sidey: started all

along

Dan: started all along and it's growing along this kind of scar, whether that's separating her

like it would do

to a rock and breaking it apart and things or, or whether it's just, you know, growing on her and is going to become part of her or something.

It's not clear, but it's it's a really spooky kind of, and very simple effect just to have something like that. Growing on a on a human skin, you know, it was just like a Oh, it's really really simple, but it's so natural, but so alien

Reegs: That's the thing that's going to kill us off isn't it, cordyceps and all that stuff, that's going to be the thing.

Sidey: Last of us? Yeah, all that.

Yeah.

Cris: yeah,

Reegs: So yeah, I mean, it's difficult because it becomes all these really cool things to talk about, but they're not necessarily in the order that they're in, in, in the movie. I mean, the part where she

She goes out at night, and she shouts, Who's there? Is it who's there?

Sidey: That's about halfway through it

it just goes

Reegs: And it goes completely fucking mental for a minute, and I wondered if it connects to a moment later in time where we'll see her, from a different perspective, say who's there.

Anyway, she flies through, I don't know how they did it because he's like, vibrating in the frame and all kinds of craziness going on. And sometimes we'll see shots of the house that she lives in, but

Sidey: burn out

Reegs: like, well, falling apart and

Sidey: Completely gone. Yeah.

Dan: But, basically, I guess this film, it is just saying, how do you feel when you're watching it?

Because I think that's what he, he wants you to do. He wants you to feel

Sidey: something, he

Dan: you to feel either disorientated a little bit confused just inquiring questions over what. What is this about to notice maybe the details and when the the frame lingers on on something relatively innocuous and then just takes you out of that into, you know, even with the sound, it's very quiet.

And then the sound of a generator kind of kicks in and it just shakes you from that, that sort of part of the film, that, that peaceful bit that you're into and you realize, Oh, you know, it gives you a jolt and everything. And there's, there's lots of moments like that where it just makes you feel something.

Different, you know, you're sailing along you're watching it You're not sure and then it will just give you that what gave me sort of a little bit of unease a little bit Oh, I'm

Reegs: me sort of a, a little bit of unease, a little bit of unease.

Cris: I have to say, for me it was the, the priest in the That was because he kind of kept, and he wouldn't say anything for the first three, four times when you see him.

She's just asleep or either she's reading and she has these visions. And there's just a kind of like a bishop

priest, but just outside the door, he just kind of stands there.

Reegs: Yeah, and later we'll see him doing a baptism of a child, I didn't know.

Yeah.

Cris: so

Sidey: that was her, was it?

Cris: that, that, that guy was a bit creepy for me. And, and like you say, when the monolith, because he keeps coming closer and closer, and then with the music, it just brings it all of a sudden right in front of the door.

Reegs: Yeah, no,

Sidey: thing. Yeah.

Reegs: place.

you

There's clearly a few sort of different reads on it. You could, you could, you know, like a companion piece to the lighthouse of like a person can just completely losing their mind sort of thing.

And but I prefer the,

Dan: that she has been there for her

Sidey: rock The inference is that she

has been there for her whole life.

Reegs: We see pages don't we at one point written in and she's filled out bits in different times and all that sort of stuff. So,

Sidey: Because that

is her, as a child.

Is it explicit?

Reegs: I don't know. I

Cris: I think it's quite clear because

Reegs: because Oh, the

Cris: And the child falls through the And you see there's a break into the glass

Reegs: I know. I was wondering about the baby. I was wondering if the baby was her as

Sidey: I think it's her whole

Reegs: Yeah, that's

Sidey: there.

Reegs: I was wondering. But yeah. The daughter She falls through and gets the big scar.

Well, not the daughter. The Her. Falls through.

Cris: young her. Yes. Yeah. Do we have a name for this lady

Sidey: just The Volunteer.

just

Cris: volunteer? Okay. Right.

Reegs: I don't believe anybody has like a traditional name in

Sidey: the boatman, the volunteer.

Cris: All right. Okay.

Dan: It's one of those films that I don't think it's going to appeal to everybody. It's certainly, I think that the missus wouldn't like

Sidey: this. Yeah.

Dan: If I was going to say sit down and watch this, she would just be like, Well, I don't know. But

I,

challenge anybody to watch it and just not feel anything, you know It's gonna pull you around the place whether you like that or not.

It's going to have that effect on you.

Reegs: I wouldn't go in expecting to be like, terrified. This is more creeping, creeping, dread and unsettling than

Dan: yeah.

but but also not in a totally helpless way or or you know, um really anxiety or anything because there was there was so much color about it and there was so much You know Beautiful nature and and just you know, the sound of the wind or the waves and everything nature all around you That didn't make you feel anxious.

It kind of centered you again because it was so authentic. The sounds, they were just so kind of real, like you were in that environment. And I think the way that he shoots with that, the color, there's something about that. That film, you know, it's just richer, isn't it? It just seems more layers into it I know you've got all this 4k now and it's it's really and you can see the warts on their nose and all the rest of it But some of the shots are that it was just so clear crisp, even though you've got these little flickers of the natural that you get in the film and everything in the

Reegs: Well, I think that's why you go for

Dan: But that's why yeah, that's why you go but also the quality of the the film is just there's just a different You Kind of,

Reegs: in the way that the frame moves through the, the lens, almost like, because some stuff looks almost like it's being. animated even though, do you know what I mean?

The, the, the frame rate or something about it part of the movement when you were watching things move, it has a very strange dreamlike

Dan: around the rocks when the water kind of sucks in and sucks out of the rock sometimes you you feel like that that time is being warped a little bit

Sidey: it was playing,

some of that was in

Dan: yeah yeah so there's lots of brilliant kind of camera Tricks that he would have done all by hand.

I'm sure and

Sidey: I know

Dan: all that happen

Sidey: plenty of friends of mine who just wouldn't enjoy this at all.

Dan: No, it

Sidey: but it's not You know,

it's a film made without compromise it's It's obviously his vision and he has a specific goal for it, and

it's

made, the I guess, the film that he wanted to make

I was I expected to be more

scared by it, but it's not that it's not really that kind of Scary movie. It's

Dan: well, I was GI must

Sidey: it's a feeling and a, and a vibe, more of an

unsettling vibe, but,

Reegs: It

Sidey: really

give a shit and want to know metrics, they're really like up and down and I totally get why, because it's just not, this wouldn't be for everyone.

Reegs: Yeah, it's probably going to polarise people, it's probably not a lot of middle ground, I wouldn't have thought on this.

Dan: But I, I think if you are one of those, like, like I am that enjoys a film that you can just watch scene by scene. You can't really take your eyes off. It is. It's only a just over an hour and a half.

I think that the runtime it feels lots quicker than that. You're not sure where it's going next. Even with the. The repetition, there's something within that first half an hour of the film where you do see lots of the same things over and over again, but in a very slightly different way, which I just found compelling.

I just thought, you know, just the details that,

But when it's shot like that, that you realize, geez, it can be everything that, you know, the, the, the difference between taking that step, that rock, that kind of shot, the, the tide being further out, you know, all the things we don't notice until you've seen it again and again, and you start to see the, the difference where you slow it down and you concentrate.

I think it really brought all That to me,

Reegs: and

a lot of that, a lot of that's in the edit

Dan: where where is normally in films, you know, you're just going through it's such a pace that

Little details would be missed and you're not bothered where they're putting their

Cris: I think that's a clever way of doing it because I, the idea is for me, I, I agree with you, Sadie, because I know and, and probably five, 10 years ago, if you would show me this movie after 10 minutes, I would have been take me out.

But because I know if I'm going to watch a movie I've committed and I'm going to watch it regardless of the fact that I turned it on or, or I'm not going to stand up and leave. If I'm committed to it, I think he's very clever in the way that it's very repetitive, but it settles you into a rhythm of the movie and then everything because it's fairly monotonous and it's not a lot of action really but whatever happens after the first 30 minutes and after the repetitiveness it becomes more interesting because everything seems to be slightly to the right or to the left slightly more added

Sidey: Well, you're waiting for the break in the routine,

aren't you?

At

Cris: the beginning, for the first 10 minutes, I was just like, are we, is this everything that's happening?

And then you get more and more into it and you kind of builds up until you get the monolith interface. So, so it's, and, and questions and everything else. So I think it's quite cleverly made, but at the same time, you would want to, if you ever want to watch this movie, you have to watch it with the, with the, while you're committed to watching it, rather than I'll put it on and see how it is.

Sidey: Yeah

yeah,

Cris: You know, we've all had movies that you, you just are, I see the title or I see the trailer, not even the trailer. I see the actor. I'll turn it on and see how it is with this one. You have to be committed to watching it. I think these otherwise, and then see if you, if you you're asking any questions or if you're going to be, well, I didn't like it.

Sidey: Well, it just, it just won't be on a lot of people's radar because, because of what it is. I think but I

would say that it's a strong recommend, I genuinely would

Dan: Oh, absolutely.

Cris: Yeah. I enjoyed watching it to be fair.

Dan: I think this is it's just an another step on this fantastic filmmakers kind of repertoire.

Sidey: Can't wait.

for you to do the next Fast and Furious

movie mean,

Reegs: filmed on a Bolex with just,

Dan: yeah, each and every, each and every shot though. You know, it, it seems to have so much thought and, and genuine Kind of care about it. I,

was thoroughly impressed by it and and really enjoyed it. It's a strong recommend from me for sure

Reegs: Yeah, yeah, absolutely strong recommend.

Dan: So, I would suggest anybody listening to this check this out. You can watch it now on I think Film four and prime has it as well. And hopefully in the next few weeks or something

Sidey: we'll have a chat

Dan: we'll have a chat with Mark Jenkin, the director, and he can tell us little bit more, give us a little more insight on it.

And,

Reegs: he actually gave us, did we get a day, like a world exclusive about Ennisman, didn't he tell us that about

Dan: He did say that he was gonna do a we should re release maybe the, the, the first,

Reegs: tune in next time and he'll tell us about his next. I'll

Sidey: we'll put

a link we'll put a link to the the episodes in the description for this one.

And yeah, maybe we'll get another Truth nugget

in

Dan: But, I mean,

yeah, this, this will be exciting exciting to watch and exciting to check out our next interview. duh duh duh

duh

Sidey: Grange Hill

Dan: Duh duh duh duh

Cris: Is that what, actually, is that the name of the thing, Grange Hill?

Yeah. That was the first episode.

Dan: duh duh I fucking

Sidey: fucking hated this as a child Oh

Cris: That

was my childhood at school.

Sidey: Yeah, Then that's why I didn't like

1. I hated anything that was live action. with Like, real people in it when I was a kid had to be animated. And this was like the absolute

and

dear.

Cris: year was this?

Reegs: year was this?

1978.

Dan: it. ran for years

Reegs: Ran for 30 years, 601 episodes.

Sidey: I know, I couldn't believe that when I read that

today 600 episodes 200. We've got 200 to go. We'll catch him

up

Dan: know we've done it in like five

Cris: were they, were they, what, when they finished, were they pensioners or something?

Reegs: I don't think it was the same kids. ha ha!

Sidey: they did a song they had a they had like a number one song

one of

the cars, Yeah.

Yeah, just say no is the song,

I think. Yeah.

about drugs.

Reegs: talk about some memorable

Cris: Drugs

Reegs: moments.

Sidey: Drugs

are bad. Yeah.

Cris: Really?

Reegs: Yeah. They found Zamo smacked up in an amusement arcade.

This was a, a show that was on at 5:00 PM targeted at children. And it featured stuff like teen pregnancies

Sidey: and drugs.

It's basically like East

Enders, but

Dan: got a

Cris: But for kids.

Sidey: call kids.

Dan: was series 1, episode 1. We went right from

The the, the origin story,

Sidey: Yeah,

Dan: this

Reegs: hang on, one of the great, great, Great tv tunes. Yeah.

I don't know if we're gonna play it. Maybe we

Dan: Well, I've

Sidey: already

hummed it a

Dan: I've already hummed it a couple of times there and we've got a great name

Reegs: And it's got you know the running I remembered it so clearly even though I haven't seen this for about 20 years the person late for the bus the swimmer the footballer the sausage

Dan: Yeah, Jenkins,

Sidey: And it had the creator's name right there in the it said Grangehill and Phil

Redmond,

who also did Brookside.

And

Reegs: Hollyoaks? Fucking get in, look at me with my mediocre British telly.

Dan: Didn't he

Cris: say you were going

Dan: in the Olympics as well?

Sidey: Yes, he did. Yeah. And his Old man had come

and help him finish the race. Yeah,

yeah.

Reegs: The original tune was a piece of library music called Chicken Man, recorded in 1975 by Alan Hawkshaw.

And for several years it also doubled as the theme tune for ITV's Sherrard's Bass Quiz, Give Us a Clue. So, there you go. That's,

Sidey: go. That's

Cris: Excellent knowledge.

Dan: in this episode one child was late and being a little bit bullied

Reegs: It's the first day of school, Dan, and

Sidey: going to school at the same time. No, we've had a,

Dan: No, we've had a couple of kids that look like they've been at post private schools and now being forced into these rougher rougher

Sidey: It's an absolute time capsule of this period.

yes.

And just behaviours.

Reegs: Yeah, well, there's some amazing, we've got one, we'll get introduced to a few of the characters. Judy's like the poshest and whiniest kid ever. Justin as briefcase wanker.

Sidey: Jenkins being picked

Reegs: Jenkins getting picked up by his

Cris: by His name

Dan: Because his name is Peter, but they call him Tucker. That's his

Reegs: Right, he, Todd Carty, who played Tucker Jenkins, was arguably the biggest thing That came out of

Dan: out of this. This

Reegs: Hill. He went on to become a sort of CB list

Dan: Yeah, B actor, I

Reegs: celebrity. He was in EastEnders and all sorts of stuff like

that. And he had a spin off show called Tucker Does Dallas or what? I can't remember what it was, something

like

Dan: was, it was a, yeah.

Reegs: So he was popular and we've got Benny the sort of, he might as well be token, let's face it. In this episode, he is knocking about with a football. He's told to stop playing football against the brick wall that he's kicking the ball against

Dan: case he smashes a window, go and play over by those windows

Reegs: Yeah. Very

Dan: Really crazy.

Sidey: The school looks like a prison. It really does.

Yes. It's grim.

Cris: It looks like the school I went to in Romania.

I honestly, we had bars until the third floor.

Iron bars. You couldn't, so you could just so that you couldn't escape school.

Reegs: Yeah

Dan: just so that you couldn't escape school.

Sidey: you know,

Dan: we had

Reegs: we had desks as well.

There's Tricia, she wants to dress like a whore and go to school like her older

Sidey: she's twelve, She's going

in tights and high heels.

Reegs: Yeah,

And eventually. Anyway,

all of the various members of the A and B cast arrive at school and they do a big assembly where Dan feared we were going to literally be introduced to every child in

Dan: it looked like that way for one minute. They didn't cut away quick, did they? They went for about 16 kids before. Finally it cuts around to the back where Tucker Jenkins is pulling an elastic band to, to fire it up against Jennifer's head or something. And the teacher. Comes along and starts

Sidey: BANG! BANG!

BANG banging

Dan: on Tuck's head going, are you thick?

Boy,

Reegs: verbally and physically assaults him in a bit of stuff that was, right, remember this is aimed

Cris: not assault! He just, he just got whacked a little bit. That's

Reegs: Well, he calls him stupid, he grabs him by the lapel calls him stupid, and then raps his head quite sharp, and I think if a teacher did that these days, it, there would

Sidey: the sack, Yeah,

Reegs: sack, immediate, yeah, yes, Chris, because it's not fucking 1978 anymore, and if, I would, you can't.

Sidey: I remember I was

talking to someone in class

And the teacher just picked up

the chalk

from the blackboard and just fucking wang it and it bounced off my head And I remember think even thinking at the time

thinking I think you should be doing that

Yeah, yeah, And he ended up he was a pedo.

and He went to prison. Yeah but it was a good shot with a bit of

chalk, So not all bad

Reegs: all bad

Dan: Yeah, I mean I remember getting hit by a teacher Because I went inside at school primary school. There was three of us. We went inside at break time. We wasn't allowed to be

Sidey: all right

Dan: so, And we've been collecting these little whips from trees because there were different colors and we were just young and we thought that was nice and cool, We said, Oh, look, we've given you these whips as like a, as, as a you know, a gift, a peace offering.

And then she took them and used them to wrap our hands with really hard.

Cris: I told you earlier, my history teacher beat me up in the second or third grade, like

proper beat me up.

Dan: Nah.

Cris: And

was just

like, yeah, go tell your dad, what are you going to do?

Dan: Wow.

Cris: And I was like, all right, I guess I go beat up now. That's it.

Dan: your tires.

Sidey: well, that's what we're, that's what we're seeing

Dan: Some of the Grange Hill brutality certainly brought it back for

Sidey: me.

Dan: Yeah.

And the wallpaper.

It was, and the, yeah, it was,

Cris: back for me. And the

Dan: Some bitchy girls Michelle who's late, I bet there's

Reegs: There's some bitchy girls a girl who's late, I bet there's more to her story than meets the eye. Some shenanigans with Jenkins not being on the class list that went on for like runtime and added literally no value to the

Sidey: There's some teachers who are uber strict. there's one teacher who's a

bit more.

Reasonable. Yeah.

he's got a better way with the kids

it's probably it's probably a deviant of

Dan: You could imagine that, those kind of jokes going down now. Oh, look, don't stand too close to me, I might have smelly socks. It would just be like,

Reegs: you'd get fucking

Dan: yeah, yeah, absolutely bro. But it was, it was good times back at Grange Hill in 78.

Reegs: And I think it ends with Jenkins sitting down and being twatted over the head with a ruler by the girl sitting behind him.

And then straight into that

theme

Dan: into that video. Duh duh duh duh. Duh duh

Cris: let's not do

Dan: Yeah, it would be hard to say strong recommend for this.

Reegs: What? Well, just what about Grange Hill as a, just a whole thing? Like, I remember this, the guy who fell off the car park.

There was, there was one where a kid punches a bullying teacher.

You would have loved that, Chris, with you on the opposite end of it, but,

Dan: may have been

Reegs: and Michael, Michael Sherd who played Mr. Bronson, who was Hitler. He was

Sidey: Yeah, he was, Yeah.

Dan: Say Mr. McCluskey. It's Mr. Bronson. Yeah. Yeah.

Sidey: Charles. bro, his brother. Yeah. Yeah, really? I, like I say, I hated this

like I'd just been to school.

and I didn't want to see loads of kids. having shit time at school. Like when I get home and I hated it

Dan: I wonder,

I wonder if kids now might have some interest. I'd have to run it past the, the, it's just

Reegs: it's too dated. Nobody's got a phone.

Dan: pretty

Sidey: looks pretty dated. It is

Dan: Yes, it is a bit of a slice of time

Reegs: Is it basically now all children vape now basically,

Sidey: Yes. and then they'll be getting

co pilots to do all their work. and

etc,

Reegs: well, but I do that as well. So

Dan: Kids are on Easy Street now. They're just

Reegs: vaping.

and

Cris: suppressed all my memories of school so this is no yeah,

Reegs: It's dug up some trauma for you.

Cris: no, I hated school.

I hate my passionately hated. I almost hated school as much as I hated Ingrid goes west

Sidey: I knew you could say that.

There it is,

don't

Reegs: it is. Don't go to school. It's not the message I thought we'd be delivering this week, but,

Cris: Not in 1978

 

Reegs: Strong recommend,

Dan: there you go.

What, another week there was.

Sidey: week, yeah, we've got 75% percent I think, of what we're doing for next week

Locked in.

Reegs: Mm-Hmm.

Sidey: Top 5 predators,

The

mid weeker is going to be,

can anyone. guess? Predator. Right. And then the main feature is prey.

Reegs: Oh, it's good, innit?

Dan: Okay. Okay.

Sidey: Anyone know prey.

Yeah, I've seen it's the latest Predator movie It's On Disney

You can watch that on Disney? or,

Reegs: I haven't seen that and

Cris: Oh, don't make me watch anything on Disney,

Sidey: please. Or other. I've

Cris: gonna pay subscription for Disney when I hate Disney.

Sidey: no, you don't have to. I'm

sure there'll be other

ways

Cris: I'll

Dan: You could always come round

Cris: on the cinema?

Sidey: Amazon, yes.

Cris: Yes, okay.

Sidey: the actress who plays the lead

in pray is called Amber mid thunder. Yeah.

this is the fucking coolest name ever. so do that, I know Hopefully there's a Predator cartoon,

but we haven't looked into

Reegs: I think there is. I think there

Cris: Yeah, there has to be. If not, we'll just watch the Juggernaut or something.

Sidey: Or

we could talk about, like, a predator video

Cris: like a

Dan: I just gotta quickly say hi to Sonny who said that when I'm dead, he'll listen to these shows.

Cris: shows. Okay, nice.

Reegs: Yeah,

Dan: yeah, he just said that he might, so,

Reegs: could try to get to know you after you've, after you've gone.

Dan: So I just said, Oh, I'll give you a mention, you know? So, if if I've already gone now, boy, then well love you anyway. Cheers.

Reegs: Aww.

Sidey: Okay, all that remains is to say Sadi signing out.

Cris: revedere. That's Romanian for, we'll see you later.

Sidey: Salute.

someone say something? What?

Reegs: What? Did I miss my cue? Yeah. Alright, Riggs is gone.

Dan: Dan's gone.