Podcast: The best films of 2006

Last night's show is now ready to download...
(mp3 format, 26.5mb)

Tonight's show: The best films of 2006

It's the end of the year show... Alex Fitch asks various broadcasters and previous guests of I'm ready for my close-up to name their favourite film of the last 12 months. Guests include Emma Smart (BFI), Kim Morgan (Midnight Sex Talk), Kev. F. Sutherland (The Beano), Kai Clear (Film-maker), Grant Rogers (Artist / animator) and Toby Haggith (Head of cinema programming, IWM).

Other links: IWM student film festival
Alex's film reviews

10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com

Podcast: Restoring The Battle of the Somme

Tonight's show is now ready to download...
(mp3 format, 26mb)

Tonight's show: Restoring The Battle of the Somme

To (belatedly) co-incide with the 90th anniversary of 'The Battle of the Somme' (both the event and the film), Alex Fitch is discussing the silent movie and its recent restoration with Dr. Toby Haggith (Imperial War Museum) and Andrew Robertshaw (National Army Museum). To make the film more accessible to modern viewers Toby has been involved with the rediscovery of the film's original score and the commissioning of a new one, while Andrew has made a documentary re-editing the scenes of the movie into the order in which they were filmed to give the audience a unique insight into the making of the world's first feature length documentary.

10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com

Links: Wikipedia page on the film
Andrew's page about the battle and the film at the National Army Museum website
Imperial War Museum microsite about the battle

Podcast: The current state of Comics

Originally broadcast 19th October 2006: Alex Fitch interviews Kev F Sutherland (comics writer and commentator) about such topics as: Hollywood and the media's fascination with comic books which contrasts with diminishing sales in shops. From appreciation of writers like Alan Moore and Chris Ware in The Guardian to comics based on TV shows and by TV writers, there seems to be cultural awareness of comics, but the question is: how do we get more adults and (more importantly) children reading this great art form again?

Download (mp3 format, 25mb)

Links: Wikipedia page on Kev F. Sutherland
Kev's own website

Podcast: The current state of children's television

Last night's show is now ready to download...
(mp3 format, 27mb)

Tonight's show: The current state of children's television

Tonight it's the "I'm ready for my close-up Celebrity Christmas Special"!
Alex Fitch presents an overview of this year's Children's television at Christmas with a special report on Sky's live action adaptation of 'The Hogfather'. Alex's guest in the studio* is Ed Petrie, Children's TV presenter / stand-up comedian and the show also includes short interviews with David Jason, Nigel Planer and Terry Pratchett.

10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com

*actually Ed's brother's bedroom, but let's not diminish the glamour here!

Links: Wikipedia page on Terry Pratchett
Sky's Hogfather site
Ed's website

Podcast: John Grierson and the Creative Treatment of Actuality

Originally broadcast 25th May 2006: Martin Williams produced this programme focusing on the work of John Grierson. Grierson spearheaded the British Documentary Film Movement in the years before WWII. Featuring interviews with Ian Aitken, author of Film and Reform (Routledge 1990), Realist Film Theory and Cinema (Manchester University Press 2006) and editor of the Encyclopaedia of Documentary Film (Routledge 2005) and Brian Winston, author of Claiming the Real (BFI 1995) and Lies, Damned Lies and Documentary (BFI 2001).

Download (mp3 format, 27mb)

Links: Wikipedia page on John Grierson
The John Grierson Trust

Tonight's special: Jason Oddy - photographing simulation and protection

But hang on... It's a Wednesday! Why yes, but as a special advent treat we're broadcasting an IRFMCU hour-long special in today's clear spot at 7pm (and if you think that's a special treat, wait 'til you hear tomorrow's Christmas Celebrity Edition!). This would have been last week's show but Richard was torn between broadcasting it in two halves or putting it out as a full hour...

Richard Thomas produces and introduces: Craig Burnett in conversation with the writer/photographer Jason Oddy. Oddy's most recent project 'Playas' was just exhibited at Brixton's photofusion gallery about a former mining town in New Mexico that was purchased by the department of homeland security for the purpose of simulating terrorist assaults in urban America. Jason has also photographed unique sites such as the Pentagon, Guantanamo Bay, and American Cryogenics facilities to name but a few.
Craig Burnett is a writer and a curator at the White Cube gallery.

Links: Photofusion Gallery
Jason's homepage

Podcast: Audible pictures

Originally broadcast 19th October 2006: Alex Fitch talks to Matt Hulse, curator of and contributor to 'The Audible Picture Show' a touring collection of short films without pictures featuring such film-makers as Andrew Kotting and the Brothers Quay. Alex and Matt talk about the art of foley work, the under-appreciation of sound in modern society, the joy of found footage and the use of sampled soundtracks to create evocative soundscapes.
There will be a retrospective of Matt's work and a 'showing' of 'The Audible Picture Show' on Sunday 14th January 2007 as part of The Halloween Society's 4th Short Film Festival at the ICA. Please visit the sites below for more info.

Download (mp3 format, 27mb)

Links: www.audiblepictureshow.org.uk
The Halloween Society
Institute of Contemporary Arts

Podcast: Structualist cinema

Last week's repeat is now ready to download...
(mp3 format, 25mb)

Tonight's show: Structualist cinema (repeat)

Richard Thomas talks to Ed Pinsent about the history of structuralist cinema from its beginnings in America in the 1960s to its development in Britain a decade later and beyond. Ed is the editor of Sound Projector magazine and hosts a related show on Resonance 104.4 FM (Fridays 5.30-7pm) on the subject of ecclectic music.
Originally broadcast 16th March 2006

Links: Ed's show - www.thesoundprojector.com/radioshow.html
Ways of seeing article on Structuralist cinema - www.waysofseeing.org/struct.html

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In "I'm ready for my close-up" related news: Fans of the Light Surgeons might like to check out 'Articulated' at the Oxo Tower from last Friday 'til this Sunday (10th), everyday from 11am to 7pm. An exhibtion on travel and human connections, with video installations by onedotzero, it features behind the scenes research by our very own Alex Fitch...

Links: Oxo Tower info
Onedotzero info

Podcast: The (Horror) films of Stephen King

Alex Fitch talks to Emma Smart from the BFI about film adaptations of Stephen King's novels and short stories. Featuring excerpts from his talk in Battersea earlier in the month and trailers from his earliest and most recent films...
(This show is dedicated to Grace, a King fan from Timsbury, near Bath, with thanks to The Times for getting me tickets to the Battersea event)

Links: The Times Online podcasts of Stephen King's talk in Battersea 7th November 2006
Stephen King's entry on Wikipedia

Originally broadcast 23rd November 2006, mp3 format 26mb

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In BFI related news:

For a free funky (albeit virtual) advent calendar based on the Fairy Tales of Lotte Reiniger (The Adventures of Prince Achmed) click here...
...and if you're looking for some more atmospheric and spooky entertainment this advent, why not check out the NFT's season: "Tales of Mystery and Laudanum" which this Wednesday (6th) includes a preview of Philip Pullman's "The Ruby in the Smoke" starring Billie Piper, which will be broadcast on the BBC this Christmas

Podcast: Whatever happened to Dan Dare, Pilot of the future?

First transmitted on September 14th 2006: Alex Fitch talks to historian Duncan Nott and Kev F. Sutherland, a comics artist and writer about Dare's continuing appeal and cultural legacy...
Download (mp3 format, 27mb)

Links: The official Dan Dare website
Unofficial fan sites - dan-dare.net & dan-dare.org where you can hear the clips featured in the show in full...
Spaceship Away - the home of new Dan Dare adventures

Podcast: History in film

Last night's show is now ready to download...
(mp3 format, 26mb)

[Sorry for the audio quality at the beginning and end - I was using unfamiliar equiptment in my lunch break!]

Tonight's show: History in Film

History and film have been inextricably linked since movie pioneers first shot footage of workers leaving factory gates and trains entering stations. In tonight's show Alex Fitch explores the nature of history as a topic for film and the use of historical footage in films. The first half of the show is a discussion with James DeCarteret, Mark Stafford and Alison Goldie about recent films that depict and / or include historical events such as Hollywoodland and Nick Broomfield's Ghosts and then Alex discusses the genre with Dr. Toby Haggith, the head of cinema programming at the Imperial War Museum, London.

10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com and will be available to podcast here soon after. This site is available both in HTML or as an RSS feed...

Links: The Third Australian History and Film Conference
www.historyonfilm.com
Imperial War Museum

Tonight's show: The (Horror) films of Stephen King

In the second of our belated Halloween shows, Alex Fitch talks to Emma Smart from the BFI about film adaptations of Stephen King's novels and short stories. Featuring excerpts from his talk in Battersea earlier in the month and trailers from his earliest and most recent films...
(This show is dedicated to Grace, a King fan from Timsbury, near Bath, with thanks to The Times for getting me tickets to the Battersea event)

10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com and will be available to podcast here soon after. This site is available both in HTML or as an RSS feed...

Links: The Times Online podcasts of Stephen King's talk in Battersea 7th November 2006
Stephen King's entry on Wikipedia

Tonight's show: The Horror films of David McGillivray

In the first of two belated Halloween specials, we're looking at horror movies... Tonight it's the companion piece to our show on Norman J. Warren as Alex Fitch speaks to Norman's contemporary and collaborator David McGillivray about the horror film scripts he wrote in the 1970s such as Satan's Slave and Frightmare plus his new series of short films, Worst Fears.

10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com and will be available to podcast here soon after. This site is available both in HTML or as an RSS feed...

Links: 'Worst Fears' website
David's page on the IMDb

Tonight's show: The 50th London Film Festival (part four - the beginning and the end)

In our fourth and final show on the London Film Festival, Alex Fitch introduces and moderates a discussion between James DeCarteret, cartoonist Mark Stafford and presenter / actress Alison Goldie about this year's opening (The Last King of Scotland) and closing (Babel) films as well as the festival's impact on London as a whole...
10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com and will be available to podcast here soon after. This site is available both in HTML or as an RSS feed...

Links: LFF website
Alex's reviews of the Festival so far
Mark Stafford's website
Alison Goldie's website

Tonight's show: The 50th London Film Festival (part three* - Chris & Dave's podcasts)

In our third* show on the London Film Festival, Alex Fitch introduces and moderates a discussion between James DeCarteret, cartoonist Mark Stafford and presenter / actress Alison Goldie about this year's LFF. Also, Alex interviews Christian Hayes and Dave Gibson, makers of the LFF video podcasts...

10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com and will be available to podcast here soon after. This site is available both in HTML or as an RSS feed...

Links: LFF website
Alex's reviews of the Festival so far
Christian & Dave's podcasts / Also available as an itunes download
Mark Stafford's website
Alison Goldie's website

*the second of our shows on the LFF was broadcast on Monday afternoon at 4.30 pm... Sorry for the late notice, nobody told me!

Tonight's show: The 50th London Film Festival (part one - the films)

Alex Fitch and Richard Thomas discuss this year's London Film Festival including reviews of the films they've seen so far, previews of films and events next week plus audio clips...

10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com and will be available to podcast here soon after. This site is available both in HTML or as an RSS feed...

Links: LFF website
Alex's reviews of the Festival so far
Sunday's 50 screens event

Podcast: London Film Societies

To coincide with the London Film Festival, here's the podcast of our show that proves there are little film festivals going on all year in more bijou locations...
Alex Fitch talks to Darren Perry who runs the West London Fantastic Film Society and Adrian Winchester who has been running a horror film club in South London for 25 years...
Originally broadcast 24th August 2006 (mp3 format, 26mb)

10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com and will be available to podcast here soon after. This site is available both in HTML or as an RSS feed...

Links: The Unoffcial UK Film Societies site
A brief history of the film society movement in Britain
IMDb page on Stolen Face (the film I had just watched at Adrian's before the interview)
Listen to Adrian interviewing Norman J. Warren in an earlier I'm ready for my close-up
N.B./ The official Film Societies site is currently offline

Tonight's show: Audible pictures

Alex Fitch talks to Matt Hulse, curator of and contributor to 'The Audible Picture Show' a touring collection of short films without pictures featuring such film-makers as Andrew Kotting and the Brothers Quay. Alex and Matt talk about the art of foley work, the under-appreciation of sound in modern society, the joy of found footage and the use of sampled soundtracks to create evocative soundscapes.

10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com and will be available to podcast here soon after. This site is available both in HTML or as an RSS feed...

Link: www.audiblepictureshow.org.uk

Tonight's show: The current state of comics

Alex Fitch interviews Kev F Sutherland (comics writer and commentator) about such topics as: Hollywood and the media's fascination with comic books which contrasts with diminishing sales in shops. From appreciation of writers like Alan Moore and Chris Ware in The Guardian to comics based on TV shows and by TV writers, there seems to be cultural awareness of comics, but the question is: how do we get more adults and (more importantly) children reading this great art form again?

10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com and will be available to podcast here soon after. This site is available both in HTML or as an RSS feed...

Links: Wikipedia page on Kev F. Sutherland
Kev's own website
ComICA events

Tonight's show: Desperate Optimists and the art of the long take

Alex Fitch interviews Joe Lawlor, who with Christine Molloy make up the film-making duo 'Desperate Optimists': a couple who make short films in a single take. Their new film premieres tonight in Liverpool, so Alex and Joe discuss 'Daydream' plus Joe and Christine's award winning series 'Civic Life' as well as their favourite examples of the long take in other people's films...

10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com and will be available to podcast here soon after. This site is available both in HTML or as an RSS feed...

Links: Desperate Optimists' website
'Daydream' screening details
Buy 'Civic Life' on DVD
Civic Life review at backprojection.com

Tonight's show: LLGFF (repeat)

Look, I meant it, honestly I did... I really intended tonight's show to be all new and not a repeat, but due to technical difficulties, tonight we have another repeat, sorry!

As tickets go on sale tomorrow for this year's London Film Festival, you've got a chance to hear our show about the London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival again. Alex Fitch talks to Emma Smart, BFI librarian about gay films and what not.
Incidently, in this show, Alex & Emma have a good old moan about how the regular Film Festival is getting less gay because of the LLGFF... Well having read the brochure for the 50th LFF, it turns out this year's big festival is gayer than ever! I guess someone was listening!

Regular service will be resumed next week...

Tonight's show: Depictions of madness (repeat)

Tonight's show is a repeat of April 27th's for the reasons listed below, sorry. Still they do it on American TV all the time! Next week: a brand new episode of I'm ready for my close-up!
As Jonathan is about to be a new dad, it seemed a good a time as any to repeat his appearance on the show anyway...

Tonight's show: Whatever happened to Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future?

As a coda to Resonance's Space Week, tonight's show is about Dan Dare, the lantern jawed comic book hero from the 1950s who, while fondly remembered, has never made it quite as big as his four colour contemporaries or forebears. Alex Fitch talks to historian Duncan Nott and Kev F. Sutherland, a comics artist and writer about Dare's continuing appeal and cultural legacy...

10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com and will be available to podcast here soon after. This site is available both in HTML or as an RSS feed...

(Sorry for the Godzilla repeat last week. Richard had a lot of Space to cover and Alex started a new job!)

Tonight's show: Expanded Cinema

Richard Thomas talks to William English about 16mm, silence, expanded cinema and school science experiments...
William also produces the bi-weekly radio art experiment Wavelength on this very station - 15:00 every other Sunday.
10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com and will be available to podcast here soon after. This site is available both in HTML or as an RSS feed...

Tonight's show: London Film Societies

On 25th October 1925, The original Film Society held its inaugural meeting at the New Gallery Kinema in Regent Street in London. Founder members of The Film Society included Anthony Asquith, H G Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Augustus John and Maynard Keynes. One of the primary objectives of the society was to screen more of the avant-garde material which had not found an outlet in the commercial cinema. It's ironic how little has changed and how film societies are as necessary as ever in today's cinematic climate!
On the eve of this year's London Horror Film Festival, we're looking at homegrown, less commercial alternatives! Alex Fitch talks to Darren Perry who runs the West London Fantastic Film Society and Adrian Winchester who has been running a horror film club in South London for 25 years...
10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com and will be available to podcast here soon after. This site is available both in HTML or as an RSS feed...

Links: The Unoffcial UK Film Societies site
A brief history of the film society movement in Britain
IMDb page on Stolen Face (the film I had just watched at Adrian's before the interview)
Listen to Adrian interviewing Norman J. Warren in an earlier I'm ready for my close-up
N.B./ The official Film Societies site is currently offline

Uncut interview: Kim Newman

Continuing our occasional series of hour long uncut versions of the interviews that were recorded for I'm ready for my close-up, we have the complete interview with Kim Newman regarding Doctor Who.
If you'd rather hear the original broadcast version of the show, please go to the post from July 20th...

Running time 59 min 18 sec (mp3 format, 54.3mb)
Please note, this is an uncut interview with strong language!

Podcast: Filming Domestic Archaelogy

Alex Fitch interviews Chris Allen, founder member of the Light Surgeons, a company that produces films and multimedia events. Their current project is an exhibition called Domestic Archaeology which is at the Geffrye Museum in East London until the 28th of August. The show features video and photographic depictions of modern living rooms plus interviews with the inhabitants.
The show is also available to download as an uncut interview; see below...
Originally broadcast 3rd August 2006 (mp3 format, 27mb)

Links: The Light Surgeons
Domestic Archaeology
The Geffrye Museum

Uncut interview: Chris Allen

As an adjunct to our regular podcasts of I'm ready for my close-up you'll be able to download hour long uncut versions of the interviews that were recorded for the show. First up: the complete interview with Chris Allen (The Light Surgeons) regarding Domestic Archaelogy at the Geffrye Museum. Also included are excerpts from the exhibition soundtrack which we weren't able to feature in the show when it was originally broadcast.
If you'd rather hear the original broadcast version of the show, please go to the post above...

Running time 59 min 46 sec (mp3 format, 54.6mb)
Please note, this is an uncut interview with strong language!

Podcast: Doctor Who - The Two Garys

In the last of our shows on Doctor Who, we explore the world of Doctor Who fandom. Each month at a certain bar in central London, Doctor Who fans and professionals meet to talk about their favourite show. So back in February, Richard Thomas, Alex Fitch and James De Carteret went down to the pub to record some interviews and encountered the likes of Clayton Hickman - the editor of Doctor Who magazine, Paul - a theatre director who had travelled 50 miles to come to the gathering and Gary - a member of the Greenwich Doctor Who fan club...
Originally broadcast 27th July 2006 (mp3 format, 25.4mb)

Links:
Type 40 owners club of Great Britain
Outpost Gallifrey
Wikipedia entry on Doctor Who Magazine

Podcast: Screenplays by Tony Grisoni

Tonight's show is now ready to download...
(mp3 format, 25.4mb)

Links: Tideland / Brothers of the Head reviews
Wikipedia entries on: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas / In this World

Tonight's show: Screenplays by Tony Grisoni

Alex Fitch interviews Tony Grisoni, writer of Michael Winterbottom's In this world and Terry Gilliam's adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The show will be concentrating on Tony's latest two scripts: Tideland directed by Gilliam which is currently in the cinema and Brothers of the Head from the directors of Lost in La Mancha which is showing today and tomorrow in Edinburgh and goes on general release in October.
10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com and will be available to podcast here soon after. This site is available both in HTML or as an RSS feed...
There is a review of Tideland by Alex at www.backprojection.com and a review of Brothers of the Head will be going up later today.

Podcast: Home Movie Day

Last week's show is now available to download.
(mp3 format, 22.4mb)

Links: Guy Edmonds
David Wenk
Home Movie Day in London
Lambeth Cinema Museum
The annual international Home Movie Day

Tonight's show: Home Movie Day 2006

Alex Fitch introduces and moderates a discussion with Guy Edmonds, film preserver and travel writer David Wenk about this year's Home Movie Day which is being held at the Cinema Museum in Kennington. The annual Home Movie Day is designed to celebrate a populist art form which represents a cultural memory of the 20th century and documentations of everyday life. All visitors to the museum are welcome to bring their old cine reels to share, project and archive with others...
10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com and will be available to podcast here soon after. This site is available both in HTML or as an RSS feed...

Podcast: Digital post-production in TV and the cinema

Alex Fitch talks to Richard Comline who works in digital post-production. Richard works at a 'post house' in Wardour Street and has worked on feature films, adverts, television and low budget shorts; they discusses the nature of his work and the world of modern digital manipulation.
Originally broadcast 23rd Febuary 2006 (mp3 format, 24.4mb)

Link: Wikipedia entry on compositing
Richard's IMDb page / online gallery

Podcast: Remixing British Transport Films

Richard Thomas remixes the soundtracks of the classic British Transport Films that were made from 1949 to 1982. Made by a protégé of the British Documentary Movement their purpose was travelogue films that promoted destinations in town, country and seaside resorts throughout the British Isles. By interweaving a variety of these films that are being introduced to a new generation via BFI DVD releases, Richard investigates the cultural memory that the sounds and rhythms of the film soundtracks evoke.
Originally broadcast 15th June 2006 (mp3 format, 25.1mb)

Link: www.britishtransportfilms.co.uk

Tonight's show: Filming Domestic Archaeology

Alex Fitch interviews Chris Allen, founder member of the Light Surgeons, a company that produces films and multimedia events. Their current project is an exhibition called Domestic Archaeology which is at the Geffrye Museum in East London until the 28th of August. The show features video and photographic depictions of modern living rooms plus interviews with the inhabitants.
10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com and will be available to podcast here soon after. This site is available both in HTML or as an RSS feed...

Tonight's show: Doctor Who - The Two Garys

In the last of our shows on Doctor Who, we explore the world of Doctor Who fandom. Each month at a certain bar in central London, Doctor Who fans and professionals meet to talk about their favourite show. So back in February, Richard Thomas, Alex Fitch and James De Carteret went down to the pub to record some interviews and encountered the likes of Clayton Hickman - the editor of Doctor Who magazine, Paul - a theatre director who had travelled 50 miles to come to the gathering and Gary - a member of the Greenwich Doctor Who fan club...
10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com and will be available to podcast here soon after. This site is available both in HTML or as an RSS feed...

Podcast: The London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival

Alex Fitch interviews Emma Smart, a librarian at the British Film Institute about a lecture she gave at the LLGFF and about the history of the festival which is on tour around the UK. (The LLGFF is currently in Edinburgh with trips to Belfast and Hammersmith later in the month).
Originally broadcast 11th May 2006 (mp3 format, 25.9mb)

Links: The LLGFF on tour - http://www.llgff.org.uk
LLGFF reviews at backprojection.com

Podcast: Doctor Who - Dimensions in Space

Tonight's show is now available to download. See below for more details...
(mp3 format, 26.4mb)

links: Wikipedia entry on Kim Newman
BFI TV Classics: Doctor Who
Buy "Doctor Who: Time and relative" second hand from Amazon...
Wikipedia entry on 'jumping the shark'

Tonight's show: Doctor Who - Dimensions in space

In the third of our shows on Doctor Who, Alex Fitch interviews Kim Newman, renowned film critic for Empire and Sight & Sound. Kim has written two books on Doctor Who - an overview of the series for the British Film Institute and a novella set before the first episode called 'Time and relative' - and will be discussing these on the show.
10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com and will be available to podcast here soon after. This site is available both in HTML or as an RSS feed...

Incidently, if you're missing your fix of Doctor Who on TV, BBC Radio 7 (available on DAB, Freeview, Sky and t'internet) is currently broadcasting Douglas Adams' Shada starring Paul McGann and James Fox on Sundays at 6pm and midnight. If you missed last week's first instalment, it's available to download in its radio version from www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listenagain/sunday/ until Saturday or with additional flash animation from www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shada/ whenever you like and you might recognise the voice reading the opening and end credits from last week's "I'm ready for my close-up"... Alex will be reviewing Shada at www.backprojection.com later today.

Podcast: The Horror films of Norman J. Warren

Adrian Winchester interviews Norman J. Warren director of classic and infamous horror films from the 1970s, concentrating on his films: Terror, Inseminoid, Satan's Slave and Prey which were released by Anchor Bay on DVD earlier this year. The show is introduced, edited and recorded by Alex Fitch.
Originally broadcast 8th June 2006 (mp3 format, 24.5mb)

Link: Anchor Bay's Norman Warren collection - www.anchorbay.co.uk

Podcast: Film censorship and the BBFC

Alex Fitch interviews Sue Clark from the British Board of Film Classification. Alex and Sue discuss the BBFC's strategies for classifying films aimed at children, the current status of previously banned movies and the attitude of the French to film ratings!
Originally broadcast 23rd March 2006 (mp3 format, 26.5mb)

Link: The BBFC's website - www.bbfc.org.uk
Wikipedia entry on the History of the BBFC

Podcast: Structuralist cinema

Richard Thomas talks to Ed Pinsent about the history of structuralist cinema from its beginnings in America in the 1960s to its development in Britain a decade later and beyond. Ed is the editor of Sound Projector magazine and hosts a related show on Resonance 104.4 FM (Fridays 5.30-7pm) on the subject of ecclectic music.
Originally broadcast 16th March 2006 (mp3 format, 28mb)

Links: Ed's show - www.thesoundprojector.com/radioshow.html
Ways of seeing article on Structuralist cinema - www.waysofseeing.org/struct.html

Podcast: Depictions of madness in the movies

Alex Fitch interviews Jonathan Gadsby, a psychiatric nurse from the West Country. Jonathan discusses the actual complaints the characters in One flew over the cuckoo's nest probably suffered from, the probability of John Nash's visual hallucinations as depicted in A Beautiful mind and the likelihood of the FBI asking a psychotic serial killer for advice in the Hannibal Lecter films.
Originally broadcast 27th April 2006 (mp3 format, 26.5 mb)

Podcast: Cinema as performance & the aural aesthetics of projection

Richard Thomas presents an interview and collaboration with film-makers William English & David Leister. For the first half of the show Richard works with the film-makers to create an aural performance mixing the live sounds produced by various cinema projectors as they unspool rolls of film and then interviews English and Leister about their work in the London Filmmakers' co-operative.
Originally broadcast 4th May 2006 (mp3 format, 28mb)

Link: David Leister's Armchair Cinema & Kino Club

Podcast: Doctor Who - Planet of the Myth Makers

Tonight's show is now available to download. See below for the description...
(mp3 format, 26.3mb)

links: Big Finish - http://www.bigfinish.com/drwho
Wikipedia - Rob Shearman / Nick Briggs

Tonight's show: Doctor Who - Planet of the Myth Makers

In the first half of tonight's "I'mreadyformycloseup" Alex Fitch concludes his interview with Nicholas Briggs focusing on Nick's history as an interviewer of Doctor Who stars such as Jon Pertwee and Elizabeth Sladen and then talks to Robert Shearman, the writer of last year's TV episode 'Dalek'. This is the second show of four looking at the world of Doctor Who and will be followed next week by a discussion with writer and critic Kim Newman about the continuing popularity of the show.
10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com and will be available to podcast here soon after. This site is available both in HTML or as an RSS feed...

Podcast: Heroines of Hong Kong & Chinese Cinema

Zoe Baxter covers 101 years of Chinese cinema concentrating on some of the last century's most famous and notable heroines from Lingyu Ruan to Maggie Cheung Man Yuk. Zoe's guest is Annie Kwan, a film historian who works with The Light Surgeons.
Originally broadcast 9th March 2006 (mp3 format, 25mb)

Links: Zoe's blog - http://luckykitty.blogspot.com
(scroll down to the March 8th entry for more details on the show)
The Light Surgeons - http://www.thelightsurgeons.co.uk

Podcast: Doctor Who - The Voice of Doom

Last week's show is now available to download. See below for the description...
(mp3 format, 26.5mb)

Tonight's show: Doctor Who - The Voice of Doom

Tonight on "I'mreadyformycloseup" Alex Fitch is interviewing Nicholas Briggs, the actor who provides the voices of the Daleks & the Cybermen in Doctor Who and Nick has even played the Timelord himself on a number of occasions... This is the first show of four in what we might as well call Doctor Who month on "I'mready..." and will be followed next week with the second half of Alex's interview with Nick plus a discussion with one of the writers of the new series on TV and Radio...
The show's regular slot is: 10.30pm every Thursday on Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at resonancefm.com and will be available to podcast here soon after. This site is available both in HTML or as an RSS feed...

Alex will be reviewing some of the earlier episodes of Doctor Who broadcast over the last 8 months at backprojection.com later today...

Podcast: Godzilla & 1950s Japanese Sci-fi movies

In the first archive podcast, we have (rising from the depths, 20 storeys high):

Richard Thomas' show on the BFI re-release of Godzilla (a.k.a. Gojira, 1954) in the cinema and The Mysterians (a.k.a. Chikyu Boeigun, 1957) on DVD... Richard talks to Ken Hollins, writer of the book 'Destroy All Monsters', about the continuing appeal of The Gorilla Whale and classic Japanese sci-fi. Originally broadcast 16th February 2006
(mp3 format, 27mb)

Links: Buy 'Destroy All Monsters'
Wikipedia entry on Godzilla / The Mysterians

Welcome to I'm ready for my podcast

This blog is to provide a home for podcasts, information and feedback on the Resonance FM weekly radio show "I'm ready for my close up" which concerns the varied world of film-making, television and other broadcast media...
The show is broadcast live on 104.4 FM (available within the M25 in London) every Thursday at 10.30 pm and also streamed at resonancefm.com
As the show has been going several weeks now, this page will provide access to our previously broadcast shows on such varied subjects as Godzilla, Asian action heroines, the films of William Greaves and Norman J Warren, movie censorship and depictions of madness on the big screen.