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

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(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!]