Podcast: The current state of anime

Last night's show is now available to download... (mp3 format, 28.7mb)

For more info and a selection of different file formats you can download or stream, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

Tonight's show: The Current state of Anime

Alex Fitch interviews Helen McCarthy, author of 'Hayao Miyazaki - Master of Japanese Animation', '500 Manga heroes and villains' and co-author of 'The Anime encyclopedia' about the season of Japanese animated films she's curated at the Barbican which coincides with the 90th anniversary of the medium. The season continues this month with a sold-out screening of Satoshi Kon's new film Paprika, so Alex and Helen talk about the director as well as the work of his predecessors and contemporaries such as Miyazaki and Ôtomo plus the continuing influence of manga artist Osamu Tezuka.

10.30pm BST Resonance 104.4FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com

Links: If you want to queue for returns, here's
info on the Barbican Japanimation season...
...plus next month's 'Animate the World' season
Wikipedia pages on Satoshi Kon, Hayao Miyazaki, Katsuhiro Ōtomo, Osamu Tezuka and anime in general
For the latest Anime news, why not check out otakunews.com
Buy 500 Manga Heroes and Villains and The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917 from amazon.com

Podcast: The current state of Sci-Fi Movies

Last night's show is now available to download... (mp3 format, 27.3mb)

For more info, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

If you'd like to buy any of the films that Louis Mentioned which showed in last year's festival:
Die you zombie bastards!, C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America and The Machinist are available to buy on PAL region 2 DVD, while
Subject Two and Recon 2020: The Caprini Massacre are only available on NTSC Region 1 DVD...

Tonight's show: The current state of sci-fi movies

Alex Fitch interviews Louis Savvy, organiser of Sci-Fi London, the capital's annual science fiction and fantasy festival about this year's event. Sci-Fi London is held from the 3rd to the 6th of May and this year features such films as Recon 2022: The Mezzo incident and Plane Dead (a.k.a. Flight of the living dead), documentaries like Future by design and also runs concurrent with Cine-excess, a conference on cult cinema that includes screenings of David Mamet's Edmond and Gyorgi Palfi's Taxidermia. Alex and Louis discuss these films, the highlights of last year's festival and (natch) the current state of sci-fi on the big and small screens.

10.30pm BST Resonance 104.4FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com

In comics news: It's the GRAPHIC NOVEL WEEKEND at the Cartoon museum in London, so why not go along to hear talks by Posy Simmonds, Ilya, Nick Abadzis, former Close-up guest Mark Stafford and forthcoming Close-up guest Bryan Talbot... Click here for more details.

Links: Sci-Fi London homepage
Cine Excess homepage
Taxidermia review at backprojection.com

N.B./ This year's Sci-Fi London features a special 1950s Hammer quadruple bill on May 5th, all the proceeds of which go to help Resonance FM... So, if you were intrigued by my mention of Stolen Face on our Halloween show last year, now's your chance to see it as well as: X the Unknown, Four Sided Triangle and the seminal British Sci-Fi film Spaceways! Click below for details...

Podcast: The current state of Silent Movies

Last week's show is now available for download... (mp3 format, 27.2mb)

N.B./ downloads are now housed at www.archive.org

Tonight's show: The current state of silent movies

Continuing our spurious anniversary month, tonight’s show coincidently coincides with the 8oth anniversary of the release of Hitchcock’s film 'The Lodger', so, to celebrate: having teased you with excerpts of our interview with Matthew Sweet – the writer and presenter of Silent Britain and Shepperton Babylon – for the past two weeks, tonight "I'm ready for my close-up" is proud to have Alex Fitch's full interview with him on the subject of silent movies.
If you're wondering whether the title of tonight's show is a contradiction in terms... Well, you'll just have to tune in to find out!

Regarding the podcast of last week's (and probably this week's) show... I'm having server problems at the moment, so there may be a bit of a delay. Sorry!

10.30pm GMT Resonance 104.4FM / www.resonancefm.com

Links: BFI page on 'Silent Britain'
Matthew's episode of Back Row on Radio 4
Article by Matthew on the late Ernest Dudley
Transcript of BBC Four interview with Matthew
Wikipedia page on Hitchcock's 'The Lodger'

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

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