Podcast: The Magic of Alan Moore part three

The second half of tonight's show is now available for download...
(mp3 format, 27mb)

Podcast: The Magic of Alan Moore part two

The first half of tonight's show is now available for download...
(mp3 format, 28mb)

Tonight's Clear Spot: The Magic of Alan Moore parts two and three

Alex Fitch concludes his 'feature length' interview with Alan Moore, talking tonight about magic, Swamp Thing, Lost Girls, movies and saving the comics industry. The second half of tonight's show also includes clips from the Justice League cartoon: 'For the man who has everything' and 'Snakes & Ladders', Alan's meditation on history and DNA...

Links: Wikipedia entry on Alan Moore
Download comics by Alan for free from fourcolorheroes.com

7pm GMT Resonance 104.4FM / www.resonancefm.com

Podcast: The Magic of Alan Moore part one

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

Tonight's show: The Magic of Alan Moore part one

Alex Fitch interviews Alan Moore, writer of stuff about The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the highs (Kev O'Neill) and lows (Rob Liefeld) of collaborating with comic book artists, his notions of magic and ideaspace and just what giant bald men in nappies had to do with American paranoia in 1950s movies!

N.B./ parts two and three of this interview will be broadcast on Tuesday from 7pm...

Links: Wikipedia entry on Alan Moore
Download comics by Alan for free from fourcolorheroes.com

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

Podcast: Paul Gravett's guide to comics part two

Last night's show is now ready to download...
(mp3 format, 26.4mb)

For more info on two of the writers Paul mentioned, here're links to the wikipedia pages on Gotthold Lessing and Philippe Druillet...

Tonight's show: Paul Gravett's guide to comics part two

Duncan Nott & Alex Fitch conclude their interview with Paul Gravett, talking about such topics as 'the graphic novels of Chris Ware & Raymond Briggs', 'the future of British sequential art' and 'things to hate about comics'!

Links: www.paulgravett.com
www.greatbritishcomics.com
Buy Paul's books from Amazon

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

Podcast: Paul Gravett's guide to comics part one

Last night's show is now ready to download...
(mp3 format, 26.4mb)

Tonight's show: Paul Gravett's guide to comics part one

Continuing Comic Book Month on "I'm ready for my close-up", we have the first half of Alex Fitch & Duncan Nott's interview with Paul Gravett, author of "Manga: 60 years of Japanese Comics", "Graphic Novels - Stories to change your life" and "Great British Comics". Alex and Duncan will be discussing with Paul the continuing appeal of British Comics, the evolving market for Graphic Novels and monthly 'pamplets' plus the changing censorship of the medium in general.

Links: www.paulgravett.com
www.greatbritishcomics.com
Buy Paul's books from Amazon

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

Podcast: The Horror films of David McGillivray

Originally broadcast 16th November 2006: As a companion piece to our show on Norman J. Warren Alex Fitch talks 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...

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

Download (mp3 format, 26mb)

Podcast: Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

Thursday night's show is now ready to download...
(mp3 format, 26.3mb)

Tonight's show: The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

It's the start of comic book month on I'm ready for my close-up, so in the first of a series of shows on four colour periodicals, Alex Fitch and Duncan Nott are talking to Charles Brownstein, the director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
As we're still within the season of giving (it's Twelfth Night tomorrow), why not listen in and support a charity that protects comic book creators and shops from the vagaries of American law regarding the first amendment...

Links: CBLDF website
Wired article: When comics and laws collide
The Comics reporter article: Withdrawal of comics from a Missouri library
Baltimore City Paper article on the CBLDF
First Amendment Center website, re: Freedom of Speech and comics
Wikipedia article on 'The Millar Test' (US equivalent of the obscene publications act)

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

Podcast: Desperate Optimists and the art of the long take

Originally broadcast 5th October 2006: 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. Alex and Joe discuss the new film 'Daydream', which premiered at the Liverpool biennial last year plus Joe and Christine's award winning series 'Civic Life' and also mention their favourite examples of the long take in other people's films...

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

Download (mp3 format, 27mb)

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