[I’m back-dating in an attempt to catch up on posts not written due to illness. Imagine we’re still in 2010…]
Back in September I was introduced to and very quickly became a fan of the Wittertainment podcast – the weekly film review show on Radio 5 hosted by Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode. The rather long (2 hours ish) podcast is now my regular soundtrack for Sunday travelling and I eagerly anticipate it every week. While I appreciate the film reviews, what’s especially addictive is the the dynamic of Mayo and Kermode’s relationship and the latter’s superb rants on anything from 3D films, grammar, or projectionists.
Thus, the fact that their Christmas show was to be a specially recorded episode in front of an audience in London presented quite an exciting opportunity – particularly once a colleague had acquired a couple of tickets and offered her spare to me. Watching the show in the flesh was to be a Christmas highlight.
Having listened to a couple of previous shows with audiences I knew that opportunity for participation was high. Often, members of the audience get to provide reviews of the top 10 films, or pass comment upon films generally. My problem was that I’d seen all of two new releases all year (yes, I know, shocking) so if I was going to be able to review anything, I’d need to swiftly go out and watch something likely to turn up in the top 10 – potentially not hard as I still needed to see Harry Potter 7a. However, the onset of the lurgy prevented any cinema going before the big day arrived. Nevermind, I would simply be a silent, enthusiastic observer.
Early observations (while in the bar pre-show) were that the ratio of geeks to non-geeks was high, as was the ratio of men to women – kind of unsurprising I suppose, presumably most film nerds are of a male variety. In amongst such an audience, my level of film knowledge would be towards the lower end of the scale, not to mention the fact that I’d only been a fan of the show for 3 months, so didn’t have all the history either. (In contrast, my companion had podcasts going back years and years – a true fan.) Needless to say, I felt like something of a fraud and resolved to stay silent.
None of this made it any the less fun. As predicted, audience members helped review the top 10 and on reflection, walking up on stage and speaking into a large red mic would have scared the life out of me, so perhaps it was a good thing I’d seen none of the films. There were many laughs, which provided excellent opportunities for me to cough surreptitiously. Then came a moment when I realised that Simon Mayo was stood next to me holding a microphone, poised to ask people for their film picks of the year – and I panicked.
As mentioned above, I’ve only seen two films that were released this year – Toy Story 3 and Africa United. After some quick thinking, I figured I could speak eloquently on the former (after all, I’d only written a blog post about it a few weeks earlier), so that would do – especially as the latter was more of a niche film. One person was asked for their favourite film before me, and what did they say? Toy Story 3 of course. For a few seconds I pondered simply saying Inception (because it’s definitely up there – so I’ve heard) or being dull and repeating the same film. Instead, what I came out with was a slightly pretentious:
“I was going to say Toy Story too, but as he’s just said that, I’ll have to go for Africa United.”
I’d like to think that in throwing in Africa United I’ll have come across as someone who watches rather more obscure films…wishful thinking?
In typical fashion, I immediately got extremely embarrassed that I’d just spoken out loud in a programme that would be broadcast nationally and turned into a podcast listened to across the world. What if I sounded like a twit? Then I realised, I hadn’t been asked my name. No one would know it was me unless they recognised my voice (difficult, as it was all throaty and non-normal) or if they spotted the rather unusual film combination. Should you be interested, my contribution appears right at the end of the first podcast from Christmas Eve (entitled ‘The Way Back’) available here.
Once I got over my embarrassment, I got on with enjoying the rest of the evening. Though how could you not enjoy an evening spent with Dobby the House Elf, the fabulous Jason Isaacs and the Dodge Brothers playing skiffle style film themes?
Things people have said: