At The Flicks

Today’s pick has a very limited human cast. Can you guess what it is?

Today’s pick is very bad. Can you guess what it is?

Today’s pick is about the creation of a holiday favourite, Can you guess what it is?

Today’s darker pick was one of the reasons for the creation of the PG-13 certificate. Can you guess what it is?

Today’s pick is the first film to use one of the best selling Christmas songs of all time. Can you guess what it is?

Today’s pick is a Netflix animation feature. Can you guess what it is?

Today’s pick is a family gathering which turns into a comic horror. Can you guess what it is?

Today’s pick is a British black & white classic. Can you guess what it is?

The At The Flicks hugely popular advent calendar returns with some new additions for 2023. Over the 24 days of December leading up to Christmas Eve, the At the Flicks team will publish a short Podcast every day containing a Christmas movie recommendation. Some of these movies you will have seen and some you may not. We have included some old films, some new ones, some silly, and some down right bizarre movies in the calendar to ensure that there is something for everyone. We hope you enjoy our selection and we wish all our listeners, contributors and friends of the Podcast, a very Merry Christmas. Without you dear listeners we would just be a group of old guys sitting in a pub talking to themselves, waiting for someone to buy them a mulled wine and nobody wants that?

And so to our third show for this year’s Halloween specials. No tricks, this all treats.  The At The Flicks team talk to Paul Scott about his love for Hammer films and his friendship with main Hammer scriptwriter Anthony Hinds. Hammer films.  The makers of some of the best horror movies of the 60’s and 70’s.  Quintessentially British, gothic, with high production values (although cheap to make) and starring such luminaries as Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.  And the creatures they gave life to.  Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Werewolf, Zombies and numerous other horror creations besides. Then there is Anthony Hinds. The scriptwriter and driving force behind so many of the classics they created. Yes, this is an in depth look at Hammer horror, with personal reminiscences.  We talk to Paul about the character actors Hammer frequently employed, such as the late great Michael Ripper.  The leading ladies (of course) such as Ingrid Pitt and Veronica Carlston.  All of this spiced up with various behind t

I bid you Velcome to the second of this year’s At The Flicks Halloween specials. That rather odd introduction, with its mid European intonation, does contain a big clue as to the subject of this fearful show.  Vampires.   For this horrifying edition, Graham and Jeff are joined by radio presenter Jo Durrant.  Normally you will find Jo, (and occasionally the other argumentative pair) on her own highly acclaimed science podcast called Jo Durrant’s Beautiful Universe.  If you haven’t checked it out yet, we whole heartedly urge you to do so (and we have put a link to it at the bottom of these notes).  Jo has many informative interviews on her shows and an abundance of all things factual.  That being the case, it makes you wonder why is Jo on our podcast talking about mythical creatures of the night. As Jo reveals, she has had a fascination with these bloodsucking fiends for many years.  Knowing Jo is such a big fan, we just had to invite her onto the show to tell us what her favourites are.   Welcome to Jo’s t

Halloween is fast approaching and as usual, your At The Flicks team have a few treats for you. Coming your way is a trilogy of terror, no, not Jeff, Graham and Neil, instead three epically scary shows. The fun starts with this spooktacular Halloween party from another member of the team. It’s a big treat as Declan is allowing us into his Halloween home. Beamed direct from Declan’s haunted mansion is the scary time we all want at Halloween (not counting Graham and Neil of course). This is a special building, designed for seasonal excitement. There are three sections in this massive gothic structure. The first is the movie hall where Dec will unveil five thrills of the season for you. No clues as to what they are, except to say most of them sent Graham’s fear factor up to 11 – even though one of them was in black and white. Mind you there was an equal scare for Jeff when it was revealed one of them had subtitles. Luckily, he remembered there was a passable American remake! Then it’s a small walk to t

Welcome to an At The Flicks show that is different to anything we have done before. For this show Jeff and Graham interview a director and a star in front of a live audience.  Not something we have ever done before.  However, the topic we moderated was for a worthy cause.  It was for an upcoming documentary feature called Black Dog Way. Sam Pope, who we have worked with previously, asked us to get involved, for us to interview him and the star of the documentary Steve Gower.   You may be thinking what is it that got us involved.  Quite simply the subject matter is of important relevance, not only in the UK, but also in many of the countries in the world today.  To explain what Black Dog Way is about, here is the synopsis as written by Sam Pope for the official website. “In the winter of 2016, Steve found himself homeless aged 49, in the wake of a family tragedy. His story is like many others. 219,000 in England alone, every single year.  Steve was a victim of circumstance and a man suffering from his mem

Welcome back to At The Flicks In yesterday’s show (episode 231) we set out the rules for our new review show (a bit like Fight Club, with the main difference being we encourage you to talk about it). If you followed that layout, then you know that this episode features our three remaining reviews. They are: Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 3 – yes a Marvel film, and we all know Jeff’s view on them. Surprisingly, one of the converted (or infected) also turns on Marvel this episode. His excuse? He went to see it with Jeff. Clearly that de-programming works! Spider-Man Across The Spider Verse – If you thought Jeff’s extreme superhero views were at high volume in the last review, they are off the charts for this one! Trouble starts when someone else calls it one of the films of the year. A good job we deal with our reviews remotely or this could have ended in a hospital visit for one of them! The Swimmers – A Netflix drama based on a true story. A much more serious discussion about a very powerful film

Welcome to the At The Flicks early Summer review show. Early Summer I hear you say, as everyone prepares for Halloween.  Ah, but the At The Flicks team are like fine wine, we age well (other than referring to someone in the present tense who passed away after we completed the show!).  And just to compound that delay, this is only half of the show! The other half will be released tomorrow. Trust me, there is method behind the madness of that split.  With our extended team of excellent reviewers (and Jeff), we are having more in-depth discussions on our chosen movies these days.  We tried to edit them down, however, to be honest we just didn’t know what to cut out.  Although we all panicked when Graham started brandishing one of Elijah’s excellent swords!  But we argued, we just cannot drop a two hour review show on our listeners.  Not even Jeff’s wife wants to hear him whittering on for that length of time.  So, we had to come up with another solution.  The answer is to split these shows in two now and in t

Welcome to an At The Flicks interview show. To be more precise, a face-to-face recorded discussion, the first one we have done for years (thanks Covid). The person who honoured us with his presence is Simon Taylor.  For years Simon worked in that most frightening of environments – Live TV.  Amongst his many accomplishments are his work on The Big Breakfast, Johnny Vaughn Tonight and The Paul O’Grady show.  Don’t worry if you live in locales that have never heard of any of those shows, they are very British institutions, however I am sure you will recognise the stresses and euphoria of such work regardless of wherever you live. So it was that Graham and Jeff had to try to remember how to set up the mics and recording equipment for the session.  Not forgetting a glass of wine for each of us, including our guest (more on that later).  You can be judge of whether they accomplished a successful transition from Zoom to Room. As for our chat with Simon, we managed to answer the following questions:  - How did you

It’s been a long time since we chatted to Phil aka Phil the Bear about his famous director retrospectives. We put that right this episode as we talk about his article on Paul Thomas Anderson (not to be confused with British director Paul W S Anderson, although we are sure Phil has written something about him as well). Like an early ensemble Paul Thomas Anderson movie, we have brought the band back together for this one. There is Neil (the one with the dark hidden past), Graham (the one with the current guilty secret), Phil (the man in charge who has demons of his own), Dec (the sage like one) and Jeff (too many secrets and a not so hidden anger). Phil is our guide through the career of the great man, and who keeps order when there is dissent, and trust me, there is plenty of dissent, although not always from the quarter you would expect. Now, the sharp eared amongst you will realise that this show has not been recorded recently. In fact, it is part of our huge batch of lockdown recordings we have yet to

The new format At The Flicks review show returns. Our more chatty approach seems to be a hit with you – and as always thank you for the feedback. Also, returning for this show is Phil aka Phil The Bear. We are hoping for Neil to return for the next one, currently all of his time is spent filling in his application form for the Conservative Party. I have given him a new set of crayons so maybe this time they will accept him! You may notice that this selection of films is a couple of months old. It means that if you haven’t seen them as yet, you have the opportunity to catch them on VOD or streaming before listening to our thoughts about them. Which means Graham, you can catch up on the one you have so far missed. For this show we review: John Wick Chapter 4 – One reviewer thinks this is the action film of the year. Do the others agree? The Whale – Brendan Fraser won the Oscar for his performance. Did we think he deserved it? Pearl – Finally the prequel to X arrives on our shores. Was it worth the

At The Flicks welcomes you to Darren’s video store. A new quarterly show that is designed to bring minor gems to your attention while recreating the video store experience of the 1980’s, but without the fuss of having to travel there! Store owner Darren will take you around the various sections of the store, pointing out what’s hot and what’s best avoided. With him are his trainees Graham and Jeff (who are working for below minimum wage, another recreation of the 1980’s). Of course there are no longer any video or even DVD rental stores (and some of you probably are saying all this was a bit before your time). Luckily, all of Darren’s recommendations can be found on various streaming platforms. While it’s a shame you can’t have the full shop experience, at least you can check out the wares. But we are a positive show (so Jeff tells me) and we want to concentrate on the highlights: - From the drama section there is the excellent Catch The Fair One, about a former female boxer’s hunt for her missing si

Welcome to the first ever At The Flicks appeal. This one is very personal, and I will hand over to Leslie to explain what the appeal is for and its importance. Thank you for reading. “Hi, my name is Leslie. I am and have been a passionate nurse since qualifying in 1981. I want to give back to nursing by promoting the well-being of nurses as well as the projects they are initiating to improve the health and well-being of their patients. In 2023 I am raising funds for a project in Cape Town named Robin Trust. I founded it 30 years ago as a Non Profit Organisation (Charity) which came out of my own daughter’s illness. Sadly my daughter had a genetic illness, Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD), resulting in profound disabilities and limiting her life. I was a single mother so used my nursing knowledge to train a carer to provide Robyn with the help she needed while I was at work as a nurse. It worked well for me and the carer. I had intentionally looked for someone who was loving but due to circumstances did