We are back with the first episode of Screen Babble 2025 - we've got longer episodes so more time to tell you about what TV and film you need to get into your life.
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00:00Hello and welcome back to Screenbabble. We're emerging from the blur that is Christmas and
00:19New Year, but we are pumped and excited for the year ahead when we'll be tuning into hours
00:24and hours of TV so we can tell you what you need to be switching on and what's to be avoided.
00:29I'm your host, Kelly Crichton, and I am joined by National Royal Critics, Benjamin Jackson
00:33and Matt Mohan-Hickson, telling us what's what and what's not.
00:37Hello, both.
00:38Hello.
00:39Hello.
00:40Remember, if you want to see our faces, you can head over to Freeview Channel 262 Shots,
00:45which is brought to you by a network of journalists across the country who are transforming stories
00:48at the heart of your community into great TV.
00:51You'll find true crime stories, football news and analysis, plus coverage of lifestyle TV,
00:56film and much more.
00:58This is our first Screenbabble of 2025.
01:01We came back after an extended break just before Christmas
01:04so we could get you those all important festive recommendations.
01:08Screenbabble is back as a monthly podcast with longer run times where we take you through
01:13the best in TV and film.
01:15Today, we're talking about what to look forward to in 2025.
01:19And there is so much, so much to look forward to.
01:22So we can't possibly move on to 2025 before I get your highlights from Christmas.
01:30Right. Who wants to go first?
01:32What was the best thing you watched over Christmas?
01:35I'll jump in.
01:36Wallace and Gromit was the best thing that I watched.
01:38Yeah, it was good.
01:40It was good.
01:40It was really good.
01:41Like, yeah, I was a bit worried.
01:42Like, oh, it's been so long.
01:44You know, will it live up to the hype?
01:46But yeah, it was really, really good.
01:48They did a really good job, I thought.
01:49And we all loved it in our house when people woke up from naps midway through.
01:54We didn't actually watch it until, like, well into the new year.
01:57But I didn't realise Peter Kay was in it.
02:00He was brilliant.
02:02Yeah, he was, wasn't he?
02:03Yeah, he played like an older sort of policeman.
02:06Was he in a previous?
02:07He might have been in a previous.
02:08I think, yeah, I think he's been in like a couple of the more recent ones.
02:11Yeah, so people probably know him.
02:13I've forgotten all the older films.
02:16But I really enjoyed it.
02:18It's exactly what you need.
02:20Everybody can watch it.
02:21Everybody can enjoy it.
02:22There's jokes in there that absolutely fly over the kids' heads, you know.
02:27But they're just good references.
02:29And it's funny.
02:30There was. Yeah.
02:31So, yeah, I really enjoyed that, too.
02:33OK, anything else, Matt, that you enjoyed?
02:35Well, I took my Spanish girlfriend to the Panto for the first time.
02:39Whoa. Oh, no, you didn't.
02:41Oh, yes, we did.
02:42And yeah, so that was really fun.
02:45It was the same theatre I went to when I was a little kid.
02:48You know, in primary school, which it seemed a lot bigger when I was.
02:52When I was a kid, it was a lot smaller than I was expecting.
02:55What did your girlfriend think of it?
02:57Is it a new thing to her?
02:59She really liked it.
02:59Yeah, like she she likes camp stuff.
03:01So like, yeah, we went we went to the one in Edinburgh
03:05and literally about five minutes into it, I was like, I don't know
03:09if anyone who hasn't spent significant amounts of time in Scotland
03:12could actually understand this or get it.
03:15It's so Scottish, so camp.
03:18But absolutely brilliant.
03:19Like, I just I don't know.
03:21I'm like, this is brilliant.
03:22They should put this on TV.
03:23But it is a quite a local thing.
03:25Like, does your Panto have lots of like local kind of in jokes, you know?
03:29Yeah, yeah.
03:29Football teams and things like that. Yeah.
03:31Yeah. Obviously, Middlesbrough.
03:33So there's a lot of references to like in sort of like Newcastle and Sunderland.
03:36So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:38Yeah, it's it's a cultural thing, isn't it?
03:40Definitely in the UK, I have to say.
03:42I only went to I think I went to one when I was a kid in Ireland.
03:45But yeah, it's become a thing now for us here.
03:48And anything else you want to tell us about that you've been watching?
03:51Just the traitors.
03:52Like, yeah, it's just big in our house.
03:54Oh, big in our house as well.
03:56Oh my God, I love it.
03:57I love it.
03:58Linda is an icon.
04:00Oh, Linda, total icon.
04:03So the traitors never watched the first series, watched it last year
04:06and like could not get over how into it I got, like absolutely obsessed.
04:10Just loved.
04:12I love anything, as Benji will know, where you end up shouting at the television
04:16and the traitors is a shout at the television thing, isn't it?
04:19Do you watch it, Benji?
04:22No, because I think that there's enough Machiavellian things going on in life
04:25that I don't need to subject myself to an entire TV series.
04:29Although I will say this, I have got a soft spot for our Claudia,
04:32so maybe it's worth me investing some time into it.
04:36And her style, oh my God, is unbelievable in it.
04:39But yeah, it's a country mile from when she used to present Tomorrow's World.
04:43Let's be honest, got that goth thing going on, kind of like Beth Rigby.
04:48Yeah, yeah. Country goth.
04:50And Matt, any predictions there in the traitors?
04:53Because it'll be over by the time we come back next month.
04:55Oh, I think Mina's going to win.
04:57Like she seems she's very good.
04:59Yeah. Or maybe Lisa, the priest, the hidden priest.
05:02I think she's she's been cleverly avoiding any like glass.
05:09And Frances has avoided a lot of heat.
05:12I kind of thought and the Irish girl was doing very well.
05:14But then out of the blue, they all kind of start attacking her last night.
05:17So it can just change in the drop of a hat, can't it?
05:20But I was kind of glad to see Kaz go because I was like, he's just annoying now.
05:25He's he's so sort of lily livered and kind of like not standing up for himself.
05:29And, you know, so it's interesting, though, because I don't think
05:33I'm sure a psychologist maybe tell you differently, but like
05:37all the different tactics, none of them seem to work particularly well.
05:39You know, there doesn't seem to be a way to play the game.
05:42And I think that's what's so fascinating about it.
05:44You know, people are just so paranoid and
05:47determined, I guess, you know.
05:49And like I think once people make up their mind, there's nothing you can do.
05:52So you don't defend yourself enough.
05:54That's true. You defend yourself too much.
05:56That's true. Yeah.
05:58Or you look at someone crooked and you're a traitor.
06:01You know, it's that simple, you know.
06:02But anyway, yes, the Traitors is definitely the TV we need in January.
06:05Benji, there's only been four episodes so so far.
06:08I mean, I think you could do it.
06:09I think you could squeeze it in.
06:11I'll try. I'll definitely try.
06:14OK, right.
06:15So over to you, Benji, you tell us what you watched over Christmas
06:19that was worth the show.
06:21Well, I'm going to let you talk about Gavin Stace, because there's a lot
06:25that we need to talk and unpack about that episode in particular.
06:28But for me, Call the Midwife, like we mentioned over the Christmas episode.
06:33I'd nearly go back to watch it.
06:34But yeah, what was the what was the sacrilege story?
06:37Well, you know what?
06:38I was sleeping in the kitchen, Benji.
06:40That's why I was this way down the patriarchy.
06:43Damn it, Jackie.
06:45No. So this year, the Christmas special had kind of quite a few,
06:49as you would imagine, were called midwife storylines going on.
06:52The main ones for me that I picked up on was
06:55there was a homeless family that were being carried around
06:59from pillar to post derelict.
07:03They've got children, illness, you know, the kind of
07:06let's do something warm and helpful, you know, and they're out of need.
07:11There was also a convict on the run who
07:16went to the place.
07:18No, no, no.
07:19Actually, I mean, there's a lot of people going into labor,
07:21hence the name called the midwife.
07:23But yeah, two convicts on the run.
07:26One of them, as mother turned out that she died.
07:29And then it all kind of got that story.
07:32You know, it's just that comfort viewing, isn't it?
07:37Even if you know that something absolutely horrific is going on,
07:41if called a midwife, did an episode about like, oh, no,
07:44the London fires or something like that, you know, by the end of it,
07:47like all the fires would have been put out, all the houses rebuilt.
07:52Happy days.
07:53And somebody's learned to listen.
07:54Someone judged somebody incorrectly and now they don't.
07:57Is it is it is it a Christmas special called midwife?
08:01If there isn't some kind of moral morality play?
08:04Yes, it's true, isn't it?
08:05It's I asked going to church with call the midwife.
08:10Well, my mom being a Catholic, I better be careful how I answer that one.
08:13So moving right along.
08:14I also caught up with one of last year's one of Sebastian stands
08:19to stand out performances from last year.
08:22I watched the film The Apprentice, which is a biopic about,
08:26do you know that completely bypassed me?
08:27And I saw a mention of it last week and I was like, how did I not know?
08:31It's fantastic.
08:32He plays. Yeah, he plays Donald Trump brilliantly.
08:36Essentially, it's the story about how Donald Trump became
08:40who he is now, like or not.
08:42I'll leave people to reserve their opinions in the comments section.
08:45But Sebastian Stan played it brilliantly.
08:49Roy Cohen, the character, the actor who Jeremy Strong had.
08:53Yeah, then because he met him from succession, isn't it?
08:57He's brilliant method.
08:58So, well, that kind of definitely thought and I actually Roy Cohen,
09:03Maria Bakalova, as well, who many might remember from either
09:08the latest Borat movie or she does the voice of Cosmo
09:11and Guardians of the Galaxy movie.
09:14She was brilliant as well as Ivana Trump.
09:18Yeah, well worth the flowers.
09:19I mean, Sebastian Stan's already won an award, not for that film.
09:22That's how I heard about it.
09:23It was Gordon Gloves, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
09:27So it's well worth checking out.
09:28It's going to be arriving on streaming very shortly.
09:31And of course, going over to Netflix, I couldn't help but catch
09:35the latest Philomena Kunk documentary,
09:39Kunk on Life.
09:40Diane Morgan, I think, is a comedy treasure.
09:42I love how disarming she comes across. Yeah.
09:47A modern day Ali G, perhaps with the whole idea of going in,
09:51being completely naive as to what's going on and playing that up.
09:55Yeah, that's on Netflix.
09:57And I really hope that Diane Morgan gets more and more flowers
10:01because she's absolutely brilliant.
10:03And that role is Philomena Kunk.
10:04She's maybe a little bit less confrontational than Ali G,
10:07but it's equally as sort of intriguing.
10:11She voices somebody in the Wallace and Gromit movie as well,
10:16because I remember thinking, is that her?
10:18And of course, yeah, it's such a distinctive voice that she's got as well.
10:23That's true.
10:23But, you know, I promised myself I wouldn't talk about Die Hard,
10:26but I did watch Die Hard.
10:28Oh, we we watched Die Hard 2, actually, would you believe?
10:31One night it was on the telly.
10:32And so we were like, yeah, let's do it.
10:35And of course, Gavin and Stacey.
10:36And we've got about one minute to talk about this, Benji.
10:39But I know it was the sort of fairytale ending and everything.
10:44But I loved it.
10:46You know, I think if you take it for what it was of its time,
10:50that this was still sort of that, you know, essentially a program
10:54that was on 20 years ago and just take it for what it was
10:57and the kind of fondness we have for the characters.
10:59I think they just squared the circle and it couldn't have ended any other way.
11:03Really? What do you mean?
11:04I mean, yeah, I completely agree.
11:06Sometimes the most obvious answer or solution to a storyline
11:10doesn't mean that it's the worst possible conclusion.
11:14You know, I think we all kind of assumed that, you know, Smithy and Nessa
11:18were going to get together in the end.
11:20And it's great that they they did, because like you mentioned,
11:24we've come full circle now.
11:26And that whole scene when Smithy turns around,
11:29when everyone stood up and he stares at Mick and he just goes, Mick!
11:33And Mick stands up, just kind of cements the fact that
11:37there was that whole speech that Mick said about
11:38we couldn't have another child, you're my other son.
11:41And yeah, a lot of people might think it was schmaltzy, but it's Christmas.
11:46It's Kevin and Stacey, just let go of it.
12:04The carnage that was called the midwife this Christmas.
12:07And I love Uncle Bryn's kind of, you know.
12:11We are never going to find out about that fishing trip.
12:14Let's just call it for what it is now.
12:17His sort of salty attitude about some things is just so funny.
12:20You know, he's he's like the nicest guy in the world,
12:22but then also a little bit of a bitch too.
12:26But no, I just think it was brilliant and they just ended it perfectly.
12:29Now, having said that, there was about eight people in the room
12:31with me when I watched it.
12:32So I'm going to have to go back and watch it again,
12:34because I'm sure I missed bits of it.
12:36But no, it was great.
12:37So look, that was Christmas.
12:39Now it's time to talk about 2025.
12:42And we're so over, so over 2024.
12:45Let's look at what's coming up for 25, what we can get excited about
12:49and what we can pencil in the diaries, because we do have timeline
12:52for some stuff, don't we, Matt?
12:53We're going to talk about Kelly, Kelly.
12:56We're going to talk about Kelly.
12:57We're going to talk about Telly first.
12:59What are the big hitters of 2025 that we have to look forward to? Tell us.
13:04Well, it's going to be a heck of a year for blockbuster TV,
13:10specifically on Netflix, really.
13:12It sort of feels like the final year of Netflix, in a way,
13:15with the amount of shows that they're ending.
13:18It's almost as if they're like, just, you know, they've powdered the keg.
13:21They're letting everything go.
13:23We've got Stranger Things five this year.
13:25That's the end of Stranger Things, at least as it is now.
13:29Yeah, I mean, excited for it, but also sad that it's finishing.
13:32You know, you can stretch things out too much, can't you?
13:35And that is in the danger zone.
13:37And now they're like, what, like 30?
13:39Yeah, yeah, yeah.
13:41I mean, they're like 18, but yeah, I know.
13:43Yeah, it feels like 30, yes.
13:47But then we've got Squid Game three.
13:49So the end of Squid Game's coming in the summer.
13:52We've got the end of Cobra Kai.
13:53That's coming in February, I think.
13:55Thank God. Right.
13:57Not over, like, what, three different, like, half seasons or whatever.
14:01I've just been waiting until it's all out to watch it.
14:03Yeah, yeah, yeah.
14:04Wednesday's back this year.
14:06And also You, the serial killer
14:10show is coming to an end as well.
14:12And over on Disney Plus, there's the Bear is back again this year.
14:17So that's four seasons in four years, which is pretty unprecedented
14:21when it comes to streaming.
14:22You know, like Stranger Things has been, what, five seasons in ten years,
14:26maybe more. I guess easier to produce and stream and stuff.
14:29But I found the third series a little bit weak of the Bear
14:33compared to the first two.
14:35But I still enjoyed it and I still had its kind of place.
14:37But there was just certain bits.
14:39I was like, this is a bit superfluous, you know what I mean?
14:42So I'd be interested to see.
14:44Yeah. What happens in season four.
14:46Yeah, I still haven't stomached watching the Bear,
14:48like because you have to be in a certain mood to watch more of the Bear,
14:52really, don't you?
14:53Like at least the first two seasons.
14:55I would say don't go into it if you've got like anxiety issues,
14:59because there's a couple of episodes where you're like,
15:01honestly, your blood pressure will just go through the roof.
15:05And it is stressful.
15:07But it's I mean, Jamie Lee Curtis is a masterclass in acting.
15:11You know, it's she is and she's not in it a lot.
15:13But when she's in it, she is phenomenal.
15:18And there's something about it
15:19that makes it just very different to everything else.
15:22I think maybe it is that navel gazing.
15:24There's an awful lot of navel gazing in it.
15:27But it's the way they build tension.
15:29And for anyone who's ever worked in a kitchen like it's
15:33it's really good at that sort of evidencing that sort of anxiety and pressure.
15:40And yeah, it's just done in such a particular way, but also with this
15:43insanely kind of artistic slant as well, where you've these really gorgeous
15:47shots of food and things, you know, which must take ages to do.
15:50I'm after saying that it's probably easier to produce, but it's probably not
15:54because you see the food and it is phenomenal.
15:57But yeah, anyway, I should really look into it because it's quite interesting.
16:00But yeah, that season four of The Bear.
16:02And then we've got in February, we've got a couple of big shows returning.
16:07We've got Yellow Jackets is back for its third season on Valentine's Day.
16:12You know what says how romantic like, yeah, cannibalism.
16:16Yes. And then, yeah.
16:18White Lotus begins a couple of days later.
16:21So that's the Monday.
16:21So the 17th set in Thailand this time is this time.
16:25Yeah, it's got the fantastic Walton Goggins is one of the actors in it.
16:30He's one of the best actors on TV and one of the best voices.
16:33He was in Fallout last year.
16:35If anyone watched Fallout, he was the ghoul in that.
16:38Yeah. But I'm going to pick a couple that have sort of jumped out to me,
16:43at least on the schedule.
16:44So the first one I'm picking, another February show.
16:47It's on Netflix.
16:48It's Celebrity Bear Hunt.
16:50That's arriving on the 5th of February.
16:52And it's coming just after The Traitors finishes.
16:55So it might, you know, fill that void in your life.
16:57Yeah. And what the whole deal is, it's a bunch of like celebrities.
17:02So there's like Mel B.
17:03There's Shirley from Strictly's there.
17:06There's Simon from the Inbetweeners.
17:08Lottie Moss, Kate Moss's sister's there.
17:11Oh, OK.
17:11I guess he's still got to pay off his, yeah, the stuff he got to pay off.
17:18That is a good lineup, isn't it?
17:19Like everyone will recognize all those people pretty much. Yeah.
17:22Yeah. And so what, they're pretty quiet on what exactly is going to be involved,
17:28but presumably not an actual real bear, but some sort of a bear.
17:31No, no. It's actual bear grills.
17:34They're getting hunted by bear grills in the jungles of South South America,
17:39I think, so there'll be challenges and bear grills are trying to catch them.
17:43So, yeah, it's got that sort of Traitor's vibes going.
17:47OK, OK, OK.
17:48I'm not a massive bear grills fan, so he grates on me a bit.
17:51Yeah, but he's not in it that much.
17:53Maybe it's more of a celebrity.
17:55Yeah. OK, I hadn't heard about that.
17:57So that sounds cool.
17:58Like that's a bit different, isn't it?
17:59It's good to have something sort of new on the, on the chart.
18:02OK, cool.
18:03And yeah, and speaking of new, is another Netflix pick this time from March.
18:09It's a show called The Residents, which might not be on your radar yet,
18:13but it's from Shonda Rhimes, who is like one of the big, big TV producers.
18:18She, you know, she did Grey's Anatomy back in the day, Bridgerton on Netflix,
18:23tons of shows like she really knows how to make a hit.
18:26And this one, I think, could be the perfect sort of like talker in March.
18:30It's a sort of mix of Downton Abbey is the vibes I'm getting
18:35is sort of like upstairs, downstairs, but in the White House.
18:39And there's sort of like a screwball murder mystery with a eccentric
18:44detective called in after there's like a murder at the state dinner
18:49in the White House.
18:50And there's a huge cast.
18:52There's like Kylie Minogue's there as herself.
18:53She's part of the cast.
18:55Yeah. So I guess I guess she was performing at the White House, I assume.
18:58Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
19:00It's the sort of thing that it's not on people's radars yet.
19:03No, it might be the kind of thing that like absolutely blows up
19:07and everyone's like talking about it, especially if it's a bit more funny
19:10than, you know, like it's got the mystery.
19:12It's got your screwball comedy.
19:13It's something a bit different and very like, I don't know,
19:16end of winter, start of spring kind of like vibe I think I'm getting.
19:21Yeah. Slightly different from from Shonda Rhimes, I think.
19:25But yeah, a lot of different things, obviously.
19:27But she's a very well known name.
19:29So I'm sure it'll be quality if, you know, in some respects,
19:32at least we can presume that.
19:34OK, cool.
19:35And then April sees the return of The Last of Us on Sky Atlantic
19:41slash now.
19:43I have played both games, so I sort of know what's coming.
19:46I will not say what's coming.
19:48It's very hard to talk about what's coming without spoiling anything.
19:52So I'm going to say it's probably going to be controversial if it falls.
19:57I vaguely remember the first series and having this conversation
20:00with somebody who played the games and they were like,
20:02you maybe won't like what happens in the next series.
20:05I was like, oh, so one of our main people is going to die.
20:07That's it, isn't it?
20:08But anyway, don't don't answer that question.
20:09I won't say anything.
20:11Yeah, there's new characters.
20:13There's Caitlyn Denvers joined as a character called Abby,
20:16who's important. Jeffrey Wright's in the show.
20:19He was actually in the game, but he's playing the character
20:22that he played in the game in the show.
20:23So he's come back for that.
20:24So he's from Westworld, if you remember.
20:27That was one of the HBO shows in that recently.
20:30And it follows what, you know, the consequences
20:35of what happened at the end of the first season.
20:38A couple of years in the future.
20:39A lot of it's set in Seattle.
20:41There's new communities, new, you know,
20:45there's a religious, really interesting sort of religious cult
20:49called the Scars that are involved, and they live a sort of like
20:54Amish style lifestyle.
20:55They've like gone the complete other way.
20:57And yeah, there's going to be some interesting stuff.
21:00I think they've said that the second game they're going to adapt over
21:03quite a few seasons.
21:04I think there's going to be two.
21:05So we know there's going to be lots more.
21:07Yeah, yeah.
21:07There's going to be at least a third season.
21:09I feel like we have time to rewatch the first series.
21:13And I think that many things I'd go back to.
21:15I mean, literally, I go back to very, very, very little.
21:18But I think that was so quality.
21:20It was so good.
21:22Yeah, yeah.
21:24I'm really interested to see how they do the second season
21:27because the second game has a very interesting way of playing with empathy
21:32and how they adapt that.
21:35I don't know if it will work without the interactivity
21:38of like sort of forcing you to play as someone
21:41that you don't want to play as sort of thing.
21:43OK, I get you. I get you.
21:45Yeah, I mean, I'm sure they know what they're doing.
21:48Like, yeah, Chernobyl was fantastic.
21:51Greg Mason, he knows what he's doing.
21:52I'm sure they'll knock it out the park.
21:54I mean, yeah, when you think about like that episode always stands out to me,
21:57the episode, the kind of whatever it was, episode four or five,
22:01where it's the backstory of the two guys.
22:05Yeah. And.
22:08Nobody, well, I wouldn't have seen that coming.
22:10It felt like a completely different TV show, like a standalone thing.
22:13So they've got the ability to do it, to innovate and surprise us.
22:18So I think that's probably how they'll do that.
22:20I think so, too.
22:22I'm hoping to do like not obviously the exact same,
22:25but yeah, another like step out of.
22:27Yeah, or forcing us into their shoes or whatever.
22:30Yeah, exactly.
22:31OK, cool. So what else?
22:33We've got one minute less, Matt, to go through whatever else you've got.
22:37There's a new Game of Thrones TV series coming later in the year.
22:41It's called A Night of the Seven Kingdoms.
22:43It's smaller scale than the other shows.
22:46It's about a knight that wanders around and he's got a child companion.
22:50And then on the BBC, we've got Riot Women to watch out for later this year.
22:55It's Sally Wainwright, her of Happy Valley fame.
22:59It's about a group of middle aged women who start a punk rock band
23:02and there's original music in it.
23:04It sounds like it's going to be an absolute blast.
23:07Yeah, she's great. She writes women really well.
23:09Yeah, that was a very blunt end there.
23:14Thanks, Matt. No, perfect.
23:15Great. Oh, my God.
23:16Overwhelmed with how much good stuff there is coming up.
23:18So it is it's a it's a bit of a bumper year.
23:20I think at the start last year we had like two or three things, you know,
23:23and then it was like, whereas you can tell the sort of post
23:27strikes, you know, the Hollywood strikes and all that.
23:30Although with everything that's going on in LA at the moment,
23:32God only knows what impact that's going to have on the film and TV industry
23:35with the fires, et cetera.
23:36But yeah. OK, right.
23:39Thank you. That was TV, Matt. Cheers, Benji.
23:43That's got us all switched up on to what we'll be watching from our couches.
23:46But with films, what do we need to be venturing out
23:50into the cinema to see or otherwise this year?
24:03Well, I mean, there's already been an absolute ton of films
24:08that have been announced finally getting released this year,
24:11and it's a little bit of a little bit of something for everybody.
24:14If you're into your music biopics, of course, January 17th,
24:17a complete unknown starring Timothy Chalamet as Bob Dylan,
24:21which is already getting Oscar buzz that's coming out later in the year.
24:25Michael, the long awaited biopic regarding Michael Jackson.
24:30You know, I like that much.
24:33I think if I remember correctly,
24:35Coleman Domingo is being cast as
24:39the patriarch of the Jackson family.
24:42I'm going to take a little bit of a bit more of a look into it
24:45because it's been a hot minute since they announced it.
24:49And then with trailers and everything, we maybe come back to that in a few months.
24:53Yeah, yeah, yeah.
24:54Well, yeah, I mean, we be rude if we didn't, wasn't it?
24:58On the live action front, of course, you've got Snow White
25:01or the controversy that was behind it.
25:03Originally, you've got the live action version of how to train your dragon.
25:08You've got sequels coming up, including Bridget Jones, Mad About the Boy,
25:12of course, Wicked for Good at the end of next year.
25:16Apparently, Dirty Dancing 2 is finally going to get released this year as well.
25:20Not to be confused with the 2004 sequel, Dirty Dancing, Havana Nights,
25:25which was a lot of pens, yeah.
25:27And of course, the MCU are going to be trying their hand once again.
25:31We've got Captain America, Brave New World, Thunderbolts, Asterix.
25:36The Asterix is all important.
25:38Fantastic Four with Pedro Pascal, which is going to lead into X-Men
25:43and then Avengers.
25:44But if we are going to be talking about superhero franchises,
25:49then we have to talk about what is regarded as the great DC reset, isn't it?
25:55James Gunn's Superman.
25:57Now, the trailer came out.
25:59I don't know if anyone caught the clip of me on the rounds on TikTok.
26:04Absolutely freaking out seeing Krypto the Superdog arrive.
26:08But it's going to be a big, big release because it all hinges
26:13James Gunn's vision of the his and the DC
26:18Extended Universe's vision for what's going to happen,
26:22because I'm one of those people that was a little bit upset
26:26that Henry Cavill, or however you want to pronounce that last name,
26:29because I got told to pronounce it that way is a bit too posh.
26:33A lot of people weren't happy about his rejection
26:37getting, you know, omitted from the Superman role.
26:40Here's hoping that he plays Wolverine in the future,
26:42because that was a brilliant cameo in Deadpool and Wolverine.
26:47David Karenswet is taking over the role of Superman.
26:51Nicholas Holt, who we all remember either from Skins
26:55or Mad Max Fury Road or going way back about a boy.
26:58Thank you, Kelly.
26:59That little ragamuffin that looked like he was a member of Badly Drawn Boy.
27:03Yeah, he's playing Lex Luthor as well.
27:06That'll be interesting, I think.
27:08It's a big, big, big gamble, this film, because it's not even
27:11doesn't even play like an origin story.
27:14Right. They're also going to include elements of the Green Lantern.
27:18Again, going back, fans might remember Ryan Reynolds playing the Green Lantern.
27:23Fans will probably want to forget about Ryan Reynolds
27:26playing the Green Lantern.
27:27Ryan Reynolds did something wrong.
27:28Are you joking me?
27:31Well, you know, given what Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively are going through,
27:34I think it's better we keep our mouth shut on that one, isn't it?
27:37Oh, my God.
27:38That's a whole other podcast series.
27:42So is it going to hopefully kickstart
27:46an interest in the superhero genre again?
27:49Because James Gunn is known for doing things that are a little bit offbeat.
27:53I don't think with this movie it's going to lean into the humor
27:57that he had with the Suicide Squad and the Guardians of the Galaxy series.
28:01I think he wants to make it a bit more grounded.
28:03And yeah, it's a big gamble because there was a whole heap of Zack Snyder
28:08fans that felt that he got an unfair shake of the sauce bottle
28:11when it came to his vision of the DCEU.
28:15Hence why we got Justice League, the Zack Snyder cut.
28:17But all will be revealed when that film finally hits the cinemas on June the 11th.
28:24And we bid farewell to a very enduring franchise
28:28that has been about maybe two, maybe three decades now.
28:32Oh, my God.
28:32Tom Cruise returning for Mission Impossible.
28:35The final recording.
28:36How many films is it in total?
28:38Do you know?
28:39Is it maybe eight?
28:42Oh, my God. It's not eight.
28:43Well, because you had the first Mission Impossible,
28:46Mission Impossible 2 with John Woo, Mission Impossible 3,
28:50which was where Philip Seymour Hoffman played Owen Davidian
28:55with the whole, I'm going to hurt her.
28:56I'm going to hurt her real bad.
28:58That whole classic line.
28:59Then you had Ghost Protocol.
29:02Am I right? Am I right?
29:04It's the eighth one, you legend.
29:06Oh, my God.
29:07I absolutely fluked that, ladies and gentlemen.
29:10I did no research, but I was like, it sounds like eight.
29:13But it is such an enduring franchise.
29:15I mean, yeah, yeah.
29:16Like they're all worth a watch, aren't they?
29:18Yeah. I still maintain that Tom Cruise is one of the last of those 80s
29:22action heroes that's still doing bits, you know.
29:25And he does his own stunts and stuff.
29:26That's kind of half the reason to watch it is just to.
29:29Well, I mean, the guy only, the guy recently, as of recording,
29:32received one of the top honors from the US Navy SEALs.
29:36Mad. And that he was skydiving into the Olympics in Paris.
29:41And like, he's no spring chicken anymore.
29:43Do you know what I mean?
29:45No, he's not.
29:46He's mightily bonkers, but that's what we love about him, isn't it?
29:49I mean, when are we going to end up having to write me or Matt
29:52a breaking news story about Tom Cruise severely injured
29:55because he decided to jump out of a rubbish bin from a plane
29:59and tried to use one of those flight kind of suits as well.
30:03Yeah, yeah.
30:04Yeah, no, just a cape.
30:05That's all it is. Just a cape.
30:07A wing and a prayer for Tom Cruise.
30:09But it's been such an enduring.
30:11And it's been one of those film franchises which, dare I say it,
30:15has critically been well received more and more as it goes on.
30:20So hopefully when that hits the cinemas on May 21st,
30:24it's going to be a bit of a highlight for the year
30:27and a long farewell to East London.
30:31A long farewell to Ethan Hunt and the Mission Impossible team.
30:37And there's been a lot of talk now, first and foremost,
30:40that image from 28 years later of that emaciated person.
30:44How dare you think that was Killian Murphy for a start?
30:46He just looks that way always, yeah.
30:50You know, we're not looking at Christian Bale,
30:52the machinist, anything like that.
30:54I admit that he's gone.
30:55But yes, we've got 28 years later.
30:59What I find interesting, not only about...
31:02Well, I mean, I'm a zombie fan for a start.
31:04I love the old zombie genre.
31:06I think me and Matt have previously spoken about horror movies.
31:09And, you know, I lean into the zombie genre
31:12more than, like, vampires and all that other malarkey.
31:16What I'm finding interesting, though,
31:18is that the way that they are filming 28 years later
31:23is almost a throwback to the originality
31:26of how the original Danny Boyle film was shot.
31:32You might remember back when the first film came out,
31:36there was a lot of discussion about
31:38instead of using proper cinematography cameras, film cameras,
31:43they experimented with digital video,
31:46which gave it that kind of unclean kind of quality,
31:49almost, I hate to be pretentious here,
31:51like a mise-en-scene of, like,
31:53I don't think I'm watching a movie.
31:55I think I'm actually watching what someone has captured
31:58just on a DV camera.
32:00From what I've read, predominantly,
32:02a lot of the filming that's taken place for the new movie
32:05is shot on iPhones.
32:06Yeah, that way you're gonna get that kind of realism once again,
32:11just replacing digital video
32:13that was all the rage in the mid-2000s to iPhones,
32:17which, you know, Kevin Smith once said
32:20that you could make an entire movie using an iPhone these days.
32:23So it'll be interesting to see
32:25how much of that is implemented in the film.
32:29Aaron Taylor-Johnson's in it.
32:30Cillian Murphy is in it.
32:33I haven't read too much about it,
32:36not because I'm being naive about it,
32:38but because I was such a fan of both 28 Days Later,
32:4328 Weeks Later, maybe Robert Carlyle I enjoy,
32:47but I don't want to have the whole thing spoiled
32:50because I've been on the Wikipedia recently
32:53to have a look.
32:54Oh, what's this about?
32:55And boom, here's the exact plot of this one.
32:58Oh, no, we don't want that.
33:01I mean, Cillian Murphy was nobody
33:04when 28 Days Later came out.
33:06And he is an absolute...
33:06Oh, I don't know about that, Kelly.
33:08When did Carlyle Russells come out?
33:11Oh, God.
33:13Was that before that?
33:15I don't know.
33:17No, it would have been later.
33:182006, maybe, 2007.
33:19I know that when 28 Days Later,
33:21the known entity was Christopher Eccleston in that film.
33:25And the...
33:28Not Dom Hall Gleeson.
33:31What's his...
33:31Dom Gleeson.
33:32Yeah.
33:33Yeah.
33:34They were the known entities, but...
33:36Who is that?
33:37Brendan Gleeson.
33:38Brendan Gleeson, that's the one.
33:40I can see where you're coming from,
33:42that he wasn't like...
33:44I don't mean nobody, but yeah,
33:45he's not, you know, the superstar Hollywood actor.
33:49Not Oppenheimer.
33:51Let's give him all the Oscars in the world, so...
33:54So I think it's great that they've got him, obviously, for it,
33:57because again, you know,
33:59he's kind of gone back to his roots, obviously,
34:00and staying true to...
34:03Obviously, he was a big...
34:04Danny Boyle gave him a bit of a start, obviously, as well.
34:07So it's cool that they've kind of still got that relationship.
34:09And Jodie Comer's in it, which...
34:11He does.
34:11I mean, can't go wrong with Jodie Comer either, can you?
34:13Absolutely not.
34:14It's going to be interesting, though,
34:15because it looks like it's going to be more geared around
34:19Aaron Taylor Johnson's character than Cillian Murphy's Jim.
34:23But, you know, we'll see what happens.
34:25The trailer is out there.
34:26But again, that emaciated zombie is not Cillian Murphy.
34:31Have some kind of decency towards the guy.
34:34Nobody needs to worry about Cillian Murphy.
34:36His beautiful razor-like cheekbones
34:40are perfectly still on his face, wherever he might be.
34:44And the man is still eating sandwiches.
34:47I can attest to that.
34:50That's coming out on June 20th as well.
34:52So, you know, mark it down in your calendar.
34:55There's an absolute huge amount of film that's coming out.
34:57But once a month, we can drop back into it once again.
35:02There's probably things that I've missed
35:03that a lot of people are probably going to get angry about.
35:06But we'll return to it.
35:08This podcast could be two hours long.
35:10And to be fair, we don't have that time.
35:12So, yes, I think that's...
35:14My God, I think we've got enough fodder there
35:16to keep everybody going for quite a while.
35:18And some of the stuff is just around the corner,
35:20which is very, very welcome.
35:22Thank you for joining us today.
35:24If you have any suggestions for what TV we need,
35:26or film, that we need to get into our lives,
35:28drop us a line via social media.
35:30We have a new TikTok channel
35:33where you're going to be seeing our faces.
35:34You're going to be seeing Benji and Matt a lot
35:36because it's going to be all TV and film stuff.
35:38So do check that out.
35:40We'd love for you to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast
35:42so we can reach as many TV and film lovers as possible.
35:46We'll be back soon with more ScreenBabble.
35:49Bye-bye.
35:50Bye-bye.
35:51Bye.