Ho ho ho!

It's still Christmas, so here is one of my favourite festive movies, the third in the Griswold Vacation saga.

Returning guest is Ben Baker, author of The Festive Double Issue - Forty Years Of Christmas TV and The Long Quiz Goodnight. Ben's previous appearance was on the Garbage Pail Kids episode, no come back, don't go!

The film wasn't released in UK cinemas so the number one song was the Band Aid 2 one which was Christmas number one in 1989.

It's one of the ones I've been looking forward to most - one of the least mentioned Christmas movies, it's the film that ended the Cold War - Rocky IV!

Joining me is David Hartrick, oft heard at the Football Fives and The Stiles Council podcasts, for a show we had originally planned in the summer of 2017.

There are large portions of the soundtrack in the background, including replacing the number one song which was "The Sun Always Shines On TV" by a-Ha - sorry but it's Rocky IV.

Dave will be back soon for Beverly Hills Cop and a few others later down the line.

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Apparently it is Thanksgiving, so it's time for the awesome Planes, Trains And Automobiles, another John Hughes winner.

Joining me was comedian James Gill - James is MC at "Always Be Comedy", a regular show held at the Tommyfield pub in Kennington, South London, featuring a number of household names. The podcast was recorded in the corridor of the pub before a show back in August 2018, hence the slight echo and the numerous Police cars in the background - well, it is South London... There was also a slight issue with my microphone - luckily James is far funnier than I, and came out a lot clearer on the pod. Because we spent so long gassing, I've added the number one song intro at the end.

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Finally, Sylvester Stallone makes his Betamax Video Club debut with First Blood. NOT RAMBO. Listen patiently and you'll hear me make that mistake...

My guest for the episode was Will Slater, host of the very entertaining Exploding Helicopter podcast. You can follow Will on Facebook and Twitter.

Will does talk about an alternative ending for the movie, which I've linked to here.

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Episode 32 and it's time to play truant with Matthew Broderick's iconic little fucker Ferris Bueller. Joining me on this adventure is actor and comedian Alison Ward.

Alison can also be found on YouTube in a series of short videos called The Secret Garden.

Apologies in advance if Ferris is your hero, he gets a bit of a rough ride here. Doesn't mean we didn't really enjoy the film...

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Another film which has fallen through the gaps for many - 1984's Runaway. Released in the same year as The Terminator, with more killer robots, alas Tom Selleck's moustache didn't do enough lifting.

This episode was recorded in July 2018, but delayed due to the obvious sound issues. My guest was the returning Dean Newman from The Daily Jaws.

The number one song at the end was You'll Never Walk Alone, but this was a charity single in aid of the Bradford City fire of 1985.

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From the director of Life of Brian! Starring John Cleese! It's...

Erik The Viking!

Tim Robbins has had enough of rape, violence and Viking stuff and seeks to lead a bunch of British character actors to Valhalla without having to die in battle.

Author and former video shop owner Jon Spira joins me to discuss a film that seems to have been forgotten by many, despite the obvious potential.

There are also mentions for Jon's new book Videosyncratic, which is available on Amazon with a foreword from Suzie Dent off Countdown, one of Jon's former customers.

It's the first birthday of Betamax! A year to the day since episode one was published, here we are.

This is Splash, a film about a man falling in love with a mermaid. Yep.

Joining me is Taylor Glenn, writer, comedian and regular on the hilarious Drunk Women Solving Crime podcast.

There is a fair bit of smut within, particularly where we discuss the dynamics of how they, y'know, do it...

Enjoy.

Curator of bad films Ti Singh joins me to discuss an early Arnie classic, the dialogue-light, snake-heavy Conan The Barbarian. Ti also discusses his new book, Born To Be Bad, where he speaks to some of the most memorable villains in cinema, some of whom are regular Betamax antagonists. You can buy the book on Amazon here.

The episode was recorded in late July 2018, so there are a couple of dated references and don't include mentions of Ti winning the jackpot on BBC quiz show Pointless. This is the third Schwarzenegger film I've done so far (not the fourth), while I'm hoping to have two Stallone films up before the end of the year.

There are a few sound issues where I've had to re-record my end due to teething problems with new laptop. Apologies. Again...

Another podcast, another film I'd never seen before. I imagine this one is more fondly remembered than The Garbage Pail Kids Movie...

I was joined by James King, film critic and author, to discuss a film that didn't just do well, it potentially launched MTV and ushered film soundtracks into a new era after Saturday Night Fever.

We talk about James's book throughout, it's called Fast Times And Excellent Adventures and is available in all the usual places - here are the links on Amazon and Little Brown.

Some of you may have noticed that the sound from my end was a little off. Believe me, the first listen sounded like a ransom phonecall.