We hope this week’s podcast will earn your ‘quiet affirmative noises’--whatever they might sound like...??? Listeners to last week’s show may remember one correspondent’s story of a film eliciting this mysterious and elusive sound—and you’ve kindly sent in some examples to clear up this crucial matter for us. Mmhmm.

Grown-up Aussie animation ‘Memoir of a Snail’ is first on Mark’s review slate this week--starring Sarah Snook and with a voice cast including Nick Cave and Jacki Weaver, the crafted stop-motion story follows the melancholic life of a reclusive, snail collecting misfit in 1970s Canberra. On a lighter note, to solve all your lovers’ tiffs about what genre to go for this Valentine’s Day movie night, a review of the romcom-slasher hybrid ‘Heart Eyes’. And last but certainly not least—’Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy’, fourth instalment of the British romcom institution starring Renée Zellweger in which Bridget gets back to dating for the first time after the death of Mark (Colin Firth).

Our guests this week are Stephen Graham and Malchi Kirby—who star in the Steven Knight-penned Victorian boxing drama ‘A Thousand Blows’, out next week. In it, a bulked-up Graham plays Henry ‘Sugar’ Goodson—the fearsome East End boxer and adversary of Kirby’s Hezekiah Moscow. Hezekiah arrives in 1800s London from Jamaica, hoping to fulfil his dream of becoming a lion tamer at the zoo—but finds himself at the heart of the city’s criminal underworld, orchestrated by Mary Carr (Erin Doherty), ‘Queen’ of the all-female crime gang The Forty Elephants. Simon chats to the stars about getting into the ring together in this gritty drama based on real historical figures, getting ripped, Jamaican heritage and more.

Timecodes (for Vanguardistas listening ad-free):

Memoir of a Snail Review: 09:54

Stephen Graham & Malachi Kirby Interview: 26:19

Heart Eyes Review: 41:37

Laughter lift: 47:37

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy Review: 52:44

You can contact the show by emailing [email protected] or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo

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