Pop Screen

Can it really be ten years since David Bowie died? This week, Pop Screen dives back into the prolific screen career of the Thin White Duke with one of his sexiest, most stylish and silliest films - Tony Scott's 1983 debut The Hunger. A story of vampirism, lesbianism and extremely '80s stylistic mannerisms, it co-stars Susan Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve.

Join Graham and Mick as they discuss the movie's place in Bowie's then-rapidly-mainstreaming career, his artiest music videos and tour promos, the film's position in the '80s neon-and-smoke-machines canon, and who - if anyone - could pull off a performance like this today. We also talk about Bowie's fabled gift for reinvention, the film's electrifying Bauhaus performance, and insult Morrissey.

If you want to hear more of this - the Bowie discussion, not the Morrissey-insulting, although... - we're prepping a bonus episode on his 1978 film Just a Gigolo. You can get that over on our Patreon, as well as weekly articles about The Twilight Zone and Doctor Who, plus our end-of-month round-up podcast Last Night... Follow us on Instagram, BlueSky and Facebook to find out more.

Another year's over, so it's time to convene an Avengers movie's worth of Geek Show contributors to answer the only question that matters: what was good this year? Did Sinners live up to the hype? What was our pick of the Oscar race? Did 28 Years Later live up to Simon's extremely exacting standards of realism for Geordie accents?

In this packed show, Graham and Rob are joined by Kat, Mike, Robyn, Aidan, Andrew, Simon and Caitlyn to talk about the first half of 2025 - everything from Nosferatu to Novocaine, Flow to Final Destination: Bloodlines. And there's also room at the end for our worst of 2025. You know what Graham's inflicted on himself for this podcast, but what film made Aidan feel like he was trapped in a room full of CGI zombies for two hours? Find out now!

The second half of this year-end review is coming on the Uncut Network in a week's time, but there'll be more Pop Screen before the month's out, including our monthly bonus episode over on Patreon. Backers will also get weekly articles on Doctor Who and The Twilight Zone, our end-of-month round-up podcast Last Night..., plus several new written and audio features we're launching in 2026. To find out more, follow us on Bluesky, Facebook or Instagram.

Roll up, roll up, and let Mark and Graham take you back to 1967, a time when the Beatles had already conquered cinema with Richard Lester. As a result, they decided to make their own film, with no script and the entire band as co-directors, then broadcast it on BBC One on Boxing Day. What could possibly go wrong?

A lot, as it turned out, although Magical Mystery Tour still has a substantial cult following and a fair bit to recommend it beyond Beatles music - there's Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band music as well. Join us as we explore the origins of the film's strangest scenes, its influences on everything from Spice World to 2000s emo bands, the lives of the supporting cast and Paul McCartney's secret life of crime. Plus: Mark talks about his television big break!

If you want to hear more of us dancing to songs that were a hit before your mother was born, we release a bonus episode of Pop Screen every month on Patreon. We're currently in the middle of refurnishing our Patreon for 2026, with some new podcasts as well as regulars like Last Night..., Dimension of Imagination and Outside the Blue Box. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more.

It's the dead of winter, so what better time to watch the frostiest of music movies - in every sense? Set in a bitterly cold early '60s New York, the Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis sees Oscar Isaac's titular folk singer getting the cold shoulder wherever he goes, whether it's from his volcanically angry ex, played by Carey Mulligan, or the strange hand of fate itself.

This week, Joe from Dreaming Machine rejoins the show to decide whether this is one of the Coens' sad funny movies or one of their funny sad movies, as well as dissecting the film's real-life inspirations, the response it got from veterans of the real-life 1960s NY folk scene, and its supporting turns from Justin Timberlake and Adam Driver. Plus, we get with the modern podcast market and come up with a conspiracy theory...

If you want to give us money that isn't contingent on us recording a space-race themed novelty song, you can donate to our Patreon, where we're about to launch a whole new series of podcasts and article series for 2026, as well as continuing our ongoing Doctor Who and Twilight Zone series. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook to find out more.

Get yourself a couple of small beers, pop The Battle of Algiers on and enjoy a (French) 75 minutes with Graham and Simon talking about arguably THEE film of 2025 - Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another. The story of a gone-to-seed revolutionary fighting to protect his daughter from a simultaneously ridiculous and plausible nemesis, it's a big-budget epic with the soul of a weird little cult political satire.

It also has tons of musicians in the cast, from an attention-grabbing role for Teyana Taylor to the drummer from Haim, and several others you might have missed. We'll guide you through all its cameos and real-life inspirations, as well as talking about what it takes - and what it cuts - from its source novel, Thomas Pynchon's Vineland. Plus, we pitch the Pop Screen New Testament...

If you want to be part of a club just as exclusive as - but substantially less right-wing than - the Christmas Adventurers, we've got a Patreon where we're about to drop an exclusive episode of this very show concerning the Kinks and the origins of a British TV classic... Plus, written articles on The Twilight Zone and Doctor Who, an end-of-month round-up podcast called Last Night... and some exciting new features coming for 2026. To find out more, follow us on Bluesky, Instagram and Facebook.

Greetings from Castbury Pod! For our latest episode, Graham is joined by new co-host Ian to discuss a Bruce Springsteen movie - but not the one you're thinking of. Yes, while Deliver Me From Nowhere is still in theatres, we're rewinding a few years to look at Gurinder Chadha's Blinded by the Light, a true story of an ordinary British Pakistani boy in 1980s Luton finding his voice through a sustained obsession with The Boss.

Part of our hero's dilemma is that, by this point in the '80s, Bruce is not cool - but when was his star at its brightest? We discuss the ups and downs of his commercial fortunes, as well as the film's well-chosen cast of young newcomers in the lead and familiar faces in support. We also pitch an Ozzy Osbourne biopic, talk about formative music fandoms we were part of - everything from Frankie Goes to Hollywood to REM! - and decide on which musical subculture deserves to have a movie made about it.

You can find Ian at https://medium.com/@smoggywood.productions - yes, this is what happens when you don't remember your blog address during the podcast. As for us, we can, as ever, be found on Patreon, where you can get a monthly bonus episode of this show as well as weekly written articles on The Twilight Zone, Doctor Who and much more. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more.

When Max Planck began his ground-breaking work on quantum theory, do you think he realised it would be used to prove Satan is a flask of slime in the basement of a San Francisco church? This is - we think - the plot of Prince of Darkness, in every way John Carpenter's weirdest film. Its bizarre plot involves precognitive dreams, clerical conspiracies and possessed homeless people, the latter of which gives us the Alice Cooper cameo required to feature it on this show.

Join Graham and Rob as they discuss the film's plentiful inspirations from Nigel Kneale, Carpenter's enduring second career as a composer and the role "supermensch" manager Shep Gordon played in getting Cooper on board. Plus a radioactively hot take from Graham on the film's possible real-world subtext...

If you'd like to fund our research into ancient evil from a dark-matter universe, you can donate to our Patreon where you'll find a monthly bonus episode of this show - the latest one is about Seed of Chucky - plus weekly articles about The X-Files, The Twilight Zone and Doctor Who. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky to find out more.

Well, it's not Halloween without a bit of trick or treating, isn't it? Pop Screen's spooky month kicks off with an '80s teen horror that also allows us to remember one of the greats we lost this year - Ozzy Osbourne, whose short but hilarious cameo as an anti-rock preacher in Charles Martin Smith's movie allows the Black Sabbath frontman a chance to kick back at a moral panic he was then very much in the crosshairs of.

Join Aidan and Graham as they remember Ozzy's understandably baffled appearance on Geraldo Rivera's Satanism special, talk about the film's use of sitcom, teen movie and homoerotic tropes, and ponder who's going to be the cuddly dad of metal now Ozzy is gone. We also ponder how influential this film might have been on a certain Netflix series, and grudgingly talk about Gene Simmons's cameo towards the start of the film.

If you play this podcast backwards, you'll find a hidden message telling you to join our Patreon, where we're about to drop an exclusive episode on Seed of Chucky, as well as publishing weekly written reviews of The X-Files, The Twilight Zone and Doctor Who. Follow us on Facebook, Bluesky and Instagram to keep up to date!

The loneliness of eternity. The horrors of the 20th century. Nick Cave's hair. Yes, this week Pop Screen is tackling the biggest things possible with Wings of Desire, in which Wim Wenders's observations of Berlin, fondness for the poetry of Rilke and Bad Seeds fandom combined to form one of the most unlikely masterpieces of the 1980s.

Join Joe and Graham as they discuss Wenders's wayward, rewarding career and the notes of unexpected reality in this grand fantasy - from Peter Falk's supporting turn as himself to Solveig Dommartin's real-life trapeze skillz. We also talk about the film's sequels and remakes, Claire Denis's talent for novelty casting decisions, which era of Nick Cave's work appeals to us the most, and why every sufficiently highbrow artist needs their own Berlin period.

For a more sustained taste of heaven, you should donate to our Patreon, where you'll get a bonus episode of this show every month plus an end-of-month round-up podcast, Last Night..., that isn't available anywhere else. All this and weekly written articles on The X-Files, The Twilight Zone and the various things Doctor Who's cast and crew get up to away from the show in Outside the Blue Box. Follow us on Bluesky, Instagram and Facebook to find out more.

As impossible as it seems, there are people who can still do original things with superheroes - and it's no surprise that one of those people is Boots Riley. One part of the deliciously funky activist hip-hop act The Coup, he turned to directing with 2018's outrageous comedy Sorry to Bother You and followed it up with this singular Amazon Prime series about a reclusive giant teenager who yearns of being like his favourite superhero.

There's more to it than that, of course, and the series takes aim at the one element of superhero stories that this famously self-mocking genre rarely touches, namely their politics. As well as featuring Walton Goggins as a billionaire superhero whose attitudes are more in line with America's actual billionaire class than Batman or Iron Man, the show also gives Graham and Rob the opportunity to talk about class, disability, lost media, animation, practical effects and - in Graham's case - make a truly, truly unfortunate slip of the tongue.

Show solidarity with us by donating to our Patreon, where you can get a bonus episode of this show every month, plus a whole other podcast - the unclassifiable miscellany that is Last Night... - and weekly reviews of The X-Files, The Twilight Zone and the side-projects of Doctor Who stars in Outside the Blue Box. Follow us on Instagram, Bluesky and Facebook for more info