Soho Bites Podcast

Double Stinker.

After an extended break to allow our massive team to shift its attention to our most recent podcast series, Kino Quickies, we return to Soho Bites with the 1948 murder mystery, It Happened in Soho.

It’s safe to say, the film had a very small budget and doesn’t have the highest of production values but it does boast a major star, Richard “Stinker” Murdoch.

At the time the film was made, Murdoch was a big BBC radio star, having starred, at this stage, in two huge radio comedy hits - Band Waggon with Arthur Askey and Much Binding in the Marsh with Kenneth Horne.

To talk about It Happened in Soho, we welcomed Paul Kerensa to the show. Paul is a stand up comedian and, most importantly for our purposes, is the creator of the epic British Broadcasting Century podcast - who better to talk to about a film starring one of early broadcasting’s biggest names.

At the time of writing, It Happened in Soho is available to watch on TPTV Encore...

... and Band Waggon is on YouTube.

Watch Richard Murdoch, in later life, talking about Much Binding in the Marsh.

To begin the show, Mark Brisenden makes a return visit to Soho Bites talk about the London venue at which nearly all BBC radio comedies were recorded between 1946 and 1995 - The Paris Studios on Lower Regent St.

Mark worked on Week Ending and The News Huddlines and was the creator of Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel - all of which were recorded at the Paris.

During our conversation, Mark points out that the 1950 film, The 20 Questions Murder Mystery, was set at the Paris. You can watch that film at Archive.org.

The pictures Mark brought from the last night of the Paris.

Between March & May 2022, we ran a series of screenings of 1930s quota quickie films at the Kino Cinema in Bermondsey. Each screening was followed by a Q&A with our resident quickie expert, Dr Lawrence Napper of Kings College London and a specially invited expert guest. We will be returning to the Kino in the autumn for season 2 but, in the meantime, you can hear the Kino Quickies podcast at KinoQuickies.com. You can also follow us on Facebook.

The originator of Soho Bites, Dr Jingan Young, has a new book coming out all about.... guess what? Films set in Soho! Get your copy at Foyles.

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Special Sandwich Special.

We’ve done some episodes in the past with some disparate and unusual themes. We did a Spain themed episode, a sport one, a God special and even a wrestling / boxing episode, but we think we’ve surpassed ourselves this time as the theme linking the two items in episode 33 is sandwiches.

Sandwich boards, that is, and the men who wear them.

There was a time when Sandwich men and women and other forms of portable adverts were a common sight in the west end but In August 2008, Westminster council implemented a ban on such advertising, consigning this minor social menace to history.

The ban came too late though, to have any effect on the sandwich men we’re talking about in this episode.

Our first sandwich man is NOT a fictional character - Stanley Green, otherwise known as Protein Man. Stanley campaigned against the consumption of excessive protein for about 25 years and became a familiar sight to people in the west end during that time. We meet Honorary Research Fellow at the Museum of London, Dr Cathy Ross, to hear about Stanley, his writings and his life.

Learn about Stanley’s unusual views in his Protein Wisdom leaflet.

Read an ARTICLE by Cathy Ross about Stanley.

For more info: Stanley’s entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

And here’s a four page extract of Stanley’s unpublished novel, Behind the Veil: More than Just a Tale. I have corrected some of the spelling and some of the more confusing errors, but have tried to leave Stanley’s idiosyncratic punctuation and writing style in tact.

Our second sandwich man IS a fictional character - Horace Quilby is played by Michael Bentine in the 1966 comedy, The Sandwich Man.

The film is noteworthy mostly for its extraordinary cast and for its numerous London locations which you can see HERE courtesy of Reelstreets.

To talk about The Sandwich Man we were joined by the novelist, Christopher Fowler.

***UPDATE*** Christopher very sadly died a few weeks after we recorded this conversation. You can read an obituary HERE.

Film makers often cheat when it comes to locations - eg a person turns a corner and re-appears three streets away. In The Sandwich Man, Horace Quilby is supposed to be walking around the west end, but according to THIS MAP of his route, constructed using the locations listed on ReelStreets, he covers an unfeasible number of miles in one day.

We have another podcast coming out! Starting in March, a series of screenings and Q&As will take place at the Kino Cinema in Bermondsey which will be magically turned into a podcast a few days after each one. Follow the podcast at KinoQuickies.com, follow us on Twitter and we'd love to have you come to a screening. All you have to do is buy a ticket.

The originator of Soho Bites, Dr Jingan Young, has a new book coming out all about.... guess what? Films set in Soho! Get your copy at Foyles.

Thank you for listening.

Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)

We're now on YouTube

Email us at [email protected]

We'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.

And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.

Check out our spin-off series Mural Morsels

In fact, see all relevant links HERE

Softly Shoe Shuffle.

Murphy's Law states that if you've arranged an interview with a brilliant guest to talk about a fantastic film in a great location, then you will catch Covid and have to self-isolate. This is why my interview with Ming Ho about Turn the Key Softly (1953) took place online and not in the lovely surroundings of the BAFTA bar as originally planned.

Turn the Key Softly is set over a period of twelve hours and follows three very different women on their first day of freedom after their release from Holloway Prison.

Starring Yvonne Mitchell, Kathleen Harrison and a very young Joan Collins, it is directed by Jack Lee who also wrote the screenplay along with producer, Maurice Cowan and is based on the novel of the same name by Johh Brophy.

Have a look at these lovely old lobby cards, produced to promote Turn the Key Softly.

Have a look at some of the locations in Turn the Key Softly on Reelstreets

You can follow Ming on Twitter.

As the period of self isolation dragged on, a real in-person meeting was still impossible, so Dom met up with John Snelson online to hear about two forgotten musicals set on the streets and nightclubs of Soho. The Crooked Mile ran for 160 performances at the Cambridge Theatre in 1959-60 and Ace of Clubs also ran at the Cambridge, for 211 performances in 1950.

The Crooked Mile consolidated the UK career of Millicent Martin. Here is some publicity material from the show.

Ace of Clubs was written by Noel Coward, the MD was Mantovani and Graham Payn & Pat Kirkwood starred. Pat Kirkwood did not have an affair with the late Prince Philip. Nope. No way. Definitely not. Graham Payn was Noel Coward's long-term partner. Here's some publicity material from the show.

The Crooked Mile was based on Peter Wildeblood's very much out of print novel, "West End People". I can't afford it so have put it on my list for Santa.

The originator of Soho Bites, Dr Jingan Young, has a new book coming out all about.... guess what? Films set in Soho! Get your copy at Foyles.

Thank you for listening.

Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)

We're now on YouTube

Email us at [email protected]

We'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.

And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.

Check out our spin-off series Mural Morsels

In fact, see all relevant links HERE

Sohohoho Bites Christmas special.

In this festive special, we’re talking about the much loved Christmas classic, The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) which, according to this article, is the greatest film ever made.

In the first half of the show we meet up with Jonathan Foster. He works at the Prince Charles Cinema, just off Leicester Square and is the co-host of the Pod Charles Cinecast. The PCC is renowned for its special event screenings including its Muppet Christmas Carol Singalongs which are are wildly popular.

In the second half we’re off to a festive get-together of podcasters to find out what they think about The Muppet Christmas Carol (spoiler – everybody loves it, obvs)

Muppet Christmas Carol trailer

Different versions of the film have been released over the years. Read about those differences in this article by Mark Harrison.

This Wikipedia article about the history The Prince Charles Cinema is worth a read and you can check out the current PPC season and book tickets on its website. You can also follow the PCC on Twitter.

A lot of people graced the Soho Bites microphone in the second half of the show talking about The Muppet Christmas Carol – many of whom (but not all) are connected to the Talking Pictures TV podcast. Click below for their info…

Adam

Dani

Helena

Kev

Murder Mile Mike

Shameful Steve

Tracy

Phil is not on Twitter

Thank you for listening.

Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)

We're now on YouTube

Email us at [email protected]

We'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.

And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.

Check out our spin-off series Mural Morsels

In fact, see all relevant links HERE

Kent Noir.

Good-Time Girl is a post war UK film noir with three main locations – Lambeth, Soho and “Soho-On-Sea” (AKA Brighton). James Harrison of South West Silents & Film Noir UK joins Dom to talk about the film and about Film Noir UK.

The star of Good-Time Girl is Jean Kent, known throughout the 1940s and beyond as UK film’s “bad girl”. To talk about Jean’s life and career, we drop in to the BFI to meet up with curator, Josephine Botting.

For a few years before she became famous, Jean Kent worked as a Windmill girl. This scan is from the autobiography of Vivian Van Damm, the long term producer at the Windmill, who sacked Jean for being “immature” and “lacking personality”. He later realised he had made a mistake!

Our guest, Jo Botting, met Jean Kent in 2011 for a special screening of Jean’s 1946 romantic drama Caravan. Here’s the photographic proof of that meeting….

In 2011, not long before she died, Jean’s 90th birthday was celebrated on local TV.

In this clip from Good-Time Girl, Gwen meets Rosso for the first time – a meeting that ultimately has unfortunate consequences for Gwen.

Good-Time Girl was based on a novel by Arthur La Bern called, “Night Darkens the Streets”. La Bern also wrote, “It Always Rains on Sunday” which was adapted for the screen and “Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square” upon which, Alfred Hitchcock’s “Frenzy” was based. Night Darkens the Streets is now out of print and the cheapest available copy online was £47 when last checked, so here’s a picture of the cover for free.

Interesting article by Josephine Botting & Sarah Castagnetti about the co-writer of Good Time Girl, Muriel Box

Good-Time Girl is available to view for free on the brilliant BFI Player

Although not always in perfect quality, there are several Jean Kent films available on the Internet Archive including The Browning Version and Caravan. Find more HERE

You can follow both Josephine Botting and the BFI on Twitter

James Harrison is also on Twitter and so are South West Silents and Film Noir UK You can also find both organisations on the same website

Have a look at some of the locations in Good-Time Girl, courtesy of our friends at Reelstreets.

***** UPDATE*****

Since publishing the episode, Caroline Champion got in touch pointing out that Jean was in an episode of Steptoe & Son in 1970. She plays Daphne who finds herself at the centre of an unlikely love triangle. Thanks to the wonder of the internet, the whole episode is HERE.

Thank you for listening.

Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)

We're now on YouTube

Email us at [email protected]

We'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.

And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.

Check out our spin-off series Mural Morsels

In fact, see all relevant links HERE

Wham bam Bowie special.

In this Bowie special, we talk to Del Pike about the much maligned Absolute Beginners (1986) - was the critical mauling justified? And Aiden McManus returns to the show to talk about Bowie's pre-fame years in Soho.

Arriving on cinema screens on the back of an inordinate amount of pre-publicity in 1986, Absolute Beginners was, notoriously, an instantaneous disaster at the box office and was ripped to shreds by the critics.

Thirty years later, freelance writer, Del Pike wrote an article entitled “Absolute Beginners at 30 – Was it Really So Bad?” so we had to get him on the show to talk about the film that ruined the studio that made it.

Although not the star of Absolute Beginners, David Bowie provided the theme song and was a major feature of the pre-release publicity campaign. Twenty years before that, he was a struggling musician trying to make it big, and was deeply in involved in the Soho music scene. Aidan McManus returns to the podcast to talk about Bowie’s Soho years.

Interesting article in the Guardian about the making of Absolute Beginners

Read Del Pike’s 1986 article asking if Absolute Beginners was really so bad.

Follow Aidan McManus on Twitter, book a scheduled or bespoke tour with him and listen to his radio show

Thank you for listening.

Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)

We're now on YouTube

Email us at [email protected]

We'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.

And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.

Check out our spin-off series Mural Morsels

In fact, see all relevant links HERE

Early Dors.

We look at two extraordinary lives in this episode. The film under discussion is Value for Money (1955) about a naive northern man played by John Gregson who becomes captivated by a glamorous West End showgirl played by Diana Dors. Hmm…. sounds familiar…. We meet Diana’s biographer, Anna Cale, to talk about the film and about the star’s tumultuous private life.

Value for Money is on YouTube

As is this two part biopic of Diana - Blonde Bombshell

One of Diana’s early boyfriends was Michael Caborn-Waterfield, known colloquially as “Dandy Kim”. The name Kim was originally given to him by nuns at his prep school to distinguish him from another Michael, a Mike and a Mick. It was Diana who dubbed him “Dandy” because of his taste in clothes and it stuck.

Dandy Kim was best known for being the founder of Ann Summers but he was infamous well before that. We talk to his biographer, Nigel Hamilton-Walker

Read the obituary of Dandy Kim published on the website of his Alma Mater, Cranleigh School

What on earth is Shoddy and Mungo?

Don’t buy Anna Cale’s, “The Real Diana Dors” from Amazon – Jeff Bezoz definitely doesn’t need your money. Buy it directly from the publishers and get a discount while you’re at it.

Read Nigel Hamilton-Walker’s biography of Dandy Kim on his Inkitt site

Presumably for a limited time only, there appears to be one copy of Kim’s late 60s pioneering sex manual, Variations on a Sexual Theme available to buy on Ebay. Don’t be fooled by the author’s name – he wrote it under a pseudonym to avoid publicity from the tabs. Snap it up while you can!

Fine Anna Cale HERE

Have a look at the the & now locations of Value for Money courtesy of our friends at Reelstreets

Thank you for listening.

Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)

We're now on YouTube

Email us at [email protected]

We'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.

And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.

Check out our spin-off series Mural Morsels

In fact, see all relevant links HERE

Yesteryear's Soho club-land.

Dr Lawrence Napper of Kings College London met up with Dom to discuss 1937’s Saturday Night Revue. Starring Sally Gray and Billy Milton, it’s a role call of some long forgotten cabaret & variety acts of the day. That doesn’t sound promising but it’s great!

Short clip from Saturday Night Revue. Not sure why they chose this bit to promote the film...

The plot revolves around two night clubs, both called “Moons”. One is in Soho and the other is in Mayfair and is based on the Cafe de Paris. In the first half of the show, author Rob Baker returns to the show to tell us about the terrible night during World War 2 that the Cafe de Paris was bombed.

A very popular performer at the Cafe de Paris was Ken “Snakehips” Johnson and he has an uncredited cameo in Saturday Night Revue. Ken gave this interview to the BBC in 1940.

The unexpected star of Saturday Night Revue is not even an actor – he’s a BBC producer and presenter called John Watt who plays himself. His wife wrote a biography of him which was published in 1964 and it contains this picture.

One of the characters in Saturday Night Revue is a sound engineer at the BBC at “Radio House” (yes I know it’s called Broadcasting House – for some reason they call it Radio House in the film). There are references in the film to broadcasts of nightingales and this were a real thing. Read an article about them HERE.

We have another returnee to the show – Richard Luck of the New World pops in to enthuse about his home town.

Dr Lawrence Napper, this episode’s film expert, is a lecturer on Film Studies at Kings College London. Check out his details and published works on the KCL website and follow Lawrence on Twitter.

Visit Rob Baker’s websites: Another Nickel in the Machine & FlashBak, check out his fascinating Pinterest site and follow him on Twitter. You can also buy his books directly from the publisher.

Follow Richard Luck on Twitter, checkout out his contributions to The New World and listen to his previous appearance on the Soho Bites.

Thank you for listening.

Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)

We're now on YouTube

Email us at [email protected]

We'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.

And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.

Check out our spin-off series Mural Morsels

In fact, see all relevant links HERE

Lobotomy Room special.

For the first part of episode 26, we headed out to Fontaines bar in Dalston (Stoke Newington if you’re an estate agent, Dalston if you’re “street”) to catch a screening of the kitsch, sexploitation B movie from 1960, Too Hot to Handle.

The film was one of two that its star, Jayne Mansfield, made in the UK that year. Jayne plays Midnight Franklin an exotic dancer at the The Pink Flamingo club in Soho and Leo Genn plays her love interest, Johnny Solo (there’s only a 28 year age difference so that’s fine then). Christopher Lee plays the club’s sinister manager, Novak, and Austrian actor Karlheinz Böhm plays a French reporter writing a feature on Soho nightlife. Chirpy, cockney national treasure, Barbara Windsor turns up in the film as chirpy, American(!) exotic dancer, Ponytail.

The screening was put on as part of “Lobotomy Room” – a regular film night at Fontaines run by Graham Russell.

Too Hot to Handle was made in Eastman Colour but the only prints in circulation (that haven’t been dubbed into German) are in black & white. Here’s a taster of the colour version.

Here's some (unfortunately lo-res) lobby cards.

We spoke to Graham briefly after the screening but met up with him in the glorious Soho sunshine a couple of days later to discuss his love of Too Hot to Handle and its star, Jayne Mansfield.

Because you probably missed the screening at the Lobotomy Room, here’s the full film in all its black & white glory.

Find out more about the Lobotomy Room HERE

Or follow Graham on Twitter for news of upcoming screenings at the Lobotomy Room and check out his sleazy, trashy Blog. Read an interview with Graham HERE

And if you’d care to venture to Dalston / Stoke Newington, have a cocktail at Fontaines.

Most scenes in Too Hot to Handle, even the Soho street scenes, is shot in a studio. Have a look at the few genuine locations on Reelstreets.

The originator of Soho Bites, Dr Jingan Young, has launched a new research project. Find out all about it on the Cities in Cinema website and follow the project on Twitter.

Thank you for listening.

Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)

We're now on YouTube

Email us at [email protected]

We'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.

And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.

Check out our spin-off series Mural Morsels

In fact, see all relevant links HERE

Just for the record.

The theme of episode 25 is record shops. Soho was, for a long time (and arguably still is?) THE place to go to buy records of all genres with dozens of shops packed closely together. In the first half of the show, Dom talks to Garth Cartwright, the author of two books about record shops, about the history of the Soho record shop scene.

Kenny Lynch in Soho, including his shop, The Kenny Lynch Record Centre on Walker’s Court

In the second half of the show. Ken Hollings talks about the 1958 B Movie, The Golden Disc – known in the US as The In Between Age. Starring Lee Patterson as Harry, Mary Steele as Joan and Terry Dene as Terry Dene, it’s a tale of Exceptional Success as our heroes take a failing greasy spoon cafe and turn it first into a groovy coffee bar, then a record shop and finally a record label.

We couldn’t find a trailer for The Golden Disc but here’s a short extract from the film.

And here's a set of original Golden Disc lobby cards.

Here’s a short biography of Terry Dene and he has a YouTube channel!

Renown Films (otherwise knows as the great Talking Pictures TV) have a CD for sale of Terry’s music. You can buy your copy HERE

You can buy Garth Cartwright’s books on record shops HERE, check out his website and follow him on Twitter.

There’s a great website called The British Record Shop Archive on which you can read about some of the shops and characters mentioned by Garth including Alex Strickland, Harlequin Records, Dobells and Collets.

And have a look at this map of Soho record shops.

Ken Hollings has a blog and of course he was on Twitter but no longer.

Read Ken’s essay on the The Golden Disc and the concept of Exceptional Success.

Discover some of the locations in The Golden Disc (apart from the scenes shot in Walton Studios) on Reelstreets.

The originator of Soho Bites, Dr Jingan Young, has launched a new research project. Find out all about it on the Cities in Cinema website and follow the project on Twitter.

Thank you for listening.

Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)

We're now on YouTube

Email us at [email protected]

We'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.

And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.

Check out our spin-off series Mural Morsels

In fact, see all relevant links HERE