Taking Hugh for Granted

Enter the frame with Oscar and Diggory as they discuss the stroke of genius that is Hugh Grant's performance of painter 'Finn' in Restoration (John Hoffman, 1995).  

Your hosts speak about Hugh's beef with Robert Downey Jr and (probably)  Sir Ian McKellen, Hugh Grant's fabulous look and piss-taking performance as Finn and analyse in great detail the tale of two halves that is Restoration.

After befriending King Charles II (played by Sam Neill), aspiring young physician Robert Merivel (played by Robert Downey Junior) is living a new lavish lifestyle in the King’s court. In order to retain his new position, King Charles enlists Merivel to marry his favourite mistress, Celia (played by Polly Walker) in order to divert the suspicions of the King’s other, increasingly jealous mistresses.

However, though Celia is to be married, the King wants her to remain his mistress and gives Merivel a simple instruction: “You must marry my mistress - but do not fall in love with her.” Inevitably, Merivel falls for Celia, and though he intends to keep his fondness a secret from the King, it's only a matter of time before disgruntled painter Finn (played by Hugh Grant) gives the game away...

Make sure you're following Taking Hugh for Granted on Instagram and Facebook (@TakingHughforGranted) as well as Twitter (@TakingHugh). You can get in touch with us there or via our email [email protected]

For those of you that want to skip disclaimers, opening theme tunes, salutations, synopses and go straight to the film analysis, head to 5:00

Just a week after Hugh celebrated his 60th birthday, Diggory and Oscar are back for another episode of Taking Hugh for Granted! And there's no better place to jump back into Hugh's filmography than Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason aka Bridget Jones 2 (Beeban Kidron, 2004).

In this the sequel to Bridget Jones's Diary, the film picks up just four weeks after the end of the first movie, and already Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) is becoming insecure in her relationship with Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). Bridget, now working as a TV host, is jealous of the time Mark Darcy spends with a co-worker (Jacinda Barrett), and, despite a vacation meant to smooth things over, ends their relationship. While on assignment in Thailand, temptation comes in the form of her disreputable ex, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), which lands Bridget temporarily in jail on the false accusation of drug smuggling, before Mark comes to the rescue...

Make sure you're following Taking Hugh for Granted on Instagram and Facebook (@TakingHughforGranted) as well as Twitter (@TakingHugh). You can get in touch with us there or via our email [email protected]

For those of you that want to skip disclaimers, opening theme tunes, salutations, synopses and go straight to the film analysis, head to 4:33.

In this very special Hugh's News episode, your hosts Oscar and Diggory celebrate Hugh Grant's 60th birthday! 

To mark 6 decades of having the wonderful man on our planet, Oscar and Diggory choose their favourite moments from each decade from Hugh's birthday on the 9th September 1960 through to today - 9th September 2020! From dashing dresses to deluded dances to dalliances with politics, Oscar and Diggory discuss it all!

Share your favourite Hugh Grant moments with us on Instagram and Facebook (@TakingHughforGranted) as well as Twitter (@TakingHugh). You can get in touch with us there or via our email [email protected]

Don your graduation caps and gowns and join Oscar and Diggory as they return to University to unpick Hugh Grant's role in The Rewrite (Marc Lawrence, 2014). Your hosts discuss the film's few highs, its ironic and frequent lows and then turn their critical crosshairs toward their own peculiar names:  'Diggory Waite' and 'Oscar Beardmore-Gray'.

Resting on his laurels from his 1999 smash hit melodrama entitled "Paradise Misplaced", Oscar-winning screenwriter and one-hit-Hollywood-wonder, Keith Michaels (played by Hugh Grant), is forced to leave sun-kissed L.A. and teach a screenwriting course in rainy Binghamton, New York. Once there Keith takes a shine to Holly (played by Marisa Tomei), a hard-working single mother and hopeful writer, who seems to see right through him. Can Keith, the unrepentantly egocentric big fish out of water, find a true connection between himself and the small community he now finds himself in?

Make sure you're following Taking Hugh for Granted on Instagram and Facebook (@TakingHughforGranted) as well as Twitter (@TakingHugh). You can get in touch with us there or via our email [email protected]

For those of you that want to skip disclaimers, opening theme tunes, salutations, synopses and go straight to the film analysis, head to 3:11

Introducing our first episode of Hugh's News - a bonus Taking Hugh for Granted podcast series and your first stop for all news regarding Hugh Grant.

In this episode, Oscar and Diggory will also be explaining a little more about the new bonus episodes of Hugh's News, and this series may develop in the future. Whilst a new, regular episode of the Taking Hugh for Granted podcast will continue to drop every 2 weeks on a Tuesday, Hugh's News won't have a regular upload schedule. Instead, we'll release an episode of Hugh's News whenever there is significant and substantial Hugh Grant news that you need to know and Oscar and Diggory need to discuss. 

Make sure you're following Taking Hugh for Granted on Instagram and Facebook (@TakingHughforGranted) as well as Twitter (@TakingHugh). You can get in touch with us there or via our email [email protected]

Tuck in your shirt, do up your tie and brush your hair because Hugh Grant academics Oscar and Diggory are breaking down The Remains of the Day which was nominated for eight academy awards in 1994.  Based on the Kazuo Ishiguro novel of the same name, the rigid, resolute and rule bound Mr Stevens (played by Sir Anthony Hopkins) cultivates a world of manners and decorum in the Darlington household. However, the arrival of housekeeper Miss Kenton (played by Dame Emma Thompson) and Reginald Cardinal (our boy Hugh Grant) threaten to upset the highly professional culture Stevens, as the home’s Head Butler, has worked so hard to foster. The possibility of romance and Lord Darlington’s sympathies toward the Nazi cause challenge Stevens’ carefully maintained veneer of servitude…

Make sure you're following Taking Hugh for Granted on Instagram and Facebook (@TakingHughforGranted) as well as Twitter (@TakingHugh). You can get in touch with us there or via our email [email protected].

For those of you that want to skip disclaimers, opening theme tunes, salutations, synopses and go straight to the film analysis, head to 04:15.

Lose your senses with Oscar and Diggory as they discuss Hugh Grant's role in director Ang Lee's 1995 Oscar-winning period drama Sense and Sensibility. 

When a certain Mr. Dashwood dies, he must leave the bulk of his estate to the son by his first marriage, which leaves his second wife and their three daughters Elinor (played by Dame Emma Thompson), Marianne (played by Kate Winslet), and Margaret (played by Emilie François), out of house and home. They are taken in by a kindly cousin, but their lack of fortune affects the marriageability of the practical Elinor and the romantic Marianne. When Elinor forms an attachment for the wealthy Edward Ferrars (played by Hugh Grant), his family disapproves and separates them. Now, the pair must lose their hearts and come to their senses...

Make sure you're following Taking Hugh for Granted on Instagram and Facebook (@TakingHughforGranted) as well as Twitter (@TakingHugh). You can get in touch with us there or via our email [email protected]

For those of you that want to skip disclaimers, opening theme tunes, salutations, synopses and go straight to the film analysis, head to 03:10

Listen as Diggory and Oscar attempt to unpick Cloud Atlas (Thomas Tykwer and Lana and Lilly Wachowski, 2012) and Hugh Grant's five roles within it -  playing characters from a slave-owning reverend, to a 70s sleaze-ball, and a savage, hellbent, Hawaiian cannibal. 

Beginning on an 1849 ocean voyage across the Pacific and travelling across multiple time periods including futuristic Korea, pre-war Britain, 1970s America and post-apocalyptic Hawaii, this epic tale tells six stories across five centuries, exploring how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future. Everything is connected. Each story challenges the corrupt norms of the time, changing the course of history, and shaping the future through acts of kindness, big and small.

Make sure you're following Taking Hugh for Granted on Instagram and Facebook (@TakingHughforGranted) as well as Twitter (@TakingHugh). You can get in touch with us there or via our email [email protected]

For those of you that want to skip disclaimers, opening theme tunes, salutations, synopses and go straight to the film analysis, head to 2:29

Think Hugh Grant's big acting break was 1994's Four Weddings and a Funeral? Think again! 

Join Diggory and Oscar as they discuss Maurice (James Ivory, 1987), and what could the best looking Hugh has ever been on screen - until he grows a moustache half way through the film at least...

In 1909, Maurice Hall (played by James Wilby) attends Cambridge university, where he befriends Clive Durham (played by Hugh Grant). The two embark on an intense but paranoid affair. Homosexuality is illegal in British Edwardian society so the two men must now decide to reject their true sexual identities or risk plunging their families into disgrace and themselves into prison….

Make sure you're following Taking Hugh for Granted on Instagram and Facebook (@TakingHughforGranted) as well as Twitter (@TakingHugh). We want to hear from you so get in touch with us there or via our email [email protected]!

For those of you that want to skip disclaimers, opening theme tunes, salutations, synopses and go straight to the film analysis, head to 2:28

Join Oscar and Diggory in covering your ears to block out the sound of the truly awful singer Florence Foster Jenkins (Stephen Frears, 2016). 

Based on a true story, legendary New York heiress and socialite Florence Foster Jenkins (played by Meryl Streep), obsessively pursues her dream of becoming a great opera singer. The voice she hears in her head is beautiful, but to everyone else it is hilariously awful. Her "husband" and manager, St Clair Bayfield (played by Hugh Grant), is determined to protect his beloved Florence from the truth. But when Florence decides to give a public concert at Carnegie Hall in 1944, St Clair knows he faces his greatest challenge.

Make sure you're following Taking Hugh for Granted on Instagram and Facebook (@TakingHughforGranted) as well as Twitter (@TakingHugh). We want to hear from you so get in touch with us there or via our email [email protected]!

For those of you that want to skip disclaimers, opening theme tunes, salutations, synopses and go straight to the film analysis, head to 3:24

No copyright infringement is intended with the episode cover art.