The EscapeGoat Podcast

On this helping of And Ninthly.. David and John analyse their confinement in 'CTRL ATL ESC', which aired on 29 May 2024. Includes SPOILERS for a few IN9 episodes (this one, obviously, and notably 'The 12 Days of Christine'). We also discuss some aspects of the later seasons of The Sopranos. Be warned!

The review of this episode I mention in our discussion was indeed on Den of Geek, and was written by Louisa Mellor - and here it is: https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/inside-no-9-series-9-episode-4-review-ctrl-alt-esc/

If you want to hear previous bits of David and John chatting about IN9, it's been the subject of a few EscapeGoat Podcast episodes - here are the links!

Series 1-5: discussion and highlights

Series 6 (pt 1)

Series 6 (pt 2)

And you can find our episode-by-episode coverage of Series 7 and 8 via And Ninthly... on this thread too.

You can reach us on X at @EGoat_pod and email us with any feedback on [email protected]. We also have a Patreon - any amount of money will get you early access to episodes, and help support the show!

The intro music was recorded and made available by kind permission of Richard Gilbert.

On this chapter of And Ninthly.. David and John twitch their curtains at 'Mulberry Close', which aired on 22 May 2024. Includes SPOILERS for a few IN9 episodes (this one, obviously, and notably 'Dead Line'). Be warned!

If you want to hear previous bits of David and John chatting about IN9, it's been the subject of a few EscapeGoat Podcast episodes - here are the links!

Series 1-5: discussion and highlights

Series 6 (pt 1)

Series 6 (pt 2)

And you can find our episode-by-episode coverage of Series 7 and 8 via And Ninthly... on this thread too.

You can Tweet us at @EGoat_pod and email us with any feedback on [email protected]. We also have a Patreon - any amount of money will get you early access to episodes, and help support the show!

The intro music was recorded and made available by kind permission of Richard Gilbert.

On this installment of And Ninthly.. David and John muse over the choices made by 'The Trolley Problem', which aired on 15 May 2024. Including SPOILERS for a few IN9 episodes (most notably 'The Stakeout' and 'Riddle of the Sphinx' but quite a few, really). Be warned!

If you want to hear previous bits of David and John chatting about IN9, it's been the subject of a few EscapeGoat Podcast episodes - here are the links!

Series 1-5: discussion and highlights

Series 6 (pt 1)

Series 6 (pt 2)

And you can find our episode-by-episode coverage of Series 7 and 8 via And Ninthly... on this thread too.

You can Tweet us at @EGoat_pod and email us with any feedback on [email protected]. We also have a Patreon - any amount of money will get you early access to episodes, and help support the show!

The intro music was recorded and made available by kind permission of Richard Gilbert.

Welcome back to And Ninthly...! For this first episode of the ninth and final series. David and John are once again joined by the superlative George Daniel Lea to analyse 'Boo To A Goose', which aired on 8 May 2024. We also catch up with George first about his reaction to the tail end of Series 8, including SPOILERS for a few IN9 episodes (most notably '3 x 3' and 'The Last Weekend'). Be warned!

George is a prolific YouTube creator, mostly on videogames, pop culture and literature, whose channel can be found here. His horror fiction and reviews can be discovered on his website Strange Playgrounds. He can be reached on Twitter on @EnigmaticElegy. He has previously featured on The EscapeGoat Podcast talking about Gormenghast, The Flight of Dragons, Terry Pratchett's Johnny Maxwell Trilogy and Count Duckula, and David has guested on his channel a few times, most recently also alongside the ever-terrific Kit Power to chat about a Clive Barker short story. And here's George and Kit chatting about another one, which we bring up in the episode...

If you want to hear previous bits of David and John chatting about IN9, it's been the subject of a few EscapeGoat Podcast episodes - here are the links!

Series 1-5: discussion and highlights

Series 6 (pt 1)

Series 6 (pt 2)

And you can find our episode-by-episode coverage of Series 7 and 8 via And Ninthly... on this thread too.

You can Tweet us at @EGoat_pod and email us with any feedback on [email protected]. We also have a Patreon - any amount of money will get you early access to episodes, and help support the show!

The intro music was recorded and made available by kind permission of Richard Gilbert.

On this installment, I'm joined again by Nannina, and we're talking about some great female film directors! After a bit of initial chat about Dorothy Arzner and her pre-Code movie Nana (which Nannina and I managed to watch together recently!).. we move onto the main double bill.... a chat about The Hitch-Hiker (1953, Ida Lupino) and Point Break (1991, Kathryn Bigelow). Fun is had. Enjoy! And Vaya Con Dios.

0.00 Intro/Preamble

0.16 The Hitch-Hiker

1.07 Point Break

You can find the show on Twitter at @EGoat_pod (or tweet at me on @D_Faggiani) and email us with any feedback on [email protected]. All our episodes are on Spotify, our YouTube channel, and Apple Podcasts. Do share and enjoy. We also have a Patreon - any amount of money will get you early access to episodes, and help support the show.

Nannina is a screenwriter, who procrastinates at writing by going down deep research wormholes into alternate dimensions. She supports her writing habit by making coffee, and can be found on Twitter and Bluesky via @NanninaGilder talking about early women filmmakers.

All original intro, outro and other incidental music recorded and made available by kind permission of Richard Gilbert.

NOTES

This is a fun article, about Ida Lupino: https://screen-queens.com/2020/02/21/wihm-the-hidden-polemic-of-ida-lupinos-the-hitch-hiker/

Weirdly, once again, my brother Matt chimed with us without co-ordinating, by chatting with his podcast partner Mike about another female-directed movie American Psycho! Give it a listen! https://open.spotify.com/episode/4flYtxiEZvW6N3seXH9x8U?si=MEEPas9MSiWISuA5c_oFBA

This week, my brother Matt returns to the show! We have a terrifically fun chat about the deeply flawed, maniacally disturbing and nasty but still kind of wonderful movie Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983, Terry Jones). In the first half, we discuss our general thoughts and reactions to the movie, from childhood exposure to it, til now. In the second half, we do a discursive trawl in rough order through the film's disparate sketches, songs and nightmare fuel. We hope it's a good listen - we enjoyed it!

0.00 Intro/preamble

0.16 The Meaning Of Life (pt 1) - general discussion of the movie and Python

0.55 The Meaning Of Life (pt 2) - rough in-order discussion of the movie's sketches, songs and other sequences

You can find the show on Twitter/X at @EGoat_pod (or tweet/post at me on @D_Faggiani - I'm also now on Bluesky) and email us with any feedback on [email protected]. All our episodes so far are on Spotify, our YouTube channel, and Apple Podcasts. Do spread the word! We also have a Patreon - any amount of money will get you early access to episodes, and help support the show!

Matt and Mike can be found on Spotify (and other streaming platforms) with their regular co-hosted movie analysis show 'Matt and Mike Pull Focus' - Matt has previously appeared on several episodes of this show - including, as we mention in the show, our 2022 episodes on The Batman and Count Duckula, and our 2021 episode on Time Bandits, which functions as a natural companion piece to this installment. Check them out!

All original intro, outro and other incidental music recorded and made available by kind permission of Richard Gilbert.

NOTES

There's quite a lot of Python-related material (apart from the core shows/films) on Netflix at the moment - including an interview they did around 2013, where they talk about production elements of The Meaning of Life, amongst other things. Very illuminating. Also... if anyone else hadn't seen 'The Adventures of Martin Luther' scene cut from the film... here it is, via YouTube. Extraordinary.

The interviews Matt conducted quite recently which he references in the show, respectively with actors Vin Hawke and Toddy Walters, are both really, really worth checking out - would recommend!

Also, if you wish to hear my nephew performing his punk epic '8 million/10 million Babies' - and who wouldn't - here it is. Bracing stuff.

For this episode, I am pleased to be able to welcome back Christine Kelley to the podcast! After a bit of intro chat, we get on to the main topic - the Irish tragic black-comedy Calvary (2014, John Michael McDonagh), pretty much exactly on its 10th anniversary. We discuss the priesthood, guilt, politics, sardonic humour and animal murder - it's a good time!

0.00 Intro/preamble

0.13 Calvary (pt 1)

0.57 Calvary (pt 2)

You can find the show on Twitter at @EGoat_pod (or tweet at me on @D_Faggiani) and email us with any feedback on [email protected]. All our episodes so far are on Spotify, our YouTube channel, and Apple Podcasts. Do spread the word! We also have a Patreon - any amount of money will get you early access to episodes, and help support the show!

Christine Kelley (@ballardiangorse on various platforms) writes about speculative fiction and radical politics from a queer revolutionary perspective. Her writing projects include Nowhere and Back Again, a psychogeography of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth and Dreams of Orgonon, a song-by-song study of Kate Bush. Christine featured on the podcast in 2023, talking about the David Lynch movie The Straight Story. Support Christine on Patreon.

All original intro, outro and other incidental music recorded and made available by kind permission of Richard Gilbert.

NOTES

As I mention in the show, I was fortunate enough to get to chat to Kit Power and George Daniel Lea on their show in early 2023, talking about the then recent movie The Banshees of Inisherin, directed by McDonagh's writer/director brother, Martin. Think that makes a nice companion piece to this episode! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iifk3JM0u-Q&list=PL_3YQW0lAL2OwUpmigRz4mLXrkNtHSLNp&index=31&t=4831s

Funnily enough, talking of brothers... my brother Matt has also recorded a podcast about Calvary, with his co-host Mike! You can hear what they thought of the movie here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6XuOIuxaR5ktskvLDnXK5p?si=cn_H7F0hQsS-R2NYRHl1cQ

This is Series 5! Come on in. We kick off this run with a brilliant combination of returning guests Kit Power and James Murphy, joining me to pick apart (well, gush over) the seminal, thrilling yet melancholic and haunting British Gangster movie The Long Good Friday (1980, John Mackenzie).

We discuss Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren and the snapshot of dawn-of-Thatcher London presented here. Also politics, money, racism, queerness, violence... and Razors. Oh, and THAT ending. Spoilers.

0.00 Intro/preamble

0.14 The Long Good Friday pt 1

1.03 The Long Good Friday pt 2

You can find the show on X at @EGoat_pod (or post at me on @D_Faggiani - I'm on Bluesky too) and email us with any feedback on [email protected]. All our episodes so far are on Spotify, our YouTube channel, and Apple Podcasts. Do spread the word! We also have a Patreon - any amount of money will get you early access to episodes, and help support the show!

Kit Power lives in Milton Keynes and writes horror and dark crime fiction, with occasional forays into dystopian science fiction. His fiction work includes a novel, 'GodBomb!', and a novella collection 'Breaking Point', two short story collections ('A Warning About Your Future Enslavement That You Will Dismiss As A Collection Of Short Fiction And Essays By Kit Power' and 'Voices') and novellas 'The Finite' and 'A Song For The End'. He also writes non-fiction (https://www.gingernutsofhorror.com/my-life-in-horror.html with Volume 1 and 2 also available in book format) and has a limited hardback available on the subject of Ken Russell's movie Tommy. In his increasingly inaccurately labelled spare time, he podcasts - on his own show, Watching Robocop With Kit Power and on What The Hell Is Wrong With Us? with George Lea. For weekly early access to his fiction, non-fiction, and podcasting work, visit www.patreon.com/kitpower. He has also been on five previous episodes of The EscapeGoat Podcast, discussing each part of the original UK House of Cards Trilogy in turn, the Stephen King short story collection Skeleton Crew, and then his essay collection My Life In Horror Volume II. Check them out! Also get him on Twitter and Bluesky.

James podcasts at Pex Lives, about Doctor Who, Bob Dylan and whatever else he pleases. He also co-hosts the marvellous Pop Could Never Save Us (check it out!) and his Springsteen project (with Kit) We Learned More From a Three Minute Record. He can be got primarily via jamesmurphy.bsky.social on Bluesky these days. This is his third appearance on this show - last year he featured talking about Douglas Adams' Mostly Harmless.

NOTES

Here is the full extended clip featuring Bob Hoskins and film critic Barry Norman in walkabout conversation around London from a few years after the movie, which we play an excerpt from in the episode. Watch it, they make a ridiculously charming unlikely pair. I'd watch a series of just them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTgqHsJ4410

Here's a retrospective piece from 2021, including some thoughts from Helen Mirren on the movie: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/apr/01/beheading-scene-helen-mirren-co-stars-long-good-friday-british-classic

Here is a BBC cast and crew documentary about TLGF from 2005: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlCA7eKyKbc

And here's a BFI panel discussion (including Paul Barber) from 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCT5HCRCmkE

Finally... I've had this podcast planned for a while... but in autumn 2023, over at my brother Matt's podcast... they were lucky enough to have guest star Simon Osborne ('Pitt the Younger' in Blackadder III) on for a chat (which is a fascinating listen in its own right)... but guess what movie Simon picked as his favourite to talk about?? Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0ktV6CZqxuqon76fYDIQHz?si=ilM6R_GvR9aAOQ6w8i7xjg

Part 2 of our 60th Anniversary Doctor Who coverage, including hot takes on The Church on Ruby Road - featuring previous guest Olivia returning to the show, and also for the first time the brilliant Patrick!

0.00 pt 1 - General chat about the recent Specials/Tennant/RTD

0.50 pt 2 - Thoughts about The Church on Ruby Road, and the future of the show

Enjoy! And see you in 2024.

You can find the show on X at @EGoat_pod (or post at me on @D_Faggiani) and email us with any feedback on [email protected]. All our episodes so far are on Spotify, our YouTube channel, and Apple Podcasts. Do spread the word! We also have a Patreon - any amount of money will get you early access to episodes, and help support the show!

Olivia appeared on the show quite a while ago, on episode 4 of the show, where we discussed South Park and episode 13, where we chatted about Pokemon and Monster in my Pocket. Check them out. Olivia can be reached on X on @olivia_broome or on Instagram via @oliviaxbroome.

Patrick is the co-host of the Poditive Spin: The Friendly Fan Club podcast. Follow them on Instagram and Twitter via @poditivespinffc. I had the great experience of being on one of their episodes before, discussing fandom culture in general, and it was a good time! Listen to that one here.

Thanks to Colleen and Andrew for appearing on pt 1 (which you can listen to here) Both Colleen and Andrew featured on a previous episode of this podcast, in which we discussed the Flux series of Who - here it is. And here's an episode where Colleen and I chatted about the Matt Smith-led Season 6 of the show.

All original intro, outro and other incidental music recorded and made available by kind permission of Richard Gilbert.

NOTES

You can watch the mini-episode of Who from back in late 2005 that Patrick references in the episode here. Is the Fourteenth Doctor at least in part referring to his own moles?? You be the judge.

We're back for a pair of specials, ahead of the end of the year! In this first part, Colleen and Andrew discuss the three November/December 2023 Doctor Who Specials, featuring David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor - particularly The Giggle, which had just aired about 24 hours before we had the chat. It's first draft of history time, folks! Join us as we discuss strange quasi-retirements, fresh starts, disquiet, and, of course, comfort and joy.

0.00 pt 1 - General chat about the Specials/Tennant/RTD

0.37 pt 2 - Thoughts about The Giggle, and where the show goes next

We'll be back with a part 2 just after Christmas! x

You can find the show on X at @EGoat_pod (or post at me on @D_Faggiani) and email us with any feedback on [email protected]. All our episodes so far are on Spotify, our YouTube channel, and Apple Podcasts. Do spread the word! We also have a Patreon - any amount of money will get you early access to episodes, and help support the show!

Colleen Cheetham-Gerrard, despite the name, is not a Daily Telegraph columnist. Instead, she's a stand-up comedian and public speaker who can mostly be found on the London circuit. Colleen was also a co-host for Strong Female Leads, a now-completed podcast focusing on nerd culture from a feminist perspective. You can find Colleen via @thecolleencg on X, and she's also on Instagram and Bluesky.

Andrew Blair is a writer, poet and software developer based in Edinburgh, and a frequent contributor to Den of Geek and other sites. You can visit his website via this link. He can be found on X (and Bluesky) via @freelance_liar.

Both Colleen and Andrew featured on a previous episode of this podcast, in which we discussed the Flux series of Who - here it is. And here's an episode where Colleen and I chatted about the Matt Smith-led Season 6 of the show.

All original intro, outro and other incidental music recorded and made available by kind permission of Richard Gilbert.

NOTES

Here's Elizabeth Sandifer's review of The Giggle, and the Pex Lives boys chatting about The Star Beast is here. I haven't even read Darren Mooney's review of The Giggle yet, but I know it'll be great - here it is. Oh, and here's Andrew's latest (post-Giggle) on Den of Geek.