The Zeitgeist Tapes

In this episode Emma and Steve discuss 1988 film Running on Empty. Described by Steve as a 'Hallmark film for terrorists' the film follows the Pope family as the evade the police living in suburban domestic bliss - but only for short periods at a time. 

Directed by Sidney Lumet and starring River Phoenix, Judd Hirsh, Christine Lahti and Martha Plimpton this film combines a discuss of radical politics with a more traditional coming of age family drama. 

Link to the New York Times article discussed: https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/18/movies/film-view-sentimentalizing-60-s-radicalism.html?unlocked_article_code=1._U0.Se0R.62RNH6uMNg0H&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

Link to the Dirty Dancing episode discussed: https://audioboom.com/posts/6941048-dirty-podding

This month it’s another election special! Emma and Steve discuss the chapter about the election in Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers. 

Those who know Emma (and especially those who studied with her) will know that she tried to read the whole book once and gave up halfway through with a lifelong aversion to Dickens. But here we talk about the interesting  - and interestingly negative – way that the election is presented and the similarities with practically all depictions of politics ever since. 

You can read The Pickwick Papers here (we are covering Chapter XIII) https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/580/pg580-images.html#link2HCH0013

Steve’s essay which informed this episode is here https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1111/2041-9066.12084

This month, Emma and Steve are joined by comedian, writer, director and comedy trainer Logan Murray to talk about Trevor Griffith's Comedians. 

Originally written in 1975 and translated for TV as a Play For Today the show follows a group of men looking to become successful club comedians as they do their final showcase in front of an audience. 

The play uses a lot of language that is very much 'of its time' but does so in questioning of how comedy works, what it is for and how we use it both to elevate and victimise and reflect the society we live in. 

Logan Murray's website: https://loganmurray.com/

Emma's comedy routine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpKMzGNmzSQ

In this episode Emma and Steve discuss one of the most consequential dramatisations of recent years. Described as 'Kafka meets Ealing Comedy' (Copyright Steve) this ITV drama shown between Christmas and New Year 2023/24 had politicians finally scrabbling to respond to the long-running scandal at the Post Office. 

David Aaaronovich: The Fatal Flaw in Mr Bates Vs The Post Office https://davidaaronovitch.substack.com/p/the-fatal-flaw-in-mr-bates-vs-the

Emma's Substack: https://softleft.substack.com/

This month, to reflect on the death of Henry Kissinger, Emma and Steve look at 1964 film Fail Safe. Based on the same novel as Dr Strangelove, but definitely not played for laughs this film examines from the inside two sides trying and failing to avoid a nuclear confrontation. 

This month Emma and Steve discuss the show that has had the political world more obsessed than with anything since The West Wing - Succession. 

This tale of a family battling over the future of a media empire has obvious real-world parallels. But should we care as much as we do?

This month, Emma and Steve look at Brassed Off. It's a film about a colliery band, about music and community. It's also an explicitly anti-Tory film set 10 years after the Miners Strike and one year before the Tories were swept out of office by the 1997 Labour election landslide. 

This month, Steve and Emma discuss the 1964 classic My Fair Lady. What does George Bernard Shaw's play and the musical based on it have to say about modern political themes of class or gender? 

In a plot twist, this month Steve interviews Emma about her recent play Triggered. 

As we head into a winter of discontent, Steve and Emma look at the Carry On film's somewhat misguided take on industrial relations. It seems that the most successful strike was that of the joke writers.