In a Zeitgeist Tapes first, we have a double bill for your delectation.

 

Given all that is happening in the USA and the wider world, we delve back to the late 1930s and early 1940s to see how one of the most popular directors of the time dealt with populism - positive and negative. We discuss both Mr Smith Goes to Washington and Meet John Doe - both by director Frank Capra. 

Political corruption abounds; the little guy is always the hero and the stooge. But Capra - an immigrant and Republican - did not want to break the American system - he wanted to show that it could be great again. Perhaps a lesson for those who oppose Trump now.

Watch Meet John Doe on Youtube

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This month Steve and Emma discuss Brian and Maggie - the 2 part TV drama about the interview that - according to the drama at least - led to the fall of Margaret Thatcher. 

We ask if long-form interviews really are dead? If TV interviews really were as good as the nostalgia would have it and if arch-Thatcerite Brian Walden really did bring down his friend?

This month instead of getting festive, Emma and Steve round off the year looking at the 1954 BBC adaptation of 1984. A dystopian tale of hopelessness and the triumph of evil. 

Merry Christmas! 

This month - in the wake of the US election and the defeat of  Kamala Harris - Steve and Emma look at The Contender (2000). 

This is a film that is posited as a liberal feel-good film about making a woman the Vice President under unusual circumstances. It might be 'of its time' or it might be - as Emma argues - a timeless liberal man's idea of what a feminist film looks like. 

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?