Watching the war movies that make us bloody glad it’s not the 1940s, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time, acclaimed author and historian Clare Mulley of The Spy Who Loved fame joins us to watch Roman Polanski’s harrowing story of the Holocaust, escape, chance survival and guilt, The Pianist (2002). As we discover, Adrian Brody’s astonishing physical transformation to play the role is not even the half of it. 

Written and presented by Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. Audio production by Tom Taylor. Art by Jim Parrett. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Thanks to Jodie Banaszkiewicz for clearances. War Movie Theatre is a Podmasters production

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Watching the war movies that make us think we’ve discovered the real secret of flying, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time we wheel, bank and glide with The First Of The Few, Leslie Howard’s stirring 1942 portrait of the birth of the Spitfire fighter plane and its doomed progenitor RJ Mitchell – played by Howard himself.

Our special guest J. Willgoose Esq of esteemed “collage rock” band Public Service Broadcasting has previous form with the movie: their pulse-quickening early single Spitfire was built around samples of its dialogue. What will we think? Is this movie heroism and creativity incarnate? And can we take the Spitfires, Mitch? Listen and learn.

• Public Service Broadcasting’s new album, The Last Flight, will be released on 4 October via SO Recordings. Pre-order/save here.

• The album’s first single Electra is out now.

• PSB tour the UK this Autumn. Dates here.

Written and presented by Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. Audio production by Tom Taylor. Art by Jim Parrett. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Thanks to Jodie Banaszkiewicz for clearances. War Movie Theatre is a Podmasters production

www.podmasters.co.uk

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Watching the war movies that make us think mistily of Blighty, with authors Rob Hutton and (usually, but he’s on leave this week) Duncan Weldon. This time: Don’t be upset about the parachute, we’ll have our wings soon anyway, big white ones. Upper lips will wobble as brave airman David Niven enters the afterlife in Powell & Pressburger’s 1946 masterpiece A Matter Of Life And Death, the film that launched a thousand parodies.

Luke Turner, author of Men At War: Loving, Lusting, Fighting, Remembering 1939-1945 joins us to ponder this metaphysical classic. Can love conquer the grave? What is the movie telling us about the post-war US:UK relationship? Is it all really about grief? How young does Richard Attenborough look? And Kim Hunter: gosh. 

Written and presented by Rob Hutton. Audio production by Tom Taylor. Art by Jim Parrett. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. War Movie Theatre is a Podmasters production.

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Watching the war movies that stiffened our upper lips, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time: The mission is the man, and the cast is (literally) to die for. Steven Spielberg’s emotional, epic, stupendously violent Saving Private Ryan from 1998 is the war film that reproaches every “Achtung, Fritz!” actioner. Military historian and BBC legend Mark Urban joins our crack team in the undergrowth. Are these the greatest battle scenes ever filmed? Will the first 20 minutes of this podcast cure our lads of their taste for war? What do you think?

Written and presented by Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. Audio production by Simon Williams. Art by Jim Parrett. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. War Movie Theatre is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk

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Watching the war movies that put a bit of iron in our blood, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time: Used to be that a Sunday didn’t pass without red-jacketed Michael Caine and Stanley Baker staging a last-ditch defence of Rorke’s Drift on TV… but they don’t show Zulu much these days. Why on EARTH should that be?

Special guest Sathnam Sanghera, author of Empireland and the new Empireworld, has never seen Zulu until now. He joins Rob and Duncan to talk over the issues… FAHSANDS of ’em. Will we end with a rousing chorus of ‘Men Of Harlech’ or will everybody get cancelled? How do you make a British Empire film where the Brits are the underdogs? The army doesn’t like more than one disaster in a day… but we do.

Written and presented by Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. Audio production by Simon Williams. Art by Jim Parrett. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. War Movie Theatre is a Podmasters production

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Watching the war movies that made us shape up and stop shilly-shallying, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time: “This is not a gentleman’s war…” With historian Alex von Tunzelmann of Paper Cuts podcast fame, we watch a film regarded by some as the finest British movie ever made, Powell & Pressburger’s epic, moving The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp from 1943. Made during the actual war, denounced for humanising Germans (but did it?) and hated by Churchill, this tale of ageing, the price of war, love and what it means to be English gradually makes its way to classic status – thanks in part to Martin Scorsese, no less. Will our upper lips remain stiff? Listen and find out.

Written and presented by Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. Audio production by Simon Williams. Art by Jim Parrett. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. War Movie Theatre is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk

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Watching the war movies that made men* of us, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time: Is a work of art worth a life? All right, what about a podcast then? This week we’re watching The Train, John Frankenheimer’s intense 1964 epic of bravery and moral torment. Can the French Resistance stop the Nazis spiriting a trainload of looted art away from Paris? Has a black-and-white movie ever looked this good? Is it basically steam-train porn? Plus: Burt Lancaster, secret acrobat. On the train to hell with us, BBC Diplomatic Correspondent James Landale.

* also women

Written and presented by Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. Audio production by Simon Williams. Art by Jim Parrett. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. War Movie Theatre is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk

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Watching the war movies that stiffened our upper lips, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time: What do you mean, it’s not a war movie? It’s got Nazis in it. What more do you want? Our manly duo are tempted by political journalist Helen Lewis into watching the 1965 nuns, guns and arias extravaganza The Sound of Music. Will their emotionless exterior crack beneath Julie Andrews’ relentless sunniness, like “being hit over the head every day with a giant Valentine’s card”? Can you spot fake, painted Salzburg from the real thing? Is it really a war movie after all? The hills are alive with the sound of podcasts!

Written and presented by Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. Audio production by Simon Williams. Art by Jim Parrett. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. War Movie Theatre is a Podmasters production

www.podmasters.co.uk

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Watching the war movies that stiffened our upper lips, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time: Jude Law is a young Russian sniper in the somewhat messy yet highly entertaining ‘Enemy At The Gates’ from 2001. Why does Kill Your Friends author John Niven love it despite its many shortcomings? Would anyone have time for a love triangle in the middle of a war, much less a knee-trembler in an icy tunnel? Can they swerve the ’Allo ’Allo Bad Accent Factor? Or is it all a terrible pain in the Urals? Note: anyone who attempts to retreat from this movie will be shot by the NKVD.

Written and presented by Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. Audio production by Simon Williams. Art by Jim Parrett. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. War Movie Theatre is a Podmasters production.

www.podmasters.co.uk

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Watching the war movies that made us the men* we are today, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time: “Broadsword calling Danny Boy!” It’s the big one as we skydive in on the Platonic ideal of the war-action pic, the 1968 classic Where Eagles Dare. Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton must break Allied asset General Carnaby out of Nazi prison the Schloß Adler with the pulchritudinous aid of Mary Ure. But is all what it seems? Sunday Times chief political commentator Tim Shipman joins us to let out the rallying cry: “Dad, they’re on the cable car!”

* and occasionally women

Written and presented by Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. Audio production by Simon Williams. Art by Jim Parrett. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. War Movie Theatre is a Podmasters production

www.podmasters.co.uk

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