Kermode & Mayo’s Take - How did Hollywood turn John Bishop into Will Arnett?

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

Some exciting news—The Take is now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/kermodeandmayo. Become a Vanguardista or an Ultra Vanguardista to get video episodes of Take Two every week, plus member‑only chat rooms, polls and submissions to influence the show, behind‑the‑scenes photos and videos, the monthly Redactor’s Roundup newsletter, and access to a new fortnightly LIVE show—a raucous, unfiltered lunchtime special with the Good Doctors, new features, and live chat so you can heckle, vote, and have your questions read out in real time. Our guests this week are two comedy giants: star of Arrested Development, 30 Rock and BoJack Horseman, Will Arnett—and mega-successful scouse standup John Bishop. It’s Bishop’s unlikely comedy origin story that inspired Is This Thing On?, the new Hollywood feelgood blockbuster directed by Bradley Cooper. In it, Arnett plays a divorced dad who puts his name down for an open mic at a bar just to save the entry fee—then accidentally catches the comedy bug. As he secretly follows his new standup dreams, can comedy save his sanity—and maybe even his marriage? Find out what Mark makes of it, plus two more of this week’s big screen releases. First up its Nouvelle Vague, Richard Linklater’s homage to the French new wave film movement of the 1960s. Linklater’s film dramatises the making of one of its essential movies, Jean Luc Godard’s Breathless. And from uber-cool Parisians murderous monkey’s, we’ll be reviewing Primate too: a tongue in cheek horror where a pet chimp goes bad. The boys are here in the studio IRL this week, so you’ll be getting all of this, plus the box office top 10 and the banterous heights of the laughter lift, beamed right at you from the room where movie-reviewing magic happens. Keep it real, Vanguardistas and all-comers! Timecodes with YT clip codes (for Vanguardistas listening ad-free) Nouvelle Vague review - 10:32 Box Office Top 10 - 23:51 Will Arnett and John Bishop interview - 39:19 Is This Thing On? review 56:11 Laughter Lift - 01:03:04 Primate review - 01:07:20 You can contact the show by emailing [e-mail] or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo Please take our survey and help shape the future of our show: https://www.kermodeandmayo.com/survey EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! A Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts To advertise on this show contact: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Mooby, the global film company that champions great cinema. From iconic directors to emerging otters, there's always something new to discover. With Mooby, each and every film is hand-selected, so you can explore the best of cinema, streaming anytime, anywhere. When we say the best, we mean the best, because now streaming on Moabue from January 23rd in the UK is the film that I said was my favorite film of last year, which is Die My Love, the new film by Lynn Ramsey. It has an extraordinary central performance by Jennifer Lawrence, but also I think Robert Pattinson is brilliant in it. I love all of Lynn Ramsey's films, but I think that Die My Love is just a further example

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That's M-U-B-I-D-M-O-M-E-O for a whole month of Great Cinema for free. At Medcan, we know that life's greatest moments are built on a foundation of good health, from the big milestones to the quiet winds. That's why our annual health assessment offers a physician-led, full-body checkup that provides a clear picture of your health today

and may uncover early signs of conditions like heart disease and cancer. The healthier you means more moments to cherish. Take control of your well-being and book an assessment today. Medcan, live well for life. Visit Medcan.com slash moments to get started. Before we begin, a quick reminder that you can become a Vanguard Easter and get an extra episode every Thursday.

Including bonus reviews. Extra viewing suggestions. Viewing recommendations at home and in cinemas. Plus your film and non-film questions answered as best we can in questions, Schmestians. You can get all that extra stuff via Apple Podcasts or head to Extra Takes.com for non-fruit-related devices. There's never been a better time to become a Vanguard Easter.

Free offer, now available, wherever you get your podcasts. And if you're already a Vanguard Easter, we salute you. Here, Mark. Yes, Simon. Why are we in the same room? Well, it's a long story, but there was a bunch of storms. Incidentally, sorry, I am. I know this sounds ridiculous. I'm chewing a vocal zone. Right. Okay. And I'm wearing a vocal zone t-shirt. I noticed that. But the reason is not for sheer free promotion for Vocal Zone. We've already figured out. We've messed this up because we're doing adverts for them that they're not paying for.

I live in Cornwall. There was a big storm that came through. Storm Chandra. Storm Chandra, yes, that's right. And it knocked out all the trains. So we're recording this on Wednesday morning. I couldn't get home yesterday because it was like, yeah, there are no trains because, you know, everything's washed away. So I stayed in an exciting travel lodge.

And now since I'm visiting. that London. Yeah. They said, well, come and do the show here. So, hello. And then, because I hadn't brought a change of T-shirts, because I was going to be at home. Yes.

So I came in, and I was very conscious, if you wear a T-shirt two days running, it's stinky and unpleasant. It's a bit. And then you turn up with a bag, and I said, what's that? You said, it's your part of the Vocal Zone package because they sent us a couple of boxes

and this happens to have an extra large vocals and T-shirt, which is black. So it's sort of the kind of thing you'd wear anyway, but maybe this is the only time. that you'll wear it. And then we started doing the thing and I had a slightly scratchy throat so I reached for my vocal zone.

So that's it. Vocal zone, you just got two minutes of free advertising once again. Yeah, and envision. Blimey. I mean, this isn't the very good marketing model. We've really messed this up. We absolutely have.

But when we're not messing things up and when we're actually, are you going to go home today, though? Is it all all right today? Well, it is. Yeah, I mean, I am going home. You are. When we finish, yes.

Have they repaired the track? I hope so. Okay. Because otherwise you'll have to sleep under the table. Anyway, when we're... Is the cupboard in your house not free anymore? No, I'm sure we can... I mean, it's been changed somewhat.

But anyway... Yes, you've got some films to review, I think. Yes. Have you changed my room in your house? Yeah, it has been changed a bit, yeah. But, you know, we could... Didn't ask me about that. No, we could accommodate you somewhere.

Okay. I felt like the sound of that at all. Yes, we have got an exciting array of films to review. We have primate, which is a killer chimpanzee movie. We have Nouvelle Vogue, which is the Richard Linklater film about the filming of Abu D'Souf, the French film, the title of which obviously translates as we're all out of souffle. And is this thing on with our special guests? Yes, the actor Will Arnett and the comedian, John Bishop. And what's interesting about the conversation there is that John is not in the film.

So he's just there to be the inspiration behind the film and Will Arnett, who takes the lead, he can explain everything. When we get to Will Arna and John Bishop talking about is this thing on. And reviews in take two, and all the usual kind of loveliness. Yes.

What else? Well, after the Killer Chimp movie, you're going to want a not-killer kangaroo movie, which is called Kangaroo. And I'm delighted to say there's a new Jason Statham film in cinema is called Shelter. Is it different to the others?

No. Is it exactly the same? Well, wait till the review. Okay. All right. As we started on this subject of throat health. Yes. Sophie Goldrick says,

Mark and Simon, I am an opera singer, currently a member of the English National Opera Chorus and St. Winifred School Choir, 1993. Are they the ones that recorded? There's no one quite like grandma. That's right.

But I think that's before, it's a long time before 1993. And member of the church since about 2019, so I think that makes me a short-term listener. I think 2019 is medium-term. Yeah. Because we're in 20-26 now, so I think if you've gone beyond five years. Yeah, you've given it a go.

Well done. I felt compelled to write in to dispel some problematic notions I've heard recently on the show pertaining to throat lozenges. Right. For the avoidance of doubt, nothing you eat or drink, lozenges included, touches your vocal cords in any way. Your larynx sits in your tongue. trachea above your lungs and your epiglottis, helpfully diverting everything that you eat and drink

into your esophagus and to your stomach. Were said lozenges to be in touch with your vocal cords, you'd be coughing very hard and possibly on your way to A&E. If you have a sore or swollen pharynx, the area at the back of the mouth, you may feel relief from said lozenges, sprays, and other tinctures, which is a word no one uses at all. But should do. And if you find any brand of lozenges, delicious, I encourage you to munch away gleefully. Alas, the only solution for a tired old voice is water and rest, which means no talking, something I certainly find challenging at the best of times. Love the show, Steve, and here's to rest and hydration.

So, if that's true, why is it that I was a bit croaky, and then I had a vocal zone? Yes. And now I'm not. I think it's, well, mine, you know, obviously this is not my area of space. And yet you talk about it. all the time. Yeah, because they definitely help. That's why. So I think

it's because your throat, when your throat is dry, you drink water, always a very good thing. But if you're talking like we are now, you can't be drinking at the same time, but you can have a lozenges in your mouth, which kind of melts slowly and

coats the throat. Okay. And also at the end of the day, I'm sure that what Sophie said is right. Yeah. But if Tom Jones says they help him, that's all I need No, he's not a doctor. Well, he's Dr. Love. Is he?

He is Doctor, that was very white. Anyway, no mind. A code query here from Donna, Vanguard Easter, lone eyewittery in Lavendon, Buckinghamshire, and calmly seated in perimenopausal pulpit. May I trouble you

for some clarity on the code, according to your very good selves, does speaking at normal volume during the trailers, count as a code violation. I rather enjoy the trailers for the most part and like to assign each one as I can as they go through a ooh, nah, or me to guide future viewing along with Mark's excellent reviews obviously. So when waiting for Mrs. Mescal and O'Connor to appear in the excellent The History of Sound yesterday at my local Odeon, I was very much put out by two folks behind me

talking and laughing at regular volume throughout the trailers, not even attempting a hushed tone. curious as to your thoughts and those of the wider church on speaking during trailers, I appreciate full silence may be unreasonable expectation, but perhaps we can agree on a hushed tone, all the standard sign-offs. I mean, a hushed tone is ideal, but if someone is, I don't, if someone is talking through a trailer, I don't think that's necessarily a problem. Particularly if it's a marvel. The only thing is, is this indicating the fact that you're going to feel quite happy to talk through the film?

Yeah, I mean, I think that's partly it. I think that when the trailers are on, you can probably converse but at a lower volume. I think if somebody behind you is talking full whack during the trailers, it gives you the impression that they might be the sort of person who might continue doing that, or might continue talking at a lower volume when the film is on, when they shouldn't be talking at all. I mean, I like watching trailers. No, I don't. I don't know why I just said that. But you definitely did say it.

I did say it. You said, I like trailers. But then, it's funny. I mean, if I'm in the cinema, no, I don't like trailers. I don't, I'm completely contradicting myself. If I'm in the cinema, and sometimes if there are trailers, I actually leave because I don't want the film spoiled for me. That was the case with Prometheus. But, yeah.

Do you like trailers or not? Okay, not sure. I don't think so. Here's one thing. I'm discombobulated because I'm not in Cornwall. I used to enjoy a trailer, but now that they can often contain... So much stuff. So much stuff, including the final scene.

Final scene. I think they're generally sort of rather badly controlled. This is just connected to that. But the Good Lady Saramacist are indoors, plus myself, were watching a new TV drama, which is called Steel, I think, and is very good and very engaging and quite fun. And I've noticed a lot of shows are doing this. At the end of episode one, they throw forward and show you some highlights coming up from episode two and episode three.

But, you know, including in this case, two of the characters kissing, like the cop and the main suspect, snogging. I don't want to know that. Why do I want to know that going into episode two? Stop it. Don't do that. It's like, you know, you have to fast forward through it. No, this is preposterous. The thing that really bothers me is that you can't play credits.

because it plays like the first three seconds of the credits then it immediately jumps forward to the next thing and nobody can grab the remote enough to say stop, nope, I want to play the credits because I want to know what that piece of whatever it was was. Yeah. Stop down with all of this sort of thing. Yeah.

But also don't throw ahead to, by all means, keep the flashback up because it might have been a while since you saw the last episode, but don't tell us what's coming up in the next episode because otherwise I might not want the next episode. But sometimes you get spoilers from the thumbnails. There'll be a thumbnail of episode 9 and there'll be somebody in it who you thought was dead.

The other thing is, when you look ahead, you know, like on Pluribus and other shows, it'll show you, you know, episode six, and then underneath it says, I mean, this is not Pluribus, but it would say after the devastating collapse of civilization in the last week, our heroes, what? I haven't got to that. So, anyway, just a little bit more attention. That's all we need. So just pay attention, I think. Do you like trailers?

Not really. Not really. Episode nine, the atom bomb. Yeah. We might have to return to this particular subject. Correspondence of Codeoamone.com, thank you very much indeed. Tell us about a movie that is out and interesting.

So New Valvaug, we just recently released, Richard reviewed Richard Linklater's Blue Moon and I confidently said, well, this is the one that's not getting award detention, the one that's going to get the award detention is New Vail Vag and now, of course, it turns out to be Blue Moon. So it is another of Richard Linklater's true story adaptations which span from me and Orson

Wales, Bernie, hitman, Blue Moon. These are all inspired by true stories, but obviously very fictional. So the title refers to, the New Val Vag is New Wave,

or as I've always said, the French New Vagnes. And it retells the story of the making of one of the most celebrated New Valvag film, Abu D'Soof, Breathless. So it is well recorded

that I prefer the Jim McBride, 1980s Hollywood version of Breathless with Richard Gehrin the series of increasingly ridiculous trousers. And that's all kind of really sort of, you know, over-saturated colours and lots of production. The 1960 original, the Godard, set in France,

obviously Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seaburg, very different affair, gritty, often handheld, black and white, non-linear jump cuts all over the place. So the whole, you know, very new Valvard. So Giamarbeck is narque French-Swiss critic-turned filmmaker Jean-Gauda, André Doulin and Zoe Deutsch R. Belmondo and Seabour, And the film includes train spotting style on-screen captions to tell you who everyone is.

Because absolutely everyone in the frame is someone. It's one of those kind of really weird things when there was just everyone was somebody. So the script was written in English, translated into French, linked later's first French-language film. It opens at the end of the 1950s. Goddard is working at Caillet du Cinema, which is the great revered film book. Bible. Is that right? Well, with some. And Claude Chabrelle is there, Francois Truffaut is there. And they're all becoming hit filmmakers. Truffaut's just done 400 blows. Goddard is desperate to make his own film, which he hasn't managed to do. So in the end, he agrees that there's an outline which Truffo has

written, which is inspired by a real life case that they've read about in the paper of Michelle Portailles, I think his name is, who's this criminal with an American girlfriend, stole a car, shot a cop, spent a few weeks on the run and was then turned in by his girlfriend. And so this is, okay, this is the outline of a movie. And you know there's that famous maxim that all you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun. Okay, I'll bear that in my... Yes. So that's the...

So this is kind of a proof of it. So Seaburg is kind of a rising star. She's just completely bonjour dearestest. But she thinks that Goddard doesn't know what he's doing. Because he's shooting guerrilla-style academy ratio. And the script is... Well, it's barely a script. They never really seem to know in advance what they're going to be shooting.

So I'm going to play you a clip. The clip obviously is in French. I'm going to tell you in advance what they're saying, so it makes sense. So Siebeck says, so this is our script. Could you possibly write down some of your lofty sentiments? And Goddard says, Gene, it's about a boy and a girl who use the same words but with different meanings. What is difficult and important is to advance into unknown lands, to be aware of danger, to take the risk, to be afraid. He'll either die or kill the girl.

And Seabberg says, can we decide that right now? Goddard says, we cannot. Seabberg says, well, we could, but you don't want to. And Goda says, disappointment's a temporary. Film lives forever. Okay. I bet it's in French. It's in French.

It should sound profound. Okay. So, that's our scenario. You could probably note some of their verbal sentiment? It's the story of a carson and a girl who employs the same word, but with the sense different. What is difficult and important, is to advance

in terra incoomunate, to be conscious of danger, to take risks, to have fear. So he will die, or he will be the future. We can't decide that, no?

We can't. We're, but you do not want to? The deception are temporary. The film, he, is eternal. The film It sounded great.

Well, yeah, it's just what French says. The chas is on the table. The sange is in the branch. A sange? La sange. Oh, I thought he was talking to Julian Assange. Julianne is in the tree. No.

It's the, it's the idea's odd thing, isn't it, about suria and su la table. The chas. He says, but it doesn't work, because if you go anywhere, you have to go there with a cat, a monkey, and the mouse. Otherwise, you haven't got anything to say.

Sulapont d'Avignon. Oni d'Adonso. I've been Sulapoint d'Avignon. And do you know the thing is it's not a bridge anymore. It only goes halfway out and then it stops. Yes. So it's Sulapir Davignon. That doesn't work though, doesn't.

It doesn't rhyme. Anyway, sorry, back to the Nouvellevargue. So everyone thinks it's going to be a disaster. Everyone thinks it's going to be a mess except for Goddard. He wraps after 23 days and many of those days. He only shoots for like five minutes and then goes off. Then he gets into the editing room arguing about jump cuts, cuts, And then the film opens and the rest is history.

It is Abu D'Suf, which we all know in advance. He's making the masterpieces. Now, look, I am no fan of Goddard. He did make some very, very influential films. He also made some very, very terrible films and said some very, very, very silly things. One of the things I like about New Velvark is that it seems to share my opinion of Godar, which is that he's really annoying and really, really full of himself.

And we solidly share his leading actresses feeling that he doesn't know what he's. he's doing. And in fact, actually, the film almost kind of implies that the success of Abu D'Souf in the end is more accidental than it is deliberate. I mean, it's like the chaos of it somehow out of that comes this film that everyone considers to be really important. I don't know whether you remember, but many years ago, there was a film by Michelle Hazanavisius, who for a long time he referred to as Michael having a Sid Vicious. Well, that's because it was a cheap gag. Yeah, and we've never been above that. So he made a movie called, or redoubtable, red du duble, or whatever the French pronunciation is, which was about Goddard and, Goddard again, as a filmmaker, as a really

irritating filmmaker. And I said at the time, the amount that you enjoy this film is probably inversely proportional to the amount that you revere Godar. And Goddard got really annoyed about the film. He called it a stupid, stupid idea. And as Novice's publicist, then put that on the post. Okay, that's funny. It was very, very good. So in the case of this, I mean, I really enjoyed it, and I really enjoyed it, not least because,

as with me and Orson Welles, which I was, that was the film that I really kind of fell in love with Zach Ephron, because I think it's a really well-made film. Richard Linklater is very good at period detail. He's very good at kind of evoking a time with characters that, you know, you know the famous stories of,

and yet he manages to avoid any chubby-hum moments, whatsoever. And somehow you do feel like he captures the visual flavor of the time. So watching New Velvark, as I said, despite not being a God-Ar fan, although obviously Buda Suf is a very influential film, what I really enjoyed about it is that it's not revering God-Ar, it's kind of playful, and it's kind of fun. And the fact that every person, like I said, every single person in that area is somebody of great significance in film culture becomes almost funny because it's like, You're just in a room and everyone is somebody. And I thought the performances were really good.

And I really enjoyed watching it. And I can't say that about all of Goddard's own films. Because I think it has a sense of humour that I think sometimes he didn't. When you were talking about advice and guns and things like that, it reminded me of, and I just checked it, Raymond Chandler. Oh, yeah. This is writing advice, as opposed to cinematic advice. This is 1950. And the quote is, when in doubt,

have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand. So if you're completely stuck, I mean, it's a problem if you're writing kids books, I suppose. But there's a link, I think. The other piece of advice there is if you produce a gun in Act 1, it has to be used in Act 3. Oh, yeah. But that's also true of like a fish hook or a biro or something. Have you seen my new Biro? Exactly. That's what it means, isn't it? It's like that no one does that in a movie unless they're about to die.

Absolutely. There's no such thing as being slightly. ill ever. He's feeling a little off-color. Right, well, he's not going to make it in the next reel. Absolutely correct. In a moment, Mark is going to be reviewing these films. Well, I'm going to move

on to review Primate, but we're also going to do Is This Thing On with our very, very special guests. Who are Will Arnett and John Bishop. Plus, we'll have the UK and US box office top ten, featuring recaps of everything that's out in the UK cinema, and of course, everyone's favourite, The Laughter Lift.

Both break out into a ripple of anticipatory applause. Or in this case, just Simon. That's the sound of one hand clapping. Carvana's so easy, just a click, and we've got ourselves a car. See? So many carts. That's a click-tastic inventory.

And check out the financing options. Payments to fit our budget. I mean, that's... Clickonomics 101. Delivery to our door? Just a hop, skip, and a click away. And bought. No better feeling than when everything just clicks.

Buy your car today on delivery fees may apply. On game day, pain can hit hard and fast, like the headache you get when your favorite team and your fantasy team both lose. When pain comes to play, call an audible with Advil plus acetaminophen and get long-lasting dual-action pain relief for up to eight hours. Tackle your tough pain two ways with Advil plus acetaminopin. Advil, the official pain relief partner of the NFL. Ask your pharmacist at this product's rate for you. Always read and follow the label. That's the sound of one-hand clapping is a line from Van Morrison's song, Enlightenment.

There are two kinds of people, people who like Van Morrison and people who've met Van Morrison. Well, I have met him, and... And... And I love his... I've forgiven him for being an idiot about COVID and lockdown, but his enlightenment song was good. Yeah, no, I'm not saying music isn't great. I once had one of the best afternoons of my life listening to Astral Weeks, while lying on the floor of Paul and Janice's house in Belfast

because I had a bad back and it was sublime. I've never met anyone who's had a good word to say about Van Morrison in person. Well, he was okay. You know, when he came in, this is a radio one, after he's before, so he comes in, this is for when he had, whenever God shines his light, that kind of period with the Cliff Richard thing. And he comes in and we recorded for about 25 minutes and we put out about three. What happened in the other 20?

He'd been to the wine bar, what can I say? It was after lunch. Was he a bit fruity? Well, no, it was just, there were long gaps. Oh, okay, fine. To the extent that, when we did another record of the week for Van Morris, which I think may actually have been for Enlightenment, so on breakfast we chose it as a record of the week.

It means play it every day, and it means that the record company have to provide the performer of the song to do a brief phone conversation at like six in the morning, which we then put out at like 8 o'clock on Monday morning. Okay. Which is a drag if you're a rock and roller, you know, because you don't want to be talking to anyone at 6 in the morning

unless you haven't got to bed. Exactly. So the record company failed to provide Van Morrison as a phone. There's a surprise. So what we do is my producer pretended to be Van Morrison, but not dangerously so. In other words, it obviously wasn't Van Morrison. So I would say, so Van, Van, tell us about this new song,

enlightenment. and there'd be a lot, like 10 seconds of silence, and this cockney voice would go, well, it's, you know, it's about seeing things in it. Oh, right, okay, thanks. You know, it was that. So it clearly wasn't Van Morrison. And for many years, genuinely, for many years after that, people would say to me, I heard that astonishing Van Morrison interview that you, I can't believe that he could be so, you know,

mumbly and jumbly. I didn't like to say that was my producer, Rick. So, anyway, that counts as a showbiz anecdote. It's very good. Just before the chart, a reminder about the bounty you can find as a Vanguard Easter over on Patreon, including our new feature five-question film club, in which we pick a film that's available to watch at home for free on a popular streaming service or free view something. And Mark answers what we think are five key questions about that film.

you then watch it and then we reconvened for a debrief and your reactions and so on and you've been looking at red shoes this week. Last week I did red shoes. Yeah, but you've been looking at red shoes. When I'm saying you, I'm talking about the listener. Oh, I see, fine. Sorry, I thought you were talking to me since we were in the same room. So further discussion on films about or starring stand-up comedians in one frame back.

Plus, questions to questions in which we answer the excellent question. What sound signals immediate danger to you? Okay, you can get take two on video So you can actually see us stare at the camera And you get access to our fortnightly new show Take Ultra which is live and groovy And at the end of the show we'll announce who's won a code For a year's free access to the ultra tier

How about that? It'll be for the best contribution to take one In other words, what you're listening to now And you can head to patreon.com slash COVID and mayo To sign up The emails as ever correspondence at cobotomero.com com, box office top 10, at 14, The History of Sound. Which I really liked, and it was very good that you got that email from somebody who had been to see it, because it was never going to set the box office on fire.

But I think it's really moving, and the thing that I love about it is that it tells this sort of story of an evolving romance through folk music. And the performances are great, and it is, of course, Paul Muscle and Josh O'Connor, who would be great if only they could get more work. Yeah. Because you never see them, do you from one day to the next, particularly, especially. He must be sitting at home waiting for their agents to call. I am still hoping that Paul Mascall comes back on the show, as I've mentioned before, so that we can play him back the clip. I like doing independent movies.

And I'll be happy doing only small independent films for the rest of my life. Q, a whole host of huge, wide screen, astonishingly big performance. Paul Mascall is enormous. So as History of Sand at 14. 13 is H's for Hawke. Big fan of H's for Hawke. I really like the understatement of it. I really like the relationship between the two central characters, which is somebody who is suffering bereavement and a, what's you call it,

a house-trained psychopath. Yes. And I think it's got a brilliant score by Emily Levinez-Ferouche. And it's really stuck with me. I love it. Kate says, your Mitchum correspondent here decided on the strength of the interview with Claire Floyd to go and see H's for Hawk over the weekend,

having read the book when it was published. only a few folk in, which was a shame, but it was classic film-fory, low-key Britishness, filmed beautifully and with a rich empathy for every character concerned, including the various gosshawks playing Mabel. Foie's portrayal of Helen is open, vulnerable, and is as close to the hollowed-out madness felt in the first period after grief that I think I've seen on film. For Helen, Mabel the Gosshawk is not so much a distraction as the only thing that's keeping her clinging on to experiencing being. being alive. She needs the bright but cold flame of the hawk's intense relationship with life and death. The shots of the gosshawk hunting are stunning, but so also is the tiny glimmer of what appears to be a potential for fun or even amusement as incredibly late in

the film The Two Play Catch. British films do not have to only exist to market heritage and history tourism. There must always be room for low-key explorations of what it is to be ourselves. In this case, it's experiencing that most traumatic, yet mundane in its ubiquity happening, the death of a parent. And if we get some astonishing footage of a feathered psychopath as well, I'll take the cathartic tears and try to remember to stick some tissues in my pocket. Much love to all fellow Helens, we'll get through it somehow. And that's Kate, which is C-A-I-T, and I have met Kate spell like that who say cat, cat or cod. So... It wasn't Cot O'Reardon?

Yes, but I've heard it. No, no, yes, I know. You say, Caitlin sometimes. Yes, exactly. So however you pronounce it, Cote, Kate, Kate, Cat, then that was you. I remember asking Catlin Moran once. Oh, is that how you pronounce it? She said, no, that's how I pronounce it, but I think it's wrong.

Okay. Peter Leonard, in Pizzo in Italy, further to your hawkish pedantry, please allow me to draw your attention to an item from the Times about how Helen MacDonald, author of Ages for Hawk, was apparently quite fastidious about getting the ornithological detail right in the film adaptation. In doing so, they even called out Hamnit. So as we know, because we've done it here. So the relevant quote has bits of what we already know with the final flourish. Hamlet has the wrong hawk, McDonald says firmly. This is the quote from the Times. It could have been

a goss hawk, but they chose a Harris hawk that wasn't in Britain until the 1960s. They're from America. A friend recently told me that Braveheart has a blackheaded gull in it, and they didn't nest inland in Scotland until the 1950s. So on the list of things that's wrong with Braveheart It's the wrong blackheaded girl. It's the wrong bird. They weren't even there. Although I have to say

in the enormous list of things that are wrong with Braveheart, they could have had an elephant and it honestly wouldn't have been the biggest elephant in the room. Very good. Called Jared. Thank you. He's not even the best elephant in the film. Number 10, here, number 8 in America's

returned to Silent Hill. Yeah, that wasn't a week of release press screen so I don't know, I haven't seen it, but it doesn't appear to have done thrillingly well. Mercy is at number nine here, and number one in America. I thought it was a stinker. It was an absolute stinker,

and it was funny because the reviews were embargoed until after we'd recorded, so I didn't know what anybody else had thought of it. I'd sat in a room with a bunch of people watching it, but we all had the three glasses on, so everyone was worrying too much about balancing those on their noses. And I came out,

and thought, well, that was just terrible and everybody must have just thought it was terrible, and I reviewed it here, so it was terrible. I read a review from somebody after we done the show who I quite like and respect, and they said, oh, it was good, you know. I said, oh, God, did I just completely misjudged it?

No, it's terrible. Absolutely rubbish. Colin Scott in Chesterfield, I recently saw Chris Pratt interviewed and he was talking about what an original concept it was, and if you hadn't seen Minority Report or searching and his follow-up missing,

you might have believed it, Even so it was actually quite a nice idea and some bits of it were nicely done. Chris Pratt is a pretty watchable star and there was an interesting unveiling of the story for a while. However, the writing was truly appalling. And I felt for Chris delivering some of the dialogue.

Yeah, let's all feel terribly sorry for him as he trousers another few mill. That's a good phrase to trouse or something. I think it's private eye because it's basically it's just someone getting paid. Yeah, it means pocketed, but you know, trousered. If you say trowsered, it implies that there's something I know, yeah. It's really, really seedy, isn't it?

And the AI that starts to fill and trust its gut was a particularly bizarre strand and the less said about the need for a big explosive action ending the better. So other than all that, it was quite good. So other than the fact that it's completely unoriginal, really terribly written. Other than that, it was fine. Number eight here, 17 over there is no other choice. I thought it was terrific. I thought it was really good.

I love the way it goes between being this kind of dark, black comedy to something which is really, really morbid and sort of about existential despair and manhood breaking down and then it's funny and then it's weird again. I thought it was terrific. Ricky in Edinburgh, the film was an entertaining and occasionally shocking black comedy about what a man has to do to keep his lovely family in their lovely home. We knew where this was approximately going from the setup, but when the first unfortunate event happened in quite a comic way,

we relaxed and thought, oh, okay, we're in that sort of movie. So the second unfortunate event came as quite a shock as we clearly weren't in that movie But even then Nothing prepared us for the gruesomeness Of the third unfortunate event In his review, Mark warned about the tonal shifts But the tonal shift around the third

Unfortunate event came right out of nowhere without warning Also the film is about half an hour too long But almost everything is these days, says Ricky The Good Lady Her indoors Has a great deal of house envy watching this So you know that you have definitely got to a certain age where you're looking at a wonderful film with the interesting stuff going on, but the only thing you're looking at is the wall unit.

The furniture, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Number seven is Saipan. It's nowhere in America. Paddy writes from Dublin. Greetings from Dublin. I'm just listening to The Take while nursing a good time post last night in Weilands, where some chances called The Gang of Three played a great show.

Paddy says, as an Irish, I thought I could write. in to provide some context for the film Saipan. Thank you. Like Mark, I'm not a football fan, but the row between Keene and McCarthy was unignorable in this country. Yes, apparently. So much so that my 86-year-old dad wanted to watch Saipan at the cinema, something he never does.

He loved it, aside for some moments that showed Roy Kean in a negative light. You see, he was and is firmly Team Roy. I have a brother who's very much Team Mick, and I well remember their heated arguments at the time. Indeed, everyone and their mother held strong opinions and the events continues to colour legacies and reputations for Keene McCarthy and the FIA, the FAA, beg you pardon. The film features a reenactment of an interview with Keene

that everyone in the country rushed home for, examining every word, pouring over Kean's body language and tone. My brother taped it for repeated dissection and ease of reference. I hadn't realised until Mark pointed it out that it's the same filmmakers as good vibrations. a film that's closer to my neck of the cultural woods and which I love. But I guess you can see that these movies are like cousins then, aren't they? Absolutely.

Very much cultural touch points. And I think they're great filmmakers. I think they've got a really populist touch, but they get the details right. And I'm big fans of them as a filmmaking duo. I think they're really, really good. Marty Supreme is at number six. Doing fantastically well. We should talk about nominations at some point, but we'll do it later on.

Zootropolis 2. is at number five. So this is now in its ninth week. Ninth week and it's at number five. That is a runaway success. And number four in America. Avatar, Fire and Ash, is at number four, number two in America. As we said, probably the thing with Avatar is that everybody really sort of saw it in the first couple of weekend, but it's still obviously hanging on in there. There was a good John Stewart joke. Did you see this? Because the Melania movie is opening, but it hasn't been, no one's offered to show it to me in advance. I'll review it next week. There was all these news stories about, there was, you know, the pre-bookings were like one person and blah, blah, blah, blah. And John Stewart said,

I think it was John Stewart said, you know, well done, Melania. You've now taken over from Avatar Farah and Ash in the you didn't need to make that stakes. Yes. My other favorite gag about it was apparently Malani is going to win the FIFA movie of the year prize. So, so well done. But I will review it next week. I will review it next week. Number three, number six over there, 28 years late. Excuse me. Vocal zonter? I'm going to use water.

You know neither. It's not going to make any difference because he's not going down your vocal cords. Yeah, I don't think it's my vocal cause. The problem is the throat and the water's done his trick. You don't think you should have a, what was the other one that you said for, known for their weediness? You said strepsels. Oh, yeah.

Strepsils. No one wants one. No, their we neediness. Yeah, that's sort of like, it lasts for about five. seconds. Bone Temple then is a number three. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Andy H.

From Kilmacombe. Dear Barn and Dance, Vanguard Easter and one time email it. Further to your previous correspondence, well-informed Durand-Durand detail spotting. Yes. I thought one point was worth briefly looking at further. The point was put forward that it would be very unlikely that Dr. Kelson would have a particularly... rare vinyl version of the wedding album

in his personal collection. Though it was not stated directly, I had assumed whilst watching the film that his collection was gathered while scrounging medical supplies from, quote, every cabinet in a 70-mile radius. So the odds of being able to build a great music collection after the event, rather than salvaging his own collection

from the times before, was pretty plausible. Yes. Just a minor point, but we'd be interested to know if I was alone in this assumption. I hadn't realized that that particular album was going to be an issue, but Andy's suggestion probably works because if Rafe has been taking drugs from every establishment that he can find. He's also been going past record stores and all the rest of it. So why shouldn't he help himself?

Precisely so. So I think, Andy, you're probably right. Loads of correspondence about Bone Temple. Thank you very much. Indeed. We'll do more of it, of course, correspondence at kermenabon.com. Hamnet is at number two And the hawk issue aside

There are things about Hamlet which are brilliant Not least of which is that I think Jesse Buckley is I mean it's It is an astonishing performance And I think that that's the way the awards are going to go now Because it really It really is

She dominates the screen She absolutely dominates the screen It's kind of weird about the Paul Meskell Best Supporting Actor nominations Because he's not in it Is he for the Oscar? But supporting actor is a weird category from to be in because it's like he's literally William Shakespeare. Mm-hmm.

In a film, I mean, anyway. So who's the leading actor in Hamnet then? Well, the bird, I imagine. That is certainly crazy. One area will be interesting to explore with Riz Ahmed when he comes in to talk about Hamlet, which is a complete way. What are the chances of those two things being in cinemas almost at the same time? So I think the issue is, is it really annoying that there's Hamlet and Hamlet around at the same time? Or does the raising of the profile of this particular story mean that people would quite like to see a retelling of the actual story with your actual Hamlet in there?

I don't know. What do you think? Having seen the film, I think it should raise the interest and create more of a buzz. Okay. I think. as long as people make sure they know which film they're going to see. So Riz Ahmed on the show very... Is Riz Ahmed next week?

Yes. I think that's right. And the Housemaid is it number one? Yeah, I just check this. I'm right. So on the BAFTA nominations, it's a supporting actor nomination for Paul Meskull. It's a lead actor.

Yeah. Surely. Yes, and it only makes no sense at all. Yeah. And the Housemaid is fine. I enjoyed it. It's ripe as anything. It has done much better than I expected it to do.

I mean, I really didn't predict that it would have. of this kind of, those kind of legs. What's next after the break unless you're Van Goddice in which case there isn't one? Well, you're going to be talking to our very special guest. Oh no, well, there'll be the laughter lift. Yes. Also, Will Arnett and John Bishop after this?

This is not a drill. For the first time in lipstick on the room history, a real housewife has entered the studio. And not just any housewife, Rachel Zoe, the fashion legend herself. Did we expect styling stories, glam, chaos, stories from the past decade and a full cat eye at all times? Yes. Did we expect her to open up about divorce, rediscovering herself, joining Housewives as a zero prep, and what it feels like to

finally feel like her again? No. It is vulnerable, iconic, hilarious, and one of our favorite conversations ever. The Real Housewives have officially entered the chat. Listen now. Okay, let's meet our guest today who are John Bishop and Will Arnett. Will, as you know, Canadian-American actor, 30 Rock, arrested development, Bojack Horseman, all of those things, plus Blades of Glory,

which is great fun. Hot Rod and semi-pro. John Bishop is John Bishop, one of our most successful stand-up comedians and how he got into comedy forms the basis for the plot of, is this thing on?

You'll hear my conversation with them both after this. It's a 15-buck cover. To get a drink. Hey. Yeah. How come she didn't have to pay $15? She signed up for the open mic.

I'm gonna shake it up tonight. So let's put your hands together for Alex Novak. I think I'm getting a divorce. What tipped me off was that I'm living in an apartment on my own. My wife and kids don't live there. That was probably the biggest clue. That's a clip from Is This Thing On? John Bishop, Will Arnett.

Welcome to the show. Thank you. Very nice to meet you. John, again, very nice to meet you, Will, for the first time. Obviously, we had to talk about football, first of all. Liverpool, Burnley, you've been outspoken in your views. Did you, were you guests? Who got the tickets?

Well, well, as it happened, I've got a table at Anfield. Anyway, I've got seats there that my dad was using with my cousin and my son. And then we, because there's a connection within the film to Liverpool, and Will knows people in the club and there's a big supporter anyway. We managed between us to... Between us and with the weight of Disney behind us and searchlights to get a couple of tickets, yeah.

Mickey Mouse phoned up and said, can we have some tickets? Did you enjoy the match, Will? First of all, I love being at Enfield. Yeah. That part, for me, it's so magical. And I've only been a fan for the last 10 years, So I'm much newer to it than John obviously was so connected to the club.

But I just find going to Anfield to be magical. If the question is, did I enjoy the match? If you looked at my face, you wouldn't think that I did. But it was exciting. It was an exciting game. And Liverpool had 32 shots, I think. And then they drew 1-1. So it's, you know, just by the result alone.

Yeah. Well, I was at Tottenham who lost at home to West Ham. so we're going to leave it there and concentrate on the film. John T. first, how did this part of your life end up a Hollywood story? Well, as people know, I've stumbled into comedy and I've been asked in interviews,

you know, how did you get into comedy? It's one of the things people always ask comedians and because the story's a unique story. I've told it and people are going, oh, that's good. And then you kind of move on. But I was at an event with a mutual friend of ours, Chris Dickey, who, and he was a film producer.

And Chris said, how did you get into comedy? I told him the story. He said that would be, it'd make a great film. But he was trying to find somebody who could tell the story, because I couldn't tell it. It was too close. It's not something I could write. And then he introduced me to Will eight years ago

on a barge in Amsterdam, which is the start of every story. And then Will said, can he have a go to it with his writing partner, Mark Schappel, and then it sort of just went on from there. And it's mad because it's eight years ago, but it almost accelerated in the last couple of years, obviously, because it's, you know,

we're talking about a film that was made this year. It was made, turned around and edited so quickly. So, Will, what's the point in that conversation where something sparks in your head and you go, oh, hang on? Well, I think that as I'm listening to the story, I was seeing the whole way of thinking this is incredible. as John was sort of, you know, peeling back all the different layers to it and, you know, splitting from his wife and then moving in on his own and dealing with the kids and then going and starting to do stand-up by mistake, essentially. And then talking about all the way it started to kind of open him up and change him and how he recognized it.

and his wife recognized the change in him and how that allowed for conversation to happen. That was, you know, I was struck by it initially. And then I remember going back at the time I was working in the South of France. I remember going back to work and just it really sort of, I'd find myself thinking about it. I think like this story and eventually reaching out to our friend Chris and saying, I think this has got to be a great film

and calling Mark Chaplin and saying, I think that we might have a shot here, I think, of telling this story. And why does your character do stand up? Why doesn't he go to therapy? Why doesn't he go juggling or singing in a band? Well, because, well, why does anybody do anything? You don't know what I mean? Because that was the part about this that really intrigued me,

which is that inspired the film, the true story of it, the idea of going and for the first time admitting what you're, you're going through in front of a room full of strangers. First time kind of saying it out loud, almost admitting it to himself in front of a room full of strangers, especially because it's a comment, in lieu of telling a joke saying, I think I'm getting a divorce,

it's actually a pretty funny, it's a pretty funny opener to a stand-up career, if you think about it. Yeah. And also, you're going to look at the fact like, like I didn't go to therapy because it wasn't my world,

doing that, you know, we're talking 25 years ago that this happened. And so that wasn't what I was going to do. But also, I'm a little bit like Alex Novak. I wasn't looking for it. I just couldn't understand where I was at. And then all of a sudden you find yourself on the stage looking at people and you just, your truth comes out. That's the thing about stand-up comedy.

There's no way to hide. And I think it's a vehicle for telling a story. You know, this isn't a film about stand-up comedy. this is a vehicle of a person trying to find their voice and as a vehicle, stand-up does that because you are constantly judged in stand-up. It's the most instant form of communication that there is. And that's why as a device, it's so great.

If you're a songwriter, you'll start the song and you'll finish the song and somewhere in between, you'll tell people how you're feeling. When you're a stand-up comedian, you finish your sentence and people laugh or they don't laugh. And then you say the next thing and that reveals something about you that you can't hide. My son does stand up, and we've gone and my wife have gone and supported him, you know, because you do.

And I think it's the most terrifying thing I've ever seen. I mean, obviously you react to it differently as a parent, but just to stand up on that stage, in front of 30, 20, 50 strangers and try and make them laugh and that judgment is instantaneous. Yeah, how long has he been doing it? Three or four years. You know, and he and he loves it. And I've done things on big stages at Hyde Park and Wembley and that's fine. Introducing a band is fine.

Making people laugh when their judgment is instantaneous seems terrifying. Well, it is. And as John says, it's either funny or it's not and they'll let you know. You know, so there's no, you either do it or you don't. So the scenes in the film will, where we see you stand up on stage. Yeah. Who are the crowd? What do they think they're saying?

Well, when we shot all the stuff at the comedy seller in New York, we obviously we used, you know, all background performers. But they weren't given any direction. They weren't told, they weren't given any context. And the only thing they were told was you're going to be in this comedy club, your patrons at a comedy club, and they were at the comedy cellar and just react however you want, like your patrons at a club.

And if you like it, laugh and if you don't do it. And so we never manipulated the audience reaction or any of the sound. What you see is what happened in the moment, which was great. Do you have a crash course in how to do it? Well, if such thing as possible. Yeah, he did. I went and I did stand up because I'm not a stand-up. And I always had a healthy respect for what stand-ups do.

I know a lot of stand-ups just because of what I do. And I have even more now. because I spent six weeks going up at the comedy seller almost every night, a few times the night, working on the material that we used in the film. So I would get introduced as Alex Novak and go out and do this material, and then during the day, sort of finesse it.

Because not only was I doing this stand-up and that in and of itself was scary and trying to go up there and just do it, made people laugh with or react with the material that we had. But I also had to track where Alex is and do all those different sets that, that helped track where he is emotionally through the film as well. The first time you actually step up on the stage that we see you and are you,

are you more nervous than doing the same with Laura Derno? Or is it, is it different. Is it scary? It's different. Yeah, it is scary. It's a very different scary.

You know, we shot all the comedy stuff first and that was, again, even though I'd been doing stand-up at that point for six weeks and trying it all out, I'm still trying to do it as a guy who's never done it before. So try to understand what, that is that first time that we shot and we shoot it all as one where I they follow me down the stairs and they get on the stage and the camera's right there but then of course we're doing all the

scenes with Laura you know there's there's so much there are so many scenes that are really vulnerable and emotional and those require a kind of a different gear if you will and yeah that was that was scary how good is he John well that was one that was the one thing that I thought felt I could contribute to about it within the script. You know, I'm not going to tell Bradley Cooper about how to film

an emotional scene or way to put a camera in, but I was, I was so fastidious on the fact that the stand-ups got to feel authentic. So in February,

when he was going up doing this run of gigs, I went over, and we ended up being on the same lineup. And when he was saying he's doing gigs, he's doing it, the comedy cellar,

which is a club that I do in New York, it's, I think, the best club in the world, the most famous club in the world, every comedian wants to do it there's pictures on the walls

of all the greats that have done it and what Will was doing was on a line-up of a paid punters they paid the $25 so they were getting professional comedians and then Will was going on and we gigged together and I could tell straight away

and the same within the comedy community he gained so much respect because people said he looks like someone who's going to be a good comedian and that's what you want you don't want the pot of stars does that mean? Because, well, you've seen it with your son. You'll get some people who walk on stage and they're nervous and then they just go, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they say all the

things that's in the head. They forget that they're in a room with people. They're not responding to the laughs or the ebbs or the flows. And some people walk on stage and go, oh, he looks like he's, he belongs there. And something's going to grow from that. And with your son, two or three years into it, it's brilliant that he loves it. And it's brilliant that he's doing it for the sake of doing it because people who are pure stand-ups, I think, are the ones that do it almost because they can't help it. They just have to do it. Being on stage, whether there's 20 people or 10,000, I can tell you, it's not as big a difference as people think. Does having a background will in comic acting, is that a good springboard for doing stand-up? Is it like the difference

between squash and Babington, which looked the same but actually completely different? You know, I think that's a great question. Yeah. I think it is. I think it definitely is, because I've sort of been comedy adjacent, if you will, or stand-up comedy-adjacent for a long time. Part of my job over the years has been to tell jokes in films or on television. So I think that what's similar is understanding is kind of reading the room, and that that's part of it, rhythm. What's a little bit different is that you do have that immediate feedback. and that you are sort of, it is a conversation with the audience. Like, you are sort of taking in, you are, you,

what I notice is I'd get on stage and I could tell what, you know, how to get into gear. What was cool was to, I remember one night we were doing, I was at the other room at the cellar, the one with the balcony up, you know, the, what is that, the black, pussycat, yeah. And I did a bunch of the stuff from the movie, from the set, from the sets from the movie. And it was a Saturday night. So the crowd was kind of rambunctious, and they were up for a good time. And so I did this set that was, you know, all about divorce and stuff.

And I could feel that they were like, okay, great, man. You know, just. And so we had a bunch of other sort of jokes and stuff that we talked about that was not appropriate for the movie. It was too funny for Alex at that stage, et cetera. So I took a moment. I finished the thing. I took a moment. And I just kind of went, screw it.

And I started doing this other material. And I wanted to see if I could get the crowd. And I did it. And I've understood in that moment. And when I came off the stage that day, I was just flying. I thought, I took him down here, and then I got him all the way back up. And that was great. But of course, when I was doing the stand-up for the film, rehearsing for the film,

I couldn't rely on my old, you know, we talked about this. My instinct is to want to go up there and kind of win the room. And Bradley said to me early on, he said, we're doing something different. Don't go out there and try to be you. You're going out there to be this guy who's never done it before. So I had to kind of fight a lot of my, for lack of a better term, comedy instincts, you know, in order to achieve what we're trying to achieve. You need to see in the next Bradley Cooper film, John.

Well, yeah, yeah. I mean, thanks for saying that, Simon, and I'll give you that 20 quid after. The movie is great. Is this thing on. Gentlemen, very good to have you both on the show. Thank you very much for talking to us. Thank you. Bradley Cooper, towards the end of the film,

appears indoors with a hat on. Yes. I thought of you. At that point, I thought, no, I had a lot of respect for him. You know, did a good interview for us back in the day. But I'm sorry, I can't really get over. That's my small hill that I'm going to die on. I did think of you when that happened.

I thought he's wearing a hat indoors, and he's probably called Johnny. I think that when, well, was talking about going on and having to be not very funny because it was someone, it's like, but you have to be very good. Like, like, apparently Les Dawson was a very good pianist. Yes, and that's how he could play. He could play badly, deliberately on purpose. And you have, my guess is you have to be instinctively funny to go on stage and gauge it right so that you're just a little bit funny, but not hilarious. Well, there's a really interesting comparison there,

which is that when Robert De Niro made King of Comedy, which I still think is the great De Niro Scorsese collaboration, he studied comedians in order to get the rhythms of their performance right. But the thing about that film is that in the end, you get to see Rupert Pupkin's act, okay? And it's not very good, but it's not very bad. It's exactly as he would be. It's okay, but no better than that.

and the performance of a comedian doing a lot that's okay but not very good is one of the things that is such genius about King of Comedy because it would have been easier for him just to be very funny. Or bomb completely. Or bomb completely. But he doesn't. He's absolutely in that sweet spot. So he does look like somebody who's been practicing that act but hasn't done it enough on stage because he hasn't. He's just kind of plagued with.

Incidentally, can I just say great. interview, when you brought up that Child Three does stand-up comedy, and you said it's one of the most terrifying things, I've told you this before, but I briefly did stand-up comedy when I was in Manchester, and I was doing it, I was like a musical thing, I had songs and, you know, entertainment and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And my act was very, very particular, and I did it in Manchester three or four times to complete crowds who were completely on board, and I got to think that I was brilliant. And then I went to Hull and did a gig in Hull at which they just thought, who is that guy? We've got absolutely no idea. We don't find any of this funny. And I got canned off

stage. Oh dear. Absolutely properly, somebody threw a plastic pint glass of beer at me. And that thing about, they'd actually spent the money on the beer. So they must have really wanted me to leave the stage. It was beer. It was definitely beer. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for raising the possibility that it wasn't, but I'm pretty sure it was beer. But it was that thing about, it's the most terrifying thing. Because there's not, if you're on stage with a band and everyone hates you, it's fine. But if you're, if it's just you, and there's nothing to hide behind and it is pantwettingly unpleasant. And if either of your parents had been there,

it would have been worse. It would have been absolutely done. Wow, wow. Okay, so onto the film. Quick recap, as you said, it is inspired by John Bishop's journey into comedy, although obviously the film itself doesn't, you know, it's in a different country and different characters.

So the story came to Will Annette, by a producer. He then worked in it with a co-wrote. writer Mark Chappell, developed over eight years, but then finally made in a hurry, directed by Bradley Cooper, who, as you pointed out, appears on screen wearing a hat indoors. So, Arnette is Alex's father and husband. He's in the process of splitting up with his wife, Tess, played by Laura Dern, played rather brilliantly by Laura Dern. Almost by accident, he finds himself on stage at an open mic because he goes to a pub, he has to pay to get in, somebody else, because he says,

why does she get him free? Well, she's doing open mic. So he gets up on stage, and he just starts telling his story about, I think I'm getting divorced. And it's tragic and dark, but people are laughing. And then he gets the bug. He starts to make waves in the stand-up world and make friends. And his act becomes ever more confessional, but he never tells Laura Dern's character. And she finds out because they're separated, she goes on a date with somebody else, and she goes to the club that he happens to be doing an open mic in. Okay. So the whole thing about this having a relationship with a true story is kind of, it's because it's such a bizarre story anyway, isn't it? The idea, and when the question is, why doesn't he do therapy? And John Bishop said,

well, that's, that's not my world. That's not what I was. But obviously what is happening is that the standing up on stage in front of a room of strangers and talking honestly about what's happening to you is a form of therapy. I mean, that is basically group therapy. You just happen to be doing it in a comedy club. Also, John Bishop has said that in his case, him doing that stand-up enabled him to start having a conversation that he couldn't have had before because he just wasn't somebody

who talked about any of that stuff and that's kind of the, you know, the arc of the film. That thing about having, the comedy gives you nowhere to hide and when you've got nowhere to hide, you start telling the truth because you've got nowhere else to go and incidentally anyone who's done therapy will know about that moment when you suddenly realize you have no option

but to say the actual true thing that you wouldn't want to say out loud because it's not very flattering to yourself. So, look, there are certain cinematic predecessors to this. There's a Bob Fossey film of Lenny with Dustin Hoffman, which is about Lenny Bruce and who did, you know, in the later stages of his career, was basically using his stand-up to vent about all the things,

the personal failures that he was bitter about. There's a film from 1989 called Punchline, which is Tom Hanks as a comedian, Sally Fields, as a housewife, who wants to become a comedian, he kind of helps her. And then there's that Judd Apatel film, which I keep forgetting about and then remembering it, which is funny people with Adam Sandler.

Do you remember that? And it's about a comedian who gets a terrible diagnosis and then tries to, you know, kind of fix his life. They're all sort of in the same ballpark. And it was interesting that Will Onet said, doing stand-up comedy, exactly as you say, the thing about the difficulty of doing it not very well. And I was thinking of De Niro then.

The thing about this film is it shouldn't work. It absolutely shouldn't work. It should be an indulgence. It should be something that doesn't make sense in the way in which they've told it because they've transformed the whole story and taken it somewhere else. And the miracle of it is it does.

And I think it does because, firstly, the performances are really great. I did believe in them. I believed in them as a couple who were having problems. I believed in the stand-up. And I think it was really interesting when John Bishop said that was the one thing that I felt, you know, I couldn't tell Bradley Cooper where to put a camera. I couldn't tell Bradley Cooper had to do an emotional scene, but I could insist that the stand-up actually seemed like stand-up.

And I really enjoyed it, much to my surprise, because having had a sort of thumbnail sketch of what it was going to be, I thought, well, this isn't going to work, it's just going to it. So I think the direction is unintrusive, and that's interesting, because if you think about, I didn't like Maestro very much. Maestro felt very mannered, very orchestrated, very showy. This is very loose-limbed. You know, it's very almost kind of... It's actually got a little bit of that kind of verity thing about it. And the cinematographer is Matthew Libertique, I think is it how you pronounce it, gives it kind of docket drama feel.

I like the characters, I believed in the characters, I believed in the stand-up, and I came out thinking, well, that was actually really, really good. And I confessed that I had gone in feeling deeply suspicious about how this story was... how it was all going to hang together and it does. Did you like it? Yes, I did.

And I said so to Will and to John because you do believe in the company. I mean, that's why it was so painful to watch because I have sat there. It's a very, very strange, stand-up comedy is very weird. Terrify. Well, the thing that John Bishop was saying

is you're getting reviewed in real time. That literally, they either laugh or they don't. There's a reason that I enjoyed doing radio because you can't see what people are thinking or hear what they're thinking. A bit later on down the line, maybe you do. No, it was charming

and you're right, Laura Dern was great. And actually, Bradley Cooper wearing a hat, he was, his entrance where he falls on a carton of oak milk. It's very funny. And it goes everywhere. And then he fails to clean it up. That weekend away that they have

they're full of, you know, some very strange people that they hang out with, but it was delightful. And because you knew that the heart of it was true, that John Bishop's wife said after that gig that she'd gone to by mistake, that was the person I fell in love with. Yeah.

You know, so you're thinking, okay, wow, that is a good story. And you can imagine anyone with access to a producer and a scriptwriter and cameraman will go, yeah, we could, we definitely could do that. but I can also imagine it going wrong. I can imagine a version of this film which is terrible. And I think that's the thing that impresses me about it is that it's actually very good, but I can imagine a version of it that was very bad.

Is this thing on? Is on. Once you've seen it, you can tell us about it. Correspondence at covenomero.com. And obviously, what they both said to me afterwards was that they bow down before the laugh-to-lifter-lift, because John Bishop might be one of the most successful comedians in the UK and well known across the world.

But the laughter lift is where he gets his instinct and his gags. I think he said it's one thing doing stand-up on stage. Yes. It's a different thing doing it in a lift. That is also true. He said it was wrong on so many levels. So let's try and bring that incredible spirit of comedy into this small lift. It's going to turn all confessional now.

It is. Here we go. Actually, the last of these jokes, it's a little bit loud. turn that down a bit. A little less music, a little less conversation, a little more action guaranteed. The last gag is just something from like a hundred years ago. Mark made a bit of a faux par last week. Yes, I was wandering through showbiz, North London, when a man asked me if I'd like to pet his cock a spaniel. In hindsight.

Sorry, hang on, let's just take a moment to enjoy that phrase. In hindsight, I definitely should have chosen the spaniel. I came home from greatest hits last night. I can't believe you did that, Judge. With some good news. Good news, the good lady ceramic says, tearing doors. I said, Jackie from work is having a baby. That's wonderful, said she.

I know they've been trying for ages. Do you know what it is? Of course I said, it's like a person, but a lot smaller. It doesn't do anything cry, eat or poo. We've had three of them. You must remember. Shirley, you can't be serious, and don't call me Shirley. That is an airplane, Doug.

Stand by. Mark, did you hear about the kerfuffle at the nunnery last week? I didn't hear about the kerfuffle at the laundry last week. Sister Henrietta was in the bath when there was a knock at the door. Yes, it's that joke. Who is it? she shouted. It's the blind man. Came a male voice.

Oh, come on, in dear, said Sister Henrietta. Hello, love it. He says, where do you want these blinds then? Yeah, the thing is that I actually know that joke. Yes, of course, and I knew that joke as well. So, what's it doing you? Well, yeah, why? Simon Port is he having a short week?

I don't know. He's not here. So maybe he's just put some B-list jokes in. Actually, not even B-list. Yeah, I heard that joke when I was at school. Along with where's the son? I can't. I can only apologise. Mark, hopefully you're going to pick things up a bit. What are we doing next?

Primeate. Oh, yeah, after this. Okay, time for a couple of wats-ons. Here we go. First of all, here's Claire. Hi, Simon and Mark. To celebrate the 100th birthday of John Schlesinger, we are organising a UK-wide retrospective of his work. It starts on the 6th of February at the Outhouse in Crutch End,

where we'll show Middardt Carboy, followed by a Q&A. The season will carry on until May and will go all over the UK, including the Glasgow Film Theatre. You can find out more on our website, Schlesinger-100.webflow.io. Okay, that was Claire Nicholas, co-curator of the UK-wide centenary celebration of John Schlesinger

running from the 6th of February to the end of May and here's another what's on. Long-time listener, comedian Stuart Laws here on March 6th at the Pleasance in London is a show called Stuart Laws as Michael Cain saying never for one hour. That is based on the scene in Batman McGins where Bruce Wayne says, You still haven't given up on me.

And then Michael Cain, as Alfred goes, Never. I'm obsessed with that line, And so I got Nish Kumar in to play Christopher Nolan, and it's a comedy show of us trying to do that. It's absolutely unhinged. And if that sounds like your sort of thing, it probably is. If it doesn't, I don't think it is. And if it doesn't, I don't think, okay, very good.

Anyway, that does sound very good. Stuart Laws is Michael Kane saying never for one hour, is at the Pleasance in London on Friday, March the 6th. So there's just one performance. Very good. But it does sound very good. Michael Cain saying never for one hour at the Pleasance Their tickets are at

www.com or at the Pleasance website It's a nice place, the Pleasants actually Yeah, it is. Okay, if there is something that's cinematic or cinematic adjacent, I mean, Stuart was pushing his luck there, I think, to be perfectly honest. So we'll go with it.

Then send a voice note to correspondence at Cobraemon.com. Okay, let's get the killer chimp in. Yeah, primate. So this is Creature Fitch, A Animal Rampage, a horror movie from, I think it's Johannes Roberts. I think that would be how you pronounce it.

British filmmaker whose credits include Storage 24, Strangers Pray at Night, Resident Evil, Welcome to Raccoon City, also did second unit on First Omen. So a mixed CV. On this, shares writing credits with Ernest Riera.

So it's basically a killer chimpanzee movie. So if you think of something like, Actually, I was thinking of George Romero's monkey shines, but a chimpanzee isn't a monkey, it's an ape. But, you know, we're into it. Anyway, so we open in Hawaii, a vet goes to see a chimpanzee that's in a cage to give him some medication because the chimpanzee isn't well. And in the opening moments of the film, the chimpanzee removes the vet's face. Okay. Yeah, so that's the opening gambit. We then go back 36 hours earlier, okay?

We find same chimpanzee, Ben, living in this glamorous, glassy house. I mean, this would be one of the ones in which you go there and you get house envy. Okay. Which is kind of on the edge of a cliff with an infinity pool that goes up to the edge of a cliff. Nice. Very, very remote and, you know, absolutely sort of amazing. And so Ben lives there with a human family. He's been raised by Adam, who is this celebrated author, played by Tricotzer,

who won the supporting actor Bafda and Oscar for his role in Coda a few years. Okay. So he has taught Ben sign language to understand sign language and to communicate using one of those touch pads that you know you press a button and it says happy or you press a button and it says sad or whatever it is. So the chimpanzee has sort of become part of the human pack. Adam has a daughter, Erin who lives at home and another daughter who has been away for too long but he's coming back home with her friends and a friend that she's picked up on the way that he doesn't know it is coming. She is Lucy.

She is played by Johnny Sequoia. Here is a clip. I think this is a clip from the trailer. Have a listen. There's someone I want you to meet. This is Ben. My hand? He wants to shake my hand.

Hi, Ben. Our mom rescued him. And now he's part of our family. Ben, happy. He's kind of cute. Ben? Did something bite him? There's something wrong with Ben.

Yeah, there is something wrong with Ben. I think we've got that impression. He has indeed been bitten. I think it's a mongoose, but it's whatever it is, it's given him ring. The mongoose has attacked Ben? Yeah, and then Ben has killed the mongoose. Is it, okay, is it the right mongoose for this period? I've got no one.

Or was it? Maybe an incorrect mongoose. No, it's a modern, it's a modern day film, but it's a contemporary mongoose. I think it's a mongoose. I don't know, because when you see it, it's kind of mangled on the floor. Anyway, we are told at the beginning of the film, right, that rabies induces hydrophobia. You know this. I always remember this from school playgrounds, which causes sufferers to be driven insane by water, okay? And a large part of the film plays out in that

infinity pool that I mentioned, in which they realize that the only place that Ben can't attack anyone is in the pool because Ben is frightened of water. So it's like the inverse of jaws. You know, in jaws, whatever you do, don't go in the water. In the case of this, whatever you do, don't get out of the swimming pool. The film is rated 18 for, quote, strong bloody violence, injury detail, takes great relish in kind of old-fashioned dismemberment and gore. The BBFC, you may feel some of this is a plot spoiler, but I don't think it is. I'm just because somebody said when we were talking about Bone Temple, you should have forewarned us, okay? So, the BBCC description, jaw is ripped off in a sequence of sustained gory violence, bloody bite and claw attacks,

bloody stabbings and bludgeoning, part of a scalp, repeated pound, anyway, it's the, it's the full length of the counter. It helps that the action is old school physical. So it's a suit worn by Miguel Torres Umba, whose movements are a big part of actually what makes the horror work. And it's physical effects, its physical effects over CG. So it is, it is very much. I mean, I saw an interview with the director in which he was referring back to films from the 1980s, like The Nightmare on Elm Street films, the, you know, Freddie, he says basically it's Freddie Kruger or Michael Myers or Jason Voorhe's butt as a chimpanzee, which I think is a nice way of sort of summing the whole thing up. He also mentioned there's a new story which I

completely forgot about, of Travis the chimpanzee, which apparently was quite a big news story about a chimpanzee that was raised to live in a human home and then turned and became violent. And the director said, yeah, I've always thought it was the most terrifying thing because I think finally the whole idea of chimpanzee is terrifying. So most of this apparently shot in London, the designer is Simon Bowles. Simon Bowles is a designer who I know and is a great designer and actually makes those interiors of that house look absolutely amazing. It appears to be doing well at the box office and I'll tell you what. I sat there in the screening room with a bunch of people who said, what is this? You know, it's just like the poster

and he's got a monkey on it. It's 89 minutes long, right? It starts, face ripping. Then it goes back 36 hours and then it starts again. And for 89 minutes, it does exactly what it says on the tin. It moves like, it moves like a chimpanzee on steroids. It's properly grisly in a way that I liked very much. It is 18 rated. If anyone's listening and you're going to be in any way offended by gore, then don't go and see it. But it's a good Friday night, mad, killer chimpanzee movie, which we haven't had one of for quite a long time.

In fact, I can't remember last week's. And I enjoyed it enormously. And that is the end of take one. This has been a Sony music entertainment production. This week's team was Jen, Eric, Josh, Heather and Dom. The redacted was Simon Paul, and if you're not following the pod already, please do so wherever you get your podcast.

Don't forget, Patreon, there's so much good stuff, and it's hilarious over there. Mark, what is your film of the week? Well, three very good films that we've reviewed. Nouveau Vogue, which I really, really liked. Primate, which I really really like. But I'm going to go for is this thing on, not just because you did the interview,

but also because I just didn't think it was going to work, and then it did. The winner of a year's ultra-Vanguard Eastern membership, whether you want it or not, is Sophie Goldrick, who is the current member of the English National Opera Chorus, who wrote to us about the pharynx and the lozenges. And explained that we're talking rubbish about vocals.

I think we're talking rubbish if what you're saying is that this stuff in any way touches your vocal cords, which it doesn't. But it does lubricate the throat because Tom Jones told me. He's a professor of medicine, as you know. Thank you very much indeed for listening. Take two. We'll be along very shortly. In fact, it's there already.