Kermodeandmayo

Kermode & Mayo is the official YouTube channel for Kermode & Mayo's Film Review, which airs on BBC Radio 5 Live on Friday afternoons between 2pm and 4pm, hosted by Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo.

About
Having previously worked together on Radio 1 during the mid-1990s, the show in its current form initially began in 2001 as a short review segment during Mayo's Friday afternoon show, where Kermode would review the latest films, round up that week's top ten at the UK box office, interview a guest and interact with the audience who call into the show - and the format has remained more or less the same, and the only real difference is listeners are more likely to tweet Kermode or e-mail the show rather than call in.

Over its run Wittertainment, as the hosts have dubebd it, has gained a large, dedicated following which has made it the second-most popular podcast on Radio 5 (after The Archers) and fourth most-popular overall of all the shows produced by BBC Radio, notching up over 50m downloads from the BBC website as of October 2014.

Awards
Sony Radio Academy Awards Speech Award (2009)

British Podcast Awards Listener's Choice Award (2017)

Mark Kermode
Mark Kermode (July 2, 1963) is a highly-regarded British film critic, writer and television presenter.

Born in Barnet, he attended the same school as Harry Potter actor Jason Isaacs, who is often referenced during the show (as well the basis of a well-hidden anagram in a 2015 Den of Geek interview) and later graduated from the University of Manchester in 1991 with a PhD in English, writing a thesis on horror fiction.

Kermode's career as a film critic initially began in print journalism, writing for City Life in Manchester before moving to London to write for Time Out and NME, and later writing for magazines such as Fangoria, Vox and Empire, as well as the Independent newspaper. Soon afterwards, in 1993, he began his on air career on radio, hosting the Cult Film Corner segment on Mark Radcliffe's Thursday night Graveyard Shift for BBC Radio 1, and in 1994 he was first paired with Simon Mayo on Mayo's mid-morning show which was initially a one-off trial that eventually lasted for five years.

Kermode has also been a regular face on British television since the 1990s, most notably presenting documentaries on films as diverse as The Exorcist, A Clockwork Orange, The Wicker Man, Blade Runner and The French Connection for Channel 4, hosting Film4's Extreme Cinema strand, regular appearances on Newsnight Review on BBC Two, and co-hosting The Culture Show on BBC Two - where he hosted The Kermode Awards, where he gave awards to people overlooked by that year's Academy Awards.

As a writer Kermode has a weekly column in The Observer since 2009 and regularly contributes to Sight & Sound magazine, while also writing several books: It's Only A Movie, a 2010 autobiography "inspired by real events"; The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex, released in 2011, where he is highly critical about various aspects of modern cinema-going; and Hatchet Job: Love Movies, Hate Critics, a 2013 book where he examines the need for film critics in a world of ever-increasing numbers of bloggers and vloggers.

Quotes
As a critic, Kermode has become well-known for his scathing put-downs of bad films, known by fans as "Kermodean rants", for example...
 * On Pirates of the Carribbean: At World's End
 * "If you pay money to go and see Pirates of the Caribbean it's your own fault and you're bringing down the collapse of western civilisation."
 * On The Deer Hunter
 * "'The Deer Hunter' is one of the worst films ever made and a testament to the fact that, if allowed to do whatever they want, filmmakers will take their cameras and crawl up their own backsides."
 * On Sex and the City 2
 * "It is consumerist pornography. It is an orgy of dripping wealth than made me want to be sick."
 * On Exorcist II: The Heretic
 * Clearly the worst film ever made, a totally irredeemable pile of stinking celluloid donkey droppings with nothing to be said in its favor . . . except that the mad-as-nuts Ennio Morricone soundtrack is actually pretty terrific.
 * On Bride Wars
 * (I)f Bride Wars isn't in my top 10 worst films of the year, if there are 10 films worse than Bride Wars this year, I quit. Every now and then you have to make a stand and this is it. If there are 10 films worse than Bride Wars this year, I quit.
 * On Entourage
 * "This just goes, 'Hey, Hollywood lifestyle, it’s all vacuous and it’s about money and it’s about sexism and isn’t that great! These guys are loathsome, hooray! These guys, all they care about it cars, hooray! These guys, these treat all the women around them as property, hooray!'"
 * "What you have is, a comedy with no jokes, you have satire with no satire, essentially it’s just like The Generation Game with a conveyor belt of lust, greed, avarice, vice, just being wheeled in front of you and going, 'There, that’s great, isn’t it?'"
 * "Compared to this, Sex and the City 2 is a call to arms for the dispossessed masses of the world"
 * "In terms of gender politics, The Human Centipede is more sensitive"

Awards
Sony Radio Academy Awards

Best Specialist Contributor of the Year (2010)

Trivia

 * Kermode is married to Linda Ruth Williams, and the pair have two children
 * Kermode has often said that, in his opinion, The Exorcist is one of the greatest films ever made
 * A notable incident happened when Kermode was interviewing director Werner Herzog in Los Angeles for The Culture Show when Herzog was shot with an air rifle - afterwards Herzog quipped that "It was not a significant bullet."
 * Kermode is the founder and double bass player of skiffle quartet The Dodge Brothers

Simon Mayo
Simon Mayo (September 21, 1958) is a much-appreciated radio DJ who has been a fixture on the British airwaves for four decades.

Having begun in radio assisting his mother, who worked part-time in a radio studio, Mayo had wanted to work as a studio manager - but he failed the hearing test due to a frequency deficiency in his left ear, which led to him deciding to have a career as a presenter. Having got his start on Southlands Hospital Radio, in 1981 Mayo got his start with BBC Radio when he joined BBC Radio Nottingham, a station where he remained for five years, and during his time at Radio Nottingham he developed a format known as Globe Phone which he and co-creator Johnny Beerling pitched to Radio 1, which led to Mayo being offered a job, and he began working for the station in 1986.

Having become established on the station, first with a Saturday evening slot and later with the weekday evening show, in 1988 Mayo became the host of the Radio 1 Breakfast Show - the most prestigious slot on the station - which he hosted for five years, and during this time Mayo, like other Radio 1 hosts at the time, was added to the presenter roster for the weekly music show Top of the Pops.

Upon leaving the breakfast show in 1993, Mayo moved to the mid-morning slot, where he began his partnership with Kermode. Having remained in that slot for eight years, Mayo decided to leave Radio 1 in 2001, moving to Radio Five Live to host the afternoon programme.

When Radio Five Live moved to MediaCityUK complex Salford in 2010, Mayo switched to Radio 2 where he hosts Simon Mayo Drivetime on weekdays between 5-7pm - although he travels north to continue his show with Kermode every Friday.

Awards
Sony Radio Academy Awards Best Music Programme (for Simon Mayo Drivetime, 2011)

Trivia

 * Mayo is married to Hilary bird, and the pair have three children
 * Mayo was on air as the 9/11 attacks happened, broadcasting updates live as events unfolded
 * In 1999, Mayo broke a world record by broadcasting for 37 hours in aid of Comic relief - a record he held for twelve years