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

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

This month, Emma and Steve discuss Kenneth Brannagh's turn as Boris Johnson in This England. This drama covers the opening weeks of the Covid crisis and the government's response.  They also talk briefly about Triggered - Emma's play, which will be showing in London in November. Tickets here: https://www.whitebeartheatre.co.uk/whatson/Triggered

This month (and a bit - sorry about the delay!) Steve and Emma are joined by Professor Marc Stears of the UCL Policy Lab. The writer of Sherwood - James Graham, who regular listeners will be familiar - is a visiting professor at the Lab so Marc came to tell us why and give his thoughts on this fascinating and engrossing drama about the long tail of the miner's strike. 

This month Emma and Steve look at nuclear paranoia(?) thriller Edge of Darkness. This classic six-part drama largely holds up well - even if it was baffling in parts both then and now. 

This month, prompted by events in Ukraine, Emma and Steve watched Katyń - the 2007 Polish film about the massacre in the Katyń Forest. Heartbreaking and bleak this film depicts strong violence and touches on extremely difficult topics. It also looks at the horrors of war crimes and the distortion of truth in propaganda. To donate to the Red Cross appeal for Ukrainian relief please go here. To see details of, and buy tickets for, Emma's play Triggered, please go here. 

This month, Emma and Steve watched the 1963 classic The Manchurian Candidate - and loved it!  The superb cast, tight script and conspiracy heavy, but ironic plot have so much to say to a modern audience. 

This month, Steve and Emma watched popular Netflix comedy Don't Look Up. Starring Leonardo Di Caprio and Jennifer Lawrence, this obvious climate change allegory asks why we aren't acting against the obvious.  But is it asking the right questions and/or challenging the right people? 

This month, Emma and Steve look at G.B.H. Alan Bleasdale's seven-part fictional account of a city council infiltrated by a Trotskyist group and the man who stands up to them. What starts as a political drama descends into conspiracy theory. But it still has a lot to say about the debates the left are still having with itself today. 

The Founder is based on the true story of how McDonalds became the behemoth it is today. It focuses not on the McDonald brothers - who invented the Speed-E system that revolutionised 'fast food' but on Ray Kroc - the man who franchised the idea to millions.  Released in 2016, this film encapsulates the tensions between Main Street and Wall Street - which was a dominant political narrative of that year's election