Kermode & Mayo’s Take

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.



Simon Mayo is back behind the mic this week, and the Redactor is back in the shadows, just where Mayo likes him to stay. It’s a bumper week with four reviews in today’s Take 1. In the superhero blockbuster corner we’ve got Clayface, a body-horror thriller starring Tom Rhys Harries in an origin story for the DC villain, and at the arthouse end of things we’ve got Fatherland, Paweł Pawlikowski’s post-war European drama starring Sandra Hüller. Plus, a documentary with Jeanie Findlay’s grassroots environmental exposé All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea. And last but not least, coming at you from the afterlife, we have Ghosts: The Possession of Button House. Which brings us to this week’s guests…



It’s Jim Howick and Laurence Rickard, AKA Ghosts’ Pat Butcher and Robin The Caveman (not forgetting the headless Humphrey Bone). The stars and co-creators unpack the beloved BBC sitcom’s big-screen adventure with Simon, and Mark will be reviewing it too.



All that plus our weekly Box Office Top 10 rundown, the humour-graveyard that is The Laughter Lift, and your top correspondence examined by The Good Doctors.



You can contact the show by emailing correspondence@kermodeandmayo.com or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo.



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: podcastadsales@sonymusic.com



Our Christmas Movie Spectacular is back! It’s in Bristol this year on Sunday 6th December. Don’t miss it!



Here’s the link for tickets:

https://www.fane.co.uk/kermode-and-mayo



What’s on:



The Big Scream

22-24 October 2026,

Bristol Megascreen

https://www.forbiddenworldsfilmfestival.co.uk/big-scream-2026



Deal Film Festival

23-26 October 2026

Deal, Kent

https://www.dealfilmfestival.org/



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Home Movie Day 2026

24 October @ 10:30

https://cinemamuseum.org.uk/scheduled/home-movie-day-2026/



Mystery screening at Emmanuel Church in Newport on Saturday 24th October:

https://www.emmanuel-newport.org.uk/

Timecodes:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:09:11 All Rivers Spill Their Story to the Sea

00:17:06 Box Office Top Ten

00:29:08 Jim Howick & Laurence Rickard Interview

00:44:36 Ghosts review

00:49:48 Laughter Lift

00:54:20 Fatherland review

01:03:51 Clayface review
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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.



With Simon Mayo off on the Marrakech Express, Simon Poole, AKA The Redactor is stepping into the breach to host the Take this week. After 15 long years his moment in the limelight has finally come, and by God is he milking it for all it’s worth. How will he measure up to Mayo? There’s only one way to find out…



Simon Poole also interviews our special guests this week: Josh Brolin and Austin Abrams. They talk Whalefall, a new survival drama adapted from Daniel Kraus’s acclaimed novel about—yes—accidentally falling inside a whale. Come on, we’ve all done it. They discuss the film’s stomach-churning underwater peril, plus we hear some on-set anecdotes about Josh’s literally churning stomach whilst filming No Country For Old Men. And, of course, Simon couldn’t let the interview go by without a question or two about The Goonies…



We’ll get Mark’s verdict on Whalefall too, alongside two more new releases: Forgotten Island, an animated adventure about lifelong friendship and unquiet spirits, and Street Fighter, which brings the iconic video game franchise back to the big screen.



Plus, we’ll take our customary spin through the Box Office Top 10, sample a healthy serving of your correspondence, and collapse with pure hilarity once again in the Laughter Lift. Will Simon Poole hand back the keys when Mayo returns? Only time will tell. Thanks for listening to another top Take.



You can contact the show by emailing correspondence@kermodeandmayo.com or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo.



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: podcastadsales@sonymusic.com



EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!



Our Christmas Movie Spectacular is back! It’s in Bristol this year on Sunday 6th December. Don’t miss it!



Here’s the link for tickets:

https://www.fane.co.uk/kermode-and-mayo

Timecodes:



Forgotten Island review 00:12:09

Box Office Top Ten 00:18:36

Josh Brolin and Austin Abrams interview 00:39:10

Whalefall review 00:53:46

Laughter Lift 01:01:28

Street Fighter review 01:04:06
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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.



Paul Greengrass is our special guest this week, and he’s talking to Simon about The Uprising—his new medieval thriller set at the time of the peasants revolt. It stars Andrew Garfield as ‘Ploughman’, who’s violent rebuttal to one tax collection too many provides the spark for the historic revolution, alongside Wat Tyler (Cosmo Jarvis) and John Ball (Jamie Bell). Paul chats to Simon about the film’s political echoes today and more.



Mark reviews it too, plus two more enticing titles coming up on the big and small screen. First up it’s The Social Reckoning, a companion piece to The Social Network from last week’s guest Aaron Sorkin, tackling the Facebook Files scandal. Then there’s Mike Flanagan’s series adaptation of Carrie, which translates Stephen King’s classic into the modern day.



Plus we’ll get the Good Doctors’ usual rundown through the Box Office Top 10, hear a delightful smattering of your correspondence, and all groan through the laughter lift together. Thanks for listening to another top Take.



You can contact the show by emailing correspondence@kermodeandmayo.com or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo.



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: podcastadsales@sonymusic.com



EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!



Our Christmas Movie Spectacular is back! It’s in Bristol this year on Sunday 6th December. Don’t miss it!



Here’s the link for tickets:

https://www.fane.co.uk/kermode-and-mayo

Timecodes:



00:00:00 Introduction

00:09:05 The Social Reckoning

00:24:37 Box Office Top Ten

00:38:09 Paul Greengrass interview

00:51:10 The Uprising review

01:03:01 Laughter Lift

01:06:43 Carrie review
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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.



Three more big screen big hitters are getting the Take treatment this week. First up, the British boarding school answer to Booksmart, Extra Geography, which follows the offbeat romantic quest of two Oxbridge hopefuls with an unlikely love interest. Next up, Verity: an Anne Hathaway led horror with a dash of the erotic thriller. And last but not least, we’ll get the Good Doctors’ verdict on Tom Cruise’s latest and quite possibly maddest movie yet, Digger.



Our special guest is Oscar-winning writer and director Aaron Sorkin, who chats to Simon about his new film The Social Reckoning, out next week. In this companion piece to The Social Network, he revisits the theme of social media with a focus on The Facebook Files, the expose on the link between facebook’s algorithm and political radicalisation in the run up to the Capitol Riots of 2021. It’s a meaty conversation with one of our greatest living screenwriters, not to be missed.



Plus the box office top 10, and top tips from your correspondence about how to beat bladder-bursting movie runtimes and more in another top-drawer Take.



You can contact the show by emailing correspondence@kermodeandmayo.com or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo.



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: podcastadsales@sonymusic.com



EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!



Our Christmas Movie Spectacular is back! It’s in Bristol this year on Sunday 6th December. Don’t miss it!



Here’s the link for tickets:

https://www.fane.co.uk/kermode-and-mayo

Timecodes:



00:09:38 Extra Geography review

00:17:07 Box office top ten

00:29:07 Aaron Sorkin interview

00:46:31 Verity review

00:55:14 Laughter Lift

01:00:21 Digger review
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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.



George MacKay is our special guest this week, and he’s in full dashing Austenian gentleman mode to tell Simon all about Sense and Sensibility. He plays Edward Ferrars, the handsome and thoroughly upstanding chap who catches the eye of Daisy Edgar-Jones’ Elinor Dashwood. He talks about bringing this Austen classic up to date, three decades on from Ang Lee’s classic screen version starring Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant.



Mark reviews the film, plus another three big movies hitting cinema screens this week. There’s Heart of the Beast, a survival thriller starring Brad Pitt as an ex-special forces soldier living on society’s inhospitable margins alongside his ex-service dog. Plus we’ll finally get Mark’s verdict on Her Private Hell, the latest neon-soaked feature from recent Take guest Nicolas Winding Refn. Last but certainly not least, Boorman and the Devil - a documentary about the making of the colossally unsuccessful sequel Exorcist II: The Heretic. Surely this one is Kermode catnip.



Plus the weekly joy (and/or pain) of the Laughter Lift, and of your consistently excellent correspondence. Keep it coming!



You can contact the show by emailing correspondence@kermodeandmayo.com or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo.



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: podcastadsales@sonymusic.com



EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!



Our Christmas Movie Spectacular is back! It’s in Bristol this year on Sunday 6th December. Don’t miss it!



Here’s the link for tickets:

https://www.fane.co.uk/kermode-and-mayo

Timecodes:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:10:15 Her Private Hell review

00:19:29 Box Office Top Ten

00:31:46 George McKay interview

00:47:24 Sense and Sensibility review

00:56:40 Laughter Lift

00:59:20 Boorman and the Devil review

01:08:29 Heart of the Beast review
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices