Episodes
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
Supersub Sanjeev is back again this week, donning his Take merchandise—and he’s not the only special guest we’ve got for you. Bob Odenkirk—star of ‘Breaking Bad’, ‘Better Call Saul’, ‘Nobody’...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
Simon is off on his holibobs this week, but fortunately the excellent Sanjeev Bhaskar is in town to sub in, and he does an excellent job if we may say so. He takes up the baton to interview t...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
‘Alien: Earth’ is landing on the small screen on 13th August in the first TV outing for the much-loved and multi-sequelled Alien franchise—and we’re bringing you a special bonus drop to celeb...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
‘Naked Gun’ is out this week, where Liam Neeson finally embraces his meme-status by playing parody cop Frank Drebin Jr.--son of Leslie Nielsen’s hero of the 1988 original. ...Is it naff thoug...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
Could we have found the film of the year already? ‘Bring Her Back’ looks like it’s got a fighting chance. Mark reviews this brilliantly unsettling new horror from The Philippou brothers, who ...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
Our guest this week is Harry Melling—all grown up after first hitting the big screen as Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films. He’s here to chat about the latest in a hit parade of pleasin...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
The wonderful Mark Gatiss is our guest this week. He joins Simon and Mark to talk ‘Bookish’—his new crime comedy passion project that sees him play a bookseller-turned-detective in postwar Lo...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
Our very special guest this week is a body horror legend; director of ‘The Fly’, ‘Videodrome’, ‘Crash’ and many more genre classics... the one and only David Cronenberg. He talks to Mark abou...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
‘F1’, or ffffwan, as nobody is calling it—is racing onto cinema screens this week, so listen up for Mark’s verdict on this high-speed blockbuster. And we’ve got a review of ‘M3GAN 2.0’—the fi...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
It’s not quite 28 years, but we have been waiting a whole 23 for a Danny Boyle helmed sequel to the 2002 zombie apocalypse classic ‘28 Days Later’. He and Jodie Comer, who stars in the new ho...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
Our guest this week is the prounciationally challenging but very lovely Domnhall Gleeson, who sits down with Simon to talk about his new Apple TV+ thriller ‘Echo Valley’. In it, he plays the...
Welcome to another Now & Ben! This little nugget of bonus interview goodness features Carey Mulligan and Tim Key—stars of the new wholesome folk musical The Ballad of Wallis Island—in cinemas now.
Ben sits down with them to talk about this British gem of a film that’s got Richard Curtis cooing. Plus behind the scenes goss on everything from corpsing on camera to sliding into dms.
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Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
It's a 20th anniversary special for this ‘ere podcast—yes, we have been in your ears via download since 2005. That’s two whole decades ago. Whew. To celebrate we’ve got a bumper corresponden...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
It’s time for another of those very special episodes where we all get to say “hello” to one of our very favourite friends of the show in the actual flesh (or whatever the audio equivalent of t...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
The wait is over for the actioniest and Tom Cruiseiest of all Tom Cruise action movies – ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’. And we’ve got action director (and producer and writer) ex...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
Reviews this week of French feelgood hit ‘The Marching Band’ (En Fanfare)--where a conductor in need of a bone-marrow transplant discovers a long-lost brother and undertakes an unexpected mu...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
It’s a bumper review week in Take 1, and first up is the new underwater doc from everyone’s favourite near-centenarian national treasure, ‘Ocean with David Attenborough’. Mark reviews this b...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
The 50th anniversary re-release of ‘Slade in Flame’ is making Mark very happy this week, and he’ll be reviewing this “Citizen Kane of rock movies” at the top of the show to celebrate. Starri...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
It’s time for the Take team to take stock of our first quarter, so this week we’re looking back over the first three or so months and putting our affairs in order: deciding whether to tighte...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
‘Warfare’ co-directors Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza join us this week to talk about the astonishing new film that aims to put modern conflict onscreen in the most authentic way possible. Wit...
If you’ve managed to watch any of the excellent seventh series of Black Mirror yet, you might have spotted our super sub Ben Bailey Smith popping up there... and just for you he’s collared his fellow dystopians Charlie Brooker and Emma Corrin for a chat about the mind-bending anthology’s latest iteration.
Brooker is the writer and creator of the show, which has been sending sci-fi shivers down our spines since it first hit British TV screens in 2011, before going global with Netflix in 2016. So for over a decade, “it’s all a bit Black Mirror” has been the phrase on everyone’s lips whenever...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
We have a real treat for you in the guest slot this week—director of ‘The Amateur’ James Hawes, and one of its stars Laurence Fishburne—AKA actual Morpheus from The Matrix. We are not worthy...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
Well hurrah hooray because this week it’s a Toby Jones show (not a Noby Jones show) and he joins Simon to chat about ‘Mr. Burton’. In this true story Toby plays the title character, schoolte...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
A smashy crashy action movie double bill on the review slate this week. First up, ‘Novocaine’—the action comedy where Jack Quaid plays Nathan Caine, a man born with a disorder that leaves hi...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
The much anticipated ‘Flow’ is first on the review slate this week. The Oscar-winning animation follows the story of a solitary black cat, displaced from its home by a huge flood in a world ...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
Our guests this week are Ashley Walters and Erin Doherty, stars of astonishing new Netflix series ‘Adolescence’. With each episode shot in one take, it follows the story of a family left in ...
It’s ‘Mickey 17’ release day, and Ben is chatting to Director Bong Joon Ho in today’s episode to celebrate.
Starring Robert Pattinson as an expendable worker on a colonized ice planet, the new film from Korean cinema’s modern master sees protagonist Mickey ‘re-printed’ over and over again. Frequently killed in his dangerous daily tasks, ‘human printing technology’ allows Mickey to be simply reborn, with his memories intact. But when he makes it back to base unexpectedly alive one day, he finds he’s already been reprinted—coming face to face with his latest iteration. His girlfriend may ...
Vanguardistas have more fun—so if you don’t already subscribe to the podcast, join the Vanguard today via Apple Podcasts or extratakes.com for non-fruit-related devices. In return you’ll get a whole extra Take 2 alongside Take 1 every week, with bonus reviews, more viewing recommendations from the Good Doctors and whole bonus episodes just for you. And if you’re already a Vanguardista, we salute you.
In this week’s Take we’re travelling back into the past and looking to the future with VR. Yes, we made Simon put on a VR headset thingy—and yes, we did laugh at him whilst he wandered blind...
Begbie himself, and surely a frontrunner for British cinema’s scariest man (on screen only, we might add), is our guest this week—it’s Robert Carlyle. This time he’s playing staunchly moral councilor Sam Hagen in new Netflix drama ‘Toxic Town’. Penned by Jack Thorne (of course), and with a cracking cast of Jodie Whittaker, Aimee Lou Wood, Rory Kinnear and more alongside Carlyle, it tells the true story of the Corby poisonings. Following the closure of the town’s steelworks, mismanagement of toxic waste begins to affect the health of local mothers and their babies—who are dismissed by the co...
We’ve got a bona fide icon for you in today’s Now & Ben—a movie star of four decades known for tackling tough female characters in films like ‘Boyz n the Hood’, ‘Malcolm X’, ‘What’s Love Got to Do with It?’ and ‘Black Panther’. She is the one and only Angela Bassett.
This time, she plays US president Evelyn Mitchell in ‘Zero Day’, the new Netflix thriller series in which America is struck by a cyber attack. Managing the crisis, Bassett’s president re-enlists beloved ex-President Geroge Mullen (Robert De Niro) to help still the public panic and discover the mysterious perpetrators.
Ang...