Taking Hugh for Granted

This week we comb through 2010 mockumentary I’m Still Here (Casey Affleck, 2010), which follows Joaquin Phoenix’s Hollywood ‘breakdown’ and attempt to start a tone-deaf rap career. Now I know what you’re all thinking – this isn’t a Hugh Grant film. We thought so too, until we discovered that it appears on Hugh Grant’s IMDb page as an official acting credit – forcing us to review the film. The prob...

This week Oscar and Diggory look back at Hugh's performance in crime-comedy Small Time Crooks (Woody Allen, 2000).  Dishwasher and small-fry criminal Ray (played by Woody Allen) plots with his wife (played by Tracey Ullman) and partners-in-crime to re-open a local pizza restaurant so they can dig underneath it through to the bank a few doors down. As they can't cook pizza, they bake cookies t...

In today's episode, Oscar and Diggory review Hugh Grant's first ever Hollywood blockbuster, Nine Months (Chris Columbus, 1995). There's certainly plenty to sink their teeth into in this episode, including Robin Williams' dreadful Russian accent, Hugh's ostentatious piercing and that infamous incident that took place in Los Angeles just a two weeks before Nine Months' release.  Plush San Franc...

American Idol, President George W. Bush, Simon Cowell, The War on Terror. American Dreamz (Paul Weitz, 2006) is a snapshot of everything we'd rather forget from the mid-2000s.  Martin Tweed (played by Hugh Grant) is the host of a talent show called American Dreamz and whilst he despises each new season, it's a hit with the ratings. Tweed decides it's time for a new and interesting batch of co...

We’re hugely excited to announce that we’re officially rebranding! Oscar Beardmore-Gray and Diggory Waite are proud to introduce to you Colin Firth Things First – a new podcast dedicated to reviewing every single Colin Firth film ever made!  We can’t wait to get started and look forward to discussing Colin’s broad shoulders and soothing tones in stellar performances from The King’s Speech to...

In this edition of Hugh's News, Oscar and Diggory discuss the announcement that Hugh Grant has been cast in the new untitled Guy Ritchie film (previously referred to as 'Five Eyes' ) and the upcoming Dungeons and Dragons movie.  Oscar and Diggory discuss the various synopses that are circulating online for Five Eyes and what they know about Hugh's character as the 'weapons dealer' in Five Eye...

Take a trip back behind the Iron Curtain with Oscar and Diggory as they swap secrets about the world of espionage in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (Guy Ritchie, 2015).   In 1960s Cold War East Berlin, CIA agent Napoleon Solo (played by Henry Cavill) successfully helps Gaby Teller (played by Alicia Vikander) defect to West Germany despite the intimidating opposition of KGB agent Illya Kuryakin (play...

Helo gefnogwyr Hugh Grant! Join Oscar and Diggory as they climb up a proverbial mountain by reviewing The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (Christopher Monger, 1995). Quite possibly the most unnecessarily long title in modern film history, Reginald Anson (Hugh Grant) is a cartographer sent to the small South Wales village of Ffynnon Garw, and is the said Englishman who went u...

After reviewing Notting Hill for Valentines Day in 2020, Oscar and Diggory take another look at the film after receiving an angry voice note from disgruntled listener, Jessica Waite. Along with outlining the films merits of the film, like Hugh Grant's character's emotional intelligence, Jessica, Diggory and Oscar also discuss Coldplay, Chandler from Friends and taking Harry Styles to the bathroom....

A podcast episode you can't refuse! Listen as Oscar and Diggory discuss Hugh Grant's role in 90s sleeper hit Mickey Blue Eyes (Kelly Makin, 1999). Hugh stars as an art-house auctioneer named Michael Felgate, who finds himself getting in deeper and deeper with the Mafia after proposing to the daughter of a crime Kingpin. Your hosts discuss how Hugh Grant and then-girlfriend Elizabeth Hurley worked...

Join hosts Oscar and Diggory as they discuss Death to 2020 (Netflix, 2020), the film in which a collection of interviewees including Dash Bracket (played by Samuel L Jackson), Jeanetta Grace Susan (played by Lisa Kudrow) and Tennyson Foss (played by Hugh Grant) look back over the events that took place in 2020... There are spoilers ahead so if you don't know how 2020 ended yet - don't listen to th...

Happy New Year! To celebrate 2020 coming to an end (and let's be honest, it's definitely worth celebrating), we've put together some of our favourite bits from The Taking Hugh for Granted podcast from the past year.   Oscar and Diggory take you through the usual way an episode of their Hugh Grant podcast would go - from a synopsis of Notting Hill from Synopsis Simon, to a discussion of Hugh's...

I caught Mummy kissing Hughie Grant! Underneath the mistletoe last night!  To get you through this festive season, we have a very special episode looking back at one of Hugh’s most legendary rom-coms – Love Actually. For our Christmas episode, we get the thoughts of Beth Amann and Patrick Flynn, who host the What Is Love Actually? podcast – a 12-part pod that is dedicated entirely to dissecti...

* The Undoing Episode 6 Spoilers ahead, beware! * As promised, Oscar and Diggory convene to discuss the much anticipated finale of HBO's The Undoing and to compare notes on the series as a whole. In the final episode of the six-part miniseries, Hugh Grant fans were treated to a type of Hugh not seen before on screen – a manic, unhinged psychopath who appears crazed and dangerous.  The finale...

With just one episode left to go of HBO's latest drama The Undoing, we are still no closer to finding out who killed Elena Alves, and our man Hugh Grant remains very guilty indeed. The only thing that is certain is that Hugh is a deceitful husband, an untrustworthy father and a manipulative rogue. Vintage Grant.  Join us on the airwaves or on YouTube as the boys chat about the best cliffhange...

Stand and deliver your ears to another episode of Taking Hugh for Granted in which Oscar and Diggory pick apart one of Hugh Grant's early TV films, The Lady and the Highwayman (TV Movie, 1989). Hugh Grant is at his sexy, swashbuckling best, but is that enough to ensure this film hasn't been taking Hugh for granted?  Synopsis: A young Panthea Vyne (played by Lysette Anthony) falls in love with...

Since Oscar and Diggory's last review of The Undoing - Episode 1, Hugh Grant has betrayed his wife, lied to his father-in-law and returned to prison for the first time since Paddington 2. It's all kicking off and the investigation to find the murderer of Elena Alves heats up big time! The lads have a very special announcement too, launching the Taking Hugh for Granted YouTube channel to go alongsi...

Happy US election day Hugh Grant fans! We saved this week's movie, Two Weeks Notice (Marc Lawrence, 2002) for day of the 2020 presidential election, because not only does it star Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock, but also man of the hour Donald J. Trump himself! Wherever your political alliances may lie, we hope you can join Diggory and Oscar having a good old chuckle at Hugh and The Don on-screen to...

Fresh from watching the first episode of HBO's 'The Undoing', Oscar and Diggory sit down to dive into Hugh Grant's long-awaited return to our television sets. The Hugh Grant fanatics discuss murder theories, super couple Grace and Jonathan Fraser and whether there was nod to Paddington 2 in the making of the first episode... The story follows Grace Fraser (Nicole Kidman) who is living the only lif...

Ahoy there Hugh Grant fans! Come walk the plank with Oscar and Diggory as they strike gold in this treasure chest of a film, The Pirates! Band of Misfits (Peter Lord, 2012).  A Pirate Captain (voiced by Hugh Grant) sets out on a mission to defeat his rivals Peg Leg Hastings (voiced by Lenny Henry), Cutlass Liz (voiced by Salma Hayek) and Black Bellamy (voiced by Jeremy Piven) for the Pirate o...

Enter the frame with Oscar and Diggory as they discuss the stroke of genius that is Hugh Grant's performance of painter 'Finn' in Restoration (John Hoffman, 1995).   Your hosts speak about Hugh's beef with Robert Downey Jr and (probably)  Sir Ian McKellen, Hugh Grant's fabulous look and piss-taking performance as Finn and analyse in great detail the tale of two halves that is Restoration...

Just a week after Hugh celebrated his 60th birthday, Diggory and Oscar are back for another episode of Taking Hugh for Granted! And there's no better place to jump back into Hugh's filmography than Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason aka Bridget Jones 2 (Beeban Kidron, 2004). In this the sequel to Bridget Jones's Diary, the film picks up just four weeks after the end of the first movie, and already...

In this very special Hugh's News episode, your hosts Oscar and Diggory celebrate Hugh Grant's 60th birthday!  To mark 6 decades of having the wonderful man on our planet, Oscar and Diggory choose their favourite moments from each decade from Hugh's birthday on the 9th September 1960 through to today - 9th September 2020! From dashing dresses to deluded dances to dalliances with politics, Osca...

Don your graduation caps and gowns and join Oscar and Diggory as they return to University to unpick Hugh Grant's role in The Rewrite (Marc Lawrence, 2014). Your hosts discuss the film's few highs, its ironic and frequent lows and then turn their critical crosshairs toward their own peculiar names:  'Diggory Waite' and 'Oscar Beardmore-Gray'. Resting on his laurels from his 1999 smash hit mel...

Introducing our first episode of Hugh's News - a bonus Taking Hugh for Granted podcast series and your first stop for all news regarding Hugh Grant. In this issue of Hugh's News, Oscar and Diggory discuss the announcement of the release date for Hugh Grant's new HBO show 'The Undoing', pontificate on what the miniseries could have in store for us and just what kind of role Hugh could have to play....