Newton Talks

In this episode, I talk to prolific novelist and poet R.M. Francis about his new collection, Palmer , which you can buy here: https://vpresspoetry.blogspot.com/2025/09/launching-palmer.html  

In this episode the acclaimed West Midlands based filmmaker Tom Lee Rutter joins me to talk about his new feature  The Pocket Film of Superstitions .

In this episode, author Lauren Jane Barnett joins me to talk about her new book, Death Lines: Walking London's Horror History - a walking guide to horror movie locations in the capital city. The book is now available here: https://strangeattractor.greedbag.com/buy/death-lines-walking-londons-horr/

In this episode, I talk to Andrew Screen about his new publication, The Book of Beasts  (Headpress, 2023), which is an in-depth study of the Nigel Kneale anthology horror series called Beasts from 1976. You can buy the book here: https://headpress.com/product/the-book-of-beasts/  

My guest in this episode is Vincent A. Albarano, who joins me to talk about his new book, Aesthetic Deviations: A Critical View of American Shot-on-Video Horror, 1984-1994 . You can buy the book here: https://headpress.com/product/aesthetic-deviations/ and go to the Headpress website to for more fantastic books on cult film and media: https://headpress.com

In this episode, I talk to Neil Jackson, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Lincoln about his upcoming book, Combat Shocks: Exploitation Cinema and the Vietnam War (Bloomsbury, Forthcoming), which deals with exploitation films about the Vietnam war from the mid 1960s up until the late 1980s. We talk about the conventions and iconography of the cycle, as well as individual films such as Forced...

On the 25th anniversary since Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown had its UK release (the US release was Christmas Day 1997), Dr Chris Deacy joins me to discuss the casting and performances, the soundtrack and use of music, and the tone and mood of the film.

In this episode I am joined by filmmaker Lizzie Borden to talk about her renowned 1983 feminist sci-fi movie Born in Flames . We also talk about her follow up feature film, Working Girls (1986). Lizzie's latest book, Whorephobia: Strippers on Art, Work, and Life (2022), is now available from Seven Stories Press. You can order the book here: https://www.sevenstories.com/books/4430-whorephobia  

In this episode I talk to Dr Cat Lester about her book Horror Films for Children: Fear and Pleasure in American Cinema (Bloomsbury, 2021), which looks at horror movies aimed at young audiences, including Gremlins , Coraline , and Paranorman , among others. 

In this episode I am joined by the writer/director team of Caroline Spence and James Smith, who together make up Raya films. Their movies  Do Something, Jake (2018), Cyberlante (2020), Agent Kelly (2020), and Surveilled (2021) are available now, and they are currently casting for their new project entitled  Best Geezer . Go to their website for more information: https://rayafilms.com

In this episode, Dr Cary Edwards joins me to discuss his new book The Vigilante Thriller: Violence, Spectatorship, and Identification in American Cinema from 1970-1976 (Bloomsbury, 2022). We discuss films such as Death Wish , Joe , Dirty Harry , and Taxi Driver , among many others, and the cinematic and social context that created the revenge and vigilante motif in 70s film. 

In this follow up episode to my best of the 1990s podcast I work through the Newton Talks top twenty films of the years 2000-2009, and I am joined by Dr Jennifer Wallis and Dr Chris Deacy, who give me nominations for their favourite movie of the decade.

In the latest of my filmmaker interviews I talk to Andrew Elias, writer and director of the upcoming Tales from the Great War (2022), a horror movie set in World War One. We discuss the making of the film, the inspirations for the stories it contains, and how Andrew approaches working with actors and crew. You can see the trailer here;  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P39nh8IzF8

In the tenth episode of my Cult Film microcast, I examine Paul Verhoeven's notorious Showgirls (1995), which failed with both critics and audiences on release, but which has since become a noteworthy cult movie. 

This episode is the second of two on the 25th EON produced James Bond film, No Time To Die . In this one, I am joined by New Zealand based journalist and Bond fan Lee Kenny. We discuss the plot and characterisation in detail, and also get into where the series can go next.

In this first of two episodes on the 25th EON produced James Bond film, No Time To Die , I am joined by journalist Lee Kenny, Dr Chris Deacy, who is a Reader in Theology and Religious Studies, and media lecturer Will Hill, to talk through our initial reactions to the film. 

In this episode Charlie Steeds, who has directed more than ten horror feature films since 2016, joins me to discuss his career and the challenges of low budget filmmaking.  Charlie's films include Escape from Cannibal Farm (2017), An English Haunting (2020), and Death Ranch (2020), which has recently been released on DVD and VOD. You can visit his production company website here: https://www.darkt...

In this episode author Martin Harris of the University of North Carolina, discusses his new book, Leatherface Vs Tricky Dick: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as Political Satire , which provides an in-depth commentary on the links between Tobe Hooper's film and the Watergate scandal involving Richard Nixon. You can buy the book here: Headpress, 2021 - https://headpress.com/product/leatherface-vs-tric...

I am joined in this twentieth episode of Newton Talks by Black Country author and lecturer R.M. Francis to discuss his new novella called The Wrenna, set on the Wren's Nest Estate in Dudley. We discuss the book's influences in both social realism and horror, its fractured structure, and its relationship to sex, violence, and the abject. We also talk about working class representation, culture, and...

In this episode, historian of medicine and psychiatry Dr Jennifer Wallis joins me to discuss the relationship between the Victorian asylum and cinema, particularly the representation of the asylum in the horror film. We discuss 70s Amicus productions, Session 9 (2001), the reality of asylum life, and how cinema was used as entertainment in the West Riding Asylum in the 1920s. Jennifer is author of...

In this episode, my guest is Tom Lee Rutter, director of the western Day of the Stranger , the folk horror Bella in the Wych Elm , and the forthcoming 'almanac' The Pocket Film of Superstitions . We discuss no budget and guerrilla filmmaking, what it's like to make films in the Black Country and the Midlands, and Tom's own approach to making creative horror features. You can see some of Tom's work...

In this episode I rundown my favourite films of cinema's best decade, the 1990s. I am joined by Chris Deacy of the Nostalgia Interviews podcast, and Amanda Reyes of the Made for TV Mayhem podcast, who contribute their top picks from the decade alongside my own. 

In this microcast, I look at the unofficial Bond movie, Never Say Never Again (Irvin Kershner), that came off second best at the box office against the EON produced Octopussy (John Glen), when they were both released in 1983. Despite it's generally low ranking reputation, I look at some of the elements I enjoy, including Bond's fashion, the shark scenes, and the witty and playful script by Lorenzo...

Author Austin Fisher join me to talks about his book, Blood in the Streets , which looks at Italian crime films cycles of the 1970s, such as the police thriller, vigilante movies, mafia narratives, and the giallo, and how they responded to the violent political turmoil happening in Italian cities at the time. 

This microcast analyses the Comic Strip Presents feature film, The Supergrass (1985), directed by Peter Richardson, and starring Ade Edmonson, Jennifer Saunders, Robbie Coltrane, Nigel Planer, Keith Allen, Alexei Sayle, Dawn French, and Richardson himself.