The Zeitgeist Tapes

Sadly, this is the last episode of The Zeitgeist Tapes as Emma goes off to take up the full time role of Editor of LabourList and Steve valiantly continues to write his book on the Labour Party. In this episode, we pick out a few of our favourite episodes from the eight years of the show. We discuss our bizarre origin story and the unfortunate original naming convention. Read Steve's book that ins...

This month after a somewhat hilarious mix up Emma and Steve read and discuss  the Spectator - a Novel by Timothy Balding. This book has an odd format and may be too light on story as a result. Ultimately tries too hard to make answering the question "But what if the Daily Mail is actually awful?" an interesting one.  Read the Spectator: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spectator-Novel-Timothy-Balding/dp/1...

This month, slightly later than planned (or is timely) Emma and Steve discuss Conclave.  The film has pretensions to high drama, but is it really just an Agatha Christie style novel set in the Catholic Church? Not so much a 'whodunnit' as a They all done something innit!.

In a Zeitgeist Tapes first, we have a double bill for your delectation.   Given all that is happening in the USA and the wider world, we delve back to the late 1930s and early 1940s to see how one of the most popular directors of the time dealt with populism - positive and negative. We discuss both Mr Smith Goes to Washington and Meet John Doe - both by director Frank Capra.  Political corruption...

This month Steve and Emma discuss Brian and Maggie - the 2 part TV drama about the interview that - according to the drama at least - led to the fall of Margaret Thatcher.  We ask if long-form interviews really are dead? If TV interviews really were as good as the nostalgia would have it and if arch-Thatcerite Brian Walden really did bring down his friend?

This month instead of getting festive, Emma and Steve round off the year looking at the 1954 BBC adaptation of 1984. A dystopian tale of hopelessness and the triumph of evil.  Merry Christmas! 

This month - in the wake of the US election and the defeat of  Kamala Harris - Steve and Emma look at The Contender (2000).  This is a film that is posited as a liberal feel-good film about making a woman the Vice President under unusual circumstances. It might be 'of its time' or it might be - as Emma argues - a timeless liberal man's idea of what a feminist film looks like. 

In this episode Emma and Steve discuss 1988 film Running on Empty. Described by Steve as a 'Hallmark film for terrorists' the film follows the Pope family as the evade the police living in suburban domestic bliss - but only for short periods at a time.  Directed by Sidney Lumet and starring River Phoenix, Judd Hirsh, Christine Lahti and Martha Plimpton this film combines a discuss of radical polit...

This month it’s another election special! Emma and Steve discuss the chapter about the election in Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers.  Those who know Emma (and especially those who studied with her) will know that she tried to read the whole book once and gave up halfway through with a lifelong aversion to Dickens. But here we talk about the interesting  - and interestingly negative – way that the...

This month, Emma and Steve are joined by comedian, writer, director and comedy trainer Logan Murray to talk about Trevor Griffith's Comedians.  Originally written in 1975 and translated for TV as a Play For Today the show follows a group of men looking to become successful club comedians as they do their final showcase in front of an audience.  The play uses a lot of language that is very much 'of...

In this episode Emma and Steve discuss one of the most consequential dramatisations of recent years. Described as 'Kafka meets Ealing Comedy' (Copyright Steve) this ITV drama shown between Christmas and New Year 2023/24 had politicians finally scrabbling to respond to the long-running scandal at the Post Office.  David Aaaronovich: The Fatal Flaw in Mr Bates Vs The Post Office https://davidaaronov...

This month, to reflect on the death of Henry Kissinger, Emma and Steve look at 1964 film Fail Safe. Based on the same novel as Dr Strangelove, but definitely not played for laughs this film examines from the inside two sides trying and failing to avoid a nuclear confrontation. 

This month Emma and Steve discuss the show that has had the political world more obsessed than with anything since The West Wing - Succession.  This tale of a family battling over the future of a media empire has obvious real-world parallels. But should we care as much as we do?

This month, Emma and Steve look at Brassed Off. It's a film about a colliery band, about music and community. It's also an explicitly anti-Tory film set 10 years after the Miners Strike and one year before the Tories were swept out of office by the 1997 Labour election landslide. 

This month, Steve and Emma discuss the 1964 classic My Fair Lady. What does George Bernard Shaw's play and the musical based on it have to say about modern political themes of class or gender? 

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...

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...