Time Babble

This week we are babbling about The Stone Tape (1972). The Stone Tape is what happens when the BBC in the early ’70s says “Let’s make a horror film, but also let’s make it aggressively beige and full of men wearing turtle-necks and  shouting about science.” And honestly, it’s delightful. That is, if you ignore the casual misogyny and the not-so-casual racism. We reluctantly follow a team of cuttin...

Howdy Babblers. Prepare to have your brains melted! For our film this week is Autopsia de un Fantasma (Autopsy of a Ghost) from 1968 (date confusion intended). Watching Autopsy of a Ghost is a bit like stumbling into a Halloween party where the host forgot the theme halfway through and instead decided to smoke a huge bifter and throw in any oddity that sprung to mind, whether it made sense, or, pr...

This episode we are babbling about a film that may, or may not be called Edge of Tomorrow (2014). When Earth is invaded by aliens that look like angry spaghetti with Wi-Fi issues, humanity turns to its last hope: little Timmy Cruise in a Waldo.  Tim Tom plays Major William Cage, a PR guy who’s never seen combat and is afraid of the dentist, but suddenly finds himself on the front lines because......

This week we’re babbling about The Butterfly Effect (2004) starring Ashton Kutcher as a very, very troubled individual, with more suppressed trauma than you can shake a large stick at, but who unlocks the ultimate party trick: time travel via wibbly-wobbly journal reading. Instead of using this power to, say, invest wisely in the stock market or prevent global disasters, Evan decides to fix his ow...

Hey Babbler! This week we are babbling about River (2023), directed by Junta Yamaguchi, known for his earlier cult hit Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020). This film once again showcases his knack for turning high-concept sci-fi into intimate, character-driven storytelling. We clearly love this film, so you may well (you will) hear us gush with praise, as we reluctantly take it all apart and pu...

Hello dear Babbler and welcome to our next (or previous?) episode.  This is also, rather excitingly, the first episode recorded live and completely uncut. Gasp! at our grammatical heresies. Swoon! over our incoherently repetitive and rambling digressions. Thrill! at the moment one of us needs to take a ‘Time Babble comfort break’. This week we bring you Je t’aime, je t’aime (1968) directed by Alai...

Welcome, dear Babbler, to Series Five! We’ve been away on extended leave (although much less than 100 years - we’re looking at you Blunden), but we start this series with a genuine classic in the shape of The Amazing Mr Blunden.  We’re babbling about the original 1972 version directed by Lionel Jeffries, where everyone politely agrees to solve a murder mystery with Victorian manners. It’s a charmi...

This week we’re babbling about the cinematic masterpiece The Lakehouse (2006) starring Speed lovers Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. Our film charts the almost-nearly-romance of a sincere, but deathly dull couple separated by time. Well, separated by two years in actuality. Not that long in the grand scheme of things, you’d think? And if it really was love, we’re sure the most romantic thing to do...

This week we are babbling about a film that needs no introduction. Which, in a way, is an introduction in itself. But what of it? What do you want from us? Consistency? Clarity? If so, maybe this isn’t the podcast for you… Or is it? Anyway, rambling philosophical questions aside, The Terminator was created (stolen?) in 1984 by a pre-Smurf obsessed little Jimmy Cameron, and features buns of all kin...

Episode latest the to welcome and hello. This week we’re babbling about the extraordinary Happy End (1967), a deliriously wonderful film, directed by Oldřich Lipský. It’s a delight from end to beginning, as we explore one man's journey from death/birth to birth/death. Mostly dismissed as a throwaway piece of lightweight fluff on release, the film now stands shoulder to shoulder with its more arty...

This week we’re babbling about I’ll Never Forget You (1951). The film is a curious mix of sci-fi, noir and costume drama and was directed by Roy Ward Baker of Hammer and Amicus fame. It stars TYRONE POWER (possibly the best name on planet earth) as a man out of time, forever longing to go back and hang out with his ancestors during the ‘Age of Reason’. And so with a flash of lightning, back to a g...

This week we’re babbling about Terror at London Bridge (1985). The film is also known by the ever so slightly better title of Bridge Across Time and was originally a TV movie directed by the unfeasibly named Egbert Warnderink Swackhamer Jr! The film stars the legend that is David ‘The Hoff’ Hasslehoff as a troubled cop, trying to forget a traumatic incident from his past. Specifically, a rogue inc...

Welcome one & all, to Time Babble Series Four! To kick start this new series we invite you to join us in our attempt to change the course of world history. And when ‘we’ say ‘us’ we mean the protagonists of our ’their’ film… This week we are babbling about LOLA (2022), which was made when the world was still in lockdown, and the great plague was rife. The film was directed by Andrew Legge, and...

Hey groovy cats! Strap on your time belts and join us for the final episode of Series Three. Do we have a treat for you!  Well, when we say treat, we really mean: here is a film that no one can quite remember. And that film is Dimension 5 (1966), ‘directed’ by Frank Adreon and starring ‘old blue eyes’ himself, Jeffrey Hunter. The film was part of a series of made-for-television features, although...

This week we have a special bonus episode for all you Babblers, as we venture nervously out into what is regularly described as the ‘real world’, for a live time travel theatre experience at the Leeds Playhouse. The Time Machine (2023) is a three person play, created by the Original Theatre company, starring George Kemp as George, Amy Revelle as Amy, and Michael Dylan as Michael. Clever stuff. ENJ...

Clasp/cuddle lovingly your existential fear and dread tightly to your chest, and join us, as we explore one of the greatest films ever made: Wild Strawberries (1957), written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. The film stars many of Bergman regulars; Bibi Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Ingrid Thulin, a small yet memorable cameo from Ming von Sydow, and Clive Dunn. The film follows Isak Borg (masterfu...

Yo Cyberpunks! Have we got a chaotic treat for you! Prepare to be dragged screaming into The Adventure of Denchu-Kozo (1987), an acid lucid dream of a film from legendary filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto.  This was one of Tsukamoto’s very first films and was originally created as a theatre piece. We have no idea how this would have been possible, and can only dream that a time machine would transport us...

Happy Easter nerds! This week we’ve gone into EASTER OVERLOAD with the psychedelic stop-motion classic Here Comes Peter Cottontail (1971). This TV special was created by the ‘almost definitely not’ drug-crazed minds of Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin. Between them they are responsible for literally millions of seasonal classics, including Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) and Frosty the Snowman (...

Bonjour..! This week we are babbling about Camille Redouble (2012), written and directed by Noémie Lvovsky, who also stars in the lead role. The film is a loose remake of Peggy Sue Got Married and makes a perfect double bill with last week’s episode. It takes the basic premise of Peggy, but moves the now into the 2000s and the then into the 1980s. It’s a beautiful, more thoughtful version of the s...

This week we’re babbling about nostalgia-fest Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Kathleen Turner as Peggy Sue, in a dazzling lead performance. It also features another couple of Coppolas: the overacting, nasally-challenged-Nosferatu himself, Nicolas Cage, as Peggy’s childhood sweetheart and soon to be divorced husband, alongside future award-winning director...

Get ready to board the next flight to whenever! This week we’re babbling about the Czech time travel classic Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea / Zítra vstanu a opařím se čajem (1977) directed by Yindřizich Polák. The film is a lighthearted comedy with quite heavy overtones and tackles that age-old problem of a group of those pesky futuristic Nazis, who want to travel back in time to...

Ding! Ding! All aboard!  Next stop, the Time Babble Christmas Special! This week we’re babbling about Last Train to Christmas (2021), starring Michael Sheen, playing twelve versions of Tony, a troubled nightclub impresario, Cary Elwes as his bottoms popped off, not-alcoholic not-brother, together with a host of other characters that may, or may not exist. On the last Christmas Eve train from Londo...

Get ready to climb the magical staircase as we babble about the time travelling film noir gem Repeat Performance (1947). The film is often overlooked, but overlooked no more as we delve into its sequinned delights! The film stars Joan Leslie as Sheila Page, who opens the film with a gun in her hand and her almost always drunk husband Barney, dead at her feet. And then things start to get a little...

Grab hold of your time twin and get thee to a nunnery. It’s time for Biggles! This week we’re babbling about Biggles: Adventures in Time (1986). It’s a joy of a film and one of Time Babble HQs favourite time travel movies. Biggles was the creation of W.E. Johns, who wrote nearly a hundred novels following Biggles adventures during wartime. The film itself screams 80’s! From its music, fashion, and...

This week we dive head first into the sparkling and inviting waters of the Children's Film Foundation.  The Children's Film Foundation was for decades a way for new and established directors and actors at the end of their career, to make films aimed at, and starring kids. Our film stars Patrick Troughton as the mysterious time travelling inventor, Professor Wagstaff, currently hanging out in an ab...