![]() Whatever its origins, the problem never recurred and one of the features of Kermode's radio performances now is the easy confidence of his delivery. The critic believed he'd suffered an asthma attack but medical investigation disputed this view, and it now seems most likely he was a victim of a version of stage-fright, common among actors and broadcasters, in which breath is held sub-consciously from nerves. But his broadcasting career faltered early on when, discussing movies on Mark Radcliffe's programme, Kermode passed out in mid-sentence - a wireless nightmare still relivable on numerous online sites. ![]() The collaboration began 15 years ago when Kermode was hired to provide film crits on Mayo's Radio 1 breakfast show. This bickering - wherein Mayo sneers at Kermode's more esoteric allusions to Buñuel, while in return he is mocked for possessing only an honorary doctorate - has made Dr Kermode (his PhD is official), at 45, the country's most listened-to film critic, a profile increased by appearances on BBC2's The Culture Show and columns in the Observer.īut it's the radio double-act that defines the brand: their movie review hour has just been nominated in the Speech category at this year's Sony Radio Awards, a rare example of one section of a longer programme being honoured. The key is that Mayo is always able to say, 'Shut up, you're talking nonsense.'" The kind of broadcasting relationships I like are the slightly chippy ones I'd much rather hear people having a go at each other. You could put a donkey in the studio with him and it would sound better - some would argue that's what he's done with me. "Ha! So which of us is Brian Clough and which is Peter Taylor? But I know what you mean. I liked the idea of two people who are bound together and need each other but in a slightly bickering way." "Listen," he says, in that growly shout familiar to listeners of his Friday film slot on Simon Mayo's 5 Live show, "I know nothing and care nothing about football, but it isn't about football it's a film about two people. Meeting Kermode in a Soho coffee bar after a press screening of The Damned United, it seems we are to have another review that is influenced by memoir. He is the devil." And the fact he has greater tolerance than many critics for the films of Richard Curtis makes more sense after the revelation that Mrs Kermode (Linda Ruth Williams, a professor of film at the University of Southampton) once watched Love, Actually three times back to back on a flight to the US. He admits to being a "sucker for any film involving Richard Nixon" because, in childhood, his dad pointed to the television set on which the American president was resigning and said: "Look at him. ![]() M ark Kermode's attitude towards movies is often autobiographical. ![]()
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