Advertise on podcast: Soho Bites Podcast

After two years in the wilderness, we return to your ears with episode 48 and a brilliant film - Mona Lisa (1986). Directed by Neil Jordan and written by David Leland, it’s a noir thriller with a fantastical edge - or perhaps a fantasy cloaked in noir - about humans finding connection in a grim world. Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, Michael Caine and Robbie Coltrane all turn in beautiful performances and we catch a glimpse of the real Soho as it was before gentrification began. Soho based film producer, Colin Vaines, returns to the show to talk about Mona Lisa. Our guest for the thematically linked supporting feature© is Professor Oliver Carter of Birmingham City University. Oliver has been running a research project called Under the Counter looking at the history of the British pornography industry for several years and he shares some of the nuggets of his extensive research. Mona Lisa is available to stream on various platforms but if you’re a physical media person and if you prefer to not give money to Jeff Bezos when you can help it, you can buy it from Arrow Films. The famous scene in which Bob Hoskins walks around Soho is, perplexingly, accompanied by In Too Deep by Genesis. We try not to promote Xwitter these days so follow Colin on Facebook. Oliver has various links - his website, the Under the Counter website from where you can buy his book and the Under the Counter archive at the Bishopsgate Institute (slightly NSFW). Check out Mona Lisa’s then & now locations thanks to our friends at Reelstreets. Thank you to the Museum of Soho for allowing us to record in their gallery at All is Joy, 75 Dean Street, Soho. Thank you for listening. Follow us on a href="https://bsky.app/profile/sohobites.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

Bienvenue dans le premier épisode de 2024. Monsieur Ripois (1954) was directed by René Clément and stars the French heart throb, Gérard Philipe along with the English beauties, Joan Greenwood, Natasha Parry & Valerie Hobson. It was based on the 1912 novel, Monsieur Ripois et la Némésis by Louis Hémon. The film was released under several other titles including “Lovers, Happy Lovers” & “Knave of Hearts” and was made in both English and French with the two versions being shot concurrently. We talk about Monsieur Ripois to the actor and director Jason Morell, whose mother was Joan Greenwood, one of the stars of the film. Listen out for some seventy year old hot gossip! Also on the French theme, we revisit an episode of Mural Morsels to hear about the notorious bohemian French poet, Paul Verlaine. This was an interview I did with another poet, Niall McDevitt, back in 2020 who has since sadly passed away. We’re using this interview with the blessing of his partner, Julie Goldsmith. Read this article by Jason Morell about dear old mum. Follow Jason on the Twitters. Here’s a little extract from the film. Of course our friends at Reelstreets have watched M. Ripois and you can look at some of the locations from the film HERE. Julie Goldsmith, the partner of the late Niall McDevitt, is a sculptor. You can see some of her work on Instagram and on her website. Niall’s obituary in The Irish Times. The 1995 Paul Verlaine biopic, Total Eclipse is worth watching if you can find it - although it’s quite difficult to track down. a...

Ching ching etc - it's the Soho Bites Christmas special. Having just left behind the wholesome world of Jessie Matthews and 1930s musicals, it feels right to descend into the grubby underbelly of Soho with the festive fiasco, Don't Open 'til Christmas. The "plot" such as it is, is a basic one. A crazed serial killer is roaming the west end murdering men dressed as Santa Claus. If there's a worse Christmas film (not including anything by Hallmark) we'd be very interested to hear about them. Written, produced & directed by a rotating motley crew of exploitation regulars, the film apparently took two years to make which is possibly the most shocking thing about it. Our guest for this episode is the magnificent David McGillivray who has not only written about this film in the past but also knew many of the people involved. David's Wikipedia entry and his IMDB listing. Buy David's books, Doing Rude Things and Little Did You Know. Thanks to Danny Cox for the countdown of festive Santa murders. If you really want to see Don't Open 'til Christmas, you can find it on YouTube. Thank you for listening. Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more) We're now on YouTube Email us at [email protected] We'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW. And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful. Check out our spin-off series Mural Morsels In fact, see all relevant links HERE

Jessie part three. For this, the third and final instalment of our mini-series about the 1930s' biggest UK film star, Jessie Matthews, we met up with Dr Jennifer Voss of De Montford University to talk about Friday the Thirteenth (1933). NB: this is the Friday the Thirteenth from 1933, directed by Victor Saville with a large ensemble cast including Jessie as well as her husband, Sonnie Hale, Emlyn Williams (who also wrote the script), Gordon Harker, Edmund Gwenn, Eliot Makeham, Frank Lawton and the lovely Ursula Jeans plus many more. It is not the silly 1980s slasher film of the same name. Friday the Thirteenth consists of seven separate stories which all come together at the end when our many protagonists find themselves aboard a bus which is involved in a fatal accident. To talk about Jessie, her life & career we're joined again by Rob Baker, Jade Evans and Dr Lawrence Napper. For this episode we also meet David Drummond who knew Jessie for the last thirty years of her life and dated her daughter! For many years, David ran a shop in the West End selling theatre and film related memorabilia & ephemera. Sadly the shop is no longer there but you can still visit the Pleasures of Past Times website. Our thanks to Professor Sean Street who provided some of the archive audio in the programme. Watch this 1981 BBC documentary about Jessie Matthews. Jessie appeared on This is Your Life in 1961. Jessie's biographer, Michael Thornton wrote this appalling, salacious, muckraking and probably untrue article for the appalling, salacious, muckraking Daily Mail which I have...

Jessie part two. This is the second instalment of a three part mini-series about the 1930s' biggest UK film star, Jessie Matthews. Evergreen (1934) was based on Ever Green, CB Cochran's 1930 musical spectacular at the Adelphi Theatre. Jessie starred as Harriet Green in both the stage show and the film. We're joined by Dr Melanie Williams of The University of East Anglia to talk about the film and  Rob Baker, Jade Evans and Dr Lawrence Napper return to the show to talk about Jessie's life. Evergreen is the story of two Harriet Greens, in which one Harriet finds fame and fortune by impersonating the other. Evergreen was third of five Jessie Matthews films directed by Victor Saville and co-starred Mr Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale. Barry Mackay plays the love interest, Tommy Thompson and Betty Balfour plays Maudie, continuing her successful transition from silent films to talkies. Watch this 1981 BBC documentary about Jessie Matthews. Jessie appeared on This is Your Life in 1961. Jessie's biographer, Michael Thornton wrote this appalling, salacious, muckraking and probably untrue article for the appalling, salacious, muckraking Daily Mail which I have pasted it into this Google Doc to deprive the Mail of your clicks. Melanie has a ton of film & TV writing out there including books on David Lean and A Taste of Honey. Follow her on the site formally known as Twitter. Rob Baker is on Twitter too and you can buy his books HERE. Article about...

The Big Jessie series. This is the first of a three part mini-series focusing on the 1930s' biggest UK film star, Jessie Matthews. None of Jessie's films were set in Soho, but the fact that she was born on Berwick Street where her dad was a market trader, that she lived in William & Mary Yard on Brewer Street and that she learned to dance in an upstairs room at The Blue Posts means that, as far as we're concerned, any film starring Jessie Matthews is a Soho film. Across the next three episodes we will talk about three different Jessie films and learn about her life through talking to several special guests. In this first episode, we talk to Rob Baker, Jade Evans and Dr Lawrence Napper about Jessie's early life and her rise to stardom and Lawrence hangs around to talk about Jessie's 1933 breakthrough film, The Good Companions. Also starring a very young John Gielgud, Edmund Gwenn and Mary Glynne, The Good Companions was directed by Victor Saville, produced by Michael Balcon and was based on a best selling 1929 novel of the same name by JB Priestley. And yes, I know that Michael Balcon link goes to a Wetherspoons named after him. Here's a more serious link. Watch this 1981 BBC documentary about Jessie Matthews. Jessie appeared on This is Your Life in 1961. Jessie's biographer, Michael Thornton wrote this appalling, salacious, muckraking and probably untrue article for the appalling, salacious, muckraking Daily Mail which I have pasted it into this Google Doc to deprive the Mail of your clicks. Rob Baker is on a href="https://twitter.com/robnitm" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

Not a normal episode. We're not actually talking about a Soho film in this episode. It's a long story... We do, however, talk to a genuine film star from the golden era. As an eight year old boy, Bobby Henrey was rocketed into the public eye when he starred in Carol Reed & Graham Greene's 1948 thriller, "The Fallen Idol". He joins us on Soho Bites (on his 84th birthday!) to tell us about that experience. Bobby is now known as Robert and there is a double reason for having him on the show. His mother, Madeleine Henrey, was a French author, based in London, who wrote several memoirs - social histories - about Soho and the west end. These included "A Village in Piccadilly" from 1942 and "Spring in a Soho Street" from 1962. Her books were often published under her married name, "Mrs Robert Henrey" which seems quite an odd decision to make, but Robert explains the reasoning behind this and talks about how this literary career began. Robert spent his early childhood living in Mayfair, specifically in Shepherd Market during the blitz. This period is documented in Mrs Robert Henrey's memoir, A Village in Piccadilly. In the final part of the show we preview our upcoming three part special seasn about Soho's very own fallen idol, the 1930s mega star, Jessie Matthews. An article about Robert. You can buy Robert's book, Through Grown Up Eyes, at Foyles. Some of the people who have helped me research this episode include Professor Debra Kelly of Westminster University, Celia Cotton of the Brentford High St Project, who put me in touch with Anne Wallace who is a distant relative of the Henreys and Roger Greaves, whose book, Reading Madeleine, is currently in production. Madeleine Henrey's Wikipedia entry and her obituary. Images of Shepherd Market from then & now. Our favourite tired old queen reviews The Fallen Idol. During the pandemic, we made an episode of Mural Morsels about Jessie Matthews. Custom artwork for this episode was created by a href="https://twitter.com/AndyOliverMusic" rel="noopener noreferrer"

At last! It's the long awaited exotic birds episode. The Green Cockatoo (1937) is a noir-ish thriller set in gangland Soho. The Green Cockatoo of the title is not actually a beautiful tropical bird but a drab Soho nightclub. When Dave Connor gets on the wrong side of some gangsters, his brother, Jim and an innocent bystander, Eileen get caught up in the trouble. Directed by William Cameron Menzies, it stars John Mills, supported by Rene Ray (The Countess of Midleton! Yes really!) & Robert Newton. The film has a superb supporting cast and was based on a story by Graham Greene. Nigel Smith pays his first visit to Soho Bites to talk about the film. Follow Nigel on Twitter & check out his many projects HERE. Watch Nigel's Nerd Nites talk about Alfred Hitchcock HERE. In the first half of the show, the exotic bird we're talking about is an actual bird, not a night club - the Green Ringed Parakeet. London is home to tens of thousands of these green feathery friends and their population is growing. Nick Hunt became, for a few months, a "Gonzo Ornitholigist" investigating these birds and he joins us to tell us about his discoveries and explain what Gonzo Ornithology is. In collaboration with photographer, Tim Mitchell, he wrote a fantastic little book on the subject: "Parakeeting in London: An Adventure in Gonzo Ornithology". Buy your copy HERE. Follow Nick on Twitter and read about his other work on his website. Read all about Ring Necked Parakeets. You can watch The Green Cockatoo, in full, on YouTube. Interesting article about The Green Cockatoo. The originator of Soho Bites, Dr Jingan Young,...

It's Jazz, man. Also, it's Shakespeare. All Night Long (1962) is a re-telling of Shakespeare's Othello in which Othello is Rex, the famous leader of a jazz band, Desdemona is a singer called Delia and Iago is the band's drummer, Johnny. The film was directed by Basil Dearden and stars Patrick Mcgoohan and Richard Attenborough plus several major jazz stars of the day, including Tubby Hayes, Charles Mingus, Johnny Dankworth and Dave Brubeck. Film & theatre composer, Gary Yershon, returns to Soho Bites to talk about the film. Watch a trailer for All Night Long And look at these (badly colourised) lobby cards Our other guest is a two time finalist in the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year competition, Saxophonist, Tom Smith. Tom has an intriguing connection to the late Ronnie Scott and we recorded both interviews at Ronnie's famous club. On the same day we recorded the interviews, Tom as performing at Ronnie Scott's that night with the band, Resolution 88. Here's some more of the Tom's music on Soundcloud and you can find more details about him on his website and of course, follow him on Twitter. During lockdown, Tom and his big band did that remote recording thing. Watch one of Tom's performances on BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year. We were first introduced to Tom through the late, legendary a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Fantoni" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

Thirty nine episodes in and we finally do a gay themed episode of the show. About time too! Nighthawks (1978) was directed by Ron Peck and was based on a script developed by him and Paul Hallam. It stars Ken Robertson as Jim, a geography teacher at a London comprehensive school who spends his nights looking for love in gay bars, clubs and discos (discos were still a thing then). To talk about Nighthawks we're joined by Prof Glyn Davis of St Andrews University. Turns out he's not as Welsh as you expect him to be! Watch Nighthawks on the BFI Player or buy the DVD which has a ton of bonus features. Ron Peck named the film after Edward Hopper's 1942 painting. Both, he said were about, "essentially lonely people, trying to come together, maybe succeeding for a while" Our other guest, author, Will Hampson, has been living with HIV for three years. His book, The Lost Boys of Soho, is an account the months following his diagnosis. Follow The Lost Boys of Soho on Instagram The director of Nighthawks, Ron Peck, died in November 2022. Here an obituary. Some of the filming locations in Nighthawks. Some 1978 press clippings about Nighthawks. Interesting experimental by Ron Peck & Paul Hallam - "Soho" Soho has it's very own sexual health clinic for LGBT people - 56 Dean Street. The Terence Higgins Trust is one of the oldest HIV charities. If you want to keep up to date the efforts to bring the Kino Cinema back from the dead, follow Kino Quickies. The originator of Soho Bites, Dr Jingan Young, has a

Murder mystery? Rom-com? And, as an afterthought.... wartime boosterism? East of Piccadilly (1941) was known as "The Strangler" in the US and was directed by Harold Huth. It stars Judy Campbell & Sebastian Shaw and was written by the then quite young J Lee Thompson. It tells the story of a murder investigation and is (extremely) loosely based on a real life case, that of the "The Soho Strangler". 1940s UK film expert, Mel Byron, comes all the way in from Talking Picture TV Podcast HQ to talk about the film. It's her third visit to the podcast - she wasn't that keen on Street of Shadows and her second visit was for Soho Conspiracy which is possibly the worst film ever made. Apologies to Mel. Will she like this one more? The 1930s Soho Strangler case upon which the film is supposedly based, is largely forgotten now but not by our other guest, Michael J Buchanan Dunne. Mike is the creator of the Murder Mile podcast and at the time of publication has just released the third episode of a TEN PART series about the Soho Strangler. At the time if writing this, East of Piccadilly is simply NOT AVAILABLE to stream (legally) anywhere online. It does sometime crop up on certain streaming services - if you fill in THIS FORM you will be notified when it appears (can't guarantee it will be free though!) However, if you are based in London or are ever a visitor to our beautiful city, you can watch East of Piccadilly in the BFI Library. Grab yourself a terminal and ask one of the nice librarians for help. The reference number is N-626109. Did the director of East of Piccadilly, Harold Huth cast himself in a small uncredited role as a Spiv in Joe's cafe? You decide. The Spanish version of the film poster is ace! A 1938 article in the Chicago Tribune about the Soho Strangler case. Mel Byron is on Twitter and has a website. You can also follow a...

Attention jiving scum! This is one is straight from the fridge dad. It doesn't get more Soho than Beat Girl (1960) - coffee shops, beatniks, strip clubs, The 2 i's.... it's got the lot. Gillian Hills leads the cast of Beat Girl, which also stars Adam Faith, Christopher Lee, Shirley Ann Field and, in a very small role, a young Oliver Reed. We met novelist, Des Burkinshaw in the bar of the Soho Theatre to talk about Beat Girl which is the closest we could find to a bohemian coffee bar. Des is a huge fan of John Barry, who wrote the music for Beat Girl and he recently concluded a two year stint as the presenter of the Museum of Soho Show on Soho Radio. Beat Girl is available to stream on the website of our favourite TV channel, TPTV Encore. TPTV Encore is this 2016 BFI interview with the star of Beat Girl, Gillian Hills, about the making of the film. It's well worth a watch. Back in the day, Des actually met one of the stars of Beat Girl and grabbed this selfie. Gillian Hills released a four part podcast about her life in December 2021. Follow Gillian on Facebook. Our other guest for this episode is Paris based journalist Hanna Steinkopf-Frank. Paris is some distance from Soho - the connection is that Gillian Hills became a Yé-yé singer and Hannah came on to talk about this genre. What's Yé-yé? Find out in this article by Hannah. Follow Hannah on Twitter and check out her...

Everything changes but.... The changing faces of London neighbourhoods is our loose theme for this episode. In the first half, the novelist, Christopher Fowler makes his second appearance on the podcast, talking about his latest book and about his memories of Soho - a neighbourhood which changes constantly but somehow always remains the same. ***UPDATE*** Christopher very sadly died a few weeks after we recorded this conversation. You can read an obituary HERE. Read about Chris's most well known characters in The History of Bryant & May. This episode features a snatch of original music composed by Des Burkinshaw. It was written as the theme tune for proposed TV adaptation of the Bryant & May series. Listen to it on this page of Chris's website. Follow Des on Twitter. Our featured film is The Optimists of Nine Elms (1973) in which Peter Sellers, playing a faded former music hall star, befriends - or is befriended by - two local kids. It's a beautiful portrayal of an unlikely friendship and of an area that has massively changed in the intervening 50 years. Our film chat guest, Robert JE Simpson, rather likes it. Follow Robert on Twitter and check out his podcast Cinepunked. He is also engaged in some detailed research into Exclusive Films. Definitely definitely definitely try to watch the Optimists of Nine Elms. It's available to stream on the BFI Player. This clip will give you a flavour of it Here's a set of lovely old lobby cards of the film. Have a look at some of the locations from the film, then & now, on the every brilliant Reelstreets website. *** COMPETITION *** COMPETITION *** COMPETITION *** COMPETITION ** In episode 33 we discussed The Sandwich Man with the aforementioned...

Two Films, One Guest. Normally we have two guests on each episode of Soho Bites, but when your guest is as good as David McGillivray, who needs a second? Long before Matthew Sweet gave him the moniker, "The Truffaut of Smut", David reviewed Zeta One (AKA The Love Factor - no idea why) for The Monthly Film Bulletin. He didn't have a lot of good things to say about it then - has his opinion changed over the last 51 years? He makes a return visit to Soho Bites to tell us. Produced by Tony Tenser, the film had a troubled shooting period and was shelved for two years upon completion. Although the main attraction was, presumably, the acres of naked flesh on display throughout the film, top billing nominally goes to James Robertson Justice as the chief baddy and his oily sidekick, Swyne, played by Charles Hawtrey. Any mention of Charles Hawtrey invites another reading of his Wikipedia entry which is always fun. But maybe watch the trailer first so you have some idea of what you're letting yourself in for. And here is an album of stills from the film. There are some outrageous Crimes Against Location in Zeta One - eg pretending Warwick Avenue is next to Greek Street and Berwick Street market leads to Camden. If you're a London geography geek just waiting be outraged, look at the film's locations on Reelstreets. In the first half of the programme , David talks about a film that promises to be a teeny-weeny bit better than Zeta One, although we won't get to find out until next year. The Wrong People is currently in pre-production and is David's own adaptation of Robin Maugham's 1967 novel of the same name. Set in Tangier in the early 60s, it's the uncomfortable story of Arnold, a closeted gay teacher who falls under the corrupting influence of Ewing Baird, a wealthy ex-pat with particular peccadillos. You could also follow him on Twitter. Here's an interesting short film about Dean's Bar in Tangier, the real life version of one of the book's fictional locations. And you can download the book in PDF format HERE. The author of The Wrong People, Robin Maugham, was an a...

Double Stinker. After an extended break to allow our massive team to shift its attention to our most recent podcast series, Kino Quickies, we return to Soho Bites with the 1948 murder mystery, It Happened in Soho. It’s safe to say, the film had a very small budget and doesn’t have the highest of production values but it does boast a major star, Richard “Stinker” Murdoch. At the time the film was made, Murdoch was a big BBC radio star, having starred, at this stage, in two huge radio comedy hits - Band Waggon with Arthur Askey and Much Binding in the Marsh with Kenneth Horne. To talk about It Happened in Soho, we welcomed Paul Kerensa to the show.  Paul is a stand up comedian and, most importantly for our purposes, is the creator of the epic British Broadcasting Century podcast - who better to talk to about a film starring one of early broadcasting’s biggest names. At the time of writing, It Happened in Soho is available to watch on TPTV Encore... ... and Band Waggon is on YouTube. Watch Richard Murdoch, in later life, talking about Much Binding in the Marsh. To begin the show, Mark Brisenden makes a return visit to Soho Bites talk about the London venue at which nearly all BBC radio comedies were recorded between 1946 and 1995 - The Paris Studios on Lower Regent St. Mark worked on Week Ending and The News Huddlines and was the creator of Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel - all of which were recorded at the Paris. During our conversation, Mark points out that the 1950 film, The 20 Questions Murder Mystery, was set at the Paris.  You can watch that film at a...