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Eccleshall Community Cinema Podcast
H is for Hawk (Philippa Lowthorpe, 2025)
Season 2, Ep. 5
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Hello film fans, I’m Kris Grainger, podcast producer and your host for this latest episode of the Eccleshall Community Cinema Podcast. I’m here to bring you news of our next screening, H is for Hawk.
Before we go any further, I think we should just take a moment to celebrate a momentous landmark. No, i’ve not cleaned the bathroom, but it’s the podcast’s 1-year anniversary, so Happy Birthday to us! It’s been a great year, and long may we continue!
Coming up this month we are screening H is for Hawk by director Phillipa Lowthorpe. It stars Claire Foy (known for roles in Wolf Hall, The Crown, and First Man). After the sudden death of her father, Helen Macdonald is overwhelmed by grief. She struggles with depression and withdrawal from ordinary life.To cope, she decides to train a goshawk, a wild and notoriously difficult bird of prey. The goshawk she acquires is called Mabel. Like Hamnet, the film’s theme touches on grief, but also like Hamnet, it is also about coping and psychological recovery. It is about the activities we undertake to make life bearable, to find meaning, and to find acceptance. It promises to be an uplifting experience.
We'll also update you on our traditional July semi-outdoor screening with optional fancy dress.
For more information on the screening, please check out our Facebook page, “Eccleshall Community Cinema Club”.
The date for your diary is Thursday 25th June at 7:30pm, upstairs at The Royal Oak on Eccleshall High Street. Tickets for H is for Hawk are £5—that’s a hawk-some deal!
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4. Hamnet (Chloé Zhao, 2025)
16:29||Season 2, Ep. 4Hello film fans, I’m Kris Grainger, podcast producer and your host for this latest episode of the Eccleshall Community Cinema podcast. I’m delighted to bring you news of our next screening, Hamnet, featuring an Oscar-winning performance by Irish actress, Jessie Buckley. More on that later, but before I welcome my co-hosts…Joining Keith and I, as Keith was swanning off when we had the screening of The Choral, is our script writer and occasional guest co-host, she has a film PhD so we know we’re in good hands todayHamnet is a drama based on a historical novel by Maggie O’Farrell. It reimagines the life of William Shakespeare and his family. It’s really the story of the death of William and Anne’s son, Hamnet, and how personal tragedy can be transformed into great art, in this case, the play Hamlet.O’Farrell said that while studying Hamlet at school, she learned that Shakespeare had had a son named Hamnet who died before the play was written. She was struck by how closely the names “Hamlet” and “Hamnet” resemble each other, and began wondering what it might have meant for a father to write a play so similar to his dead son’s name, and how the boy’s mother would have felt about it.For more information on the screening, please check out our Facebook page, “Eccleshall Community Cinema Club”. There’s more information in the show notes, where you’ll also find our email address to join the mailing list or comment on the podcast. The date for your diary is Thursday 21st May at 7:30pm, upstairs at The Royal Oak on Eccleshall High Street. Tickets for Hamnet are £5—that’s more value than you can Shakespeare a stick at!
3. The Choral (Nicholas Hytner, 2025)
15:51||Season 2, Ep. 3Hello and welcome to the foyer of Eccleshall Community Cinema Club's podcast. I’m delighted to bring you news of our next screening, The Choral. Penned by Yorkshire-born playwright and national treasure, Alan Bennett, The Choral stars a slew of British acting talent including Ralph Fiennes, Roger Allam, Alun Armstrong, and Simon Russell Beale - all celebrated stage, film, and television actors in their own rights. To discuss that with me, I want to say a massive welcome to my guest co-host Ruth Martin. The Choral is Bennett’s first original screenplay in over 20 years, though he feels more present in film due to Hytner’s adaptations of Bennett’s plays, often first performed at the National Theatre. Set in 1916 in Yorkshire during the First World War, The Choral centres on a choral society in the town of Ramsden that keeps losing choristers due to the conscription of young men. Under the direction of the demanding new choirmaster, Dr Henry Guthrie (played by Ralph Fiennes), the group is forced to rebuild its ranks by bringing in a varied mix of recruits. As they prepare to stage Elgar’s monumental The Dream of Gerontius, they must contend with the pressures of war, rising suspicion of outsiders, and the looming threat of conscription. For more information on the screening, please check out our Facebook page, “Eccleshall Community Cinema Club” and there’s more information in the show notes, as well as our email addresses - one to join the mailing list and one to get in touch with the podcast. The date for your diary is Thursday 23rd April at 7:30pm upstairs at The Royal Oak on Eccleshall high street. Tickets for The Choral are £5—now that’s a note-worthy bargain!
2. Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (Simon Curtis, 2025)
19:23||Season 2, Ep. 2Welcome to the Eccleshall Community Cinema Podcast, today we review this month's screening of The Roses (Jay Roach, 2025), and we look forward to March's screening Downton Abbey: The Grand FinaleDownton Abbey: The Grand Finale is the third and final film in the Downton Abbey franchise, wrapping up the stories of the Crawley family and their staff. The film is set in 1930, two years after Downton Abbey: A New Era. The key theme is the passing of responsibility to the next generation. In addition to this, Keith will update us on his travels and we'll have news about a slight change to our email address.Our next screening will be Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale on Thursday 19th March at The Royal Oak, Eccleshall High Street.Thanks for listening, we hope you enjoy the show, and we hope to see you next time.....in the foyer.
1. The Roses (Jay Roach, 2025).
31:38||Season 2, Ep. 1Hello there and a very happy 2026 to you all. Today we're taking a look back at the films we saw and the converstations we had in 2025, as well as taking a look forward to what we have in store for 2026. We'll be talking about the films we loved, as well as well as speculating on what the summer and Christmas films might be this year. I'm pleased to say that Keith is back from his travels and he joins us for this episode. If you want to see where he'll be giving his lectures, whilst he's away this coming year, then follow this link.2025 Films, in review:Firebrand (Karim Ainouz, 2023).Conclave (Peter Straughan, 2024).Gladiator ii (Ridley Scott, 2024).Maria (Pablo Larrain, 2024).Mr Burton (Marc Evans, 2025).Wicked (Jon M. Chu, 2024).A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg, 2024).September 5 (Tim Fehlbaum, 2024).The Penguin Lessons (Peter Cattaneo, 2024).A Complete Unknown (James Mangold, 2024).Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy (Michael Morris, 2025).2026 Films to look forward to:Downton Abbey 3NurembergThe ChoralOur next screening will be The Roses on Thursday 19th February at The Royal Oak, Eccleshall High Street.Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time, in the foyer!.
7. A Complete Unknown (James Mangold, 2024)
14:03||Season 1, Ep. 7We’re back with an exciting new episode about screening the Bob Dylan biopic, entitled A Complete Unknown. First, I’m delighted to welcome my guest co-host, for this episode, Barbara Mitchellhill. Barbara is a committee member of the cinema group and many of our listeners will have had their tickets checked by her. She has written for BBC children's television and is an award winning author of many children's books. Welcome Barbara!Today we'll look at the upcoming Dylan biopic, and talk about how last month's film, The Penguin Lessons (Peter Cattaneo, 2024) was received by the audience. Barabara also lists the other biopics she'd love to see, and of course we ask where is Keith.
6. The Penguin Lessons (Peter Cattaneo, 2024)
19:35||Season 1, Ep. 6The Eccleshall Community Cinema podcast discusses the upcoming screening of The Penguin Lessons, including a dive into the film’s political-historical background, and more generally, films featuring wild animals. We briefly welcome Keith back from his travels and ask him where he has been, and then we reflect on the success of September's screening of September 5 by Tim Fehlbaum.
5. September 5 (Tim Fehlbaum, 2024)
15:49||Season 1, Ep. 5The Eccleshall Community Cinema podcast discusses the upcoming screening of September 5 by Tim Fehlbaum. The podcast discusses the political background of the film, as well as other films about the topic, and political action films of the 1970s.We also take a look back and discuss our reactions to last month's film, A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg, 2024).Keith is away on a yacht at the moment, so our guest co-host is our script writer and researcher, Dr. Kelly Housby.
4. A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg, 2024)
19:40||Season 1, Ep. 4In this episode we discuss the upcoming film A Real Pain, a comedy-drama about two cousins on a Jewish heritage tour in Poland, exploring themes of grief and identity with humor. The film, written by Jesse Eisenberg, balances heavy themes with comedic moments, reflecting on "dark tourism" and the complexities of memorializing the Holocaust.We also look back at our summer outdoor screening of Wicked and discuss the rise, and return of, the spoof.