Geektown Radio - TV News, Interviews & UK TV Air Dates

Anime did not cross into Western culture in one clean movement. It arrived in fragments, through edited TV dubs, bootleg tapes, playground obsessions, fansubs, late-night downloads, and eventually legal streaming platforms.In this episode of Geekstorians, Dave picks up where Season One’s ‘The Anime Underground’ left off, following anime’s journey from cult import to global mainstream force.We begin at the 2003 Academy Awards, where Spirited Away won Best Animated Feature without sanding itself down for Hollywood. From there, we rewind to the late 90s, when Dragon Ball Z exploded on Toonami and taught a generation of viewers to expect serialised storytelling, consequences, cliffhangers, and men screaming in fields until the landscape reconsidered its options.Then came Pokémon, a franchise that became so massive, so quickly, that many Western children did not even think of it as anime. It was just Saturday morning television, playground trading, Game Boy link cables, and the dangerous social power of a shiny Charizard.The episode also looks at Studio Ghibli’s very different crossing: a studio that refused to compromise, resisted Western editing, and eventually saw Spirited Away become the first Japanese film to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.Finally, we move into the digital era, where fansubs, piracy, simulcasts, and Crunchyroll transformed anime distribution. What began as a fan-built workaround became part of the legal streaming infrastructure. The underground became the industry.

In this episode of Geekstorians, Dave looks at the strange five-year window when geek culture stopped being something fans used to find each other, and became something companies used to find them.Beginning in 2007, the episode follows the moment geek identity moved from comic shops, conventions, video rental shelves and school computer labs into the mainstream marketplace. The iPhone made technology aspirational. Comic-Con became an industry stage. Iron Man and The Dark Knight helped turn superheroes into serious blockbuster business. The Big Bang Theory brought geek references into prime-time sitcom culture. And by 2012, “geek chic” had reached the high street, where thick-framed glasses, superhero bags, science jokes and slogan T-shirts were being sold back to the people who had once used those signals to recognise each other.But visibility is not the same as understanding.The Geek Shall Inherit is about what happens when a subculture wins the room, and then discovers the room has buyers, brand managers, market research, and a rack of novelty T-shirts near the tills.For more on this and plenty of other geeky things, head to Geektown.co.uk. And if you haven’t already, check out Geektown Radio, our weekly podcast covering the latest in TV, film, and gaming news.

Season Three of Geekstorians begins with the moment geek culture stopped knocking on the door and started owning the building.In this episode, Dave looks at the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, from Marvel’s desperate rights situation and the gamble of Iron Man, to Kevin Feige’s phase-planned architecture, the genre trick that kept the films from feeling like a production line, and the extraordinary test of asking audiences to follow a talking raccoon and a sentient tree into space.Then we follow the machine to its greatest achievement: Infinity War and Endgame. Two films that asked audiences to trust more than a decade of storytelling, and somehow delivered an ending that felt earned.But what happens after the perfect ending?This episode also looks at the post-Endgame problem, Disney+, Phase Four, the Kang issue, and Marvel’s attempt to rebuild around Doctor Doom, Robert Downey Jr., the Russo Brothers, the Fantastic Four, and the next great convergence point.Because the MCU’s real superpower was never just spectacle.It was trust.And once you build the house everybody else moves into, the architect has to keep building.

This week on Geekstorians, we bring Season 2 to a close with ‘Nothing Went To Plan’.Across the season, we’ve looked at films that nearly vanished, companies that collapsed under their own weight, shows that survived cancellation, fandoms that refused to let go, and the strange ways failure can become an origin story.In this shorter reflective finale, Dave steps back from the individual stories to ask what they all have in common. Why do so many geek culture landmarks seem to emerge from bad decisions, broken systems, institutional indifference, and accidents that really should have ended everything?From Pixar’s near-catastrophic Toy Story 2 deletion to Atari’s buried cartridges, Doctor Who’s wilderness years, Star Trek’s letter-writing fans, Deadpool’s leaked test footage, Rocky Horror’s midnight screenings, and the virtual chaos of World of Warcraft’s Corrupted Blood incident, this episode connects the dots across the season.Because the thing institutions keep missing is not the product, the franchise, or the IP.It’s the people.Geek culture survives because fans, creators, archivists, technicians, and obsessives keep showing up when the official story says there is nothing left to see. And more often than not, they are right.This is the Season 2 finale.This is ‘Nothing Went To Plan’.For more geek culture, TV, film and gaming coverage, head to Geektown.co.uk, and check out Geektown Radio wherever you get your podcasts.Alternative shorter show notes version:In the Season 2 finale of Geekstorians, Dave steps back from the disasters, collapses, cancellations and near-misses we’ve explored this season to ask what they all have in common.From Toy Story 2’s near-deletion and Atari’s desert landfill to Doctor Who’s wilderness years, Star Trek’s fan campaigns, Deadpool’s leaked test footage, Rocky Horror’s midnight screenings and World of Warcraft’s accidental plague, this reflective coda connects the season’s central thesis:Geek culture does not survive because everything goes smoothly.It survives because people refuse to let it disappear.This is ‘Nothing Went To Plan’.For more geek culture, TV, film and gaming coverage, head to Geektown.co.uk, and check out Geektown Radio wherever you get your podcasts.

It is a very special episode of Geektown Radio this week, as Dave celebrates Episode 500 with regular co-hosts Matt and Gray for The Great Geeky Hall Of Fame Pub Quiz!Geektown Radio officially launched back on Tuesday, 20th January 2015, although Dave had already recorded 32 interview podcasts before the weekly show began. Since then, there have been hundreds of episodes, specials, Geektown Behind The Scenes, Geektown Talks To, the Webby-nominated Geekstorians podcast, lots of convention coverage, countless streaming service rebrands, and more cancellation trauma than is probably healthy.To mark the milestone, Dave puts Matt and Gray through a quiz covering the history of Geektown Radio, geek TV, cancelled-too-soon favourites, streaming chaos, gaming, reality TV, conventions, and shameful predictions from across the entertainment industry. Along the way, they induct various shows, services, phrases and listener favourites into the completely unofficial Geektown Radio Hall Of Fame.This week’s Hall Of Fame inductees include the Geektown Air Dates page, the Arrowverse, Firefly, stupidly renaming streaming services, The Last Of Us, The Traitors, MCM Comic Con London, Netflix cancelling things, and, finally, the listeners.This is also the final Geektown Radio before the show takes its usual short summer break. Geektown.co.uk will continue with the latest UK TV news, UK air dates, renewals and cancellations while the podcast is away, and Geekstorians Season 3 will continue to release during the break.Thank you to everyone who has listened to Geektown Radio over the last 500 episodes!

This week on Geekstorians, Dave from Geektown looks at three films that did not behave the way Hollywood expected.‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ arrived as a box office failure before midnight audiences turned it into a ritual. ‘Blade Runner’ opened to confusion, studio interference and mixed reactions before becoming one of science fiction’s most debated landmarks. And ‘The Big Lebowski’ drifted into cinemas as a modest Coen Brothers oddity before fans turned The Dude into something far bigger, stranger, and, somehow, semi-spiritual.This is not a story about films that were secretly massive hits all along. It is about what happens when something strange, difficult or badly timed finds the people who need it later. Through late-night screenings, VHS, cable, DVD, festivals, quotes, costumes and arguments that refuse to die, these films became more than movies. They became communities.Season Two of Geekstorians has been about things that did not go to plan. This episode asks what happens when failure is not the end of the story, but the beginning of the cult.Presented by Dave from Geektown.For more on TV, film, gaming and geek culture, head to Geektown.co.uk, and check out Geektown Radio for the latest entertainment news, reviews and UK air dates.

Dave is joined by Matt for Geektown Radio Episode 499, with this week’s show led by chat about breakout horror film Obsession, the opening episodes of Spider-Noir, Russell T Davies drama Tip Toe, and spy series PONIES.Matt kicks things off with Obsession, which he calls one of the best films of 2026, praising its slow-burn setup, sharp horror concept and one scene that completely floored him. He also dives into Spider-Noir, with Nicolas Cage leading the live-action series, and talks about why the black-and-white presentation feels like the right way to watch it. There is also chat about finishing the 9-1-1 space episodes and a lot of love for Shrinking Season 3, which he reckons just keeps getting better.On Dave’s side, he checks out the new James Bond game 007 First Light, which feels like playing through a Bond movie, and reviews PONIES, the Moscow-set 1970s spy drama starring Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson. He also talks about Tip Toe, Russell T Davies’ new Channel 4 drama led by Alan Cumming and David Morrissey, the For All Mankind finale, and the Jack Ryan movie event on Prime Video.In the news section, they cover endings for Euphoria, Pointless Celebrities, Cold Water, Piglets and Emily in Paris, plus renewals for Daddy Issues, The Weakest Link, Balamory, Saint-Pierre and The Testaments. There is also chat about the Baywatch reboot heading to Sky, X-Men ’97 Season 2 getting a July date, a new Grey’s Anatomy spin-off, The Witcher 3’s surprise third expansion, Doctor Who Christmas special rumours, Hudson & Rex bringing back Charlie Hudson, and David E. Kelley developing Michael Connelly’s Welcome To Catalina for HBO Max.Plus, they round up what is coming to TV next week, including Allegiance Season 2, Clarkson’s Farm Season 5, The Legend of Vox Machina Season 4, Will Trent Season 4, Cape Fear, Mock the Week, Alice and Steve, and Best Medicine.Listen now for horror, superheroes, spy drama, prestige TV, gaming chat and the usual Geektown mix of enthusiasm, side tangents and entertainment news.

This week on Geekstorians, we’re boldly going into one of the strangest survival stories in geek culture: Star Trek, the franchise that has been cancelled, revived, mismanaged, overextended, rebooted, and pushed through nearly every major shift in modern entertainment.Born in 1966, cancelled in 1969, and kept alive by fans who refused to accept that decision, Star Trek became something far bigger than a struggling network sci-fi show. It became a constituency. A culture. A future people wanted to believe in.Dave traces the franchise from NBC’s infamous letter-writing campaign and the death-slot third season, through Lucille Ball’s unexpected role in getting the original series made, the rise of conventions and syndication, the expensive chaos of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and the leaner, sharper rescue mission of The Wrath of Khan.Then it’s into The Next Generation, first-run syndication, Roddenberry’s complicated legacy, the rocky early years, the franchise boom of Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise, the Kelvin timeline films, and the streaming era of Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Prodigy and Strange New Worlds.Because Star Trek doesn’t survive because it is well run.It survives because the idea underneath it is too good to kill.Geekstorians is the Webby-nominated documentary-style podcast from Geektown, exploring the strange, messy, brilliant history of geek culture.