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War Movie Theatre
Zulu – with special guest Sathnam Sanghera
Watching the war movies that put a bit of iron in our blood, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time: Used to be that a Sunday didn’t pass without red-jacketed Michael Caine and Stanley Baker staging a last-ditch defence of Rorke’s Drift on TV… but they don’t show Zulu much these days. Why on EARTH should that be?
Special guest Sathnam Sanghera, author of Empireland and the new Empireworld, has never seen Zulu until now. He joins Rob and Duncan to talk over the issues… FAHSANDS of ’em. Will we end with a rousing chorus of ‘Men Of Harlech’ or will everybody get cancelled? How do you make a British Empire film where the Brits are the underdogs? The army doesn’t like more than one disaster in a day… but we do.
Written and presented by Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. Audio production by Simon Williams. Art by Jim Parrett. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. War Movie Theatre is a Podmasters production
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Coming in September, a mailbag episode! Send questions and suggestions to warmovietheatre@gmail.com.Merch! Our film list: https://warmovietheatre.com
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