War Movie Theatre

This week Rob and Duncan pretend to be Duncan and Rob, in an elaborate plan to persuade the enemy that the podcast will actually be taking place in the Mediterranean. That's right, we're watching I Was Monty's Double, starring John Mills. The true story of Operation Copperhead is told in Rob's book The Illusionist, out now in paperback.Next week: Civil War (2024)

Rob and Duncan are joined by pollster and war movie nut Joe Twyman to watch the 1984 teen-resistance classic Red Dawn, starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, and just re-released in glorious 4K. Think of it as Dirty Dancing: The WW3 Years.It features a Problematic Moment so Problematic that it ended up being cut, a director who demanded he be paid in firearms, and Joe's unforgettable description of watching the movie on a US military base in Baghdad.Next week: I Was Monty's DoubleSuggestions, comments, offers of cash? warmovietheatre@gmail.com

Watching the war movies that make us bloody glad it’s not the 1940s, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time, acclaimed author and historian Clare Mulley of The Spy Who Loved fame joins us to watch Roman Polanski’s harrowing story of the Holocaust, escape, chance survival and guilt, The Pianist (2002). As we discover, Adrian Brody’s astonishing physical transformation to play the role is not even the half of it. Written and presented by Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. Audio production by Tom Taylor. Art by Jim Parrett. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Thanks to Jodie Banaszkiewicz for clearances. War Movie Theatre is a Podmasters productionwww.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Watching the war movies that make us think we’ve discovered the real secret of flying, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time we wheel, bank and glide with The First Of The Few, Leslie Howard’s stirring 1942 portrait of the birth of the Spitfire fighter plane and its doomed progenitor RJ Mitchell – played by Howard himself.Our special guest J. Willgoose Esq of esteemed “collage rock” band Public Service Broadcasting has previous form with the movie: their pulse-quickening early single Spitfire was built around samples of its dialogue. What will we think? Is this movie heroism and creativity incarnate? And can we take the Spitfires, Mitch? Listen and learn. • Public Service Broadcasting’s new album, The Last Flight, will be released on 4 October via SO Recordings. Pre-order/save here. • The album’s first single Electra is out now. • PSB tour the UK this Autumn. Dates here. Written and presented by Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. Audio production by Tom Taylor. Art by Jim Parrett. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Thanks to Jodie Banaszkiewicz for clearances. War Movie Theatre is a Podmasters productionwww.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Watching the war movies that make us think mistily of Blighty, with authors Rob Hutton and (usually, but he’s on leave this week) Duncan Weldon. This time: Don’t be upset about the parachute, we’ll have our wings soon anyway, big white ones. Upper lips will wobble as brave airman David Niven enters the afterlife in Powell & Pressburger’s 1946 masterpiece A Matter Of Life And Death, the film that launched a thousand parodies.Luke Turner, author of Men At War: Loving, Lusting, Fighting, Remembering 1939-1945 joins us to ponder this metaphysical classic. Can love conquer the grave? What is the movie telling us about the post-war US:UK relationship? Is it all really about grief? How young does Richard Attenborough look? And Kim Hunter: gosh. Written and presented by Rob Hutton. Audio production by Tom Taylor. Art by Jim Parrett. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. War Movie Theatre is a Podmasters production.www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Watching the war movies that stiffened our upper lips, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time: The mission is the man, and the cast is (literally) to die for. Steven Spielberg’s emotional, epic, stupendously violent Saving Private Ryan from 1998 is the war film that reproaches every “Achtung, Fritz!” actioner. Military historian and BBC legend Mark Urban joins our crack team in the undergrowth. Are these the greatest battle scenes ever filmed? Will the first 20 minutes of this podcast cure our lads of their taste for war? What do you think? 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. www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 productionwww.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Watching the war movies that made us shape up and stop shilly-shallying, with authors Rob Hutton and Duncan Weldon. This time: “This is not a gentleman’s war…” With historian Alex von Tunzelmann of Paper Cuts podcast fame, we watch a film regarded by some as the finest British movie ever made, Powell & Pressburger’s epic, moving The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp from 1943. Made during the actual war, denounced for humanising Germans (but did it?) and hated by Churchill, this tale of ageing, the price of war, love and what it means to be English gradually makes its way to classic status – thanks in part to Martin Scorsese, no less. Will our upper lips remain stiff? Listen and find out. 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. www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices