Episodios

  • Soho Bites 47: Monsieur Ripois (1954)

    Soho Bites 47: Monsieur Ripois (1954)
    Feb 1 2024
    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.Buy tickets for the event at the South Bank - A Niall McDevitt...
    Más Menos
    1 h y 2 m
  • Soho Bites 46: Don't Open 'til Christmas (1984)

    Soho Bites 46: Don't Open 'til Christmas (1984)
    Dec 21 2023

    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 Twitter 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 Twitter (or X - whatever)

    If Musk starts charging, find us either on our new Threads feed or on Blue Sky.

    Email us at sohobitespodcast@gmail.com

    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
    Más Menos
    54 m
  • Soho Bites 45: Friday the Thirteenth (1933)

    Soho Bites 45: Friday the Thirteenth (1933)
    Dec 20 2023
    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...
    Más Menos
    1 h y 9 m
  • Soho Bites 44: Evergreen (1934)

    Soho Bites 44: Evergreen (1934)
    Oct 24 2023

    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...
    Más Menos
    1 h y 2 m
  • Soho Bites 43: The Good Companions (1933)

    Soho Bites 43: The Good Companions (1933)
    Sep 20 2023

    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.

    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 Twitter and you can buy his books HERE.
    Más Menos
    1 h y 3 m
  • Soho Bites 42: A Fallen Idol?

    Soho Bites 42: A Fallen Idol?
    Jul 15 2023

    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

    Más Menos
    46 m
  • Soho Bites 41: The Green Cockatoo (1937)

    Soho Bites 41: The Green Cockatoo (1937)
    May 26 2023
    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.Some...
    Más Menos
    51 m
  • Soho Bites 40: All Night Long (1962)

    Soho Bites 40: All Night Long (1962)
    Apr 28 2023
    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 LongAnd look at these (badly colourised) lobby cardsOur 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 legendary
    Más Menos
    49 m