Kermode and Mayo's Film Review
Mayo (left) and Kermode (right) broadcasting live from Edinburgh in June 2009, with guest Bill Forsyth.
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| Other names | Wittertainment |
|---|---|
| Running time | 120 minutes (since 2010) |
| Country |
 United Kingdom
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| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | BBC Radio 5 Live |
| Hosted by | Simon Mayo |
| Starring | Mark Kermode |
| Edited by | Robin Bulloch |
| Produced by | Simon Poole (for Somethin' Else) |
| Air dates | since 2001 (on radio); 2005 (as podcast) |
| Website | Official web page |
| Podcast | Official podcast feed |
Kermode and Mayo's Film Review is a radio programme with Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo, broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 5 Live on Friday afternoons between 2 pm and 4 pm. The show is described as the BBC's "flagship movie podcast", and features film reviews from Kermode, interviews with actors and other guests, and listeners' emails. The programme's Twitter handle, "Wittertainment", is a nickname for the programme itself.
The show is broadcast live on radio, accompanied by a live streaming webcam feed; each programme is available on BBC iPlayer and as a podcast. Individual reviews are available in an A to Z directory on the Five Live website, or as videos on YouTube.
As of August 2014[update] the show is BBC Radio's second-most downloaded podcast, and fourth on the BBC list of most-downloaded shows from 2004 to 2014.
Kermode and Mayo first presented together on Radio 1 in the 1990s, The current incarnation of the programme started on Radio 5 Live in 2001, as a "short review segment" on the Friday episode of Mayo's weekday afternoon show. Upon reuniting on Radio 5 Live, their relationship continued just as it had on Radio 1, with Kermode recalling his first words may have been 'And another thing...'.
In 2005, a podcast version of Kermode and Mayo's programme was made available, the same year that "podcast" was chosen by the New Oxford American Dictionary to be its word of the year; according to Brett Spencer, who worked for Radio 5 Live at the time, it was downloaded 42 times in the first week.
In 2009 the show received a Sony Radio Academy Award.
When Mayo started presenting BBC Radio 2's weekday drivetime programme, the movie reviews were kept on 5 Live, and expanded to two hours to become a show in its own right from 2 pm every Friday. In June 2011, it was announced that BBC had signed a two-year agreement for the programme to be produced by Somethin' Else Sound Directions; the company was selected following a competitive process that also included pitches from Hidden Flack, the talent management and production company whose clients include Kermode and Nigel Floyd The change after ten years was part of an effort by the BBC to have more of its radio shows produced from outside suppliers. The change became effective 7 October 2011; as of that date Simon Poole is the show's producer, Robin Bulloch is its editor, and Rowan Woods is the guest booker. Somethin' Else announced its intention to "'build the profile of the Kermode and Mayo brand online' with more podcast downloads and a 'new digital strategy'."
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