Soho, that one square mile at the heart of bohemian, cosmopolitan London, has been the setting for a surprisingly large number of films. In each episode of Soho Bites, producer and presenter Dominic Delargy is joined by a special guest to discuss a different Soho film, accompanied by a shorter, thematically linked item drawing on Soho's rich history of crime, music, art, vice & film.
Guests have included BFI curators, film scholars, crime historians, former Windmill girls, punk musicians, jazz singers and the occasional actual film star.
Written, produced & presented by Dominic Delargy.
Based on an original idea by Dr Jingan Young.
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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.
The 1995 Paul Verlaine biopic, Total Eclipse is worth watching if you can find it - although it’s quite difficult to track down. Here are a few options.
Thank you for listening.
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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.
We met novelist, Des Burkinshaw in the bar of the Soho Theatre to talk about Beat Girl which is the closest we could find to a bohemian coffee bar.
Des is a huge fan of John Barry, who wrote the music for Beat Girl and he recently concluded a two year stint as the presenter of the Museum of Soho Show onSoho Radio.
Beat Girl is available to stream on the website of our favourite TV channel, TPTV Encore.
TPTV Encore is this with the star of Beat Girl, Gillian Hills, about the making of the film. It's well worth a watch.
Soho Bites 36: The Optimists of Nine Elms (1973)
Episode 36
Monday, August 29, 2022 • Duration 55:55
Everything changes but....
The changing faces of London neighbourhoods is our loose theme for this episode.
In the first half, the novelist, Christopher Fowler makes his second appearance on the podcast, talking about his latest book and about his memories of Soho - a neighbourhood which changes constantly but somehow always remains the same.
***UPDATE*** Christopher very sadly died a few weeks after we recorded this conversation. You can read an obituary HERE.
This episode features a snatch of original music composed by Des Burkinshaw. It was written as the theme tune for proposed TV adaptation of the Bryant & May series. Listen to it on this page of Chris's website.
Our featured film is The Optimists of Nine Elms (1973) in which Peter Sellers, playing a faded former music hall star, befriends - or is befriended by - two local kids. It's a beautiful portrayal of an unlikely friendship and of an area that has massively changed in the intervening 50 years. Our film chat guest, Robert JE Simpson, rather likes it.
Soho Bites 35: Zeta One (1969)
Episode 35
Monday, July 25, 2022 • Duration 57:47
Two Films, One Guest.
Normally we have two guests on each episode of Soho Bites, but when your guest is as good as David McGillivray, who needs a second?
Long before Matthew Sweet gave him the moniker, "The Truffaut of Smut", David reviewed Zeta One (AKA The Love Factor - no idea why) for The Monthly Film Bulletin. He didn't have a lot of good things to say about it then - has his opinion changed over the last 51 years? He makes a return visit to Soho Bites to tell us.
Produced by Tony Tenser, the film had a troubled shooting period and was shelved for two years upon completion. Although the main attraction was, presumably, the acres of naked flesh on display throughout the film, top billing nominally goes to James Robertson Justice as the chief baddy and his oily sidekick, Swyne, played by Charles Hawtrey.
Any mention of Charles Hawtrey invites another reading of his Wikipedia entrywhich is always fun.
But maybe watch the trailer first so you have some idea of what you're letting yourself in for.
There are some outrageous Crimes Against Location in Zeta One - eg pretending Warwick Avenue is next to Greek Street and Berwick Street market leads to Camden. If you're a London geography geek just waiting be outraged, look at the film's locations on .
Soho Bites 34: It Happened in Soho (1948)
Episode 34
Tuesday, June 28, 2022 • Duration 47:51
Double Stinker.
After an extended break to allow our massive team to shift its attention to our most recent podcast series, Kino Quickies, we return to Soho Bites with the 1948 murder mystery, It Happened in Soho.
It’s safe to say, the film had a very small budget and doesn’t have the highest of production values but it does boast a major star, Richard “Stinker” Murdoch.
To talk about It Happened in Soho, we welcomed Paul Kerensa to the show. Paul is a stand up comedian and, most importantly for our purposes, is the creator of the epic British Broadcasting Century podcast - who better to talk to about a film starring one of early broadcasting’s biggest names.
At the time of writing, It Happened in Soho is available to watch on TPTV Encore...
... and Band Waggon is on .
Soho Bites 33: The Sandwich Man (1966)
Episode 33
Friday, March 4, 2022 • Duration 48:38
Special Sandwich Special.
We’ve done some episodes in the past with some disparate and unusual themes. We did a Spain themed episode, a sport one, a God special and even a wrestling / boxing episode, but we think we’ve surpassed ourselves this time as the theme linking the two items in episode 33 is sandwiches.
Sandwich boards, that is, and the men who wear them.
There was a time when Sandwich men and women and other forms of portable adverts were a common sight in the west end but In August 2008, Westminster council implemented a ban on such advertising, consigning this minor social menace to history.
The ban came too late though, to have any effect on the sandwich men we’re talking about in this episode.
Our first sandwich man is NOT a fictional character - Stanley Green, otherwise known as Protein Man. Stanley campaigned against the consumption of excessive protein for about 25 years and became a familiar sight to people in the west end during that time. We meet Honorary Research Fellow at the Museum of London, Dr Cathy Ross, to hear about Stanley, his writings and his life.
Learn about Stanley’s unusual views in his Protein Wisdom leaflet.
And here’s a of Stanley’s unpublished novel, Behind the Veil: More than Just a Tale. I have corrected some of the spelling and some of the more confusing errors, but have tried to leave Stanley’s idiosyncratic punctuation and writing style in tact.
Soho Bites 32: Turn the Key Softly (1953)
Episode 32
Saturday, January 22, 2022 • Duration 53:57
Softly Shoe Shuffle.
Murphy's Law states that if you've arranged an interview with a brilliant guest to talk about a fantastic film in a great location, then you will catch Covid and have to self-isolate. This is why my interview with Ming Ho about Turn the Key Softly (1953)took place online and not in the lovely surroundings of the BAFTA bar as originally planned.
Turn the Key Softly is set over a period of twelve hours and follows three very different women on their first day of freedom after their release from Holloway Prison.
StarringYvonne Mitchell, Kathleen Harrison and a very young Joan Collins, it is directed by Jack Lee who also wrote the screenplay along with producer, Maurice Cowan and is based on the novel of the same name by Johh Brophy.
As the period of self isolation dragged on, a real in-person meeting was still impossible, so Dom met up with online to hear about two forgotten musicals set on the streets and nightclubs of Soho. ran for 160 performances at the Cambridge Theatre in 1959-60 and also ran at the Cambridge, for 211 performances in 1950.
In the first half of the show we meet up with Jonathan Foster. He works at the Prince Charles Cinema, just off Leicester Square and is the co-host of the Pod Charles Cinecast. The PCC is renowned for its special event screenings including its Muppet Christmas Carol Singalongs which are are wildly popular.
In the second half we’re off to a festive get-together of podcasters to find out what they think about The Muppet Christmas Carol (spoiler – everybody loves it, obvs)
Different versions of the film have been released over the years. Read about those differences in this article by Mark Harrison.
This Wikipedia article about the history The Prince Charles Cinema is worth a read and you can check out the current PPC season and book tickets on its website. You can also follow the PCC on Twitter.
A lot of people graced the Soho Bites microphone in the second half of the show talking about The Muppet Christmas Carol – many of whom (but not all) are connected to the . Click below for their info…
Soho Bites 30: Good-Time Girl (1948)
Episode 30
Friday, November 12, 2021 • Duration 50:47
Kent Noir.
Good-Time Girl is a post war UK film noir with three main locations – Lambeth, Soho and “Soho-On-Sea” (AKA Brighton). James Harrison of South West Silents& Film Noir UK joins Dom to talk about the film and about Film Noir UK.
The star of Good-Time Girl is Jean Kent, known throughout the 1940s and beyond as UK film’s “bad girl”. To talk about Jean’s life and career, we drop in to the BFI to meet up with curator, Josephine Botting.
For a few years before she became famous, Jean Kent worked as a Windmill girl. This scan is from the autobiography of Vivian Van Damm, the long term producer at the Windmill, who sacked Jean for being “immature” and “lacking personality”. He later realised he had made a mistake!
Our guest, Jo Botting, met Jean Kent in 2011 for a special screening of Jean’s 1946 romantic drama Caravan. Here’s the photographic proofof that meeting….
Our other guest for this episode is Paris based journalist Hanna Steinkopf-Frank. Paris is some distance from Soho - the connection is that Gillian Hills became a Yé-yé singer and Hannah came on to talk about this genre.
In episode 33 we discussed The Sandwich Man with the aforementioned Christopher Fowler. That episode has just been included as a bonus feature on a new 4K release of the film. To win a DVD, answer the question: Who was Dora Bryan frequently mistaken for by members of the public? Winners will be announced in the next episode.
If you would like to support the show with a small financial contribution towards our running costs you can do that here. For every £1 donated, a kitten lives.
If you are a business and would like to sponsor us, please get in touch and let's talk the talk.
Between March & May 2022, we ran a series of screenings of 1930s quota quickie films at the Kino Cinema in Bermondsey. Each screening was followed by a Q&A with our resident quickie expert, Dr Lawrence Napper of Kings College London and a specially invited expert guest. We will be returning to the Kino in the autumn for season 2 but, in the meantime, you can hear season one of the Kino Quickies podcast atKinoQuickies.com. You can also follow us on Facebook.
The originator of Soho Bites,Dr Jingan Young, has a new book coming out all about.... guess what? Films set in Soho! Get your copy atFoyles.
Thank you for listening.
Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)
In the first half of the programme , David talks about a film that promises to be a teeny-weeny bit better than Zeta One, although we won't get to find out until next year. The Wrong People is currently in pre-production and is David's own adaptation of Robin Maugham's 1967 novel of the same name.
Set in Tangier in the early 60s, it's the uncomfortable story of Arnold, a closeted gay teacher who falls under the corrupting influence of Ewing Baird, a wealthy ex-pat with particular peccadillos.
If you would like to support the show with a small financial contribution towards our running costs you can do that here. For every £1 donated, a kitten lives.
If you are a business and would like to sponsor us, please get in touch and let's talk the talk.
Between March & May 2022, we ran a series of screenings of 1930s quota quickie films at the Kino Cinema in Bermondsey. Each screening was followed by a Q&A with our resident quickie expert, Dr Lawrence Napper of Kings College London and a specially invited expert guest. We will be returning to the Kino in the autumn for season 2 but, in the meantime, you can hear season one of the Kino Quickies podcast atKinoQuickies.com. You can also follow us on Facebook.
The originator of Soho Bites,Dr Jingan Young, has a new book coming out all about.... guess what? Films set in Soho! Get your copy atFoyles.
Thank you for listening.
Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)
To begin the show, Mark Brisenden makes a return visit to Soho Bites talk about the London venue at which nearly all BBC radio comedies were recorded between 1946 and 1995 - The Paris Studios on Lower Regent St.
The picturesMark brought from the last night of the Paris.
Between March & May 2022, we ran a series of screenings of 1930s quota quickie films at the Kino Cinema in Bermondsey. Each screening was followed by a Q&A with our resident quickie expert, Dr Lawrence Napper of Kings College London and a specially invited expert guest. We will be returning to the Kino in the autumn for season 2 but, in the meantime, you can hear the Kino Quickies podcast atKinoQuickies.com. You can also follow us on Facebook.
The originator of Soho Bites,Dr Jingan Young, has a new book coming out all about.... guess what? Films set in Soho! Get your copy atFoyles.
Thank you for listening.
Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)
Our second sandwich man IS a fictional character - Horace Quilby is played by Michael Bentine in the 1966 comedy, The Sandwich Man.
The film is noteworthy mostly for its extraordinary castand for its numerous London locations which you can see HERE courtesy of Reelstreets.
To talk about The Sandwich Man we were joined by the novelist, Christopher Fowler.
***UPDATE*** Christopher very sadly died a few weeks after we recorded this conversation. You can read an obituary HERE.
Film makers often cheat when it comes to locations - eg a person turns a corner and re-appears three streets away. In The Sandwich Man, Horace Quilby is supposed to be walking around the west end, but according to THIS MAP of his route, constructed using the locations listed on ReelStreets, he covers an unfeasible number of miles in one day.
We have another podcast coming out! Starting in March, a series of screenings and Q&As will take place at theKino Cinema in Bermondsey which will be magically turned into a podcast a few days after each one. Follow the podcast atKinoQuickies.com, follow us onTwitter and we'd love to have you come to a screening. All you have to do is buy aticket.
The originator of Soho Bites,Dr Jingan Young, has a new book coming out all about.... guess what? Films set in Soho! Get your copy atFoyles.
Thank you for listening.
Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)
The Crooked Mile consolidated the UK career of Millicent Martin. Here is some publicity material from the show.
Ace of Clubs was written by Noel Coward, the MD was Mantovani and Graham Payn & Pat Kirkwood starred. Pat Kirkwooddid not have an affair with the late Prince Philip. Nope. No way. Definitely not. Graham Payn was Noel Coward's long-term partner. Here's some publicity material from the show.
The Crooked Mile was based on Peter Wildeblood's very much out of print novel, "West End People". I can't afford it so have put it on my list for Santa.
The originator of Soho Bites, Dr Jingan Young, has a new book coming out all about.... guess what? Films set in Soho! Get your copy at Foyles.
Thank you for listening.
Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)
Good-Time Girl was based on a novel by Arthur La Bern called, “Night Darkens the Streets”. La Bern also wrote, “It Always Rains on Sunday” which was adapted for the screenand “Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square” upon which, Alfred Hitchcock’s “Frenzy” was based. Night Darkens the Streets is now out of print and the cheapest available copy online was £47 when last checked, so here’s a picture of the cover for free.
Interesting article by Josephine Botting & Sarah Castagnetti about the co-writer of Good Time Girl, Muriel Box
Good-Time Girl is available to view for free on the brilliant BFI Player
Although not always in perfect quality, there are several Jean Kent films available on the Internet Archive including The Browning Versionand Caravan. Find more HERE
Have a look at some of the locations in Good-Time Girl, courtesy of our friends at Reelstreets.
***** UPDATE*****
Since publishing the episode, Caroline Champion got in touch pointing out that Jean was in an episode of Steptoe & Son in 1970. She plays Daphne who finds herself at the centre of an unlikely love triangle. Thanks to the wonder of the internet, the whole episode is HERE.
Thank you for listening.
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