The First Lego Brick Rock Doc - Piece by Piece (Pop Screen Episode 167)

Madness! Madness, they call them Madness, which is fair enough, because that's their name. At a very early stage in their quest to become one of Britain's most beloved bands, the Nutty Boys starred in a semi-improvised film about their formation and rise to fame. It was called Take It Or Leave It, it was surprisingly serious in tone, and it was, as Suggs put it, "the beginning and the end of our film careers".Well, not in his case, actually - as Graham and Mark note, he had some other acting roles. But what about Take It Or Leave It? It turns out it's well worth revisiting, as a time capsule of both an iconic band in their early days and working-class London in the early '80s. We also discuss the differences between Jamaican, British and American ska, the time the band nearly made a sitcom with the writers of Blackadder, and the reason why you should never let Chas Smash use your hairdryer.Fans of naughty boys in nasty schools will surely enjoy Graham and Mark's other podcast The Arts Hole, which is only available on our Patreon. Backers will also get a monthly bonus episode of this show, weekly articles on Doctor Who and the Twilight Zone, and our uncategorisable end-of-month miscellany Last Night... Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky and Twitter for more info.

It's playtime! Pop Screen is starting a themed month on "autobiopics" - films where pop stars play themselves, but in a different context to the standard rock doc. The nearest we'll get to documentary is this film by Morgan Neville, which sees Pharrell Williams talk about his incredible career and range of star collaborators - Kendrick Lamar, Gwen Stefani, Jay-Z and more - through the medium of, er, Lego.Joining regular host Graham, Mark Harrison talks about the history of "brickfilms", the Lego franchise's move from studio to studio, and the vexed question of whether 'Happy' is annoying or not. We also talk about the film's insight into creativity, the other Pharrell Williams movie directed by Michel Gondry that you'll never see, and, of course, try to imagine what he thought he was doing with that bloody hat. It's the podcast of the summer!Our Patreon brings all the boys to the yard, and no wonder - we've just launched Graham and Mark Cunliffe's exclusive new arts and culture podcast The Arts Hole there. You'll find that along with Patreon exclusive episodes of this show - listen to the end to find out what's next - written articles about The Twilight Zone and Doctor Who, and much more. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to find out more.

"So we're doing this, right?" The new film from David Lowery, the director of The Green Knight, is not a love story, it's not a ghost story, and a lot of people aren't sure what it is at all. We know it's definitely about a very Gaga-esque pop star played by Anne Hathaway trying to heal the wounds of the past with her estranged dress designer (Michaela Coel), and we know it's got a storming FKA Twigs cameo which qualifies it for this show. But what lies beyond these facts?Join Graham and Robyn as they look at the many musical and cinematic inspirations Lowery and Hathaway took - from Persona to Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour! - and discuss the film's soundtrack cuts from Charli XCX, Jack Antonoff and Twigs herself. We also talk about the responses we had to the film - both emotional and stigmatic - talk about Charli's busy year at the movies, and relitigate the eternal question of whether Jack Antonoff is actually a good producer or not. Plus a bit of Billie Eilish concert film talk, if that's your bag.If you don't want to see us doing mildly lewd Gievenchy adverts for money, you can donate to our Patreon where you'll get Graham's new culture podcast The Arts Hole, plus Rob's franchise run-down They'll Love Us When We're Dead, weekly written articles about Doctor Who and The Twilight Zone, and more. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky and Facebook to find out more.

It's one of the great films of the '90s, from one of the most Pop Screen-friendly directors of all time: Jim Jarmusch, a man who can't even make a little family drama without sticking Tom Waits in there. Here, he's making a Western starring Johnny Depp, Robert Mitchum, a lot of people who would go on to be very famous, and the former lead singer of the Stooges. In a dress and bonnet.It's so good that we've redone the show's theme music in its honour this week. Join Graham and Rob as they discuss the light the film sheds on the Western genre, its place as the first of Jarmusch's offbeat genre exercises, and the film's other hidden punk rock cameo that will blow you away. Plus: the pre-wearing-wacky-hats-for-Disney-money years of Depp's career, Iggy Pop's advice to young musicians and more!If you don't want us to have to go to the town of Machine to earn our fortune, you can donate to our Patreon where we're just about to drop an exclusive episode of this show about Michael Jackson's Ghosts. Also, Graham is about to launch his new podcast The Arts Hole, and there are weekly articles about Doctor Who, The Twilight Zone and more that you won't find anywhere else. Follow us on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and Facebook for more.

Back to the '90s, and a time when a movie could just be, y'know, anything you wanted. The co-writer of Sid & Nancy, Abbe Wool, went to test this theory with this wilfully inconsequential road movie in which a member of X (John Doe) and a member of The Beastie Boys (Adam "Ad-Rock" Horowitz) set off to scatter the ashes of a friend of the former musician. It's really the excuse for an eclectic set of cameos, and we mean eclectic - everyone from David Carradine to Timothy Leary, Arlo Guthrie to Flea.But what if there was something deeply profound beneath the surface? Well, we don't quite go that far, but debuting co-host Rob Spencer from Caliber 9 From Outer Space makes a good account of this as a movie of its moment. Joining him to pick over Roadside Prophets's cameos, connections and subtexts is Graham, and their conversation is as free-ranging as the movie: Patty Hearst, cinema's greatest scenes of gluttony, the wonder of Fatma Mohamed and Neil Kinnock's election broadcasts are all under consideration.If you want to help us quit our factory jobs, you can donate to our Patreon, where we've just launched one of our new shows for 2026 - They'll Love Us When We're Dead - with an episode on the Blade franchise. Our new culture show, The Arts Hole, is coming in May, plus Pop Screen exclusives, weekly articles on Doctor Who and the Twilight Zone, and much more. Follow us on Instagram, Bluesky and Facebook to find out more.

The Jimi Hendrix estate have been notably controlling of the film rights to his life story since his death at the totemic age of 27. Hollywood, though, cannot stand for a classic rock star to go un-biopicised (it's a word now), which is why in 2013 John Ridley got Andre Benjamin - yes, Andre 3000 from OutKast - to play the legendary guitarist in Jimi: All is By My Side, a film tackling Hendrix's rise to success that breaks off conveniently before he wrote any of the classic songs the film doesn't have the rights to.Our 27 Club correspondent Aidan rejoins Graham to discuss Hendrix's musical and cinematic legacies, his famous covers of everything from Bob Dylan to the American national anthem, the perils of watching films from a location manager's perspective, and the complaints levelled against the film by Hendrix's ex Kathy Etchingham. We also discuss the fractious screenwriting career and awful op-ed writing career of John Ridley, and the research process that led to him apparently deciding a book where Hendrix shoots purple lasers from his eyes was a reliable source. No, really.If you want to hear us tackle an even more baffling film about Hendrix, you're in luck, because this month's Patreon bonus episode of Pop Screen is all about Larry Buchanan's Down On Us. We're also gearing up to launch another Patreon-only podcast, They'll Love Us When We're Dead, looking at overlooked and dormant film franchises, as well as producing weekly articles on The Twilight Zone and Doctor Who. All of these are only available at Patreon - follow us on Instagram, Bluesky and Facebook to find out more.

The history of pop is as much about subcultures as it is music, and this week Pop Screen is diving into one of the most enduring (at least round co-host Mick's gaff): mod. From its origins, which were so controversial the phrase "moral panic" was coined to describe the press reaction (fact!) to the late '70s revival that gave the world The Jam, there's always been some corner of Britain where Lambretta scooters are still the main mode of transport.Chris Green's 2021 film The Pebble and the Boy is a coming-of-age road movie that asks what the legacy of Mod is today. Join Graham and Mick as they attempt to come up with their own answer to this question, one that takes in the pop career of co-star Patsy Kensit and a quiz we will never do again. We also give an appreciation of the late Stone Roses bassist Mani, who makes a cameo here, and the unexpected way in which his old band may have swung the Gorton and Denton by-election. Maybe.You can hear our Second Coming every month on Patreon, where we release a bonus episode of this show - the next one, about the bizarre low-budget rock conspiracy film Down On Us, is coming in April - plus weekly articles about Doctor Who and The Twilight Zone, an end-of-month podcast pot-pourri we call Last Night, and much more. Follow us on Instagram, Bluesky and Facebook to find out more.

SAMMEH! Yes, finally we're getting round to Ryan Coogler's box-office-busting, Oscars-history-making period vampire gangster epic. Joe from Dreaming Machine rejoins Graham to talk about how Coogler's hit film explores the history, tradition and continued relevance of the blues, all the time mindful of our... let's say shaky status as two white guys talking about this. We want your songs, we want your stories, etc. etc.Join us and find out which literary masterpiece might have inspired Coogler's choice of music for Remmick and his crew, which legendary folk singer was a regular at one of the cast's childhood church, and which legends of Black culture are nodded to in the film's legendary one-take musical number. We also talk about IMAX aspect ratio changes, Coogler's time with Marvel and how it may have impacted this film, and - the hot topic of the moment! - Timothee Chalamet's opinions on ballet.If you can just let us in your house, we'll give you all kinds of rewards from our Patreon. We've just released an exclusive episode of this very episode about Roger Corman's Frankenstein Unbound, and we're about to launch two new podcast series in tandem with our regular features Last Night... - a monthly round-up of everything our critics couldn't fit in anywhere else - articles about The Twilight Zone and Doctor Who, and much more. Follow us on Bluesky, Instagram and Facebook to learn more.

Have you seen The Bride yet? No, not Maggie Gyllenhaal's new film - we mean the 1985 film by Frank Roddam, director of Quadrophenia. Like Gyllenhaal's film, it's an attempt at a female-centred sequel to Mary Shelley's novel. Unlike Gyllenhaal's film, it has an actively deranged cast list including Quentin Crisp, Alexei Sayle, Ken Campbell, David Rapaport... and, as Dr. Frankenstein, Sting.Join Graham and Mark as they divide Roddam's film cleanly into the bits that work and the bits that don't, which is made surprisingly easy by its two-stranded plot. We also discuss how the film compares to Poor Things, talk about Rapaport's remarkable career, reflect on the end of Sting's movie-star dreams and play a challenging game of FMK. Plus, an appreciation of Roddam's TV work, including one of the most groundbreaking documentaries ever made and Masterchef.If you don't want to see us reduced to joining a travelling circus, you can donate to our Patreon where we're about to follow up this episode with an exclusive bonus discussion of Roger Corman's Frankenstein Unbound - and we're also about to launch two new podcasts, including Rob's They'll Love Me When I'm Dead and Graham's The Arts Hole. None of this is available anywhere else, and the same goes for our weekly written features on classic TV SF. Follow us on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram to find out more.

It's the documentary you never knew you needed, and you do need it. Marcie Hume's chronicle of life on the road with '80s child actor Corey Feldman and his backing band of skimpily-dressed 'Angels' tracks the fallout from his infamous 2016 Today Show performance, which went viral and had the world asking questions like "Is this a sex cult?" and "No, seriously, is this a s*x cult?"Join Jeff and Graham as they answer all these posers and more, with detours to consider Feldman's episode of Wife Swap, the different eras of his music, and Jeff's experience watching Corey's infamous 2023 Riot Fest performance. We also talk about the 'Two Coreys' years and the strange economics of '80s nostalgia. What are you waiting for? Just Go 4 It!As we discuss on the podcast, there's another episode where we talk Corey... but to hear that you'll have to donate to our Patreon, where you'll also get exclusive access to our end-of-month round-up podcast Last Night..., weekly written articles on Doctor Who and The Twilight Zone, plus more features that we're working up for 2026. Follow us on Instagram, Bluesky and Facebook for more info.