Right, now we've got that out of the way, down to business.

Welcome to this, the new Kermode Uncut website. This is a BBC blog which will link you to all the places where you can find my film reviews, and any other associated nonsense which I have been broadcasting in the recent past.

There are a couple of reasons for setting up this website. One of them is the increasing plethora of other 'Mark Kermode' websites which seem to have sprung up on myspace and facebook and the like, which have nothing to do with me. So I thought I'd finally stick my flag in the ground and have an official site of my own. If you read it here - it's me. Anywhere else, who knows who it could be ...?

More importantly, the site will have a regular blog, which I have opted to film rather than write because a) it's more exciting and b) let's face it, it's easier for me. I'll be filing these video blogs in my usual grumpy fashion, so don't expect a lot of smiling, or good natured bonhomie. But it's my way of letting off steam, and if you enjoy it too then that's an added bonus.

I've been asked by the powers that be to supply a brief biog about myself, which seems a little like applying for a job I've already got, but in the spirit of co-operation, here goes:

I'm a film critic and broadcaster (which I assume, if you're reading this page, you already knew) and I also break instruments in a skiffle band (which you may not know).

My main job is arguing with Simon Mayo for an hour on Radio Five Live on a Friday afternoon between 3 and 4. If you miss the show, you can download it as a podcast, and there's a link to do just that on this site. If you're feeling particularly masochistic, you can actually watch me and Simon bickering like an old married couple on the 'Live Web Cam' (whatever that is) or watch highlights on the neatly edited version which is put together just after the show's finished.

I also do the film reviews for BBC News 24, and once again, if you don't see them on telly you can catch up with them through the miracle of the internet.

From the beginning of June, I'm going to be co-presenting 'The Culture Show' with Lauren Laverne in its glittering all-new format. The new show will go out on BBC 2 in a thirty minute version on Tuesday nights, with an extended 'Culture Show Uncut' running to 45 minutes on Friday nights.

On the writing front, I remain proud to be a longstanding contributing Editor to Sight & Sound magazine, and I file DVD reviews and features for The Observer. I've also written a couple of very slim books - both BFI modern classics, one about (guess what?) 'The Exorcist' and the other about 'The Shawshank Redemption'. I've written and presented television documentaries about them too: 'The Fear of God, 25 years of The Exorcist' and 'Shawshank, The Redeeming Feature', both of which have wound up on various special edition DVD releases. Other documentaries include 'Hell on Earth', 'Fire in the Sky' and 'On The Edge of Blade Runner'.

In order to maintain a façade of academic respectability, I'd also like to point out that I do have a Phd in Modern English and American Horror Fiction and so that'sDoctorKermode, thank you very much. I'm also a Fellow of the English Department of Southampton University, where I regularly bore the students to death on the subject of why 'The Exorcist' is the greatest movie ever made. 

And, as I mentioned before, I play the double bass in skiffle band 'The Dodge Brothers', singing songs about transport and homicide with a heartbreak in every tune...