The Witterlist - 2nd February 2018

Welcome to The Witterlist, your weekly roundup of all the highlights from the BBC’s Flagship Film Programme on Radio Five (aka 5 Live).

If this whets your appetite for even more from Mark and Simon, don’t forget you can subscribe to our podcast for all this plus a plethora of pod-centric extras.

This week we discovered 2018’s ‘the dress’ – Mark’s tie. Is it green? Blue? Turquoise? We’ll let you decide.

If you can tear yourself away from tie-gate, also on this week’s show Simon talked to the one and only Dame Helen Mirren about her new film, Winchester.

Simon and Helen also discussed the changing landscape of the film industry in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, as well as how things have changed (or not) for actresses through her own career.

Winchester was also reviewed on today’s show, and to say Mark wasn’t impressed might be something of an understatement. Hands were flapped...

Roman J. Israel Esq. is Denzel Washington’s new film, working with director Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler). Denzel plays the titular Roman, a savant lawyer who finds his life thrown into disarray.

Journey’s End is the latest adaptation of R.C. Sherriff’s 1928 play, set before the 1918 Spring Offensive.

The cast includes Sam Claflin, Asa Butterfield, Paul Bettany and our old friend Toby Jones in a film Mark described as “vibrant and powerful”.

Talking of old friends, Shutup Butwatt is back in force with Den of Thieves, a gritty crime film that sees a group (or den, if you will) of thieves going head-to-head with Gerard Butler.

The gang set out to rob the Federal Reserve Bank, but all they really ended up stealing was Mark’s heart. Or at least, he liked it more than he thought he would.

“Absolutely laced through with threads from fairy tales…”

Finally, Mark’s film of the week is Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread. He’s seen it four times already and every viewing has revealed new things that he loved about this dreamy, funny, sad and beautiful film.