They’ve been the number one movie show in the UK for years, but there is one medium that Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode have never tackled – television.
In an interview with the Guardian, Mayo and Kermode said that, despite pushing for a show, the people in charge of the BBC don’t see the appeal due to “the Internet”. “Here’s all you need to know,” Mayo said. “Everybody thinks that we’d be great on television apart from any channel controller.”
“If you are saying, here’s the contract guys, would you like to do a TV version of what you are doing, OK sure, let’s talk about it,” he adds”. “But if the controller is not on board then it’s not worth having the conversation.”
The closest one of the pair came to a TV deal was when Kermode was in the running to take over from Jonathan Ross presenting BBC1’s Film Review show. The job ending up going to Claudia Winkleman.
“People think – and I have heard this from TV people – that no one wants a movie review show on television because people get everything from the internet,” Kermode says. “And my point always is, you can get car reviews and lots of stuff about cars on the internet but that doesn’t stop people watching Top Gear. So is there a TV version of this? Of course there is, but I have given up waiting for anyone.”
Kermode and Mayo’s show, dubbed “Wittertainment” is downloaded 1.6 million times a month and is the second biggest podcast from the BBC behind The Archers.
You can read the rest of the interview here, where they also cover their thoughts on being “the Top Gear of film review shows” and how Benedict Cumberbatch punched Kermode in the arm because he kept calling Keira Knightley, “IKEA Knightley”.
Originally published November 10, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
