Mon, Sep 7 2009 | Published in News

Worry Not, Five Live Listeners, Worry Not

By: Ed Whitfield

Mayo and Kermode“Worry not” Mayo and Kermode tell Twitter as Five Live Programme looks set to move to Radio 2

Eagle eyed users of the BBC News website would have noticed an interesting footnote to this morning’s announcement that Terry Wogan is to step down as the host of BBC Radio 2’s breakfast show.

Wogan is to be replaced in January by flamed follicled specmare, Chris Evans, leaving his drivetime slot vacant. The BBC new website reported here that Simon Mayo, currently the host of the Five Live afternoon show that incorporates Mark Kermode’s film review slot, would fill the void, putting the future of the hugely successful film segment into doubt.

Mayo and Kermode have been entertaining film fans since 2005, with the programme famous for the critic’s impassioned destruction of Hollywood Blockbusters. His memorable rant about the failings of Pirates of the Caribbean 3 saw Mayo leave his chair in web-cast to get a newspaper which he then read for the remainder of the review.

Anticipating fans concerns, Mayo and Kermode’s Twitter account @witterntainment, simply posted two words “Don’t worry” earlier this morning, quickly followed up with “Really. Don’t worry.” The assurance will be a relief to fans of the weekly film centred joust, as the banter between the zealous film critic and his eye rolling DJ foil, have become one of the highlights of the BBC’s weekly film coverage.

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About Ed Whitfield

Ed Whitfield has been a cinephile since the 1980s when an oppressive world drove him away from society and into the sanctum of his local flick parlour. He suffered almost unimaginable cold studying Media Production in Scotland before spending a year watching movies with the Bloomsbury set for his Film Studies MA at University College London. His lust for the moving image reached almost dangerous levels in the years that followed and it was at this point that he took up film writing, ensuring that those passions were never misdirected into senseless violence. Ed likes his cinema the way he likes his wines – brooding, complexed, full bodied, inventive, provocative, under 8 pounds a time and where possible, highly fruity. He’s suspicious of film snobbery, believing that the low-brow is as intrinsic to a fully rounded cinema going experience as the hi but rejects corporate gunk masquerading as entertainment. He hasn’t seen his favourite movie yet but will inform you once his optic nerves register the hit.
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  • Ed Whitfield
    You're correct Rob, that should read 2001. Their partnership goes back further than in fact as they did some time together on Radio 1. All the more reason why it should continue.
  • Rob Thomas
    Its been going longer than 2005..I was listening to in in School in 2003. I think it started in 2000
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