Couple Indemnity

Hal has selected a real coming-of-age sex comedy with the first instalment of the popular American Pie franchise from his early teen years. The story follows a group of high school classmates who make a pact to lose their virginity before they graduate. Starring Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Mena Suvari, Eugene Levy and Jennifer Coolidge. Director: Paul Weitz

Izzy's latest selection is the highly acclaimed Stanley Kubrick historical epic Barry Lyndon (1975) that recounts the early exploits and later unravelling of an 18th-century Irish rogue and gold-digger (Ryan O'Neal) who marries a rich widow in order to attempt to climb the social ladder and assume her late husband's aristocratic position.  Director: Stanley Kubrick

For our latest podcast, we are delighted to be joined by a true podcast inspiration with Scott, host of numerous incredible shows such as Reel Britannia, Stinking Pause, Rainbow Valley and the official Talking Pictures TV Channel.  Scott joins us today for a deep-dive into Hal's latest film selection in the Hitchcock marathon, none other than Rear Window (1954).  A newspaper photographer (James Stewart) with a broken leg passes time recuperating by observing his neighbors through his window. He sees what he believes to be a murder. Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Izzy's latest choice for the podcast is last year's popular romantic sports drama film Challengers, which follows the love triangle between an injured tennis-star-turned coach Tashi (Zendaya), her low-circuit tennis player ex-boyfriend (Josh O'Connor), and her tennis champion husband (Mike Faist) across 13 years of their relationship, culminating in the match between the two men on the ATP Challenger tour. Director: Luca Guadagnino

Hal has selected the first of one his many favourite tv shows to cover for the podcast with Foyle's War. A British detective drama set in Hastings, England, during and after the Second World War. Created by Anthony Horowitz, it follows the quietly determined Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen) as he investigates crimes on the home front — from black market rackets and espionage to murder and treason. Balancing historical accuracy with gripping storytelling, the series explores the moral complexities of wartime Britain through its four central characters: Foyle himself, his spirited driver Sam Stewart (Honeysuckle Weeks), the steadfast DS Paul Milner (Anthony Howell), and Foyle’s RAF pilot son Andrew (Julian Ovenden).  The episode of Among the Few (2003), is set in autumn 1940. As the Battle of Britain rages overhead, Foyle investigates the death of a young female lorry driver, Connie Dewar, whose work ferrying fuel to a nearby RAF base puts her close to a dangerous black-market petrol-theft ring. The case draws Sam undercover at the transport depot and entangles Andrew Foyle when fellow pilots fall under suspicion. Beneath the veneer of heroism “among the few,” Foyle uncovers a web of theft, betrayal, and personal tragedy. Director: Jeremy Silberston

Izzy has selected a really groundbreaking 1950's drama in what was the last ever work directed by the great Douglas Sirk with Imitation of Life. The film tells the story of Lora Meredith (Lana Turner), a white single mother who dreams of being on Broadway, has a chance encounter with Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore), a black widow. Annie becomes the caretaker of Lora's daughter, Suzie (Sandra Dee), while Lora pursues her stage career. Both women deal with the difficulties of motherhood: Lora's thirst for fame threatens her relationship with Suzie, while Annie's light-skinned daughter, Sarah Jane (Susan Kohner), struggles with her African-American identity. Director: Douglas Sirk

Hal has chosen another of his favourite with the iconic romantic suspense thriller Charade (1963) where we witness intrigue that ensues in Paris as a woman (Audrey Hepburn) is pursued by several men who want to get their hands on a fortune her murdered husband had stolen. She soon loses trust in those who claim they want to help her. Also features some glorious romantic scenes and witty one-liners featuring a certain Cary Grant. Director: Stanley Donen

Izzy's choice this week is a highly-respected German BAFTA and Academy Award winning movie called The Lives of Others (2006), set in East Berlin in 1984, an agent (Ulrich Muhe) of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives. Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Hal has returned this week with one of his all-time favourite Hitchcock movies, Dial M for Murder, the incredible one-room mystery thriller starring Ray Milland as Tony Wendice, who plans to murder his wife (Grace Kelly) when he finds out that she had an affair with someone a year ago. He blackmails an old college associate (Anthony Dawson) to execute the crime but things don't work out as planned. Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Izzy has selected yet another emotionally heavy movie for this week's episode with the 2022 coming-of-age drama Aftersun. Sophie (played by Frankie Corio) reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father (Paul Mescal) twenty years earlier. Memories real and imagined fill the gaps between miniDV footage as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn’t. Director: Charlotte Wells

This week Hal has selected the BBC three-part period drama Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky, a story of unrequited love set in the 1930's, against the backdrop of grimy streets and public houses.  Revolving around The Midnight Bell, a public house off the Euston Road, it follows the painful pursuit of love from three different perspectives. Barman Bob (Bryan Dick), who yearns for penniless street-walker Jenny (Zoe Tapper). Bob's colleague Ella (Sally Hawkins), who is torn between the attentions of an older, wealthier man and her secret desire for her barman workmate. Director: Simon Curtis

Izzy has gone big on the romance scale with her selection this week and has chosen The Bridges of Madison County, a moving love story about a photographer (Clint Eastwood) on assignment to shoot the historic bridges of Madison County. He meets a housewife (Meryl Streep), whose husband and children are away on a trip, and the film traces a brief affair that is never sordid but instead one of two soul mates who have met later in life. Director: Clint Eastwood  

Hal has selected the classic legal mystery drama Witness for the Prosecution this week, directed by one of our favourites in Billy Wilder. The plot centres around an ailing famous barrister (Charles Laughton) who agrees to defend a man (Tyrone Power) in a sensational murder trial where his self-possessed wife’s unconvincing testimony confuses him. Director: Billy Wilder

Izzy has really stepped up her podcast selection game this week by choosing Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Indy (Harrison Ford) and his feisty ex-flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) dodge booby-traps, fight enemies and stare down snakes in their incredible worldwide quest for the mystical Ark of the Covenant. Experience one exciting cliff-hanger after another when you discover adventure with the one and only Indiana Jones. Director: Steven Spielberg

We are back with another cracker in the Alfred Hitchcock marathon and this week Hal has selected Strangers on a Train (1951), the film adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel.  Tennis player Guy Haines (Farley Granger) is enraged by his wife's refusal to finalise their divorce so he can wed senator's daughter Anne (Ruth Roman). He strikes up a conversation with a stranger, Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker), and unwittingly sets in motion a deadly chain of events. Psychopathic Bruno kills Guy's wife, then urges Guy to reciprocate by killing Bruno's father. Meanwhile, Guy is murder suspect number one. Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Izzy has gone all Arthouse this week and selected the highly acclaimed French historical romance ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’. On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman. Director: Celine Sciamma

Hal has come back with another of his heavy-hitters this week by selecting the powerful romantic drama starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick, depicting the downward spiral of two average Americans who succumb to alcoholism and their repeated attempts to deal with their problems.  Director: Blake Edwards

Izzy has practically transported us in a time-machine to her childhood by selecting the 1999 made-for-television adaptation of the popular Broadway musical Annie, the young girl (Alicia Morton) living a “hard-knock life” in an orphanage. Fed up with the dastardly Miss Hannigan (Kathy Bates), Annie escapes the run-down orphanage determined to find her mom and dad. It’s an adventure that takes her from the cold, mean streets of New York to the warm, comforting arms of bighearted billionaire Oliver Warbucks (Victor Garber) - with plenty of mischief and music in between. Director: Rob Marshall

For a special one-off episode, we have taken a trip to the cinema to see yet another Paul Thomas Anderson highly-acclaimed film The Master (2012), telling the story of Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), a WWII Navy Veteran struggling to adjust to a post-war society, who meets Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the leader of a cult known as The Cause. Dodd sees something in Quell and accepts him into the movement. Freddie takes a liking to The Cause and begins traveling with Dodd's family to spread his teachings. Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Hal has returned to his love for Frank Capra this week and has chosen one of the most important political dramas from Hollywood history with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), about a naive, newly appointed and idealistic United States senator (James Stewart) who fights against government corruption.  Director: Frank Capra