Does Mark think BACKROOMS is a-maze-ing?

Kermode & Mayo’s Take

Sony Music

Film Interviews, Tv & Film, Film Reviews, Tv Reviews

4.3 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2026

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Take is now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/kermodeandmayo Become a Vanguardista or an Ultra Vanguardista to get video episodes of Take Two every week, plus member-only chat rooms, polls and submissions to influence the show, behind-the-scenes photos and videos, the monthly Redactor’s Roundup newsletter, and access to a new fortnightly LIVE show—a raucous, unfiltered lunchtime special with the Good Doctors, new features, and live chat so you can heckle, vote, and have your questions read out in real time. Our guest this week is James Graham, one of Britain’s most prolific and successful writers, including of the brand new BBC series Dear England. Adapted from a play which Graham also wrote, it charts the journey of Gareth Southgate’s England men’s team from the disappointment of the ‘golden generation’ to the success we all cheered on in recent years—except for Mark, of course. No chance of him following the football. James talks to Simon about the highs and lows, moving from stage tp screen, and why Gareth Southgate has a redemption narrative straight outta Shakespeare. Mark reviews it too, plus three more of the week’s big releases—a packed show again. We’ve got Power Ballad, a dark musical comedy of unfulfilled potential and stolen success starring Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas, Backrooms a new A24 horror that started life as a viral YouTube video, and Tuner, the crime thriller starring Dustin Hoffman and last week’s Take guest Leo Woodall. All that plus the usual lovely nonsense. Enjoy! Timecodes: 00:00 Introduction 10:04 Power Ballad review 16:38 Box Office 10 30:29 James Graham interview 47:00 Dear England review 53:33 Laughter Lift 01:00:31 Backrooms Review 01:08:22 Tuner review The fundraising page for Dave Mitchell, director of Alien On Stage can be found here: https://www.goodhub.com/go/helpdave You can contact the show by emailing correspondence@kermodeandmayo.com or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo. 🌎 Get an exclusive 15% discount on your first Saily data plans! Use code [Take] at checkout. Download Saily app or go to https://saily.com/Take ⛵ A Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts To advertise on this show contact: podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before we begin, a quick reminder that you can become a Vanguard Easter and get an extra episode every Thursday.
0:06.2	Including bonus reviews.
0:08.0	Extra viewing suggestions.
0:09.7	Viewing recommendations at home and in cinemas.
0:12.4	Plus your film and non-film questions answered as best we can in questions, Schmestians.
0:16.8	You can get all that extra stuff via Apple Podcasts or head to extra takes.com for non-fruit-related devices.
0:23.9	There's never been a better time to become a Vanguard Easter.
0:26.7	Free offer, now available wherever you get your podcasts.
0:29.4	And if you're already a Vanguard Easter, we salute you.
0:36.1	Now, Simon, if our beloved redactor would be offered a mind-blowing new job and
0:40.5	abandon us tomorrow, hard to imagine, but go on. We would be on the lookout for a replacement.
0:45.4	I mean, surely he's irreplaceable. He is, but that aside, the candidates who match what we're
0:50.3	looking for, elite-level Christmas cracker joke writing, a track record of working
0:54.3	with top talent. And we do mean top. We'd be wise to try Indeed Sponsored jobs. They help you stand
1:00.0	out and hire quality candidates who can drive the results you need. Spend more time interviewing
1:04.8	candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results now with Indeed
1:10.8	sponsored jobs.
1:12.4	And listeners of this show will get a £100 sponsored job credit
1:16.5	to help get your job the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com slash
1:22.0	curmode mayo.
1:23.4	Just go to indeed.com slash curmode mayo right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this here podcast.
1:31.6	Indeed.com slash Kermode Mayo. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring, do it the right way with Indeed.
	...

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