There's Magic In The Air (ft. guests Shih-Ching Tsou & Sean Baker; Daryl McCormack & Cailee Spaeny; James L. Brooks)

The Empire Film Podcast

Bauer Media

Tv & Film, Film Reviews

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2025

⏱️ 118 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The penultimate regular Empire Podcast of the year is here, folks (don't worry, there are specials galore on the way), and it's a belter. Guest-wise, we have more goodies under the tree, as Jamie Graham talks to longtime collaborators Shih-Ching Tsou and Sean Baker (the director of Anora) about Tsou's directorial debut, Left-Handed Girl, which can be seen on Netflix; [25:27 - 41:51 approx] and Chris Hewitt has lovely chats with Wake Up Dead Man suspects, Daryl McCormack and Cailee Spaeny, [1:04:42 - 1:19:44 approx] and the legendary James L. Brooks, who returns to directing this week with Ella McCay. [1:40:42 - 1:54:01 approx] Either side of that little lot, Chris is joined in the podbooth by Helen O'Hara, James Dyer, and Beth Webb for more Christmas movie shenanigans, including a discussion of their favourite Christmas movie songs, and where they'd like to spend Christmas if they were in a movie. You'll be staggered to know that a certain plaza in LA gets a mention. The team also talk about the Golden Globe nominations and the potential Netflix acquisition of Warner Bros. (this episode was recorded before the Supergirl trailer launched, sadly), and they review Wake Up Dead Man (again), Eleanor The Great, Goodbye June, and Fackham Hall, which sees an Empire Podcast first. You'll have to listen to find out what that is. Enjoy!

Transcript

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0:24.0	What's on TV? The answer is a lot. There's never been more choice ever what to put on the box with an abundance of great new shows, but you can miss them all if you don't know where to look. And that's where the pilot TV podcast comes in, your essential guide to every show that matters. Each week, we sift through the very best in Prestige TV to help you decide what's worth spending your time on and what isn't. So join me, James Dyer, as well as venerable TV critics, Boyd Hilton and Kay Ribeiro,
0:26.4	and let us help take the stress out of your downtime.
0:29.8	The Pilot TV podcast, because you can't watch everything.
0:32.8	You can't do much in under five minutes.
0:34.4	Boil an egg, sure.
0:35.5	Cook a roast dinner?
0:36.6	No chance.
0:39.8	But comparing car insurance prices with mustard.com. Easy. Sure. Cook a roast dinner? No chance. But comparing car insurance prices with mustard.co.com.
0:45.7	Easy. See what you could save in just a few minutes. Click mustard.com.org authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. See website for details.
1:06.4	our podcast this week,
1:09.1	a suspect foul play.
1:13.3	That's right, we're joined by two of the suspects on Benoit Blanc's list in Wake Up Dead Man, Darrell McCormack, and Kaylee Spaney. Plus, we're joined by the director
1:19.1	of new Netflix drama Left-Handed girl, Xi Ching-Soo, and her writer and producer, the Oscar
1:24.8	winning Sean Baker. Ooh, that's exciting.
1:28.1	All that, plus usual news and nonsense on the movie podcast,
1:31.3	that's got into the Christmas spirit nice and early
1:33.5	by wearing its Muppets Christmas jumper.
1:37.5	Aww.
1:38.8	There's magic in the air this evening, magic in the air.
1:43.5	The world has got a smile today when people love and share
1:47.5	the promise of excitement is one the night will keep
1:51.7	after all there's only one more sleep till Christmas
	...

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