Murder mystery? Rom-com? And, as an afterthought.... wartime boosterism? East of Piccadilly (1941) was known as "The Strangler" in the US and was directed by Harold Huth. It stars Judy Campbell & Sebastian Shaw and was written by the then quite young J Lee Thompson. It tells the story of a murder investigation and is (extremely) loosely based on a real life case, that of the "The Soho Strangler". 1940s UK film expert, Mel Byron, comes all the way in from Talking Picture TV Podcast HQ to talk about the film. It's her third visit to the podcast - she wasn't that keen on Street of Shadows and ..read more

Attention jiving scum! This is one is straight from the fridge dad. It doesn't get more Soho than Beat Girl (1960) - coffee shops, beatniks, strip clubs, The 2 i's.... it's got the lot. Gillian Hills leads the cast of Beat Girl, which also stars Adam Faith, Christopher Lee, Shirley Ann Field and, in a very small role, a young Oliver Reed. We we met novelist, Des Burkinshaw in the bar of the Soho Theatre to talk about Beat Girl which is the closest we could find to a bohemian coffee bar. Des is a huge fan of John Barry, who wrote the music for Beat Girl and he recently concluded a two year stin ..read more

This is not really an episode I'm afraid - time just ran away from me. However, I've recorded this mini-episode because there is some very important business to finish up which is to announce two things.... The winners of last month's Dora Bryan competition Kino Quickies season 2 Two lucky lucky listeners were destined to win a copy of the new 4K DVD release of The Sandwich Man - all they had to do was answer a fiendishly tricky question. Did you enter? Did you win? Listen to the episode to find out. And the second half of this episode is the preview trailer of Kino Quickies season 2 - our ..read more

This is not really an episode I'm afraid - time just ran away from me. However, I've recorded this mini-episode because there is some very important business to finish up which is to announce two things.... The winners of last month's Dora Bryan competition Kino Quickies season 2 Two lucky lucky listeners were destined to win a copy of the new 4K DVD release of The Sandwich Man - all they had to do was answer a fiendishly tricky question. Did you enter? Did you win? Listen to the episode to find out. And the second half of this episode is the preview trailer of Kino Quickies season 2 - our ..read more

Everything changes but.... The changing faces of London neighbourhoods is our loose theme for this episode. In the first half, the novelist, Christopher Fowler makes his second appearance on the podcast, talking about his latest book and about his memories of Soho - a neighbourhood which changes constantly but somehow always remains the same. Follow Chris on Twitter and peruse his website. Read about Chris's most well known charcters in The History of Bryant & May. This episode features a snatch of original music composed by Des Burkinshaw. It was written as the theme tune for proposed TV ..read more

Two Films, One Guest. Normally we have two guests on each episode of Soho Bites, but when your guest is as good as David McGillivray, who needs a second? Long before Matthew Sweet gave him the moniker, "The Truffaut of Smut", David reviewed Zeta One (AKA The Love Factor - no idea why) for The Monthly Film Bulletin. He didn't have a lot of good things to say about it then - has his opinion changed over the last 51 years? He makes a return visit to Soho Bites to tell us. Produced by Tony Tenser, the film had a troubled shooting period and was shelved for two years upon completion. Although the m ..read more

Episode 34: It Happened in Soho (1948) & Mark Brisenden on The Paris Studios After an extended break to allow our massive team to shift its attention to our most recent podcast series, Kino Quickies, we return to Soho Bites with the 1948 murder mystery, It Happened in Soho. It’s safe to say, the film had a very small budget and doesn’t have the highest of production values but it does boast a major star, Richard “Stinker” Murdoch. At the time the film was made, Murdoch was a big BBC radio star, having starred, at this stage, in two huge radio comedy hits - Band Waggon with Arthur Askey and ..read more

We’ve done some episodes in the past with some disparate and unusual  themes.  We did a Spain themed episode, a sport one, a God special and even a wrestling / boxing episode, but we think we’ve surpassed ourselves this time as the theme linking the two items in episode 33 is sandwiches. Sandwich boards, that is, and the men who wear them. There was a  time when Sandwich men and women and other forms of portable adverts were a common sight in the west end but In August 2008, Westminster council implemented a ban on such advertising, consigning this minor social menace to history ..read more

Murphy's Law states that if you've arranged an interview with a brilliant guest to talk about a fantastic film in a great location, then you will catch Covid and have to self-isolate. This is why my interview with Ming Ho about Turn the Key Softly (1953) took place online and not in the lovely surroundings of the BAFTA bar as originally planned. Turn the Key Softly is set over a period of twelve hours and follows three very different women on their first day of freedom after their release from Holloway Prison. Starring Yvonne Mitchell, Kathleen Harrison and a very young Joan Collins, it is dir ..read more

Episode 31: The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) & Jonathan Foster on the Prince Charles Cinema In this festive special, we’re talking about the much loved Christmas classic, The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) which, according to this article, is the greatest film ever made. In the first half of the show we meet up with Jonanathan Foster. He works at the Prince Charles Cinema, just off Leicester Square and is the co-host of the Pod Charles Cinecast. The PCC is renowned for its special event screenings including its Muppet Christmas Carol Singalongs which are are wildly popular. In the second h ..read more