This week Chris Deacy is joined in the studio by Kevin Durham to discuss the films; Airplane!, Life of Brian, B-Movie, and Battle Royale.
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00:00Hello and welcome to Kent Film Club, I'm Chris DC and each week I'll be joined by
00:17a guest to dive deep into the impact certain films have had on their life.
00:22Each guest will reflect on the films which have meant the most to them over the years.
00:26And every week there will be a Kent Film Trivia where we quiz you at home about a film that
00:30has a connection to the county.
00:32And now let me introduce you to my guest for this week.
00:35He is a comedy feature film writer, director and actor.
00:39He is Kevin Durham.
00:40How you doing Chris?
00:41Great to have you on the programme Kevin.
00:43Thanks for having me buddy.
00:44Absolute pleasure.
00:45Well, not knowing your films in advance, there's an inevitable pun isn't there, surely you've
00:51picked Airplane.
00:52I have picked it and don't call me Shirley.
00:55There we go.
00:56It's a staple of comedy.
00:58Look at any comedy in the last 35, 40 years, a decent one, you could trace back elements
01:03back to Airplane.
01:05The writing is spot on and the acting is perfect as well because what they do, like Leslie
01:11Nielsen and the others, they don't lean into the comedy.
01:15You lean into a comedy, you break the premise, it doesn't work, it becomes hacky.
01:20Like a carry on type film for example.
01:22But they play it straight down the line and that's what's so beautiful about it.
01:25You're right because it's always funny to watch Leslie Nielsen do films like in the
01:291950s when he was playing completely straight and there was actually a Barbara Streisand
01:33movie where he played, I think somebody she's on a date with and that was before Airplane.
01:37And when you've been brought up with the Naked Gun or the Airplane films, watching him play
01:43a straight role, all you want to do is just erupt into laughter because he's no different.
01:49He delivers the lines in the same deadpan way.
01:52Yeah, it's deadpan that makes it work all the way and pulls it together.
01:56What's your favourite scene from Airplane?
01:59I mean there's obviously the one on the plane itself when, because they're using all those
02:04sort of Airplane disaster thrillers from the 70s and there's always the nurse or there's
02:11a nun or there's somebody or the child in some sort of need.
02:16And it's just the way that it's almost like everything conspires to stop this plane from
02:21reaching its destination but also isn't there the bit when they go into the makeshift pilot
02:26or something like that?
02:27Yeah, the blow-up pilot.
02:28It's a blow-up balloon.
02:29Yeah, it's brilliant.
02:30So that's what I love about it as well.
02:33There's so many scenes that are just iconic.
02:35You've got the guy when he's talking to the older lady and then there's like a flashback
02:43and then you cut back and then she's a skeleton.
02:46There's the Leslie Nielsen line, surely you're not serious, I'm serious, don't call me
02:51Shirley.
02:52It's just full of these iconic scenes, the blow-up pilot, and you just don't get that
02:57with comedy movies anymore.
02:59A lot of comedy movies nowadays, you watch it and you're like, yeah, that was alright,
03:03but you don't think back of the scenes, you don't think back to these kind of iconic moments
03:09in the film.
03:10Well, that's not what I find anyway.
03:12And I think the reason it works as well is that if you're making a film where someone
03:17is trying, going to a lot of effort to be funny and it doesn't work, then it's like
03:21it's just fallen flat.
03:24But in something like Airplane, because it's all delivered deadpan and because you never
03:27completely know whether this is a funny line or whatever, it's going to work anyway because
03:34it's almost like they're in control of the narrative far more rather than almost like
03:40saying, hey, here's another funny joke, why aren't you laughing?
03:43When you think about it, it was made in 1980, so 45 years on, and we still remember this
03:50as a total classic.
03:52Yeah, well, I remember watching it as a kid growing up, and I probably watched a lot of
03:57movies I shouldn't have watched growing up, and for me, it just laid the foundations of
04:02comedy.
04:03I remember just kind of watching Leslie Nielsen and the others, just kind of watching it thinking,
04:08yeah, I wouldn't mind doing that as a job, it's not bad.
04:13And do you think as well that this was, to my knowledge, the first film where his comic
04:21skills were fully realised, but do you think that it was all machine-like, this was engineered
04:29so that it would showcase this untapped talent, or was it almost like accidental, like he
04:34just delivered lines in a certain way and they wrote the comedy in?
04:36Do you have any idea of the inception of this?
04:38Because it's worked out wonderfully, but almost in spite of rather than because of
04:42itself.
04:43Didn't they hire him because they thought he would be the straight guy?
04:46Isn't that the thing?
04:48They didn't hire him because, correct me if I'm wrong, and I might be completely wrong
04:52here, but I think up to this point, I don't think Leslie Nielsen had done a lot of comedy,
04:57and that's what they wanted.
04:58They wanted a straight man to play it, and then following this, it kind of gave birth
05:03to Leslie Nielsen in the world of comedy.
05:05Yeah, but the Naked Gun films, for example.
05:08The Naked Gun, yeah, exactly.
05:09And I've got to ask you, you asked me my favourite scene from this film.
05:16If you watch this back, is there one particular scene that you'd sort of watch on repeat?
05:21I really like the bit where, I can't remember his name, I should have probably watched the
05:25film before I came here, that would have helped, but the main pilot guy, and he's walking through
05:30the airport, and loads of people are trying to grab his attention.
05:35So I think there's a Hare Krishna who tries to grab his attention, there's a Christian
05:39person who tries to grab his attention, I think there's a Jewish person who tries to
05:43grab his attention.
05:44You're all kind of trying to preach their different religions, and he's just walking
05:48through and you're punching people in the face, quite casually, and just kind of, yeah,
05:53just kind of pushing them down and ignoring them, and that's kind of how I feel my life
05:58is right now.
05:59But also, as I remember, and I don't know, because obviously I didn't know you were going
06:02to pick this, I think Lloyd Bridges might be in it, or the father of Jeff Bridges, and
06:06he may be the pilot, I'm not sure.
06:08But what I remember from this, this is the crucial bit, it looks like all those 70s airplane
06:12thrillers, so it's not like, it's a pastiche of them, but if you weren't listening to the
06:16dialogue, if you were just watching this, you'd kind of think that you were watching,
06:19you'd expect Jack Lemmon to appear, or one of those sort of great stars from that era.
06:23Oh definitely, yeah, like if you cut this in a certain way, you remove the gags, it
06:28is like that kind of, you know, that kind of tragedy airplane type film that you'd
06:32get from the 70s.
06:33But yeah, thankfully it's not that.
06:35Well it is time now to move on to your second chosen film, and it almost feels inevitable
06:41Kevin that you'd have gone for The Life of Brian.
06:44Oh, come on, come on.
06:45I was mentally thinking, what are you going to pick next?
06:47Life of Brian.
06:48How brilliant is A Life of Brian?
06:50I mean, just how completely perfect is this film?
06:55Is there any bit of this film which is not perfection?
06:58I mean, my sense, because I've used this a lot with my students over the years, I mean
07:01a lot of it is scattershot, a lot of it doesn't necessarily work, but there are some bits
07:05that are so clever, because actually what it does is turn on its head this whole notion
07:09of who's following whom, and there's something far cleverer in this film than in a dozen
07:16more ponderous, more solemn Jesus films.
07:19Yeah, I think for me, like what makes a really great movie, or a really great TV series,
07:25is when bits from the movie are quoted, and I remember being at school, and this came
07:32out years before I was at secondary school, and I remember some of my mates watching it
07:38around the same time, and we'd just quote bits from the film.
07:41The whole Brian, that whole thing, that whole voice, and bits from this film are quoted
07:48within my family as well.
07:52The Romans, what will the Romans ever do for us?
07:56It's just an iconic film.
07:58And I've had conversations over the years, really a very serious conversation with someone
08:02who'll suddenly say, well of course, really what you're saying is that it's the difference
08:05between the People's Front of Judea and the Judean People's Front, and you know it's from
08:09this film, but in a serious context, but this also came out in 1979, many commentators have
08:15said it tells you there's a social commentary on Britain under Margaret Thatcher in that
08:19era, and it can be read in all those kinds of ways, but there is a sense in which the
08:23comedy here has been the precursor to a really serious sense of, this is what happens.
08:29Not about religion per se, but a particular type of that whole relationship between leaders
08:34and followers.
08:35Yeah, no, I totally agree with what you're saying, and for me, it really does highlight
08:42quite a few things about religion, which I think personally don't work, as an atheist.
08:48And I think it does it really, really well, without being too offensive.
08:53Yeah.
08:54But also, I mean, in this, because although you do see Jesus appear, really that's a very
09:01small segment of the film, and it's about the way that, in reality, in the first century
09:05there would have been lots of people who were claiming various things that we might, looking
09:11back, Jesus was the one and only who did this, but also all that sort of other cheesemakers
09:15as well.
09:16So there's little elements there, and it's taking something very solemn, but turning
09:20it into something comedic, but in a way that kind of feels, you know, in the so-called
09:24real world, that that's how it would play out.
09:27And it almost did what all those films before them, like The Greatest Story Ever Told, King
09:32of Kings, because they were just so solemn.
09:34It's funny to go from Airplane, which was a very solemn sort of, you know, the way the
09:38liver is deadpan, to something like this.
09:41But actually, this I think has lasted the course in a way that so many others of that
09:45genre didn't.
09:46Yeah, I could totally, yeah, see what you're saying there.
09:50And I think, you know, for me, again, kind of with my atheist hat on, what I really like
09:57about it is that I could see it happening.
09:59I could see how Christianity could have actually happened in that way.
10:04You know, like this bloke who is, you know, kind of preaching a little bit in a market
10:10square and then one or two people follow him, and then that kind of small following turns
10:14into a crowd, and then that turns into like the town.
10:18I'll be honest, I could kind of see that as an origin story of Jesus.
10:23And the reason as well that there's something very effective about The Love of Brian is
10:26that in some of those other films, that they're frightened to go down that path.
10:29And it's almost like Jesus speaks.
10:30It's like a very metronomic authority.
10:32He speaks and everybody listens.
10:34And they answer at just the right, the requisite moment.
10:37And you know, really, he's obviously speaking on top of a mountain that they would never
10:42really hear him.
10:43But in a way, we have to suspend disbelief because it's a serious film.
10:46But The Life of Brian knocks all of that out of the park.
10:49Yeah.
10:50And how good is the end song?
10:51Like how iconic is the end song?
10:54When I first saw this, I was whistling that song in my head for just months on end.
11:01Yeah.
11:02Even if I hear it now, if I heard it, like if you played it now, it would be in my head
11:06for two weeks.
11:07Yeah.
11:08And I remember it came back, I think it was actually, I think Eric Idle performed it on
11:12Top of the Pops in 1991.
11:14And when it was re-released, but for years, you couldn't even watch this on TV.
11:19And I think when everyone saw it, they thought, actually, it's not as bad as we were expecting
11:23something that we thought, you know, suddenly the ground would swallow us all up.
11:27Well, on that bombshell, that's about all the time we have for this first half of the
11:31show.
11:32However, before we go to the break, we have a Kent film trivia question for you at home.
11:37The town of Littlestone-on-Sea on the south coast of Kent was used for location filming
11:42in which comedy film?
11:44Was it A. Johnny English Strikes Again, B. The Harry Hill Movie, or C. The World's End?
11:51We'll reveal the answer right after this break, don't go away.
12:05Hello and welcome back to Kent Film Club.
12:08Just before that ad break, we asked you at home a Kent film trivia question.
12:12The town of Littlestone-on-Sea on the south coast of Kent was used for location filming
12:17in which comedy film?
12:18Was it A. Johnny English Strikes Again, B. The Harry Hill Movie, or C. The World's End?
12:24And now I can reveal to you that the answer was, in fact, B. The Harry Hill Movie.
12:28The Kent town was used for various scenes of Harry and his Nan arriving in an old car
12:33and staying at a B&B in the fictional village of Black Pole.
12:37Did you get the answer right?
12:39Well it is time now Kevin to move on to your next chosen film and you've gone for B Movie.
12:46I have, yeah.
12:47Is this one of yours?
12:48Shameless self-plug, right?
12:49I was reading about this, it looked amazing.
12:52Well yeah, thank you very much.
12:53This is a thumbnail actually, this is not the movie poster but it is a little thumbnail
12:58of one of the clips and yeah, basically this is a movie about an out-of-work TV writer
13:05who gets pushed and persuaded into making a low-budget film and the best way that he
13:11thinks he should do that is to rope in a bunch of amateur dramatic actors and then they set
13:18off to make a zombie flick and that's the general gist of the film.
13:23And throughout the whole process Kevin goes on a bit of a journey and he really discovers
13:29himself within the whole process.
13:31And he's called Kevin, so I have to ask you, is this autobiographical?
13:34A bit.
13:35You said out-of-work comedy writer, I was thinking you were obviously drawing on something.
13:39They say write about what you know, right?
13:41So in the opening scene Kevin is pitching to a couple of TV commissioners and he's going
13:48through Yaki's old projects, he's going through a sitcom called Everything's Wrong, he's then
13:54going on to a sitcom called The Sketchbook and there's clips, in the scene from the movie
13:59there's a laptop and it's open and there's clips of these productions and they are my
14:03kind of original sitcom pilots that I worked on.
14:06So was this kind of like catharsis, did you kind of feel in writing this, did you kind
14:10of feel that you were channelling something that has been pent up in you for years as
14:15a comedy writer?
14:17In a way, and quite oddly, there's a lot of what happens in the film kind of also happened
14:26behind the scenes as well.
14:27It was quite a strange one.
14:30There's a whole story, there's a whole behind the scenes story with this.
14:34There's probably a little bit more drama behind the scenes than there was in front of the camera.
14:38There's always this thing isn't there about how, I mean I've done it as somebody who keeps
14:41a diary, do you translate what you've done and I hope that people might be interested
14:49or do you put a spin on it, do you turn it into something comedic or maybe something
14:52is sufficiently comedic in their own right, too out of this world anyway for you to need
14:56to do anything extra with it.
14:58So for Bee Movie, did it turn out in the way that you'd hoped, was it the movie that you
15:05sort of really wanted to make or are you happy with the end product?
15:09Sure, I am and I think especially given it's my debut feature film and I made it with next
15:15to no money, I think the total budget was about six grand which is a dip in the ocean,
15:21right?
15:22It's a drop in the ocean in comparison to a proper movie budget.
15:25So I think given the resources that I had, given everything that happened behind the
15:28scenes, given when I factor in everything that happened around the film, yeah, I'm really
15:37proud of it.
15:38Yeah, sure, there's things I would have done a lot more differently if I was kind of shooting
15:44it again.
15:45So, for example, right, when we shot, first of all, we shot like nine days pretty much
15:51back to back and I thought that was going to be it and then we went off, we did the
15:55edit and then we found out the runtime came up short, really big surprise, it was like
16:01just over an hour and then I had one of two options, right?
16:04I could either extend the movie into a feature or just, you know, count my losses and move
16:09on to the next project.
16:10And I kind of thought, well, it's only like 20 minutes I need to add.
16:14So I went off and created these additional 20 minutes and I guess my biggest kind of
16:20mistake with it was that I created those additional 20 minutes from the viewpoint of what would
16:25be easiest to shoot rather than what would be best for the movie.
16:28So yeah, I then went off, created these additional 20 minutes, put it all together, went to a
16:33cast and crew screening, came out and then chopped away most of those additional 20 minutes.
16:38So yeah, the runtime, I think it's just over 74 minutes, but yeah, I'm really proud of
16:42what I did.
16:43And you're in it as well yourself, I believe, because I did my research on you.
16:46I may not have known your films, but I read about it and you're in this, is that right?
16:49Yeah.
16:50Are you Kevin?
16:51I am Kevin.
16:52Yeah, I kind of, I wanted to make it kind of, in terms of the names, I wanted to make
16:58it as easy as possible on set.
17:00So that guy is Ben, the character Ben and his name is Ben and I basically changed a
17:06lot of the characters' names to the actors' names just to make everyone's life a lot easier
17:11on set.
17:12So at the end, you can say the characters have not been changed in the interests of
17:15accuracy.
17:16Yeah.
17:17Yeah, exactly.
17:18Yeah.
17:19And I have to ask, a standout scene, you know, is there anything in this that you're most
17:22proud of?
17:23Oh yeah, I think it is, so there's a gag, I think the first gag in the whole film.
17:29So yeah, so it's when Kevin is in that TV commissioner's office and he talks about himself,
17:39the film then cuts into a trailer that he's playing the commissioners and the trailer
17:44is in Kevin's world in that moment, is the best sitcom ever.
17:48Like he thinks it's like the best cutting edge sitcom ever.
17:52In reality, it's the worst sitcom idea that's ever been created and the idea is where four
17:58family members go into a house but only one can leave alive.
18:01So this particular scene is shot completely differently from the rest of the film.
18:07It's shot in like this horror kind of style, the colour grade is completely different.
18:15It's really that kind of heart in mouth kind of moment.
18:19And then my little boy is in it as well, so I've crowed bar him.
18:23There's a particular scene where there's a reflection of a car burning and you see his
18:27face and spoiler alert, he wins that competition.
18:30So he basically murders the family, right?
18:34And at that moment, the music gets really intense and my wife struggles to watch that
18:39bit.
18:40Well, it is time now, Kevin, to move on to your final chosen film and you've gone for
18:45Battle Royale.
18:46That's probably a good segue, given what I was just talking about.
18:50About Bloodbath, because this is the sort of Lord of the Flies but Japanese film.
18:54Yeah.
18:56I was at the cinema in 2001 and didn't know what I was letting myself in for and I was
19:00gripped but shocked.
19:02Yeah, it's kind of, if you look at Squid Game, right, Squid Game is like Child's Play compared
19:08to this.
19:09I mean, I remember watching this without any great expectations.
19:14Someone just told me it was a great film and I was like, okay, fine, let me kind of get
19:18my hands on it and have a look.
19:20And I don't remember ever being so shocked before and gripped with a film quite like
19:29this.
19:30It's a bunch of kids on a school bus and at a certain point they get knocked out and then
19:38they wake up in this arena, this outdoor arena, and it's Last Man Standing in order to survive.
19:45And then there's different things that happen throughout the film, different areas, I think,
19:50of the arena where if they kind of stay in there too long, then they get killed.
19:55It's just an insane film, but it's not one which is just, you get like insane films that
20:00are just about gore and kind of really kind of insane stuff just for the shock factor.
20:06But with this, there's just something else, there's like this kind of edge that kind of
20:12keeps you on the edge of your seat until the end.
20:14And we've had comedy writers on the show before who haven't always chosen comedy films, they've
20:20chosen horror, for example.
20:21Now you've chosen three comedies and this.
20:25Now...
20:26I wanted a curveball for you, Chris, to be honest.
20:29Is it because there's a fine line?
20:31Because the best comedy comes from real life experience, that there's something...
20:35When Life is Beautiful came out in the late 90s, it was, how can you make a comedy about
20:38the Holocaust?
20:39But actually, it's real life that can often be the precursor to the way that we, if we're
20:46going to find humour in something, humour in the everyday or whatever.
20:49But I'm just wondering that you've picked this film.
20:51It's a curveball, you say, for me, but is this like really different from anything else
20:55or is there a sense of which kind of it all, it all kind of, in your head anyway, comes
21:00together?
21:01I don't think it comes together at all, to be honest.
21:04I mean, I really just kind of wanted something a little bit out of the box because I think,
21:10you know, you get like someone who's produced like a comedy film, a comedy writer on.
21:15I think it's probably predictable.
21:16You're going to get some classic comedies being suggested and I just wanted something
21:20quite different.
21:21And it's that one film where, for me, it just stands out.
21:26There's so many films that I think, and TV series, that wouldn't have been created if
21:31it wasn't for this.
21:32I think Hunger Games.
21:33If you think about Hunger Games, what happens in Hunger Games, it kind of feels like a bit
21:37of a walk-down rip-off to Battle Royale.
21:39It is a shocking film.
21:40It shocked me and I like things to shock me because it makes me feel I can do something
21:44with that.
21:45I'm not passive.
21:46I'm not passive watching this, but I didn't see it coming.
21:49Did you know what you were letting yourself in for when you watched this?
21:52I didn't.
21:53Honestly, I really didn't.
21:55One or two of my friends said that it was quite a shocking film, but they said things
22:00like Nightmare on Elm Street was shocking, right?
22:02So I kind of thought, well, you know, if they think that's shocking, then yeah, bring it
22:06on.
22:07But yeah, this kind of got into my head a bit and rattled around for quite a while.
22:14It's one of those films where I kind of need to leave a few years in between re-watching
22:20it.
22:21Yeah, it's not one that I would crank, you know, get out when mum's over for a Sunday
22:25tea, for example.
22:26Yeah, that sounds like a scene out of Shaun of the Dead.
22:28Yeah, it did, didn't it?
22:29Yeah, and, well, I'm not going to ask that question then, what's your favourite scene?
22:33But is there something in this that, because of the genre switch as well, do you kind of
22:38feel, maybe this is an unfair question, but comedy, horror, a lot of film, a lot of Shaun
22:43of the Dead, a really good example, where the line is, you know, between the two is
22:47fused.
22:48But is this for you, that sort of, the counterpoint, you watch this because it's not what you do
22:53for the rest of your life.
22:54It's a million miles away from the world of comedy, or can you ever get comedic material
22:59from something like this?
23:00I don't know.
23:01There's no bit of that, which is funny.
23:02But it's like Seven, isn't it?
23:03Is there redemption in David Fincher's Seven?
23:06Yeah, no, I don't think so.
23:08I think maybe what really kind of draws me to this film now is it's one of those films
23:13where you think, would that be made today?
23:16Would that really get past all the censors?
23:19Even, you know, with like the 18 and the R plus whatever certification.
23:23With all of that, in 2025, would that be made today?
23:26Well, I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today.
23:29But before we go, if you live in Kent and want the chance to share four films of your
23:34choice, reach out to us at KMTV and you might be invited in to be my next guest.
23:39But for now, many thanks to Kevin Durham for joining us and being such a brilliant guest.
23:43And many thanks to you all for tuning in.
23:45Until then, that's all from us.
23:47Goodbye.