Mark Kermode

Mark James Patrick Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter and podcaster. He is the chief film critic for ''The Observer'', contributes to the magazine ''Sight & Sound'', presents a weekly Scala Radio film music show and the BBC Four documentary series ''Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema'', and is a co-presenter of the film-review podcast ''Kermode & Mayo's Take'' alongside long-time collaborator Simon Mayo.

Kermode previously co-presented the BBC Radio 5 Live show ''Kermode and Mayo's Film Review'', and previously co-presented the BBC Two arts programme ''The Culture Show''. He is a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and a founding member of the skiffle band the Dodge Brothers, for which he plays double bass.

Early life

Kermode was born in Barnet, Hertfordshire. He was educated at The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, a private boys' school in Elstree, Hertfordshire, the same year as actor Jason Isaacs and former Brexit Party Member of the European Parliament, Lance Forman.

He was raised as a Methodist, and later became a member of the Church of England. His parents divorced when he was in his early 20s and he subsequently changed his surname to his mother's maiden name by deed poll. He earned his PhD in English at the University of Manchester in 1991, writing a thesis on horror fiction.

Film criticism

Kermode began his film career as a print journalist, writing for Manchester's ''City Life'', and then '' Time Out'' and ''NME'' in London. He has written for ''The Independent'', '' Vox'', ''Empire'', ''Flicks'', '' Fangoria'' and ''Neon''.Mark Kermode
English Department teaching staff, University of Southampton, accessed 14 January 2008

Kermode began working as a film reviewer for BBC Radio 1 in 1993, on a regular Thursday night slot called ''Cult Film Corner'' on Mark Radcliffe's ''Graveyard Shift'' session. He later moved to Simon Mayo's BBC Radio 1 morning show. He hosted a movie review show with Mary Anne Hobbs on Radio 1 on Tuesday nights called ''Cling Film''. Between February 1992 and October 1993, he was the resident film reviewer on BBC Radio 5's ''Morning Edition'' with Danny Baker.

From 2001 until 2022, Kermode reviewed and debated new film releases with Mayo on the '' BBC Radio 5 Live'' show ''Kermode and Mayo's Film Review''. The programme won Gold in the Speech Award category at the 2009 Sony Radio Academy Awards on 11 May 2009. On 11 March 2022, it was announced by Simon Mayo, at the start of the Kermode and Mayo Film Review, that the last Kermode and Mayo's Film Review will be broadcast on 1 April 2022.

Kermode and Mayo have announced their new non-BBC podcast "Kermode & Mayo's Take" is launching in May 2022 and they now have an official website, https://www.kermodeandmayo.com/

He has worked on film-related documentaries including ''The Fear of God; 25 Years of The Exorcist'', ''Hell on Earth: The Desecration and Resurrection of Ken Russell's The Devils'', ''Alien: Evolution'', ''On the Edge of Blade Runner'', and ''The Cult of The Wicker Man''.

Until September 2005, Kermode reviewed films each week for the ''New Statesman''. Since 2009 Kermode has written "Mark Kermode's DVD round-up" for ''The Observer'', a weekly review of the latest releases. He sometimes writes for the British Film Institute's '' Sight and Sound'' magazine. Kermode is a film critic and presenter for Film4 and Channel 4, presenting the weekly ''Extreme Cinema'' strand. He writes and presents documentaries for Channel 4, and appears on ''The Film Review'' for '' BBC News at Five''. For BBC Two's ''The Culture Show'', Kermode hosted an annual "Kermode Awards" episode which presented statuettes to actors and directors not nominated for Academy Awards that year.

In 2002, Kermode was critical of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the censor for film in the UK, for its cuts to the 1972 film ''The Last House on the Left''. In 2008, the BBFC allowed the film to be re-released uncut. He has stated that the BBFC do a good job in an impossible situation and expressed his approval of their decisions.

In a 2012 ''Sight & Sound'' poll of cinema's greatest films, Kermode indicated his ten favourites, a list later published in order of preference in his book ''Hatchet Job'', as ''The Exorcist'', '' A Matter of Life and Death'', ''The Devils'', ''It's a Wonderful Life'', ''Don't Look Now'', ''Pan's Labyrinth'', ''Mary Poppins'', ''Brazil'', '' Eyes Without a Face'' and ''The Seventh Seal''.

In September 2013, Kermode became the chief film critic for ''The Observer''.

In 2018, he began to present his own documentary series ''Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema'' on BBC Four. A second series followed, as well as Disaster Movie, Christmas, and Oscar Winners specials.

In 2019 Kermode presented a movie soundtrack themed show on classical radio station Scala Radio.

Kermode produces an annual "best-of-the-year" movie list, thereby providing an overview of his critical preferences. His top choices were:

Other writing

In February 2010, Random House released his autobiography, ''It's Only a Movie'', which he describes as being "inspired by real events". Its publication was accompanied by a UK tour. In September 2011 he released a follow-up book entitled ''The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex'', in which he puts forth his opinion on the good and bad of modern films, and vehemently criticizes the modern multiplex experience and the 3D film craze that had grown in the years immediately preceding the book's publication. In 2013 Picador published "Hatchet Job: Love Movies, Hate Critics" in which he examines the need for professional "traditional" film critics in a culture of ever increasing online bloggers and amateur critics.

In 2017, he collaborated with his idol William Friedkin on the feature documentary ''The Devil and Father Amorth'', as a writer. The film had its first showing at the Venice Film Festival on 31 August 2017.

Other work

Kermode was a regular presenter on BBC Two's ''The Culture Show'' and appeared regularly on ''Newsnight Review''. It was during a 2006 interview with Kermode for ''The Culture Show'' in Los Angeles that Werner Herzog was shot with an air rifle. Herzog appeared unflustered, later stating "It was not a significant bullet. I am not afraid".

Kermode co-hosted an early 1990s afternoon magazine show on BBC Radio 5 called ''A Game of Two Halves'' alongside former Blue Peter presenter Caron Keating.

Kermode appeared in a cameo role as himself in the revival of the BBC
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