Hold Fast Network

23/07/2024

This week on Made in England I am joined by film historian and novelist Christian Hayes to discuss short silent films made in England from 1895 to 1906, a period of great technical and narrative leaps. Georges Méliès, the Lumiere brothers and Thomas Edison are well known, but there are also a number of English pioneers were equally important. We discuss the works and technical innovations of the likes of R.W. Paul, G.A. Smith and Cecil Hepworth.

Cinema was born at the end of the nineteenth century and the early period saw great technical and artistic leaps. Georges Méliès, the Lumiere brothers and Thomas Edison are well known, but there are also a number of English pioneers were equally important. We discuss the works and technical innova...

02/07/2024

Alex Cox, writer-director of Repo Man and Sid & Nancy, and original Moviedrome presenter, is the guest on this week's Made in England. Alex and Jack discuss Lindsay Anderson's TV debut - The Old Crowd (1979), an Alan Bennett-scripted satire about an upper-middle class dinner party where cracks are appearing in the walls of George and Betty’s upper-middle class home, and in society at large.

Lindsay Anderson made his TV debut in 1979 with The Old Crowd , an Alan Bennett-scripted satire about an upper-middle class dinner party where cracks are appearing in the walls of George and Betty’s upper-middle class home, and in society at large.  Alex Cox , writer-director of Repo Man

28/06/2024

On this week's Made in England, documentary filmmaker Jeanie Finlay (Your Fat Friend, The Great Hip Hop Hoax) talks about Powell and Pressburger's 1947 masterpiece A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH.
Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.
https://www.holdfastnetwork.com/madeinengland/amatteroflifeanddeath1946withjeaniefinlay
Jeanie Finlay: Artist and Filmmaker

A British pilot falls in love with an American radio operator in the moments before his plane crashlands, and his survival causes turmoil in the heavenly realm. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s World War II fantasy-romance A Matter of Life and Death (1946) is one of the most beloved British...

20/05/2024

Jack McInroy and Darren Richman sit down to discuss It Always Rains on Sunday, an East End noir. It's a corker. Tune in wherever you get podcasts.

It Always Rains on Sunday (1947) is a rare example of a British noir film and a pioneering social drama where working class people take centre stage. Googie Withers plays Rose Sandigate, a frustrated housewife whose world is turned upside down when her former lover escapes from prison and seeks her

16/05/2024

New episode of Made in England:

Burning an Illusion (1981), written and directed by Menelik Shabazz, is a landmark of UK cinema, often billed as the first British film to give a central voice to a black woman. The film follows 22-year-old Pat as she navigates relationship struggles, societal pressures and systemic racism. 30 years later, Steve McQueen’s film Lovers Rock would draw from a similar milieu.

Film curator Tega Okiti, who voted for this film in the 2022 Sight & Sound magazine poll of the greatest films ever made, joins Jack McInroy to discuss the film.

Burning an Illusion (1981) , written and directed by Menelik Shabazz, is a landmark of UK cinema, often billed as the first British film to give a central voice to a black woman. The film follows 22-year-old Pat as she navigates relationship struggles, societal pressures and systemic racism. 30

02/04/2024

MADE IN ENGLAND is a new podcast on Hold Fast.

Join Jack McInroy as he delves into the history of English cinema, one film at a time.

First episode is All of Us Strangers (2023) with guest John Grindrod.

All of Us Strangers (2023) is written and directed by Andrew Haigh (Weekend, 45 Years) and stars Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell and Claire Foy.  Jack McInroy is joined by John Grindrod , author of Iconicon , Outskirts and Concretopia , to discuss the film.  H

23/01/2024

Steve Walsh Blog Archive 2010 - 2012

Before South London Hardcore and into the first year of the show, Steve was quite a prolific blogger. You won’t find any of his writing by googling “Steve Walsh blog”, as he them wrote under the name Masal Bugduv, a fictional Moldovan youth footballer. Some of these blogs have few or no entries, but I include them here to continue the celebration of incomplete works à la Where the Light Shines Through.

Before South London Hardcore and into the first year of the show, Steve was quite a prolific blogger. You won’t find any of his writing by googling “Steve Walsh blog”, as he them wrote under the name Masal Bugduv, a fictional Moldovan youth footballer. Some of these blogs have few or no entrie...

23/01/2024

BONUS EPISODE: The Lost Resonance FM Pilot

Back in 2014, we recorded a radio-friendly pilot episode of South London Hardcore for Resonance FM. It never aired…. until now.

Back in 2014, we recorded a radio-friendly pilot episode of South London Hardcore for Resonance FM. It never aired…. until now. Illustration: Owen D. Pomery

01/12/2023

Tiz the season!
Time to open door number one of Daniel Ruiz Tizon's Advent Calendar and find out... can one man love Christmas again?
Daniel Ruiz Tizon Daniel Ruiz Tizon

In this opening episode, Daniel wonders where his search to rediscover Christmas should begin.

24/03/2022

I'm incredibly sad to say that Steve Walsh - co-host of South London Hardcore and co-founder of Hold Fast Network, among many things - has passed away after being ill with a brain tumour. Steve was one of the kindest, funniest and most generous people many of us have ever known. He'll be deeply missed by so many people, but will live on through the podcasts.

30/12/2021

Happy Anniversary South London Hardcore! 10 years of podcasts. Paul Ansorge (No Question About That podcast) guest hosts a special episode:

We are celebrating 10 years of South London Hardcore!

On this day in 2011, we launched the podcast and No Question About That's Paul Ansorge is on hand to guest host a special episode looking back at a decade in podcasting.

http://www.holdfastnetwork.com/slhc/29/12/2021/episode-174-10th-anniversary

15/07/2021

Sherds Podcast's Sam Pulham has posted his first video essay on Sherds Tube - The Tyranny of Plot: Why Books Don't Always Need Stories.

I talk about why I tend towards books that privilege atmosphere above plot and give my top three recommendations.Some Texts Referenced:The Paris Notebooks (2...

20/06/2021

The latest episode of Light At The Crossroads sees
Eleanor Tremeer and Kathryn Briggs have a chat about queerness and tarot, particularly in relation to the New Chapter Tarot, out now from Liminal 11.

www.holdfastnetwork.com/light-at-the-crossroads/19/6/2021/episode-fourteen-eleanor-tremeer-and-kathryn-briggs-discuss-queerness-and-the-tarot

14/06/2021

NEW PODCAST

The Light Programme

Jack McInroy talks to crime author Nicolas Obregon about his new book, Unknown Male, the third in the Inspector Iwata series. Listen here or find it on your podcast app of choice.

Nicolás Obregón is the author of Unknown Male, available now in paperback from Penguin. Unknown Male is the third instalment in the Inspector Iwata series, which started in 2017 with Blue Light Yokohama and was followed by Sins as Scarlet in 2018. Nic previously appeared on episode 165 of South