Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
Chloe Won Yung Shin and Neil Shah of Edison Group highlight Accsys Technologies after their recent investor day. The company uses its patented process to turn fast-growing sustainable softwoods into tough, long-lasting wood. It has overcome past cost overruns and changed management. Now underpromising and over-delivering, it has huge potential. In its preliminary results, Greggs revealed that it is having a tough time in the difficult consumer environment but it is expanding its evening trade and digital offering and performing well. The recent sharp fall in the share price means that it looks attractive on a historical basis.
Guests: Chloe Wong Yun Shing
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson laments box office falling 42%, saying it is unlikely to pick up until May when the new Mission Impossible film is released. #5 is The Last Showgirl in which Pamela Anderson plays an exotic dancer feeling her age after 30 years stripping in Las Vegas. Despite good performances from her and Jamie Lee-Curtis, James found the appalling camerwork made it hard to engage. He thought the Disney+ documentary Elton John: Never Too Late was eminently watchable but felt there were big gaps in the narrative. James finishes by rounding up this year's Oscars and highlighting where he thought the Academy voters got it wrong.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Political commentator Mike Indian says that since Trump's return to the White House, we are living in a very different world. The presidency is more sure-footed than Trump's haphazard first term. The staged falling out with Zelensky is a confirmation of the US pivot away from the world stage to a sharper, more protectionist era. It helped Keir Starmer have his best week as PM since he took office and Europe's talk of rearmament is history in the making. It is hard to see Trump's imposition of tariffs – effectively a tax on his own people – doing anything other than slowing the global economy and causing a spike in inflation. It will certainly impact the UK government's ability to choose its spending priorities.
Guests: Mike Indian
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin points out that Apple Intelligence isn't always particularly bright. Indian call centre voices could soon be disguised "to build a more understanding world". Citibank's $81 trillion mistake. Paper batteries might replace lithium. Limitless thermal energy comes a step closer. HarmBlock could stop children seeing what they shouldn't on phones. Scientists trying to produce a woolly mammoth have created a woolly mouse. Humanoid robots working in pairs can now put away items they've never seen before. There's an impressive affordable new e-bike. And scientists have worked out how to grow teeth.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
As Keir Starmer is about to visit Washington, Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University thinks Trump's grand plan with regard to Europe and Ukraine is to prevent Russia becoming China's extraction site and tempt Russia out of China's orbit. With UK local elections looming, he thinks Labour are panicking, particularly in Wales. After over a century of Labour rule he feels that, as with the Conservatives in Scotland, Labour could now be so unpopular that Reform and Farage could end up dominating Welsh politics. And he discusses an article by Lord Roberts attempting to correct historical ignorance about the Nazis.
Guests: Professor Tim Evans
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson says box office, though down 39%, is still up 78% year-on-year thanks to Bridget Jones. #4 is The Monkey, a spectacularly grisly horror film which, neither funny nor scary, is just depressing and illogical. I Am Still Here is #6, Walter Salles's much-garlanded docudrama about Brazil's dictatorship in the 1970s. James loved the Blu-Ray box set "Douglas Sirk 1934-5" with the director's three lost German films available for the first time. And James ends with his predictions for the forthcoming Oscars.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin celebrates Photoshop coming to the iPhone, as well as Microsoft producing its first quantum computing chip, apparently powered by topological qubits. Amazon is launching Alexa+, creating your own trusted assistant. It costs but, bizarrely, more than Amazon Prime, which offers it free. If you're looking for a coffee stand or ice cream van, there's a new app to guide you. Huawai has a trifold phone. Tech trekking poles contain a folding tent. Over 1,000 artists have produced an album of silence to protest the Government's plans on AI & copyright. And walnuts could boost your brain, if you eat enough of them.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
Russ Mould of A J Bell says that while the UK economy may look gloomy, it is not the stock market. With earnings season under way, 82 companies are doing better than expected, with 72 doing worse, so things look moderately positive. Remember of course, that the majority of FTSE company profits are earned overseas. With buybacks significantly ahead of last year, the cash yield is 4.5-5%. The UK is cheap compared to the US, on 28 times forward earnings. But they are more exposed to technology and, let's face it, the Americans are more ruthless and work harder. Russ also gives his views on whether the Government should be trying to get more people to invest.
Guests: Russ Mould
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson celebrates a 162% box office jump with Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy the new #1. Its £12.3m take was the biggest ever for a romcom. James, although recognising he's not the target audience, was a little less enthusiastic, as was Simon Rose, though James found it the best of the four films. #2 is Captain America: Brave New World, the 35th Marvel film. A thriller that gets increasingly far-fetched, James enjoyed it to an extent. He loved watching the BAFTAs and discusses the ceremony and the results.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin says that in 2 days, AI solved a problem that took Imperial College scientists 10 years. But it also caused a massive gaffe in a staggeringly expensive Super Bowl ad. He discusses new e-ink developments including outdoor posters, a tablet, a minimal phone and a gaming console. The BBC's Radiophonic Workshop output has been digitised. There's a high-tech bookmark. Italy is getting tough with fake TripAdvisor reviews which are damaging tourism. You should take your tablets with milk not water in future. And Gen Z is having problems hearing, but it's neurological and caused by noise-cancelling headphones say audiologists.
Guests: steve caplin
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