Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson says UK box office is up 83% YoY. He recommends three films in the chart. Ryan Coogler's Sinners at #2 is an outstanding piece of filmmaking which defies caegorisation but brings to mind Tarantino. It's a powerful, sensual and immersive experience that stays with you. #3 The Penguin Lessons isn't the feelgood family film you might expect but a wise, charming and funny political thriller starring Steve Coogan set in 1970s Argentina. At #5 Alex Gardland's Warfare aims to be the most realistic war film ever and succeeds. It's a terrific film but harrowing. On Amazon Prime Holland, with Nicole Kidman, tries to be a comedic black thriller like Fargo but doesn't quite work.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin says there's a new colour, "Olo", but you need a laser blasted into your eye to see it. Instead of flu jabs, you may soon be able to chew a gum made with Egyptian kidney beans. There's a new high-tech stethoscope monitor you can wear at home, a folding colour ebook reader, AI-powered gloves to help the near half million deaf-blind people in the UK, augmented carpentry, a motorised tape measure and a weapon to take down drones. Singapore scientists have found a way to get energy from rain. And in Beijing, robots competed in a half marathon, with varying results.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Political commentator Mike Indian wonders what lasting settlement there can be in Ukraine given the capriciousness of the Trump administration. We are seeing a redrawing of global alliances, with the US returning to its former isolationist policy. In the wake of the Supreme Court gender ruling, he considers the divisiveness and politicisation of the topic and how nuance is being lost. We should be more considerate to those who feel they have been born in the wrong body. Whatever your view on the edicts of the Papacy, the Pope is still a political figure with a difference and an integral moral force in an increasingly turbulent world. The new Pope wiill have a difficult task ahead of him.
Guests: Mike Indian
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Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
Russ Mould of A J Bell says that when the US President doesn't know what's happening next, how can anybody else, particularly when the reasons given for imposing tariffs are so contradictory? Investing should be about sleeping well at night. If your investments are keeping you awake, perhaps you should make them safer. Think about asset allocation and whether America – and tech stocks – will lead the way in future. Have some spare cash in case you need it and you may be able to take advantage of volatile market dips. As Warren Buffett says, stock markets are there to enable the transfer of wealth from the impatient to the patient.
Guests: Russ Mould
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson says that box iffice is down 52% although A Minecraft Movie has powered ahead to a £31m take. #2 The Amateur has Rami Malek as a desk-bound CIA guy who wants to get trained up for revenge. But it's ludicrous and underlit and very disappointing. #6 the unheralded Drop is a thriller with Meghann Fahy on a date that goes badly wrong. Think of Speed in a restaurant. James was completely gripped by the ingenious plot. He also admires #16 Mr. Burton with Toby Jones the teacher who inspired Richard Burton to at. It's the sort of little film that Britain does so well and deserves an audience. Simon recommends the new Eureka double-disc silent Laurel & Hardy restoration.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin is desperate to buy the Kawasaki robot horse which can do everything a horse can but is powered by hydrogen. Sadly it's still only a beautifully-realised CGI concept. But there's a renewable energy motorbike with a roof covered with solar panels and a wind turbine. Or a WalkCar the size of a laptop. Or even an electric skateboard that goes at 45mph. Ford have patented a gear stick for electric cars, for drivers that miss them. There's an aircraft that can land itself, a weird-looking robot chess player, a trial postbox with a barcode reader to scan parcels, a Sardinian beach you'll need an app to visit and a tip on how to hear better in noisy rooms without spending a penny – though it ought to mean domino players can hear brilliantly.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
FInlay Mathers of Edison Group discusses Rolls-Royce which, under new management, met all its turnaround targets two years early and confounded investors' attitudes towards its business, comprising civil aviation, aerospace and power systems. The shares are above the industry average but it's a fantastic business whose air business has a "power by the hour" model linking it to the upturn in global air travel, while its defence order book is up by 89%. The future may be bumpy, but the business is very sound.
Guests: Finlay Mathers
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University discusses the nature of political economy in statecraft in the light of the government taking over British Steel. Why are so many of Britain's important companies plundered? Tim discusses Donald Trump's divisiveness. Despite disliking the man, has to admit he has been proven right on some things. But are his heavy-handed tactics brewing a very fundamental currency crisis? And, given the rapid advances in technology which mean we are at another "Dreadnought moment", how can military and political leaders make sensible spending choices?
Guests: Professor Tim Evans
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Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
Stockmarkets are so chaotic in the wake of Trump's various announcements that we're delighted to replay a short summary clip called 'Superinvestors' from August 2017. In a partnership with publishers Harriman House, Share Radio produced its first audiobook 'Superinvestors', written by Matthew Partridge and read by some of Share Radio's best known presenters. 'Superinvestors' lays bare the investing secrets of legendary investors - from early 20th-century figures such as Benjamin Graham and John Maynard Keynes, through to more modern names such as Anthony Bolton and Warren Buffett — download it at https://www.harriman-house.com/superinvestors . If wisdom improves with age, this might be useful today ..
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
This week James Cameron-Wilson is joined by Chad Kennerk, our occasional American correspondent fresh from his trip to CinemaCon in Vegas. James is thrilled to see that the UK box-office has leaped a phenomenal 168.7% from the previous weekend, thanks to the video game adaptation 'A Minecraft Movie' with Jason Momoa and Jack Black. At #4 is 'Death of a Unicorn', a farcical horror comic that is inept on almost every level, save for the presence of Jenna Ortega. However, at #7 is the Oscar-winning animated feature 'Flow', which James claims is the best film of the year so far, being an enthralling, mystical, frequently quite funny, wondrous, haunting and even a pulse-accelerating experience. He was less happy with 'The Electric State' on Netflix, a $320 retro-futuristic mess with Chris Pratt and Mollie Bobby Brown which he describes as being overblown, heavy-handed and visually cluttered.
Guests: Chad Kennerk
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