Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin looks back over the tech of 2022. There are escaped robot vacs, jumping robots, robot chefs, teeth-cleaning robots, robot fish, cockroaches, spiders & falcons as well as a dangerous chess-playing robot. They now know how to recreate dodos, clone pets, train goldfish to drive cars and use dead spiders to pick up microelectronics. It was a year with a lickable TV screen, Wordle, a collapse in NFTs, road surfaces made of nappies and the revelation that you should lie on your right side after taking painkillers.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson looks back at the cinematic year, taking us through the top 10 films at the UK box office of 2022, with Top Gun Maverick ending up the biggest grosser with £83m. But a very different list is James's own list of his 10 favourite films, with the Netflix remake of All Quiet on the Western Front his personal #1. With Avatar 2 just out, he recaps on the most expensive movies of all time, with Way of Water only making it to #4.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson gives his last box office round-up of 2022 where Avatar: The Way of Water is steamrollering everything before it with an £11.2m first weekend take. Although it looks amazing, James says it's violent, disappointingly one-dimensional and he couldn't wait for its three-hour-plus running time to end. On Netflix, there's a new Lady Chatterley's Lover with The Crown's Emma Corrin but James couldn't suspend his disbelief. On Apple+ is Will Smith's hope for redemption, the slave drama Emancipation from Antoine Fuqua. Trying too hard to be a masterpiece, James was occasionally reminded of Rambo!
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin looks at a solution to the killing of bats by wind turbines, how space colonies might exist on asteroids, how New Zealand plans ridding the country of smokers, at a possible answer to foggy glasses, Channel 4's AI-written, robot-delivered Christmas message, at Westminster Council's solution to street urination and at a licence-free plane, which you have to build yourself.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Professor Tim Evans looks back at the challenging year that was 2022, taking us through learning to live with Covid, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the US mid-terms and the Trump revelations, the passing of the Queen, the rapid turnover of Prime Ministers and the cost-of-living crisis. Looking ahead, he wonders how China will cope with Covid, wonders if the current industrial unrest might rebound on Labour and wonders what will become of Russia as the war grinds on.
Guests: Professor Tim Evans
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Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
Russ Mould of A J Bell takes Simon Rose through the key themes affecting investors in 2022. Oil, gas and inflation is the first though some forget the oil price has been flat. Interest rates finally moved higher. With the fed so hawkish, the dollar was incredibly strong, at least until the end of the year. It was a year in which cryptocurrencies crumbled and in which the seemingly unstoppable tech sector went into reverse gear.
Guests: russ mould
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Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
Victoria Scholar of Interactive Investor, despite being in a broken-down car in freezing weather, talked to Simon Rose about the latest interest-rate decisions from the Fed, the Bank of England and the ECB. With growth weakening, all three tilted away from a more hawkish position. In the UK, the pound and banks were lower ahead of the MPC's announcement while housebuilders were stronger because interest rate rises might not be as great as they might have been.
Guests: Victoria Scholar
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson laments a 4th week of plunging box office, despite several old Christmas favourites reappearing. He recommends the true story of The Silent Twins (#23), finding it audacious, original and beautifully simple. Another pick is the DVD release of the exquisitely-made Emily with Emma Mackey about Emily Bronte, which he found intellectually daring and moving. And he also is keen on Netflix's The Swimmers, a true story about Syrian sisters, Olympic hopefuls, who refused to be deterred by the civil war.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Steve Caplin has a sackful of Christmas gift suggestions that should arrive before the holiday. For the extravagant, there's a 2-storey inflatable catamaran or a pimped iPhone 14 Pro Max. For the rest of us, choose between apps to produce spectacular portraits, a smart door lock, a space-saving Christmas tree, kitchen scales, a yodelling pickle, a rechargeable lantern, a travelling plug set, a folding fan, a belt for sailing through security, a suitcase to beat size restrictions and an app to keep track of all your online shopping.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Political commentator Mike Indian looks at the nurses' strike. When all solutions to the NHS's problems are difficult, he feels emphasis should be on patient outcomes. He looks at the new bullying claims against Dominic Raab, wondering why the relationship between government and the civil service has deteriorated so markedly. And he summarises an extraordinary year which, he says, shows just how the Conservatives have thrown away most of the advantages they held.
Guests: Mike Indian
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