Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson says box office has jumped 113% with the release of Super Mario Galaxy Movie but he opted to go to #3 The Drama, with Robert Pattinson and Zendaya. It's a comedy of manners which is grown up, thought-provoking and enormously funny in a dark way, leading to an unusual post-movie discussion. James also caught #123 Two Women, a French-Canadian comedy of quiet suburban desperation. It's odd, amusing and unpredictable and will be appearing in various places over the coming months. He recommends steering clear of the Disney+ film online Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, with Vince Vaughn playing himself twice in a dire shambles of a movie.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University thinks that a huge political realignment is happening in the West. There's a new type of discourse which is less about economics, as it largely was for almost a century, and more about identitarian politics, about the shifting sands of statecraft and the nature of the nation state and borders. It's a big, historic inflexion point which Tim believes will be the biggest geopolitical upheaval since the last 1940s. The boom in higher education in the UK turned into a bubble and bubbles are prone to burst. The sector is in crisis, with culling of courses and institutions while student loans are now a hot political football. Clearly it is a bad idea for national targets to be set for higher education, but Tim wonders why there is no competition for student loans. Why can't institutions compete with the government and develop their own products?
Guests: Professor Tim Evans
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin is impressed by hydrogen fuel cells for trucks, but disappointed there are so few hydrogen stations to fuel them. There's a device for perfectly matching colour for hair dyeing. VR headsets will soon have added aromas to heighten realism. There's a robot that can keep functioning even if it loses all its legs. Cassette-manufacturer Maxell have a new portable cassette players for those who are into retro gadgets. A clever device being crowdfunded lets you pair your devices with TVs while away, as well as a smart night light Steve strongly recommends. But beware of economising on bike or scooter batteries as eBike fires are up 38% in just one year.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
Finlay Mathers of Edison Group highlights Billington Holdings, a steel specialist with a market cap of £50m which makes frames for large buildings. Listed on AIM, it restructured and consolidated operations last year, increasing capacity. Recently it has won a raft of new contracts. The company focusses on training its own staff, has a strong balance sheet with zero debt and will report results in a couple of weeks. Chloe Wong looks at Devolver Digital, an indie games publisher of third party and in-house video games. Its full-year results were encouraging in a flat gaming market. Indie games are expected to perform strongly and the company, which has made significant operational improvements since its 2021 IPO, is well positioned and at a significant discount to fair value. More information is available on the Edison website.
Guests: Finlay Mathers,Chloe Wong Yun Shing
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Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
Russ Mould of A J Bell marks the first anniversary of Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs. The overall impact hasn't been as great as feared at the time, with tariffs settling around 10-13%. Since then, the dollar has gone down, US equities have underperformed and US bond yields have generally gone up. The concept of the US being the only game in town has been reassessed, while supply chain management and national security in all its ramifications have come to the fore. In all this, the UK isn't the worst place to be invested in, thanks to the heavy emphasis on oils, mining and staples, which do well in times of uncertainy. The UK isn't immune if there's a worldwide recession but it does offer some balance and ballast.
Guests: Russ Mould
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Political commentator Mike Indian discusses Trump's threat to leave NATO, saying that the closer the mid-term elections are, the more desperate Trump becomes. It is hard to see what has been achieved by the US action against Iran, other than entrenching the regime's hardliners and closing a vital trade route. Trump's threat is a frightening prospect, as NATO is the bedrock of European security. With the UK local elections just a few weeks away, Keir Starmer has opted to focus on the cost of living. One of his aims is to seek closer economic ties with the EU. Mike hopes that he will take the chance to talk up collective security for which – in the fact of Trump's threats – Europe needs a long-term strategy.
Guests: Mike Indian
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin is surprised to find that Amazon can amend or even delete Kindle books you supposedly own. He is less surprised at how ChapGPT assesses good literature. He is very impressed with a drone that captures everything in 8K without you having to pay much attention to what's in view. There's a gizmo that turns an ordinary watch into a slightly smarter watch. The new iPhone OS can zoom in on audio as well as video. Yamaha have a 3-wheel motor scooter, but Sony have given up on their much-heralded e-car. There's a crowd-funded digital camera designed to look like the old disposable Kodaks, a folding kayak and a spork with lots of attachments. And, in Shenzen, they now have a games arcade where you can control everything with your mind.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson found #2, the Enid Blyton fantasy The Magic Faraway Tree, to be a charmless, farcical misfire. With Claire Foy and Andrew Garfield, it is full of shouty overacting, with music numbers crammed in and is a wasted opportunity. #7 They Will Kill You is a grotesque horror film about a New York highrise which is a temple to Satan. It's another with a surprising 15 certificate. Amazon documentary Man on the Run is about Paul McCartney, covering the breakup of The Beatles to the murder of John Lennon. On Amazon, it starts promisingly but, while there's plenty of home video, there's little that's new. After a dispiriting week, James watched the harrowing but brilliant The Killing Fields to cheer himself up. It's on C4 and Plex.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
Chloe Wong of Edison Group discusses P Z Cussons, best known in the UK for brands like Imperial Leather and Carex. But this 140-year-old firm has a large international portfolo of consumer goods. Recently it has been concentrating its activities and geographical areas while reducing the number of brands. It has also increased its emphasis on marketing. With a 5% yield, it's a dependable stock in troubled times. Shepherd Neame is another heritage brand, having been brewing since 1698. As well as beers like Spitfire and Bishop's Finger, it is a hotel and pub company with a tenanted estate. Again it's the sort of company investors like when things are turbulent. Although cost and wage inflation is affecting the sector, this is manageable. 85% of its estate is freehold and the NAV is £182m against a market cap of £82m. With a yield over 5% it is looking attractively priced. More information on both companies is available on the Edison website.
Guests: Chloe Wong Yun Shing
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin discusses some of the features of Apple's updated operating sstem, including having the ability to talk to chatbots while driving although, worryingly, there will also be a curated "sleep" playlist. He craves a gorgeous red electric submarine. There's a cargo ebike with some interesting features. Be careful about telling the Gemini chatbot that it's wrong; apparently this causes it "emotional distress". A YouTuber has powered an electric car with thrown-away vape batteries. There's a crowd-funded robotic wasp which, suspects Steve, may not be all it is claimed. He finds himself able to resist a beer-filled transparent jacket, despite the two methods of extracting beer from it. And he discusses the world's first quantum battery.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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