In The Revisit podcast, Movies Editor Brian Lloyd sits down with Irish personalities from all walks of life to revisit their favourite film and discuss the influence it had on them.
The latest season has an eclectic lineup of well-known characters including Comedian Tommy Tiernan, Lord Mayor of Dublin Hazel Chu, Gift Grub star Mario Rosenstock, News Correspondent Richard Chambers, 2FM presenter Ciara King and Actor Emmet Kirwan.
We caught up with Brian to discuss recording the podcast during COVID, why our favourite movies reveal so much about us, and the pressure that comes with interviewing Tommy Tiernan.
With a background in mechanical engineering, Lloyd's journey to podcasting has been long and winding. Crediting time spent hanging around Xtra-Vision as his movie education, the Movie Editor's career has been a culmination of writing for blogs, attending screeners, and networking his way into radio slots before landing his current role at Entertainment.ie.
The Revisit was originally a segment on the website's existing podcast, The Film Show, where Lloyd would discuss the importance of a cinematic classic. Before long though, he realised that by branching out on his own and bringing a variety of guests on, he could gain more insights about a broader range of films.
"If you ask someone what their favourite movie is, it's more revealing than a straight-up question," he explained. "It might sound cliché but these things do define people, and they reveal a lot more about them than they initially let on."
"In the first season, I had former MEP Nessa Childers on and she chose Killing of a Sacred Deer - which is a dark psychological fairytale - and she had such insightful view on it. I wasn't expecting it at all."
"On the other hand, Chris Green chose Paul Blart: Mall Cop," he laughed. "In fairness, that conversation had very little do with the film and more about internet culture, meme culture and the idea of a film that is so bland and uninteresting but has taken on a sub-culture."
"It's a much more revealing question that people initially consider, I think."
Casting out a "wide net" for guests during COVID-19 and recording interviews with socially distant restrictions in mind, making the second season of the show was somewhat challenging but Lloyd insists he is delighted with the end result.
"It's people who people will know, but also people who wouldn't necessarily give off a lot about their personal lives. We all know Richard Chambers from being on the News and we know Hazel Chu is the Lord Mayor of Dublin and we see Tommy Tiernan on his chat show, but the focus is often on who they are talking to."
As fun as chatting with familiar faces about their favourite movies may seem, recording the podcast did have some nerve-wrecking moments. Sitting down with beloved comedian and master-interviewer Tommy Tiernan, for example, was somewhat stressful:
"I was absolutely sh***ing myself," he laughed. "He's so intelligent and I don't want to attempt to be on his level and then ask a stupid question and have him look at me like I have 10 heads."
"I love The Tommy Tiernan Show, and he's totally comfortable with silences and I'm a complete motormouth when I get nervous, so I was fighting myself to sit in the space and let him form his answers."
With Unforgiven as Tiernan's movie of choice, the two discussed everything from details about the movie and Westerns in general to male sexuality and the role of men in today's world.
"It was fascinating," says Lloyd. "There were so many things he had seen in Unforgiven that I never would have even considered for a second. In all of the guests, they revealed something in the film that I wouldn't have thought about and I think that's something we're missing at the moment."
With cinemas around Ireland closed due to the current restrictions, Lloyd says we're missing out on the chance to chat with friends or overhear fellow movie-goers on the walk to the car park.
For the time being, podcasts will have to fill the gap, but he hopes the country's filmmakers and theatres will be supported enough now, that they will be waiting for us on the other side.
"The arts are a vocation," he says. "You do it because you love it and you want to do it and you can't do anything else. I think, when we come out of this, people are going to have a lot of respect for the arts and how tough life is without the arts."
"We ran a survey asking people what they wanted to do when the pandemic was over. Number one was seeing family and relatives, number two was having an event, and the third was going to cinemas. We can all watch films at home, but seeing them in a communal environment is what people miss."
