Return here at 19:30GMT this evening to hear The Commontator’s final Film On The Radio commentary. They don’t know it yet but their Christams Special is Die Hard.

What counts as a Christmas Film? It’s fashionable to debate this question at the moment. Put simply, Die Hard is set at Christmas so it counts. In selecting this film we had to apply what we’ve learnt about The Commentators’ ability to commentate on films without the sound. Compicated or ambiguous plots seem to work well as The Commentators get lost easily. Horror feels better than Comedy because Horror not translating may be comic but Comedy not translating can be horrific. It’s tough for The Commentators to cope with films that are heavy or reliant on dialogue and real world settings seem to work better than fantasy settings. So we judged all nominated films against all these factors and came out with Bruce Willis in a vest.

We hope you enjoy this last – Film On The Radio.

The Commentators from Stan’s Cafe is on Mixlr

On the occasion of Halloween, The Commentators bring you ‘exclusive’ radio commentary on Stanley Kubrik’s chilling horror classic, The Shining. As usual our sheepskin clad heros will struggle to decypher the film’s plot without access to its audio, while endeavouring to bring listeners all the crucial action.

Remarkably, on this occasion a DIY ‘Red Button’ function is available, for those who like to watch ‘the match’ on TV with the radio commentary. The BBC iPlayer has The Shining available on 31st October, so when The Commentators start at 19:30 it is possible to synchronise their stream with the iPlayer on mute and watch the film in an entirely new way.

We’ve enjoyed previous Film On The Radio episodes both as pure audio and when synched with the film, it’s fun either way. Also, you can join in the conversation about both the film and its commentary on Twitter #FilmOnTheRadio by following @stanscafe.

For Film On The Radio: The Shining we are delighted to be teaming up with MAC. The arts centre, which has helped Stan’s Cafe so much over the years, has been forced by Corona Virus to close until Spring 2021. This performance is small contribution from Stan’s Cafe to help MAC serve its audience whilst closed and working with a minimal – one might even dare say – on this night at least – a skeleton staff.