Episodes

Friday Feb 09, 2018
*batteries not included 2: Attack of the Drones
Friday Feb 09, 2018
Friday Feb 09, 2018
What's your favourite children's movie about impoverished elderly people living with dementia? This week on Beyond The Box Set, we're joined by the talented Phil Hepworth to discuss *batteries not included, a quirky family sci-fi that features some surprisingly adult and melancholy themes.
Released in 1987, *batteries not included stars Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy as Frank and Faye Riley, a married couple whose long-time home comes under threat from aggressive property developers who want to force them out. As Faye's apparent dementia continues to worsen, Frank prays for a miracle - and gets one in the form of a pair of apparently sentient miniature spaceships known as 'The Fix-Its'.
The film's unusually thoughtful tone might be down to writer Brad Bird, who went on to write and produce a number of Pixar's biggest hits including Ratatouille and The Incredibles. A modest hit on release, the film has become a minor cult classic, winning a then-septuagenarian Tandy a Saturn award for Best Actress.
Join us as we discuss the colourful cast of characters - including a slogan-quoting former boxer and a short-fused gang leader with highly unusual fashion sense even for an eighties movie - attempt to figure out what the aliens/robots/spaceships are actually supposed to be in this movie and of course, pitch some sequel ideas...
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Every week on Beyond The Box Set, we take a classic standalone movie and compete to pitch the most ridiculous sequel, prequel or spin-off ideas to bring them back to the big screen. You can find us on virtually all major podcasting platforms, including iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and Podbean.
We recently launched on Patreon, allowing our listeners to access a whole raft of fabulous bonus content including our weekly bonus show 'Beyond BTBS', a 30 second ad slot on our main show and the opportunity to become a character in one of our sequels. We also have our own line of merchandise on TeePublic.com, including T-shirts, mugs, iphone cases and more.
00.00: All musicians are cheating bastards
25.22: *batteries not included Drinking Games
30.00: *batteries not included 2: Attack of the Drones
36.25: *batteries not included 2: Strong & Stable
46.25: *batteries not included 2: Always Read The Small Print
1.02.20: Listener Submissions & Episode 52 Preview

Friday Feb 02, 2018
Forrest Gump II: Jenny's Side
Friday Feb 02, 2018
Friday Feb 02, 2018
Episode 50 marks Beyond The Box Set's first full year on the air, so we knew we had to celebrate with a truly iconic movie choice. So sit down and join us as we pitch sequels to the tearjerking 90s classic Forrest Gump, aka Harry's all-time favourite movie.
In this episode we compare notes on how long each of us lasted before welling up, reveal the historical crossover scene that was wisely left on the cutting room floor, and debate whether Jenny Curran is the most unfairly maligned cinema character of the past thirty years...
We also bring you a bumper selection of drinking games, including needlessly shirtless Lieutenant Dan, every time Jenny's wigs signify a time jump and the occasional hints of Mama Gump's dark side...
Over twenty years after Tom Hanks hung up his running shoes and put little Haley Joel Osment onto the bus, it seems increasingly unlikely that a real Forrest Gump sequel will ever come to pass. Not that we let that spoil our fun as we dedicate the second half of this episode to pitching ridiculous follow-up ideas, including Colin Hanks as a young Forrest undertaking an improbable journey through the plot lines of some of Tom Hanks most famous films - trust us, there was enough to go on...
Finally, we also marked our one-year anniversary by finally launching our own dedicated Patreon and Merchendise pages. For as little as £2 per month, you could become a VIP subscriber for access to our weekly bonus episodes, a 30 second shout-out on the show and the chance to become a character in one of our sequel ideas! Just visit our Patreon Page for more information.
T-shirts, mugs, iphone covers and other assorted Beyond The Box Set accessories are also now available via our Teepublic online store
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Each week on Beyond The Box Set, we take a classic standalond movie and compete to pitch the most ridiculous sequel, prequel or spin-off ideas to bring them back to the big screen. We're currently featured as a 'Binge Worthy Podcast' on the Apple store, and we've frequently cracked the top ten TV & Film Podcasts on UK iTunes.
In other words, our first year has been a wild ride and we don't intend to get off any time soon. You can help support the show by hitting subscribe for a new episode every Friday morning, or by leaving us a review on the Apple store. You can now also support us as an official VIP supporter on Patreon, using our pay as you feel model to gain access to a huge raft of amazing extras (if we do say so ourselves...)
You can find Beyond The Box Set on most major Podcasting platforms, including iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Podbean and much more. You can also get in touch with us via our social media, we always love to hear from our listeners.
00.00: John's Tom Hanks Mea Culpa and A Defence of Jenny
29.40: Forrest Gump Drinking Games
43:55: Forrest Gump 2: Jenny's Side
01:00.55: Forrest Gump 2: Being Tom Hanks
01.18:55.: Listener Submissions & Episode 51 Preview

Friday Jan 26, 2018
Black Swan 2: Urban Redemption
Friday Jan 26, 2018
Friday Jan 26, 2018
Natalie Portman's high-intensity acting style found the perfect vehicle in Darren Aronofsky's nightmarish ballet-themed body horror Black Swan, a role that deservedly won her the Academy Award for Best Actress. But what might happen if the two reunited for a second act?
Olumide Ajulo joins us in this week's episode to discuss Portman's journey to the dark side, the unintentional camp value of the swan transformation scenes and the joy of Winona Ryder being the most Winona she can be in a brief but full-tilt supporting turn as a faded Ballet queen in a suspiciously crooked wig...
After burning through some drinking games - mostly concieved to provide a distraction from all the gross finger stuff in this film - we also pitch our own fantasy Black Swan sequels, including Winona's origin story, an uplifting redemption movie with a Pitch Perfect twist and an attempted comeback for Portman's Nina Sayers' that inevitably winds up taking a dark and twisted turn...
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Every week on Beyond The Box Set, we explore a classic standalone movie from cinema past and compete to pitch the most ridiculous prequel, sequel and spin-off ideas to bring them back to the big screen. We're a UK top ten Film and TV podcast that's been certified 'Binge-worthy' by the Apple Podcast app, available for free download and streaming from all major podcasting platforms - including iTunes, Spotify, Podbean and more.
Our show lives and dies on the support of our listeners, so if you enjoy this episode please consider hitting subscribe for a new episode every Friday morning. If you're feeling extra nice, leaving us a review on your chosen podcasting platform is also a really good way to support the show.
00.00: Nina Sayers needs a low-stakes job in personal finance
34.55: Black Swan Drinking Games
40.00: Black Swan 2: Nutcracker
57.30: Black Swan 2: Urban Redemption
1.08.50: Black Swan 2: Winona's Story
1.24.: Listener Submissions & Episode 50 Preview

Friday Jan 19, 2018
Friday Jan 19, 2018
It's the whip-smart cult comedy that revived Robert Downey Jr.'s career and rescued us from the prospect of Johnny Knoxville headlining the Iron Man Franchise. Shane Black's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang combines classic Neo Noir references with a distinctly 21st century sensibility, making it just the kind of curious genre-crossover we love to sink our teeth into...
With the invaluable assistance of our special guest Chris Johnston of Easy Riders Raging Podcast, we attempt to wrap our heads around the insanely convoluted plot of this movie, debate whether it's OK to shamelessly objectify your female lead if you make a point of being self aware about it and question just what exactly the root cause might be of Val Kilmer's increasingly alarming facial dimensions...
Naturally we also get down to some sequel ideas, which this week include a Rush Hour-inspired location switch, a deconstruction of the original movie's obsession with gay panic jokes and a lot of really terrible plays on the title. Kiss Kiss Cillit Bang, anyone?
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Every week on Beyond The Box Set, we take a classic standalone movie and compete to pitch the most ridiculous sequel, prequel and spin-off ideas to bring them back to the big screen. We've covered everything from timeless blockbusters to beloved cult classics, and quite possibly ruined them all with our sacreligious and frequently unfilmable reboot concepts.
If you like the show, please hit subscribe to get a new episode every Friday morning, and leave us a review on your preferred Podcasting app to really make our day. You can also reach out to us on most forms of social media, or through our official website.
00.00: Val Kilmer has strange proportions
29.00: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Drinking Games
35.00: Click Click Click... Bang!
41.05: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 2: Ding Dong & Dynamite
46.30: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 2: Who's Afraid of Gay Perry?
1.02.35: Listener Submissions & Episode 49 Preview

Thursday Jan 11, 2018
Being John Malkovich II: The Split
Thursday Jan 11, 2018
Thursday Jan 11, 2018
After four long weeks apart, Harry and John finally reunite for a dizzyingly hilarious trip down the rabbit hole that is Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman's brilliantly inventive Being John Malkovich, one of the most creative cult comedies of the 1990s.
Starring John Cusack as a frustrated puppeteer, Cameron Diaz as his sexually conflicted, animal-hoarding wife and John Malkovich in a career defining performance as himself - or some version of it - Being John Malkovich is rightly regarded as a modern classic.
Join us as we discuss the wig that transforms John Cusack into Dylan Moran, Catherine Keener's stellar leg work in this movie, why Being Tom Cruise would never have worked and much more, before setting ourselves the daunting task of matching this movie's endless insanity with our own fantasy sequel pitches.
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Beyond The Box Set is the hit movie podcast in which classic standalone movies are subjected to bizarre and frequently unfilmable sequel, prequel and spin-off ideas in hopes of bringing them back to the big screen. We've been certified 'binge worthy' by Apple Podcasts and recently cracked the top ten in the UK TV & Film Charts, which we plan to dine out on for all eternity.
If you enjoy the show, hit subscribe to receive a brand new episode every Friday morning, and please consider leaving us a review too - it really helps our show to find more new listeners. Beyond The Box Set is available for free download and streaming via iTunes, Stitcher, aCast, Podbean and more.
If you'd like to reach out to us with a sequel idea, a movie suggestion or just to say hi, we're contactable via most forms of social media including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Google+, or by leaving a comment on our official website.
00.00: Hot Tubs, Creepy Puppets and The Joy of Unapologetic Nonsense
25.00: Being John Malkovich Drinking Games
33.40: Being Harry Chappell
58.20: Splitting John Malkovich
01.06.45: Listener Submissions, The Get Out Theory & Episode 48 Preview

Thursday Jan 04, 2018
WALL-E 2: A Garbage Movie
Thursday Jan 04, 2018
Thursday Jan 04, 2018
In almost a year of recording Beyond The Box Set, it occured to us this week that we've never actually covered a fully animated movie. So in the spirit of the new year, we decided to correct this oversight and turn our imaginations towards one of the most beloved animated features of the past decade, Pixar's WALL-E.
Written and directed by Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon, WALL-E was one of Pixar Studios riskiest and most ambitious releases. Set in the wasted remnants of a long-abandoned Planet Earth, the movie follows a largely non-verbal trash compactor robot who dreams of experiencing true love - or at least the version of it depicted in his worn-out VHS of the 1969 musical Hello Dolly.
From its virtually dialogue-free first half to the depiction of a future in which humans have quite literally become oversized babies, WALL-E challenges its audience considerably more than the average children's movie. It was a gamble that paid off when the movie became a highly acclaimed global blockbuster, taking in over $200 million at the US Box Office and picking up the 2008 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Despite all this success, to date WALL-E has never been recomissioned for a sequel. Join us as we attempt to recitify this with a haunting end-of-humanity origin story and a romantic sequel that finds WALL-E and EVE's teenage child experiencing the first pangs of robot love during the Earth cleanup process.
Along the way we also discuss whether WALL-E should really be considered a children's movie, question the necessity of sentient parasols in the future and learn the hard way that 'cockroach life span' is a difficult phrase to say...
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Every week on Beyond The Box Set, we watch a classic standalone movie and compete to pitch the most ridiculous sequel, prequel or spin-off ideas to bring them back to the big screen. We were recently featured by Apple iTunes as a 'Binge-Worthy Podcast', which was a very validating start to 2018.
If you like the show, please hit subscribe on your preferred podcasting platform to hear a new episode every Friday. Beyond The Box Set is available for free download and streaming on iTunes, Stitcher, aCast, Podbean, Pocket Casts, Youtube, Google Play and most other popular podcasting platforms.
If your new year's resolution was to review more podcasts, why not start with us? It makes us feel nice and it's the best way to help us find new listeners, so please consider throwing us some stars on iTunes, Stitcher and any other podcatcher that allows it.
If you have a suggestion for a film you'd like to hear us cover - or a sequel idea of your own that you'd like us to shout out on air, you can contact us via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and Tumblr - or by leaving a comment under any blog post on our official website.
00.00: Intro - EVE shoots first, asks questions later...
20.55: WALL-E Drinking Games
26.00: WALL-E: A Garbage Movie
37.25: WALL-E 2.0
48.25: Listener Submissions & Episode 47 Preview

Sunday Dec 31, 2017
BONUS | Pitching Sequels to the Movies of 2017: Part Two
Sunday Dec 31, 2017
Sunday Dec 31, 2017
The second half of 2017 gave us blockbusters of wildly varying quality - from the artistic and commercial highs of Dunkirk and Baby Driver to the wildly misguided lows of Justice League and Geostorm. We also made time for some less mainstream fare, including Kumail Nanjiani's delightful The Big Sick, James Franco's hilarious The Disaster Artist and Darren Aronofsky's utterly batshit Mother!
Join us in this second half of our year-end special as we attempt to pitch quick-fire sequels to every movie we caught in the cinema between July and December. As before, spoiler warnings do apply to all the movies we describe in this episode, but we'll try to give you plenty of warning.
Here are the movies featured in this episode (Star Wars fans, you're safe...)
00.00: Intro
01.10: Baby Driver
05.40: Spider-Man: Homecoming
11.20: War for the Planet of the Apes
16.05: Dunkirk
18.40: Atomic Blonde
21.50: The Hitman's Bodyguard
24.20: The Big Sick
28.55: Detroit
33.20: Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle
36.50: Mother!
41.00: Geostorm
45.45: It
47.30: Murder on the Orient Express
51.35: Thor: Ragnarok
54.00: Justice League
56.45: Suburbicon
59.35: The Disaster Artist
1.03.20: The Best and Worst Movies we saw in 2017
1.05.50: Episode 46 Preview
We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming on Friday 5th January. Thanks for supporting us through the first year of our show - here's to the next one!
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Every week on Beyond The Box Set, we watch a classic standalone movie and compete to pitch the most ridiculous sequel, prequel or spin-off ideas to bring them back to the big screen. Over the course of 2017 we've pitched sequels for beloved classics like Sideways, The Sixth Sense and The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, cult favourites such as Swiss Army Man, The Fifth Element and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, plus more questionable fare including Deja Vu, Me Before You and Krampus.
If you enjoy the show, please hit subscribe on your preferred podcasting platform to hear a new episode every Friday. Beyond The Box Set is available for free download and streaming on iTunes, Stitcher, aCast, Podbean, Pocket Casts, Youtube, Google Play and most of the other popular podcasting platforms.
Leaving us a review is the absolute best way to help our show to find new listeners, so if your new year's resolution is to be nicer to strangers on the internet, please consider throwing some nice words and a star or five in our general direction on any platform that allows for it.
If you have a suggestion for a film you'd like to hear us cover - or a sequel idea of your own that you'd like us to shout out on air, you can contact us via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and Tumblr - or by leaving a comment under any blog post on our official website.

Thursday Dec 28, 2017
BONUS | Pitching Sequels to the Movies of 2017: Part One
Thursday Dec 28, 2017
Thursday Dec 28, 2017
From depressing Oscar contenders to terrible franchise movies, we watched a lot of movies in 2017 that wouldn't necessarily fit the Beyond The Box Set format. So we thought it'd be fun to round off the year with a quick-fire run through everything we saw in the cinema this year, complete with improvised sequel pitches.
Join us in the first part of this mammoth undertaking, in which we vainly attempt to remember the plots of some of the movies we saw from January to June 2017. WARNING - spoilers abound for all of the movies we discuss in this episode, but we'll give you plenty of warning to hit the skip button if there's anything you havent gotten around to yet...
Here are the movies featured in this episode:
00.00: Intro - Broken Shoulders and Pigeon Invasions
03.00: La La Land
06.20: Jackie
07.55: Loving
09.30: Fences
11.15: Moonlight
13.10: Hacksaw Ridge
15.10: Hidden Figures
17.40: Elle
20.30: Manchester By The Sea
23.10: Lego Batman
26.00: Split
29.40: Lion
30.55: T2: Trainspotting
33.10: Beauty & The Beast
35.55: Get Out
38.45: Logan
43.45: Kong: Skull Island
48.50: Ghost in the Shell
51.30: Free Fire
55.30: The Fate of the Furious
01.02.30: Alien Covenant
01.07.30: Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2
01.09.25: Pirates of the Caribbean 5: Salazar's Revenge
01.16.15: Wonder Woman
01.21.10: The Mummy
01.25.40: The Beguiled
Stay tuned for part II, featuring increasingly drunken sequel pitches for all the movies we saw from July to December 2017. We'll also be back to our regularly scheduled programming on Friday 5th January 2018, so be sure to subscribe to hear all our latest episodes as soon as they're released.
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Every week on Beyond The Box Set, we watch a classic standalone movie and compete to pitch the most ridiculous sequel, prequel or spin-off ideas to bring them back to the big screen. Over the course of 2017 we've pitched sequels for stone-cold classics like Gladiator, Titanic and The Truman Show, cult favourites such as The Room, District 9 and Heathers... plus more questionable releases including 50 First Dates, Knights of Badassdom and the Super Mario Bros movie.
If you like the show, please hit subscribe on your preferred podcasting platform to hear a new episode every Friday. Beyond The Box Set is available for free download and streaming on iTunes, Stitcher, aCast, Podbean, Pocket Casts, Youtube, Google Play and many other popular podcasting platforms.
Leaving us a review is the absolute best way to help our show to find new listeners, so if your new year's resolution is to be nicer to strangers on the internet, please consider throwing some nice words and a star or five in our general direction on any platform that allows for it.
If you have a suggestion for a film you'd like to hear us cover - or a sequel idea of your own that you'd like us to shout out on air, you can contact us via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and Tumblr - or by leaving a comment under any blog post on our official website.

Thursday Dec 21, 2017
Jingle All The Way 2: Jingle Bell Rock (Feat. One Good Thing)
Thursday Dec 21, 2017
Thursday Dec 21, 2017
Podcast crossover! In the fourth and final instalment of our 2017 festive mini-season, Paul and Paul from One Good Thing join us to discuss Arnold Schwarzenegger's utterly shameless Christmas cash-in 'Jingle All The Way'.
Released in 1996, Jingle All The Way tells the heartwarming tale of a workaholic father attempting to compensate for a year's worth of neglect by buying his son a highly coveted 'Turbo Man' action figure for Christmas.
Critics described the movie as 'crass' 'cynical' and 'painfully unfunny' - and those were some of the kinder reviews - but it made money at the box office and endures as a questionable Christmas classic to this day.
Tune in as we discuss Schwarzenegger's nonexistant comic timing, Jake Lloyd's inexplicable journey from this to 'Star Wars', why Sinbad's character is clearly in the midst of a serious psychotic episode and the mysterious phenomenon that is Phil Hartman - suburban sex God.
We also engage in our first ever 'pod-off' - pitching our joint 'Jingle All The Way' sequel concept against the boys from One Good Thing. Can either team improve on the original movie - or even the real straight-to-DVD sequel starring Larry The Cable Guy that we chose to pretend doesn't exist? It's a lower bar than usual...
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Every week on Beyond The Box Set, we watch a classic standalone movie and compete to pitch the most ridiculous sequel, prequel or spin-off ideas to bring them back to the big screen. We're currently in the midst of our Christmas season, which has seen us imagine follow-ups to festive standards like It's a Wonderful Life, Love Actually and Krampus.
If you like the show, please hit subscribe on your preferred podcasting platform to hear a new episode every Friday. Beyond The Box Set is available for free download and streaming on iTunes, Stitcher, aCast, Podbean, Pocket Casts, Youtube, Google Play and many other popular podcasting platforms.
Leaving us a review is the absolute best way to help our show to find new listeners, so if you want to give us the best Christmas present money can't buy, please consider throwing some nice words and a star or five in our general direction on iTunes or Stitcher.
If you have a suggestion for a film you'd like to hear us cover - or a sequel idea of your own that you'd like us to shout out on air, you can contact us via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and Tumblr - or by leaving a comment under any blog post on our official website.
00.00: Dialogue is not Arnold Schwarzenegger's friend
33.00: Jingle All The Way Drinking Games
36.35: JT: Jingle Day
50.25: Jingle All The Way 2: Jingle Bell Rock
1.05.35: Listener Submissions & Episode 46 Preview

Thursday Dec 14, 2017
Love Actually 2: Love, Definitely?
Thursday Dec 14, 2017
Thursday Dec 14, 2017
Is Love Actually a heartwarming festive classic, or the sexist, fat-shaming cinematic equivalent of finding a lump of coal in your stocking? This week on Beyond The Box Set, we revisited Harry's all-time favourite Christmas movie, and found that our reactions to it diverted rather sharply, actually...
From Hugh Grant's Prime Minister getting the hots for his chubby(?) secretary to Colin Firth's recently dumped writer forming a hasty bond with a woman he's never had a coherent conversation with, Richard Curtis' smash hit ensemble comedy posits that love can blossom in all sorts of unusual places. Well, for straight white men, anyway...
Join us as we debate whether there's any hope for Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman's failing marriage, discuss why Andrew Lincoln will probably end up murdering Kiera Knightley and wearing her skin as a sarong, and argue that Martin Freeman and Joanna Page's dry-humping body doubles may actually have the healthiest relationship in the whole movie...
We also pitch some drinking games for the movie - because by God, you'll need them - and come up with our own fantasy sequels, one of which is considerably more optimistic than the other...
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Each week on Beyond The Box Set, we choose a notable standalone movie and compete to pitch the most ridiculous sequel, prequel or spin-off ideas to bring them back to the big screen. From timeless classics like The Shining and It's A Wonderful Life to more questionable fare like Super Mario Bros and Dom Hemingway, no sequel-free movie is safe from our wildly unfilmable imaginations.
If you enjoy the show, please hit subscribe on your preferred podcasting platform to hear a new episode every Friday. Beyond The Box Set is available for free download and streaming on iTunes, Stitcher, aCast, Podbean, Pocket Casts, Youtube, Google Play and many other popular podcasting platforms.
Leaving us a review is the absolute best way to help our show to find new listeners, so if you can spare some nice words and a star or five on iTunes or Stitcher, we'd be enormously grateful.
If you have a suggestion for a film you'd like to hear us cover - or a sequel idea of your own that you'd like us to shout out on air, you can contact us via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and Tumblr - or by leaving a comment under any blog post on our official website.
00.00: Is this shit even a Christmas movie?
2.35: Bill Nighy is an entitled monster
6.30: Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman's marriage is doomed
11.55: Liam Neeson is a terrible role model
16.15: Hugh Grant is going to trigger WW3
19.00: Laura Linney navigates workplace harrassment
22.40: Colin Firth is in the midst of a classic midlife crisis
26.25: Andrew Lincoln is an utter creep
30.20: At least the porn stars are talking to each other...
34.35: Kris Marshall demeans American womanhood
39.40: Love Actually Drinking Games
44.45: It's Sexual Harrassment, Actually
51.15: Love Actually 2: Love, Definitely?
1.04.40: Listener Submissions & Episode 45 Preview