About Bah Humbug: A Christmas Movie Podcast with Helen O'Hara
If you have tinsel on the brain and mulled wine in your blood, this is the podcast for you. We’re living in a golden age of delightfully cheesy Christmas movies, and on Bah Humbug we examine the biggest new offerings this season, as well as looking back at classic seasonal favourites. Think Kurt Russell in The Christmas Chronicles 2, Dolly Parton in Christmas On The Square and Kristen Stewart in Happiest Season. Hosted by Helen O’Hara (the Empire podcast, His Darker Materials) and a rotating cast of film experts and guests, this will take a (mostly) affectionate look at the snowiest, coziest, Scroogiest, and Santa-iest films of all.
Merv: A movie about a dog should be a slam dunk for Christmas. Right?
A couple split up and negotiate shared custody of their dog - but when he gets depressed, they reunite for Christmas to cheer him up. It's a rock-solid premise for some light comedy, with likeable stars - Charlie Cox and Zooey Deschanel - and a great canine performance. But does it live up to the basic idea? And is it even Christmassy? Your host, Helen O'Hara, is joined by journalist and author Kat Brown to hash it out.
Merv is out on Prime Video now.
For more from Kat, check out her website katbrown.com here, or follow her on Bluesky here. Her book, No One Talks About This Stuff, is particularly relevant to this film and may be of help if you've been affected by infertility and childlessness.
For more from Helen, you can find here on Bluesky @HelenLOHara, or at helenohara.com. Her latest books, A Quentin Tarantino Dictionary and 50 Film Ideas You Really Need To Know, are available now, and Women Vs Hollywood: The Fall And Rise Of Women In Film remains on sale.
This podcast is produced and edited by Helen O'Hara with Stripped Media. For more on this podcast, and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit www.stripped.media or email producers@stripped.media.
If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a shiny five-star review on your podcast provider of choice; it really does help. And Merry Christmas!
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21 Dec 2025
Jingle Bell Heist: It's definitely better than its title, but how much better?
Christmas is a time of miracles, and also robberies, according to Netflix's new rom-com crime caper, wherein two plucky but dodgy young people played by Olivia Holt and Connor Swindells decide to rob a department store on Christmas Eve. In defence of these bad Santas, they have both been provoked by its awful owner (Peter Serafinowicz) - and their plan may be smarter than it looks. Here to assess how well they succeeded are your regular host, Helen O'Hara, and film journalist and podcaster Amon Warmann, with bells on probably.
Jingle Bell Heist is out on Netflix now.
For more from Amon, check out his social media or listen to him weekly on the Fade To Black podcast.
For more from Helen, you can find here on Bluesky @HelenLOHara, or at helenohara.com. Her latest books, A Quentin Tarantino Dictionary and 50 Film Ideas You Really Need To Know, are available now, and Women Vs Hollywood: The Fall And Rise Of Women In Film remains on sale.
This podcast is produced and edited by Helen O'Hara with Stripped Media. For more on this podcast, and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit www.stripped.media or email producers@stripped.media.
If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a shiny five star review on your podcast provider of choice; it really does help. And Merry Christmas!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
21 Dec 2025
Christmas, Again: Will this indie film become a mumblecore seasonal classic?
It's not all glitzy romances and action movies at Christmas; spare a thought for the microbudget indie movies that are also set at this time of year. Take, for example, 2014's Christmas, Again from director Charles Poekel, finally hitting UK cinemas this December with its tale of a Christmas tree salesman (Kentucker Audley) trying to shuffle through the season without too much fuss. It's been described as a mumblecore effort, so can the movement that launched Greta Gerwig also bring us a genuine Christmas classic? To figure that out, your host, Helen O'Hara, is joined this time by film journalist and author Laura Venning for a good old mumble all about it.
Christmas, Again is out in UK cinemas now.
For more from Laura, you can find her substack Mise-en-Ven here, or her site here.
For more from Helen, you can find here on Bluesky @HelenLOHara, or at helenohara.com. Her latest books, A Quentin Tarantino Dictionary and 50 Film Ideas You Really Need To Know, are available now, and Women Vs Hollywood: The Fall And Rise Of Women In Film remains on sale.
This podcast is produced and edited by Helen O'Hara with Stripped Media. For more on this podcast, and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit www.stripped.media or email producers@stripped.media.
If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a shiny five stars on your podcast app of choice; it really does help. And merry Christmas!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Inside a recent episode
Pillion, with director Harry Lighton: the unlikely love story with a Christmas twist
Published 12 Dec 2025 · Transcript excerpt
[…] I did want to ask though, but for Harry particularly, you know, was he already a singer in a, in a barbershop quartet? Was that something you had to learn? He was very much not already a singer in a barbershop, but that he put a lot of work into it. We had an amazing, amazing group of barbershoppers who came on board to support him and the other members of the film quartet. And that was basically the vast majority of his, of his pre -production preparation was learning to sing barbershop. I mean, the guy could sing already and I'd seen him singing on film, so I knew he had a good voice, but it's a very technical form of singing. […]
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