Mark Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter and podcaster. He presents a weekly Scala Radio film music show and the BBC Four documentary series Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema, and is co-presenter of the BBC Radio 4 programme Screenshot with Ellen E. Jones, and the film-review podcast Kermode & Mayo's Take alongside long-time collaborator Simon Mayo. He has contributed to the BFI's film magazine Sight & Sound and between September 2013 and September 2023 he served as chief film critic for The Observer. Since January 2016 he has presented a monthly live show, MK3D, at the BFI South Bank. It is the BFI's longest running live show.
Kermode previously co-presented the BBC Radio 5 Live show Kermode and Mayo's Film Review, and previously co-presented the BBC Two arts programme The Culture Show. He is a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and a founding member of the skiffle band the Dodge Brothers, for which he plays double bass.
Early life
Kermode was born in Chipping Barnet, Hertfordshire. He was educated at St Mary's Primary School in Finchley and then attended The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Elstree, Hertfordshire, at the same time as actor Jason Isaacs.
His mother was a GP, who was born in Douglas, Isle of Man, and practised in Golders Green, North London. His father, the son of a travelling flour salesman, worked in the London Hospital in Whitechapel. He was raised as a Methodist, and later became a member of the Church of England. His parents divorced when he was in his early 20s and he subsequently changed his surname to his Manx mother's maiden name by deed poll. He earned his PhD in English at the University of Manchester in 1991, writing a thesis on horror fiction.
Film criticism
Kermode began his film career as a print journalist, writing for Manchester's City Life, and then Time Out and NME in London. He has subsequently written for a range of publications including The Guardian, 20/20,The Independent, Vox, Empire, Flicks, Fangoria, Video Watchdog, and Neon.
Kermode began working as a film broadcaster on LBC in 1988, after which he moved to BBC Radio 5 (later rebranded as 5Live). Between February 1992 and October 1993, he was the resident film reviewer on BBC Radio 5's Morning Edition with Danny Baker. He became film critic for BBC Radio 1 in 1993, on a regular Thursday night slot called Cult Film Corner on Mark Radcliffe's Graveyard Shift session. He later moved to Simon Mayo's BBC Radio 1 morning show. He hosted a movie review show with Mary Anne Hobbs on Radio 1 on Tuesday nights called Cling Film.
From 2001 until 2022, Kermode reviewed and debated new film releases with Mayo on the BBC Radio 5 Live show Kermode and Mayo's Film Review. The programme won Gold in the Speech Award category at the 2009 Sony Radio Academy Awards on 11 May 2009. On 11 March 2022, it was announced by Simon Mayo, at the start of the Kermode and Mayo Film Review, that the last Kermode and Mayo's Film Review would be broadcast on 1 April 2022.
Kermode and Mayo launched a non-BBC film and television podcast "Kermode & Mayo's Take" in May 2022.
Kermode has worked on film-related documentaries including The Fear of God; 25 Years of The Exorcist, Hell on Earth: The Desecration and Resurrection of Ken Russell's The Devils, Alien: Evolution, On the Edge of Blade Runner, Mantrap: Straw Dogs - The Final Cut, Shawshank: The Redeeming Feature, The Poughkeepsie Shuffle: Tracing the French Connection, The Real Linda Lovelace, Salo: Fade to Black and The Cult of The Wicker Man.
From 2001 to 2005, Kermode reviewed films each week for the New Statesman. Prior to becoming Chief Film Critic in 2013, he wrote "Mark Kermode's DVD round-up" for The Observer, a weekly review of the latest releases. He also writes for the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound magazine. From 1995 to 2001 Kermode was a film critic and presenter for Film4 and Channel 4, presenting the weekly Extreme Cinema strand. He has written and presented documentaries for Channel 4 and the BBC, and until 2023 appeared on The Film Review for BBC News at Five. For BBC Two's The Culture Show, Kermode hosted an annual "Kermode Awards" episode which presented statuettes to actors and directors not nominated for Academy Awards that year.
In 2002, Kermode challenged the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the censor for film in the UK, about its cuts to the 1972 film The Last House on the Left. In 2008, the BBFC allowed the film to be re-released uncut. He has since stated that the BBFC do a good job in an impossible situation and expressed his approval of their decisions.