Rounding off the show’s fourth year, the final MK3D of 2019 featured great guests and some festive treats. Thank you to our special supporters, Kodak.
Mark welcomed the audience and began the show with a Q&A, which saw the audience quiz Mark on various topics, including Spielberg’s upcoming West Side Story remake.
Our first guest was the terrific Taron Egerton, star of Rocketman, for which he received rave reviews and nominations for an array of awards, including a Golden Globe. Taron talked about his performance in the Elton John biopic directed by Dexter Fletcher (who came on the show last month). Mark and Taron talked about how the film came about, and the preparation involved in taking on the role. They also talked about Eddie the Eagle, Kingsman, and Kingsman: The Golden Circle, and discussed how monumental Rocketman has been, and how it will influence the choices Taron makes going forward.
Up next in Here’s The Thing Mark discussed the impending release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, taking the opportunity to reiterate how brilliant The Last Jedi was, despite the nasty criticism it received both during and after its release. Mark also paid tribute to Danny Aiello, star of Do The Right Thing and Moonstruck, who sadly passed away earlier in the month.
Next up, actress Emily Beecham came on to talk about her new film, Little Joe, for which she won the Best Actress prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Jessica Hausner, the film opens in February and sees Emily play a single mother who works in plant breeding facility. Emily talked about her Cannes win and the extraordinary experience of making the film. Mark also talked to Emily about her role in Hail, Caesar! alongside Ralph Fiennes and Alden Ehrenreich, and asked about Emily’s upcoming films, including Cruella which stars Emma Stone and Emma Thompson and is a live-action origin tale of Cruella de Vil.
To get in the festive spirit, and inspired by the recent success of Knives Out, Mark played a Christmas parlour game with the audience in which various pictorial clues came up on-screen and the audience could guess which whodunnit film they related to!
In last month’s show, Mark exclusively revealed that the BFI are hosting a screening of Mark Jenkin’s Bait in January featuring a live-score by award-winning Cornish-Welsh musician Gwenno Saunders. Gwenno joined Mark on-stage to talk about writing the score, and her relationship with Cornish music. Gwenno treated the audience to a performance of her song Tir Ha Mor (land and sea) which features on her album Le Kov, which is sung entirely in Cornish. Gwenno returned to the stage and taught the audience her infamous, vegan friendly Cornish cheese chant, Eus Keus?
Continuing with the musical theme, Mark talked about his upcoming ‘A Hollywood Christmas’ concert at the Royal Albert Hall, and treated the audience to an exclusive preview of his rendition of Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town on the double bass.
This month’s List-O-Mania was a festive extravaganza which saw Mark give his Top Twelve Christmas musical moments from the movies. The list included choices from lesser-seen Christmas films including Tangerine and Black Nativity, as well as songs from The Snowman, It’s A Wonderful Life, Love, Actually and Meet Me in St. Louis.
Mark ended the show in style with an audience singalong of Blue Christmas, accompanied by Mark on the piano.
Hollywood Christmas 
Gwenno 
Emily Beecham 
Mark’s rendition of Blue Christmas 
Taron Egerton