Mark Kermode - It's Only a Movie

What happens when you spend most of your childhood in a cinema? Can you really learn about the world by watching triple-bills of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Slade in Flame and Krakatoa: East of Java? Or does it mean that movies become more real than 'real life'?

In It's Only a Movie the UK's leading film critic Mark Kermode considers all of these questions, drawing on scenes from his life that he remembers with cinematic clarity - getting shot at while interviewing Werner Herzog in the Hollywood Hills, being handbagged by Helen Mirren at the Bafta Awards ceremony, and being thrown out of the Cannes Film Festival for heckling in very bad French.

Mark Kermode

Whether reflecting on why he was punched for writing a bad review of Blue Velvet or rueing the day he spent travelling through Russia in a broken-down Lada on the trail of the low-budget horror movie Dark Waters, Mark Kermode has written a hilarious account of a life obsessed with film that will appeal to anyone who's ever wondered 'Who would play me in the film of my life?'

Film critic, broadcaster, quiff-wearer and something of a cult figure, Mark Kermode is one of the most distinctive voices on the cultural scene. His podcasts are downloaded by well over 100,000 people per week and he can regularly be seen offending Leonardo DiCaprio (he forgave him for Titanic), dodging sniper fire with Werner Herzog ('It is not a significant bullet') or hosting hour-long specials with Steven Spielberg on The Culture Show.

Mark visits Watershed on Mon 22 Feb at 18:00hrs. Tickets have now sold out. Following the event, Mark will be signing copies of his book.