Best Pick with John Dorney, Jessica Regan and Tom Salinsky

Episode 323: 2001 A Space Odyssey

Released 29 October 2025

For this episode, we watched Stanley Kubrick's iconic science fiction masterpiece 2001 A Space Odyssey, written by Kubrick and Arthur C Clarke and starring Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester and the voice of Douglas Rain. It was nominated for four Oscars and won one for its special effects, the only Academy Award which Kubrick ever won. It ranks sixth on the 2022 Sight & Sound critics list and it tops the directors list.

• Tom's new podcast: https://podfollow.com/all-british-comedy-explained
• Jess's amazing storytelling show: https://kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on/16-postcodes-jhby

BEST PICK – the book is available now from all the usual places.

• From the publisher https://tinyurl.com/best-pick-book-rowman
• UK Amazon https://amzn.to/3zFNATI
• US Amazon https://www.amzn.com/1538163101
• UK bookstore https://www.waterstones.com/book/9781538163108
• US bookstore https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/best-pick-john-dorney/1139956434
• Audio book https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Best-Pick-Audiobook/B09SBMX1V4

To send in your questions, comments, thoughts and ideas, you can join our Facebook group, email us on bestpickpod@gmail.com, or find us on Bluesky.

You can also visit our website at https://bestpickpod.com and sign up to our mailing list to get notified as soon as a new episode is released. Just follow this link: http://eepurl.com/dbHO3n.

If you enjoy this podcast and you'd like to help us to continue to make it, you can now support us on Patreon for as little as £2.50 per month, but please be aware that future releases will continue to be sporadic.

Best Pick with John Dorney, Jessica Regan and Tom Salinsky

Episode 18: Annie Hall (1977) recorded live at the London Podcast Festival.

Released 26 September 2018. Rereleased 12 October 2025.

For this episode – which we are re-running in honour of Diane Keaton – we watched Annie Hall, written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman and directed by Allen, who also starred alongside Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane and Paul Simon.

The film won four Academy Awards including Best Actress for Diane Keaton and Best Screenplay for Allen and Brickman.

• Star Wars Despecialized https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGrXO2RDzLg&vl=en
• Kathy Griffin's Woody Allen story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i62GcGDgI4

Thanks to Zoe, Sally and everyone at the London Podcast Festival for making this happen.

Tom's new podcast ALL BRITISH COMEDY EXPLAINED is now available here in audio: https://podfollow.com/all-british-comedy-explained and here in video: https://www.youtube.com/@AllBritishComedyExplained

BEST PICK the book is available now from all the usual places, and the paperback is out now.

• From the publisher https://tinyurl.com/best-pick-book-rowman
• UK Amazon https://amzn.to/3zFNATI
• US Amazon https://www.amzn.com/1538163101
• UK bookstore https://www.waterstones.com/book/9781538163108
• US bookstore https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/best-pick-john-dorney/1139956434
• Audio book https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Best-Pick-Audiobook/B09SBMX1V4

To send in your questions, comments, thoughts and ideas, you can join our Facebook group, email us on bestpickpod@gmail.com, or find us on Bluesky.

You can also visit our website at https://bestpickpod.com and sign up to our mailing list to get notified as soon as a new episode is released. Just follow this link: http://eepurl.com/dbHO3n.

If you enjoy this podcast and you'd like to help us to continue to make it, you can now support us on Patreon for as little as £2.50 per month.

Best Pick with John Dorney, Jessica Regan and Tom Salinsky

Episode 322: Beau Travail

Released 24 September 2025

For this episode, we watched Claire Denis's 1999 story of three men in the French Foreign Legion, drawn in part from Herman Melville's unfinished novella Billy Budd. The film stars Denis Lavant, Michel Subor and Grégoire Colin and Denis also wrote the script along with Jean-Pol Fargeau. It has an 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and it's at number seven in the 2022 Sight & Sound poll.

We also feature an exclusive clip from Tom's new podcast All British Comedy Explained. Check it out here. https://podfollow.com/all-british-comedy-explained

Next time we will be discussing 2001: A Space Odyssey. If you want to watch it before listening to the next episode, you can buy the DVD or Blu-Ray on Amazon.co.uk, or Amazon.com, or you can stream it via Apple TV+ (UK) or Apple TV+ (USA).

• Blood Shine https://mubi.com/en/gb/films/blood-shine
• The One I Love https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/70299863
• https://www.earwolf.com/episode/the-snowman-live-w-erin-gibson-bryan-safi/

BEST PICK the book is available now from all the usual places, and the paperback is out now.

• From the publisher https://tinyurl.com/best-pick-book-rowman
• UK Amazon https://amzn.to/3zFNATI
• US Amazon https://www.amzn.com/1538163101
• UK bookstore https://www.waterstones.com/book/9781538163108
• US bookstore https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/best-pick-john-dorney/1139956434
• Audio book https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Best-Pick-Audiobook/B09SBMX1V4

To send in your questions, comments, thoughts and ideas, you can join our Facebook group, email us on bestpickpod@gmail.com, or find us on Bluesky.

You can also visit our website at https://bestpickpod.com and sign up to our mailing list to get notified as soon as a new episode is released. Just follow this link: http://eepurl.com/dbHO3n.

If you enjoy this podcast and you'd like to help us to continue to make it, you can now support us on Patreon for as little as £2.50 per month.