Paapa Essiedu and Lennie James

In this episode of The BIFA Podcast actors Paapa Essiedu and Lennie James explore the stories and cinemas that made them who they are.

If you’ve been watching, well, lots of great TV over the last decade then chances are you’ve seen Lennie. From beloved police procedural Line of Duty, to undead adventures in The Walking Dead, to Save Me, the disappearance drama that he created, wrote and starred in. But now he’s off the small screen and on stage, currently performing in A Number at the Old Vic, and Paapa who he’s chatting to here, plays his son.

Having established himself with performances in King Lear, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, Paapa star rose considerably in 2020, with his remarkable performances in Gangs of London and Michaela Coel’s groundbreaking series I May Destroy You, in which he played Kwame. And most recently he appeared in the short film Femme, which won the prize for Best British Short at the BIFA awards in December 2021.

In this episode of the podcast, recorded between performances of their play, Paapa and Lennie explore how the hype around a cinema release has changed over the years, from queuing around the block, to your Netflix queue, the difference between a Saturday morning picture and a Saturday night picture and just how important films like Blade and Black Panther have been for Black Londoners.

The BIFA Podcast is a Little Dot Studios production for BIFA

The show is hosted by Jake Cunningham

It’s produced by Ellie Aitken, Jake Cunningham and Harold McShiel

And it's edited by Content is Queen

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