Mark Kermode Biography
Mark James Patrick Kermode is a journalist, film reviewer, and musician from England. He is The Observer’s top film critic, writes for Sight & Sound, hosts the BBC Four documentary series Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema, co-hosts the BBC Radio 5 Live show Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review, and previously co-hosted the BBC Two arts program The Culture Show. Kermode is a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) member. Kermode is a founder member of the Dodge Brothers, a skiffle band where he plays double bass.
How old isMark Kermode? – Age
Kermode was born on 2 July 1963.
Where did Mark Kermode go to school? – Education
Kermode was born in the Hertfordshire town of Barnet. He attended The Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School in Elstree, Hertfordshire, a private boys’ school, a few years before comedians Sacha Baron Cohen and David Baddiel and the same year as actor Jason Isaacs. In 1991, he received his Ph.D. in English from the University of Manchester, with a thesis on horror literature.
Mark KermodeWife – Family
He grew up as a Methodist but subsequently converted to the Church of England. He changed his surname to his mother’s maiden name by deed poll when his parents split while he was in his early twenties.
Mark Kermode Wife
Kermode is married to Linda Ruth Williams, a lecturer at the University of Exeter who teaches cinema. They co-curated a History of Horror Film season and exhibition at the National Film Theatre in London from October to November 2004. Kermode and Williams have a son and a daughter.
What is Mark Kermode Salary?
Kermode’s salary is not revealed.
Mark Kermode Net Worth
Kermode’s net worth ranges between $1-$5 million.
Mark Kermode Career
film reviewer
Kermode got his start in the film industry as a print journalist, first for Manchester’s City Life, then Time Out and the NME in London. He’s also contributed to publications such as The Independent, Vox, Empire, Flicks, Fangoria, and Neon.
Kermode began working as a film reviewer for BBC Radio 1 in 1993, on Mark Radcliffe’s Graveyard Shift program, where he had a regular Thursday night position called Cult Film Corner. Later, he joined BBC Radio 1’s morning program with Simon Mayo. On Tuesday nights, he co-hosted Cling Film on Radio 1, a movie review show with Mary Anne Hobbs. He was the resident film reviewer on BBC Radio 5’s Morning Edition with Danny Baker from February 1992 to October 1993. Kermode has been reviewing and debating new films with Mayo on the BBC Radio 5 Live broadcast Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review since 2001. On May 11, 2009, the show received Gold in the Speech Award category at the 2009 Sony Radio Academy Awards.
Kermode is a visiting fellow at Southampton University.
He’s also worked on documentaries including The Fear of God: 25 Years of the Exorcist, Hell on Earth: The Desecration and Resurrection of Ken Russell’s The Devils, The Edge of Blade Runner, and The Cult of The Wicker Man.
Kermode wrote weekly film reviews for the New Statesman until September 2005. Kermode wrote weekly film reviews for the New Statesman until September 2005. Kermode has been writing “Mark Kermode’s DVD round-up” for The Observer since 2009, a weekly assessment of new releases. He contributes to the Sight and Sound journal of the British Film Institute on occasion. Kermode is a film reviewer and presenter for Film4 and Channel 4, where he hosts the Extreme Cinema strand every week. He also creates and broadcasts documentaries for Channel 4 and co-hosts BBC News at Five’s The Film Review with Gavin Esler. Kermode hosts an annual “Kermode Awards” segment on BBC Two’s The Culture Show, in which he awards statuettes to performers and filmmakers who were not nominated for Academy Awards that year. Kermode criticized the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the UK’s film censor, in 2002 for their edits to the 1972 film The Last House on the Left. The BBFC authorized the film to be re-released unedited in 2008. He has also remarked that the BBFC does an excellent job in a difficult position and that he approves of their judgments.
Kermode named his ten favorite films in a 2012 Sight & Sound poll as The Exorcist, A Matter of Life and Death, The Devils, It’s a Wonderful Life, Don’t Look Now, Pan’s Labyrinth, Mary Poppins, Brazil, Eyes Without a Face, and The Seventh Seal, a list later published in order of preference in his book Hatchet Job, as The Exorcist, A Matter of Life and Death, The Devils. He names William Friedkin, Terry Gilliam, and Ken Russell as his favorite directors. Kermode took over as The Observer’s top film critic in September 2013. On BBC Four, he began presenting his own documentary series Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema in 2018. A second series, as well as Disaster Movie, Christmas, and Oscar Winner’s specials followed.
Kermode hosted a movie soundtrack-themed broadcast on the classical radio station Scala Radio in 2019. Kermode compiles an annual “best-of-the-year” movie list, which provides a summary of his critical tastes.
presenter
Kermode has been a regular presenter on BBC Two’s The Culture Show. He has appeared regularly on Newsnight Review.
It was during a 2006 interview with Kermode for The Culture Show in Los Angeles that Werner Herzog was shot with an air rifle.
Herzog appeared unflustered, later stating “It was not a significant bullet.
I am not afraid”. On 19 May 2007, he was featured on the show playing with his skiffle band, The Dodge Brothers, in which he plays the double bass. Kermode co-hosted an early 1990s afternoon magazine show on BBC Radio 5 called A Game of Two Halves alongside former Blue Peter presenter Caron Keating. Kermode appeared in a cameo role as himself in the revival of the BBC’s Absolutely Fabulous on 1 January 2012. In April 2008, Kermode started a twice-weekly video blog hosted on the BBC website, in which he discussed films and recounts anecdotes. He retired the podcast for its 10th anniversary at the close of 2018, with special episodes on his most and least favorite movies of the previous decade. Kermode has recorded DVD audio commentaries for Tommy, The Devils, The Ninth Configuration, The Wicker Man, and (with Peter O’Toole) Becket. He also appears in the DVD extras of Lost in La Mancha, interviewing Terry Gilliam and Pan’s Labyrinth where he interviews Guillermo del Toro about the film, which he has called a masterpiece.
Kermode has written books, published by the BFI in its Modern Classics series, on The Exorcist and The Shawshank Redemption and his documentary for Channel 4, Shawshank: The Redeeming Feature, is on the film’s 10th-anniversary special edition DVD.
Kermode’s family connections with the Isle of Man have led to him playing a role in Manx culture and the arts.
This has seen him host various talks on the island including; An Evening with Mark Kermode at the Ballakermeen High School. He is also involved with the annual Isle of Man Film Festival.
musician
In the early 1990s, Kermode was a member of The Railtown Bottlers, a skiffle/rockabilly band. The Railtown Bottlers were also the house band on the BBC show Danny Baker After All for a series beginning in 1993 when he performed alongside Madness lead vocalist Suggs. In 2001, he founded The Dodge Brothers, a skiffle quartet in which he played double bass.
Kermode awards
Kermode is a patron of the Phoenix Cinema’s charity trust in North London, which was his favorite cinema as a youngster in East Finchley. As part of the venue’s reopening celebrations in 2010, the tenth-anniversary edition of Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review was shown.
Kermode was named an Island of Culture Patron by the Isle of Man Arts Council in 2013.
Kermode was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the University of Winchester in 2016.
Kermode was named Honorary Professor of Film Studies at the University of Exeter in 2018.