We've seen Christmas proposals in the movies before, but it's pretty rare that it's followed almost immediately by a break-up. Yet that's the starting point for the new film from Elizabeth Guest - who directs, writes, stars and produces - based on her own award-winning web series.

Guest plays Lydia, a self-professed "love addict" who can't quite commit to nice guy Tim (Andrew Leeds), and runs home to her four parents (it's complicated) when her cold feet cause them to break up. But can true love prevail? Only time - specifically about 90 minutes - will tell!

We spoke to Guest and Leeds (Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, Barry) about bringing the film together, her connection to a nailed-on Christmas classic, and the importance of gluten-free pizza. Then editor Amanda Keats joins me, Helen O'Hara, to talk all things true love and gluten.

A Very Merry Break-Up is out for digital rental right now.

For more from Amanda, find her on Instagram @filmvsbookvstv.

For more from Helen, you can find her on Bluesky @HelenLOHara, or at helenohara.com. Her latest books, A Quentin Tarantino Dictionary and 50 Film Ideas You Really Need To Know, are on sale now in all good bookshops or online, and Women Vs Hollywood: The Fall And Rise Of Women In Film (edited by Amanda!), remains on sale.

This podcast is produced and edited by Helen O'Hara with Stripped Media. For more on this podcast and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit stripped.media or email [email protected]. If you enjoyed this podcast please leave a shiny five star review on your podcast platform of choice; it really does help.

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A dog is, of course, for life and not just for Christmas, but they are also for Christmas in the latest Netflix seasonal offering. Based on the bestselling book by W. Bruce Cameron, this is A Dog's Perfect Christmas, and it's about a dog called Winstead, voiced by Thomas Haden Church, and the family who can't hear him because they're distracted by their own drama. Or something like that. Joining me to discuss it is film critic Clarisse Loughrey, and somehow we manage to draw comparisons between this inoffensive family film and Clayface, Godzilla Minus Zero, Primetime and Venom. Look, it will all make sense. Probably.

Apologies for some sound issues on this one, which I have tried to minimise but which may still exist especially if you're listening on headphones. Our environment for this recording was unexpectedly noisy; it won't happen again.

You can find Clarisse on Instagram @clarisseloughrey, and fortnightly on the Fade To Black podcast.

For more from Helen, you can find her on Bluesky @HelenLOHara, or at helenohara.com. Her latest books, A Quentin Tarantino Dictionary and 50 Film Ideas You Really Need To Know, are on sale now in all good bookshops or online, and Women Vs Hollywood: The Fall And Rise Of Women In Film, remains on sale.

This podcast is produced and edited by Helen O'Hara with Stripped Media. For more on this podcast and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit stripped.media or email [email protected]. If you enjoyed this podcast please leave a shiny five star review on your podcast platform of choice; it really does help.

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Ho Ho ho hello! Bah Humbug is back to cover the Christmas films of 2026, and we are starting with a very charming British offering, Merry Christmas Aubrey Flint! I'll be talking to its star, Game Of Thrones' John Bradley, all about the curmudgeonly character and how he learns the meaning of Christmas, as well as sitting down with writer Charlotte Harrison and actor/director David Kirkbride to share our thoughts on the film.

Merry Christmas Aubrey Flint is out in UK cinemas today!

Find more from Charlotte @sometimesmovies on Instagram, and more from David @dkirkbride2008, also on Instagram.

For more from Helen, you can find her on Bluesky @HelenLOHara, or at helenohara.com. Her latest books, A Quentin Tarantino Dictionary and 50 Film Ideas You Really Need To Know, are on sale now in all good bookshops or online, and Women Vs Hollywood: The Fall And Rise Of Women In Film, remains on sale.

This podcast is produced and edited by Helen O'Hara with Stripped Media. For more on this podcast and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit stripped.media or email [email protected]. If you enjoyed this podcast please leave a shiny five star review on your podcast platform of choice; it really does help.

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A couple split up and negotiate shared custody of their dog - but when he gets depressed, they reunite for Christmas to cheer him up. It's a rock-solid premise for some light comedy, with likeable stars - Charlie Cox and Zooey Deschanel - and a great canine performance. But does it live up to the basic idea? And is it even Christmassy? Your host, Helen O'Hara, is joined by journalist and author Kat Brown to hash it out.

Merv is out on Prime Video now.

For more from Kat, check out her website katbrown.com here, or follow her on Bluesky here. Her book, No One Talks About This Stuff, is particularly relevant to this film and may be of help if you've been affected by infertility and childlessness.

For more from Helen, you can find here on Bluesky @HelenLOHara, or at helenohara.com. Her latest books, A Quentin Tarantino Dictionary and 50 Film Ideas You Really Need To Know, are available now, and Women Vs Hollywood: The Fall And Rise Of Women In Film remains on sale.

This podcast is produced and edited by Helen O'Hara with Stripped Media. For more on this podcast, and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit www.stripped.media or email [email protected].

If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a shiny five-star review on your podcast provider of choice; it really does help. And Merry Christmas!

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Christmas is a time of miracles, and also robberies, according to Netflix's new rom-com crime caper, wherein two plucky but dodgy young people played by Olivia Holt and Connor Swindells decide to rob a department store on Christmas Eve. In defence of these bad Santas, they have both been provoked by its awful owner (Peter Serafinowicz) - and their plan may be smarter than it looks. Here to assess how well they succeeded are your regular host, Helen O'Hara, and film journalist and podcaster Amon Warmann, with bells on probably.

Jingle Bell Heist is out on Netflix now.

For more from Amon, check out his social media or listen to him weekly on the Fade To Black podcast.

For more from Helen, you can find here on Bluesky @HelenLOHara, or at helenohara.com. Her latest books, A Quentin Tarantino Dictionary and 50 Film Ideas You Really Need To Know, are available now, and Women Vs Hollywood: The Fall And Rise Of Women In Film remains on sale.

This podcast is produced and edited by Helen O'Hara with Stripped Media. For more on this podcast, and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit www.stripped.media or email [email protected].

If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a shiny five star review on your podcast provider of choice; it really does help. And Merry Christmas!

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It's not all glitzy romances and action movies at Christmas; spare a thought for the microbudget indie movies that are also set at this time of year. Take, for example, 2014's Christmas, Again from director Charles Poekel, finally hitting UK cinemas this December with its tale of a Christmas tree salesman (Kentucker Audley) trying to shuffle through the season without too much fuss. It's been described as a mumblecore effort, so can the movement that launched Greta Gerwig also bring us a genuine Christmas classic? To figure that out, your host, Helen O'Hara, is joined this time by film journalist and author Laura Venning for a good old mumble all about it.

Christmas, Again is out in UK cinemas now.

For more from Laura, you can find her substack Mise-en-Ven here, or her site here.

For more from Helen, you can find here on Bluesky @HelenLOHara, or at helenohara.com. Her latest books, A Quentin Tarantino Dictionary and 50 Film Ideas You Really Need To Know, are available now, and Women Vs Hollywood: The Fall And Rise Of Women In Film remains on sale.

This podcast is produced and edited by Helen O'Hara with Stripped Media. For more on this podcast, and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit www.stripped.media or email [email protected].

If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a shiny five stars on your podcast app of choice; it really does help. And merry Christmas!

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What's more important: Christmas or geography? Can sexy Russian spies also be cat ladies? And is Marky Mark secretly French? All these and more questions will be answered on today's episode of Bah Humbug, the Christmas movies podcast, as we look at The Family Plan 2, Apple's Christmas-tinged sequel to the 2023 action comedy with Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Monaghan. Your host, Helen O'Hara, is joined today by Chris Hewitt of Empire magazine to look at this action classic (tbd).

The Family Plan 2 is out now on Apple TV.

For more from Chris, pick up a copy of Empire magazine or listen to the Empire podcast here. You can find the spoiler podcasts he mentioned here, and to come along to the live show in London on January 9th, pick up your ticket here.

For more from Helen, you can find here on Bluesky @HelenLOHara, or at helenohara.com. Her latest books, A Quentin Tarantino Dictionary and 50 Film Ideas You Really Need To Know, are available now, and Women Vs Hollywood: The Fall And Rise Of Women In Film remains on sale.

This podcast is produced and edited by Helen O'Hara with Stripped Media. For more on this podcast, and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit www.stripped.media or email [email protected].

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Cynical brand extension or charming Christmas adventure? Why not both! A Very Jonas Christmas Movie features pop siblings the Jonas Brothers on an epic quest to get home from London to spend the holiday with their families. Alas, Santa Claus (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) decides that the trio need a lesson in brotherly love so he sabotages their plans, forcing them to spend time together on the road. With a supporting cast that includes Randall Park, Billie Lourd, KJ Apa and Will Ferrell, it's a star-studded musical that is...weirdly charming. At least, so says your non-fan host, Helen O'Hara; does her guest, journalist Charlotte Harrison, agree? Listen and find out!

A Very Jonas Christmas Movie is out now on Disney+.

For more from Charlotte, look on social media @sometimesmovies.

For more from Helen, you can find here on Bluesky @HelenLOHara, or at helenohara.com. Her latest books, A Quentin Tarantino Dictionary and 50 Film Ideas You Really Need To Know, are available now, and Women Vs Hollywood: The Fall And Rise Of Women In Film remains on sale.

This podcast is produced and edited by Helen O'Hara with Stripped Media. For more on this podcast, and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit www.stripped.media or email [email protected].

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Kate Winslet's directorial debut is not your typical Christmas movie. It's set mostly in a hospital, as a family gather around their dying matriarch (Helen Mirren), and features more IVs than holly-and-ivy. But it has a truly impressive cast and a surprising amount of heart and humour. To talk about it, your host Helen O'Hara is joined by Empire's news editor, Beth Webb. We also have a visit from two of the cast, in the delightful forms of Andrea Riseborough and Timothy Spall, so settle in for a surprising amount of cheer given the subject matter.

Goodbye June is out in cinemas now, and will be available on Netflix from December 24.

For more from Beth, you can find her @BethWebb on Bluesky and @bethkatewebb on Instagram, and of course at Empire Magazine.

For more from Helen, you can find here on Bluesky @HelenLOHara, or at helenohara.com. Her latest books, A Quentin Tarantino Dictionary and 50 Film Ideas You Really Need To Know, are available now, and Women Vs Hollywood: The Fall And Rise Of Women In Film remains on sale.

This podcast is produced and edited by Helen O'Hara with Stripped Media. For more on this podcast, and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit www.stripped.media or email [email protected].

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This year has been relatively light on Christmas horror, but fear not. There's plenty of claret on offer in the remake of 1984's slasher Silent Night Deadly Night from director Mike P. Nelson. It's the story of a likeable drifter, Billy Chapman (Rohan Campbell), who is also a prolific serial killer. But, you know, he wears a Santa suit so it's seasonal! Horror expert Becky Darke joins your host, Helen O'Hara, and Mike Nelson drops by to talk us through his attempts to sweeten up the slaying.

Silent Night Deadly Night is out in cinemas now.

For more from Becky Darke, check out her website here or follow her on social @BunnyDarke.

For more from Helen, you can find here on Bluesky @HelenLOHara, or at helenohara.com. Her latest books, A Quentin Tarantino Dictionary and 50 Film Ideas You Really Need To Know, are available now, and Women Vs Hollywood: The Fall And Rise Of Women In Film remains on sale.

This podcast is produced and edited by Helen O'Hara with Stripped Media. For more on this podcast, and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit www.stripped.media or email [email protected].

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It's not often here at Bah Humbug that we can lay claim to a genuinely great, not-graded-on-a-curve film set over the Christmas season, but say hello to Harry Lighton's Pillion, starring Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgard. They star as a meek young man called Colin and the impossibly hot biker daddy he falls for, in a coming-of-age story about unconventional romance and figuring out what it is you want in life (surprisingly, the answer may not be "someone who looks like Alexander Skarsgard"). It's won acclaim and awards nominations, but how does it score on the Christmassy scale? Your host, Helen O'Hara, is joined by comedian David Morgan to try to figure it out.

Pillion is out in cinemas nationwide now.

For more from David, you can check out their website here, or on Bluesky here.

For more from Helen, you can find here on Bluesky @HelenLOHara, or at helenohara.com. Her latest books, A Quentin Tarantino Dictionary and 50 Film Ideas You Really Need To Know, are available now, and Women Vs Hollywood: The Fall And Rise Of Women In Film remains on sale.

This podcast is produced and edited by Helen O'Hara with Stripped Media. For more on this podcast, and others produced by Stripped Media, please visit www.stripped.media or email [email protected].

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices