There’s a richness to Wittertainment and its history that’s real reward for two strong broadcasters committing to a show for such a period of time. But also this: it does the film side brilliantly. It only manages so much success with the, er, ‘less relevant’ conversation because there’s a thirst for movies at its heart. Plus, for all the way that the chat darts around, the skill of Simon Mayo is that he rarely lets it stray too far for too long.

Mayo is clearly an excellent broadcaster, and in a sense the voice of the listener. But to shortchange him on films too would be brutally unfair. His interviews are more often than not top class (and appreciated, in an era when the quality of interviews with filmmakers is variable), not least because he has a skill of putting guests at ease, whilst being willing to ask interesting questions that he’s clearly spent some time researching. Furthermore, his dry wit is a superb foil for Mark Kermode’s particular brand of enthused reviews.

Kermode as a critic is divisive of course (as all critics arguably should be), and he himself is well aware that as many people side against him as with him. Furthermore, he also shares his film views in print, on radio and on screen. But I’d argue that radio in particular feels like his natural home. Again, you can feel his love of the medium. Furthermore, whilst some critics file their copy and hide, Kermode positively welcomes the engagement of other voices and other opinions, and concedes good points. There’s a real passion for film that never fails to come through, and in particular, his championing of films that others seem to be miss is a real public service.

And then there are the rants. It’s perhaps a little unfair, given how few flat-out Kermodian rants there have been on Wittertainment to pigeonhole Kermode himself as a ranter entire. As a critic, if anything, he tends to be warmer than most. Yet uncoiled, you get the justifiably legendary beratings of Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End (“it’s enough. It has to stop now…. You’re bringing down the collapse of western civilisation”), Death Proof (“infantile, adolescent claptrap”), Entourage (“compared to this, Sex And The City 2 is a call to arms for the dispossessed masses of the world”) and Transformers: Dark Of The Moon (“a horrible vulgarisation of what once was a children’s toy”).

It’s listening to the mixture that Mayo and Kermode concoct that I’ve come to appreciate that radio is the perfect medium for a film review programme. There’s something relaxed about it, that a two hour running time (less news, travel, sport, interruptions for a horse race, occasional truncations due to elections) can accommodate. Need ten minutes to bang the table about one film? Or for a director to come on and argue the case for their film? The format and medium supports that. It’s to the credit of radio, and to the show.