Sir Ken Chuckles Branagh

A term of endearment for the producer / director / actor / Twix aficionado and friend of the show, that came about after his appearance to promote his live-action version of Disney's Cinderella; Ken chuckled all the way through his time on the programme.

Although he now likes him so much he refers to Branagh as "our Ken", Mark Kermode did not always have such affection for him. Mark confessed while reviewing As You Like It that he used to have "a real downer" on Branagh's early work, giving Dead Again the Kermodian title Dreadful Again - at a time when Branagh was a critical darling amongst the wider UK film press. However, when Branagh made Frankenstein in 1995 - in which he cast himself as the eponymous scientist and spends a large amount of the time running around with his shirt off - Mark and the other critics' opinions swapped places - Mark finding he loved Frankenstein, while everyone else kicked it. From there, it was joy all the way, with Branagh's next film, the four-hour-long Hamlet, being made Movie Of The Month on Radio 1.

Of the films Branagh has made in the Wittertainment era, As You Like It and Sleuth fared poorly, but Thor, The Magic Flute, Jack Ryan and Cinderella have all been warmly greeted.

Mark used to refer to him as "Ke'neth Bra-naa." This irritated Simon. A lot.

After it transpired that Branagh was a podcast listener, there was much debate over whether he should be added to the "Hello to...." list. Eventually Simon ruled that that could not happen until he had been on the show.