Description

In this compelling February 1999 episode, Dini Petty welcomes the groundbreaking team behind Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, the British crime comedy that revolutionized independent filmmaking. Director Guy Ritchie discusses his explosive directorial debut that took the film world by storm, turning a modest ?960,000 ($1.35 million) budget into a box office phenomenon grossing over $28 million worldwide. The film’s innovative fast-paced editing, dark humor, and intricate plotting earned Ritchie an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay in 2000. Jason Statham, making his feature film debut in the role of Bacon, shares his remarkable journey from British diving champion to breakout film star. Before becoming one of Hollywood’s biggest action heroes, Statham was discovered by Ritchie while working as a street vendor, launching what would become an iconic career spanning the Fast & Furious franchise, The Transporter series, and The Expendables. Jason Flemyng, who starred as Tom in the ensemble cast, discusses the film’s unique cockney gangster narrative and how it launched a new wave of British crime cinema that influenced countless films including Snatch, RocknRolla, and Layer Cake. The episode also features musical performance by Sky, and a powerful interview with Deborah Layton, one of the few survivors of the 1978 Jonestown massacre. Layton, a former high-level member of Jim Jones’s Peoples Temple for seven years, escaped the Guyanese jungle commune just months before 918 people died in the mass murder-suicide. She discusses her harrowing memoir Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor’s Story of Life and Death in the Peoples Temple, published by Anchor Books in November 1998. Layton’s courageous testimony provides a rare insider perspective on cult manipulation, charismatic authority, and the psychological mechanisms that led to one of the darkest tragedies in modern history. A must-watch episode featuring both cinematic history in the making and sobering historical testimony.