Roger Daltrey & Ringo Starr in Ken Russell's Lisztomania - Pop Screen 169

Has Pop Screen gone highbrow? A biopic of a classical composer isn't normally the kind of film we'd cover, but then biopics of classical composers aren't usually anything like Lisztomania. The final instalment in Ken Russell's legendary series of films about his classical music heroes, it stars Roger Daltrey from The Who as Franz Liszt, Ringo Starr as the Pope, and this is not even close to the strangest thing about it.

Join Graham and Mike as they unpick the real-life animus between Liszt and Wagner that inspired the somewhat unorthodox Nazi-vampire-zombie-Frankenstein-Thor subplot in this movie, as well as the historical phenomenon that gave the film its title - it's not just a Phoenix song! - and, of course, the chequered and glorious career of Uncle Ken. Plus: a plea for better biopics, a history of the Strauss film that forced Russell to leave the BBC, and a defence of Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights.

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