Bean and Dan are joined once more by one of our good friends of Chronscast, Tade Thompson, to discuss the great director's towering masterpiece, Mulholland Drive. Lynch is one of our favourte filmmakers, and his films continue to astound and bewilder like no other director's can. We wanted to do an episode to give our own small tribute to the great man, so you can imagine our delight when our old pal Tade told us of his own love for Lynch.

We decided to talk about Mulholand Drive, as it is probably the man's greatest work, arguably his most successful and influential, and often cited as one of the reatest films fo the 21st century. At once a poison-pen letter and a love-letter to Hollywood, the film reflects lynch's own highly complicated relationship with the moviemaking machine in Los Angeles.

It follows the story of Betty, whose own nightmarish descent through the Dante-like hellish circles of Hollywood, encompassing ambition, fame, envy, murder, corruption, glamour, sex, and betrayal is portrayed in an ever-expanding web of intrigue, (self)-deceit and guilt.

The film pulls off some of the greatest sleights-of-hand in cinema during the scene at Club Silencio, and even skirts the fringes of horror. We will be discussing spoilers as usual, but with a film like Mulholland Drive, that arguably doesn't even matter. What matters is that you go and watch it.

Tade Thompson is the author of several modern science fiction hits, including the award-winning Rosewater trilogy, Far From The Light Of Heaven, and other works such as The Murders of Molly Southbourne, and Jackdaw, which itself is a nightmarish descent into madness worthy of Lynch himself.

Join Bean, Peat and Dan as we talk about our various works in progress, our own writing styles, triumphs, and what listeners can expect from our next few episodes.

On the menu are: commercialisation versus art and independent literature, the late great David Lynch, short fiction; what are the rules and whether or not to break them. We talk about shared fictional universes. We talk about our various progresses with our work, whether or not to self-publish.

Elsewhere, Bean drinks some tea, Dan talks about his cat, and Peat talks about bastards.

Following our last episode with Richard Sparks on The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, in which we must have mentioned The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy at least, ooh, I don't know, at least three times, and after which we lost radio contact with Brian Sexton after he was devoured by the Black Sinkhole of Sligo, we decided to plough on with the second half of the interview.

So, on a tight schedule (Richard had tickets for the opera, meladdo) we delved into his debut novel, New Rock, New Role, an epic fantasy derived from Richard's own love of gaming, It's a funny and touching tale of finding purpose, friendship and adventure later in life, when all the signs tell that life may have finished dishing out adventures.

This was pertinent to Richard as he wrote this novel, his first, in his seventies. So we talk about the convetions of gaming, the friendships you make, the conventions of fantasy and the comfort and community it brings.

Elsewhere, Captain Halfmilkcarton gets the shock of his life when he's joined by an unexpected but remarkably familiar guest...