Radio On *** (1979, David Beames, Lisa Kreuzer, Sandy Ratcliff) – Classic Movie Review 10,446

The 1979 music mystery drama Radio On is a chilly but clever road movie, in which a radio station disc jockey called Robert (played by David Beames) drives from London to Bristol to investigate his brother’s suicide, meeting some interestingly odd people on the trip.

This British art film is made by Britain’s Christopher Petit, in the shadow of his mentor, Wim Wenders, who is also the film’s associate producer. It is shot in black and white by Wenders’s assistant cameraman Martin Schäfer and notably features music from new wave bands, as well as established artists such as Kraftwerk, Devo and David Bowie.

Sting appears as Just Like Eddie and performs Three Steps To Heaven.

Also in the cast are David Beames, Andrew Byatt, Paul Hollywood, Sue Jones-Davies, Adrian Jones, Lisa Kreuzer, Sabina Michael, Sandy Ratcliff, David Squire, Tilly Vosburgh, and Kim Taylforth.

Radio On is directed by Christopher Petit, runs 101 minutes, is made by British Film Institute, National Film Finance Corporation and Road Movies Filmproduktion, is released by Artificial Eye and Unifilms (1980) (US), is written by Christopher Petit and Heidi Adolph (uncredited), is shot by Martin Schäfer, is produced by Keith Griffiths and Wim Wenders (associate producer), and is designed by Susannah Buxton.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,446

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com