Introduction

Episodes of The Ranking are like buses. Not in the 'you wait ages for one, and then three turn up at once' sense (although we do acknowledge that episodes of this fine spin-off from Empire magazine, in which four Empire writers argue the toss about a series of films and come up with a definitive cough cough top ten, have not exactly been on the regular). More in the 'you get on one, and all you find is four people talking about Stanley Kubrick' sense. And if that's not your experience of buses, then you have our pity. You can't get on a bus round here without someone banging on about Barry Lyndon. Anyway, as our gift to you, to make up for the absence of Episode 500 from the feed today (what with Episode 500 not having been recorded yet), here is an actual episode of The Ranking, in which Ian Freer, Neil Alcock, Beth Webb, and Alex Godfrey clamber aboard the number 19 and talk about the career of one of the greatest directors of all time with their eyes wide shut and their mouths wide open. Enjoy.