Posted in: Avengers, Disney, Marvel Studios, Movies | Tagged: Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, mcu

Kemi Badenoch Would Take The First 22 Marvel Movies To A Desert Island

Britain's Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, would take the first 22 Marvel movies, Iron Man to Avengers: Endgame to a desert island

As another senior Conservative MP, Suella Braverman, today defects from the Conservative Party to Reform UK, Conservative Party leader, MP and Leader of His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition, Kemi Badenoch might be forgiven for indulging in a little power fantasy. And on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs this weekend, with Laura Laverne, choosing as her luxury item the first 22 films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, from Iron Man to Avengers: Endgame. She says, "I struggled with this one. I was initially thinking about a hot water bottle, but it's already hot on the island. It would be the 22 movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Infinity Saga. Back to the sci-fi, back to the fantasy, good triumphing over evil, sacrifice, duty, the heroes often lose something along the way, if not family or parents. Doctor Strange is my favourite; he loses the use of his hands. It would be long enough for people to rescue me by the time I'd finished watching them." Why Doctor Strange? "Time travel. You can go back and do it again, something we never get to do in life. I would go back and warn other people. He's also got a really good cloak."

She also talked about her earlier cultural influences growing up in Nigeria. "My childhood was very BBC, everything on telly was very BBC, that's what you got, the Nigeria Television Authority didn't make many programmes, I was watching Doctor Who, I think that's where my love of sci-fi came from, Some Mothers Do Ave Em, Frank Spencer, that's what I grew up on. I went to an Anglican primary school, it was all hymns and choral, went to church, my childhood was the last embers of empire and colonial era."

This follows a couple of appearances on the BBC's Newscast, where I picked up on her love for the TV superhero show Heroes. And then appearing again on Newscast, she said, "My birthday used to be either watching the latest Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings, so it was always a cinema day, and then it became Marvel because I'm quite into sort of sci-fi, fantasy, superheroes…" Does she have a favourite Marvel superhero? "Doctor Strange."

Newscast presenter Adam Fleming asked her if she thought that Marvel movies had gone off the boil of late. She acknowledged some of that but pushed back. "I think it's the law of diminishing returns, one of my favourite laws applies, that at a certain point, the more you make, it's never going to be quite as good as the beginning. I still think what they did with the first Infinity Saga was extraordinary because it was only after the fifth movie that I thought, hang on, is all of this connected? That person was in this other movie, and the complexity of making any kind of cinema these days, you just see the sheer number of people in the credits, how they keep the storyline going, making sure the actors have the charm and get people going in. I don't think it is as good as it used to be, but I think it is still good. So my son, I have over this summer introduced him to Marvel, and we've watched every movie up until Endgame. Every weekend and then on his birthday in October, we watched Endgame."

"The Marvel character arc sees disaster form the hero. With Tony Stark, it was being kidnapped in Afghanistan, then comes out as Iron Man. Doctor Strange is having that terrible accident and then seeking meaning in his life. And I think that is sort of what has happened with the Conservative Party. Having a historic defeat… this has not been the Endgame, it has been the beginning of what is the new Conservative Party. How are we going to fix this, who are we, what are we about, and that's basically what the leadership has been. I didn't rush out saying "we're coming out fighting"; we need to acknowledge where we went wrong. We need to look at a lot of stuff we did."

Well, a fair few have done that… and have left. Running on the BBC since 1942, Desert Island Discs is one of the most iconic and enduring shows in broadcasting history. A guest is interviewed about their life, interspersed with eight pieces of music that they would hypothetically want to take with them if stranded alone on a desert island, as well as one book in addition to the Complete Works of Shakespeare and either the Bible or another major religious/philosophical text, as well as one luxury item not practically useful for survival or escape. These are meant to reveal aspects of their personality and meaningful events as they go through them.

• The Story of Tonight – Original Broadway cast of Hamilton
• Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough – Michael Jackson
• Wonderful World – Sam Cooke
• Be Still in the Presence of the Lord – Aled Jones and the English Session Orchestra
• Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen – Baz Luhrmann
• Love is All Around – Wet Wet Wet
• Carry You Home – Alex Warren
• Dear Theodosia – Original Broadway cast of Hamilton
• Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
• The 22 movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Infinity Saga
• Favourite track: Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough – Michael Jackson

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