How did Mark Kermode help restore Ken Russell's banned film The Devils?

Film critic Mark Kermode told the BBC that in 1995 Ken Russell told him the version of The Devils he had seen was incomplete. While making a documentary, Kermode described the missing sequence to Warner UK archivist Tim Everett, who later found the reel. The 1971 film, restricted by censors in the UK and US, now returns to cinemas in a 4K restoration that lets audiences see it whole for the first time in about half a century.

• The film follows the 17th-century French town of Loudun and its priest Father Grandier, played by Oliver Reed.
• Dr Brian Hoyle of the University of Dundee says modern audiences will see cinema as a total art form, not something dated.

▸In their words

“the version of The Devils that you've seen is damaged goods.” Mark Kermode · at 23:44 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Global News Podcast (2026-10-31). Read the whole episode summary →

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