Alan Jones (film critic)

Jones' punk-era reminiscences about close friend Sid Vicious formed the basis of director Alex Cox's screenplay Sid and Nancy. He has spoken about the friendship in several TV and radio documentaries. Jones worked for designer Vivienne Westwood in her shop SEX, and was the DJ for the Sex Pistols, for whom he starred as a music executive in the film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle.

Jones' TV work has included Film Four documentaries about Italian horror directors Mario Bava and Dario Argento and Channel Four's The Top 100 British Box Office Hits. On the BBC, he was involved in the I Love the '70s BBC documentary series, talking about disco music and his arrest for wearing punk tee shirts. In addition to these contributions to British TV, he has made television appearances in countries as diverse as Argentina, Colombia, Italy, Spain, Finland and Russia.

As a co-presenter of London's Shock Around The Clock festival, and the NFT's 'Fantasm', he conducted The Guardian lectures with directors Freddie Francis and Dario Argento and hosted Q&A sessions with, amongst others, director Danny Boyle and the cast of Slumdog Millionaire. He presented 'Brit-Invaders' at the Science + Fiction Festival in Trieste and filmed interviews with Neil Marshall (The Descent, Doomsday) and Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts, One Million Years BC). Jones is an active member of the London Critic's Circle, whose annual film awards are recognised worldwide. He has also served on festival juries at Sitges (Spain), Fantasporto (Portugal), Paris, Rome, Science+Fiction (Trieste), Motel X (Lisbon), Lund (Sweden), Strasbourg and Avoriaz (France).

After stints co-presenting the legendary Shock Around The Clock festival in London, and Fantasm at the National Film Theatre, Jones is now a leading figure and co-curator of London FrightFest Film Festival. In 2022 Jones became the Artistic Director of the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival, the world's oldest sci-fi event, in Italy.

Jones has acted in several movies, including Terror, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle and The Errand. He features prominently in the documentary Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape and its sequel by director Jake West and has appeared in numerous rock videos, including those for 10cc, Duran Duran and Robbie Williams.

Jones' DVD commentaries include those for Alejandro Jodorowsky's Santa Sangre, Nicolas Winding Refn's Valhalla Rising, Bronson and Fear X, Tom Shankland's WAZ, Andrew Birkin's Cement Garden, Tony Maylam's The Burning, Paul China's Crawl, Lucio Fulci's Zombie Flesh Eaters and Dario Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Card Player, The Stendhal Syndrome, Tenebrae and Suspiria. His moderated commentary with Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren for Tinto Brass' Caligula is considered a milestone in the art form. He has also contributed to the DVD extras for the Arrow Mario Bava Collection and the Blu-ray releases of Heavenly Creatures, Demons and the A Nightmare on Elm Street collection.

Jones worked with director Nicolas Winding Refn on the book 'The Act of Seeing', a volume of vintage posters charting the history of 42nd Street exploitation.

• Final 24 (the Last 24 Hours of...Sid Vicious) (Canadian TV documentary)
• My Way: The Sid Vicious Story (Radio 6)
• Who Killed Nancy? (film)
• Van Damme – The Muscles From Brussels Channel 5)
• Hitchcock (Sci-Fi Channel)
• The Day Britain Turned Disco
• When Disco Ruled the World
• Punk Britannia BBC 4, June 2012

• FrightFest website
• Rotten Tomatoes website (contributions to)
• Alan Jones at IMDb