"You took me into your hearts from day one and loved me. I love you too.

"No-one can ever take away what we achieved together and I hope you think about it and smile every day the way I always will.

"It was a time of wonderfulness and happiness that I will never forget. It's been a pleasure and an honour to be a champion with all of you."

Claudio Ranieri.

If anyone thinks that being an Actor is a tough game, perhaps we should try football management. Last season the man pictured here led Leicester City Football Club, the 5000-1 outsiders who were expected to be battling relegation, to become Premier League Champions. It was the Greatest Fairytale since the slipper fitted Cinderella's foot. And wonderful to see in a game so dominated by the big guns and the big money. Yesterday, just nine months after the halcyon moments, Leicester were one point above the relegation zone, and the man who led the Midlands club to their most magnificent achievement, has been dismissed.

This morning, my Son and I were discussing how this dramatic fall could occur. Our opinion, and it is no more than that, is that it comes down to Psychology.
Last season, with ten games to go, at the top of the table, the players had the mindset that: "Hey, we could actually do this." This season, after a couple of defeats, they started, subconsciously, to think: "It was a one-off, we could never repeat it for a second season." The prophecy was self-fulfilling; and the rest is history. One year after being Champions of England, and having played Europe's mighty powers in the Champions' League, Leicester could find themselves in the second tier.
I hope not.

But the moral of this post is an important one. The Great Champions of History, Muhammad Ali, Roger Federer, Pele, Martina Navratilova, Sir Alex Ferguson, you pick your own favourite. Ultimately, these people were Champions because they believed they were.

Remember that in your next audition...

“Remember, remember, the Fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and Plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot... But what of the man? I know his name was Guy Fawkes and I know, in 1605, he attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament. But who was he really? What was he like? We are told to remember the idea, not the man, because a man can fail. He can be caught, he can be killed and forgotten, but 400 years later, an idea can still change the world. I've witnessed first hand the power of ideas, I've seen people kill in the name of them, and die defending them... but you cannot kiss an idea, cannot touch it, or hold it... ideas do not bleed, they do not feel pain, they do not love... And it is not an idea that I miss, it is a man... A man that made me remember the Fifth of November. A man that I will never forget.”
Evey.

I have been watching one of my absolute favourite movies on television this evening. The dystopian ‘V For Vendetta’, starring Hugo Weaving behind the iconic mask, Stephen Rea as the hapless cop on his tail; the Late, and very Great, John Hurt as the epitome of evil in Chancellor Sutler; and Natalie Portman, whose performance as the vulnerable heroine I thought was absolutely magnificent. A truly amazing cast, an amazing film, all guided brilliantly under the direction of James McTeigue.
It is perhaps, unsurprising, that a fiercely political creature like myself would be moved very deeply by this movie, just as I am by ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’, (which also starred John Hurt), and others of similar genre. And yet tonight, more so than at any time I can recall, I found ‘V For Vendetta’ a truly, truly frightening film.

I write extensively about politics on other pages, but my thoughts here are concerned with the age-old question of whether the arts exist to reflect, and commentate on the events of the world; or whether they are a force to change them. A hundred years ago, Bertolt Brecht was so moved by the sight of young men slaughtered and horribly maimed in the Great War trenches that he and others ultimately gave birth to ‘Epic Theatre’, which did not just entertain his audiences, but challenged them to actually think about what was happening in the world around them; to leave the theatre asking more questions than they came in with; and above all, be inspired to do something about it. His warnings went down with the Weimar Republic, and he ultimately fled his German homeland when the Nazis came to power. But Epic Theatre lives on, and as I watch the world events unfolding around me now, I believe it is more important than ever that the arts do not simply hold up a picture of the world, but that they hold up a mirror to humanity and say: “Look at what you have become, think about what you might become,” and above all, “think of what you could be.”

Because as Evey says at the end of the movie: “This country needs more than a building right now. It needs hope.”

Let's Dance...

All quotes are taken from the Movie: V For Vendetta, (2005).
Director: James McTeigue.
Distributed by: Warner Brothers Pictures.