A Ror-ing success and a level head
eyebrow in a split second than most actors manage in their entire careers.
But, because she’s only ever made four films, and because she used to be a Rover’s Return barmaid on Coronation Street, Lancashire doesn’t get the acclaim she deserves.
The last ever episode of Happy Valley is on next Sunday. It’s up there with any great drama. Don’t miss out.
T’S 10 years since Rory McIlroy
● became engaged to the Danish tennis star Caroline Wozniacki.
Less than five months later, McIlroy ended the relationship.
It was that kind of turbulent time
● in his life. Winning majors, but going to court with his manager. Flipflopping over the Olympics and who he should represent.
He’s older now, and wiser too — and he is truly special. He showed that in Dubai yesterday.
Irish sport has only produced one comparable figure in terms of crossover appeal — boxer Jack Doyle the Gorgeous Gael.
Doyle acted in two Hollywood
● films — McGlusky the Sea Rover and Navy Spy and married Mexican actress Movita, who would later divorce him and marry Marlon Brando.
Doyle blew $500,000 in a decade,
● equal to $7million (€6.4m) today. Hard to see McIlroy, so sensible these days, going down that road.
OCTOBER 1981 is a long, long time ago now.
It was a month when the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was elected President of Iran, a month when Lee Harvey’s body was exhumed to see if it was really him, a month when the IRA hunger strike in the Maze Prison that claimed 10 lives was called off.
It was also the month when Queen and David Bowie released Under Pressure, a single that was seen as an unlikely collaboration at the time.
Even Bowie was unconvinced that it was a good idea. But Under Pressure quickly became a UK No 1 and was a smash hit all over the world.
It’s now regarded as part of the pop music canon — one of the greatest songs of the 1980s.
Think of how many times you’ve heard it over the years. Then go to the film Aftersun and you’ll never hear it in the same way again.
Charlotte Wells had only directed three shorts before taking on Aftersun, a story based on her own life.
Holiday
It is a coming of age drama focusing on a man and his daughter on holiday in Turkey. The scene in which the man dances to Under Pressure in a bar will never leave you.
The man is played by Paul Mescal. He has rightly been nominated for an Oscar. But Frankie Corio, who plays his daughter, should be in the frame too.
So should Wells. And it is astonishing that Aftersun — one of the best films of the 21st century — hasn’t made the Best Picture list.
Instead, inane show-offy rubbish like the latest Avatar and Top Gun movies are in there.
Because of the huge amount of Irish nominees this year, we’ve all gone a bit crazy about the Academy Awards.
But it’s important to remember that, well, the Oscars are a bit rubbish.
And, often you can drop “a bit”.
Rami Malek was named Best Actor a few years ago for a Freddie Mercury karaoke turn in Bohemian Rhapsody.
In one scene, he was out-acted by a cat. That didn’t bother the Oscar jury.
Ask anyone with a working brain to pick the best films of the past 50 years.
Most would have at least two by Martin Scorsese in there — Raging Bull from 1980 and 1990’s Goodfellas.
But the 1980 best film Oscar went to the forgotten Ordinary People and, 10 years later, it was the borefest Dances with Wolves that was honoured.
Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing was easily one of the outstanding movies of the ‘80s but wasn’t even nominated for best film in 1989.
What won that year? Driving Miss Daisy, which is the kind of film your granny might like.
Do yourself a favour. Watch Aftersun, and ignore the bulk of the Oscars list.