Bobby Moore’s first cap as England captain to net £10k
THE cap Bobby Moore won as the youngest player to skipper England is to be auctioned for £10,000.
It was presented following a 4-2 win over Czechoslovakia in 1963.At 22, he is still the youngest to lead the team after taking the armband when Jimmy Armfield was injured.
It was not until 1964 that theWest Ham defender, who died from cancer in 1993, took on the role full-time, lifting the World Cup atWembley in 1966.Two other caps are set to sell for £6,000 each for games against Portugal in 1964 and Yugoslavia in 1972. They will be auctioned at Mullock’s of Church Stretton, Shrops, on November 20. Ben Jones, at Mullock’s, said the items belonged to one of the “iconic names in English footballing history”.
Cap given to Moore, left, in 1963
IT’S Judi Dench as you’ve never seen her. With pointy ears, green goggles and a militarystyle emerald uniform, the classically-trained actress is almost unrecognisable in Disney’s hotly-anticipated new magical thriller.
Speaking in a gravelly Northern Irish accent a million miles away from her normal dulcet tones, Dame Judi already has fans aflutter for Artemis Fowl.
Director Sir Kenneth Branagh has revealed the 84-year-old star channelled fiery Ulster politician, the late Reverend Ian Paisley, for her no-nonsense character.
“No one has ever done such a menacing Irish accent as Judi Dench,” laughs author Eoin Colfer, on whose fantasy novel the £100million film is based. “When she says, ‘Top of the morning’, you just go, ‘Oooh…!’”
Eoin (pronounced Owen) continues: “When I heard about it, I was torn because, well, it’s Judi Dench and she is one of the greatest actors ever. But Julius Root is kind of an action man role, so how’s it going to work?”
The genial 54-year-old’s slight hesitation over the casting came only because, in his novel, Root is a cigarsmoking male police chief, constantly berating his underlings and nicknamed ‘Beetroot’ because of his redfaced anger.
Eoin quickly adds: “They knew I wasn’t sure so the first thing they did was put together some footage and, the second you see it, you go, ‘OK, it does work’.”
Dame Judi’s Root leads the elite fairy police force, the LEPRecon (Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance Squad – Eoin loves his puns and acronyms), into action against anti-hero Artemis Fowl, a 12-year-old genius descended from a long line of criminals and played by Irish newcomer Ferdia Shaw in the film.
HAVING taken his inspiration from Irish folklore, combined with invented hightech wizardry and the desire to write something different, the Irish author’s 2001 novel became a sensation. The eight-book young-adult series went on to sell 25 million copies around the world and father-of-two Eoin has just published a ninth spin-off.
The Fowl Twins takes up the story of Artemis’s younger brothers, 11-year-old Myles and Beckett Fowl, in another rip-roaring adventure.
“The twins were mentioned briefly in book four, but people kept asking about them so I had them come back for book eight,” says Eoin. “At that point they were possessed by the spirit of dead fairy warriors which was hilarious, five-year-olds running around with axes trying to kill everybody!
“Now, for the new book, I had this idea that if they had been taken over by hostile spirits maybe some of the magic was still in them. But rather than being a help, it gets them into all sorts of trouble.”
All in all, it’s a busy time for Eoin. The Disney adaptation will bring Julius Root, Artemis and Captain Holly Short – a chaotic, endearing kind of fairy SWAT team member, played by Lara McDonnell – to a new audience and is expected to kickstart a lucrative new franchise upon release in May.
But Eoin admits his novel, which he jokingly dubs “Die Hard with fairies”, had a troubled journey to the big screen. Film rights were sold before the novel came out to Disney, Robert De Niro’s production company and Harvey and BobWeinstein’s Miramax.
“There were several attempts to get it going but they didn’t work out. Then Disney bought Miramax and let Harvey and Bob Weinstein go,” he