Just over a decade ago I used to attend screenings at Disney. It was a fabulous evening with many a famous face in attendance. Weekly you would see some incredible people and sit in a small screening room to watch some great films. I was very lucky. The week previous to the one I want to tell you about, a little known singer by the name of Mick Jagger was there. Stood behind the self service bar I approached him and said: "hello." Mr Jagger looked up and said "Hi, what would you like to drink mate?" An unfazed but highly impressed me replied: "Er.. two bottles of bud please Mick." "Coming right up" he happily responded, placing the bottles in front of me and promptly popping their caps. Fantastic. One of the most recognisable frontmen for possibly the worlds biggest rock band, had not only talked to me but also handed me a beer. Does life get any cooler?
Yes.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and so too are our heroes. My sporting hero comes in the shape of a half Nigerian, half Scottish, moustachioed North Londoner. With four world records, two Olympic gold medals, three Commonwealth titles, and wins in the World and European Championships to his name. He, in my eyes, was and still is the ultimate sportsman.
In the first half of the 1980's a young boy and his cousin became obsessed with this God like Olympian. Weekends and hours after school were lost as we threw clothes line poles for javelins, stones for shots and placed a stick for a foul line as we launched ourselves to what felt like a gargantuan distance across the grass. Times noted and distances measured as we competed against each other in our makeshift garden Decathlons. And we fought, we fought over who would be him for that day.
"I'm Daley Thompson" could be heard shouted between these two young boys in this quiet mining village in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Neither of whom had ever met anyone black, asian or even southern, coming from an area famous for lack of migration to and from it's coal filled hills. None of that mattered, ethnicity and social standing play no part in a child's longing to emulate his or her heroes.
A few years later, on rainy days, the garden was exchanged for the bedroom, the makeshift sporting props for tiny pixelated images and our amateur sporting prowess was replaced by a 2cm ZX Spectrum graphic. Fingers pounding the Z and X rubber keys to run and the space bar hammered each hurdle and throw.
And there he was at the screening the week after Mick. There he was in the same room, stood 20ft away from me. "Go over" urged my girlfriend: "I can't" the now 17 years older young man murmured. "Go over or you'll regret it for the rest of your life."
I took a drink of liquid confidence, steadied myself and set off on what felt like a trek towards the blinding summit of meeting ones heroes. Almost upon him, breath quickening, heart racing and my legs, oh no, my legs... buckling. I reach out for something to steady myself, the wall holds me up, I scan the distance and once again set off. Once again my legs go, I can't speak or walk. And to my horror, now looking back, I turn back. Full of fear, palms sweating, I turn away from my hero and return to my disappointed, (for me) girlfriend, (now wife) to fulfil her prophecy of regretting it to this day. And I do, I do regret it, even now.
Even as I write this I wish I could go back, I wish I could be back in that room, walk over and shake the hand of the great Daley Thompson.
Shaun Dooley
Shaun is an actor who has appeared regulary on television, his credits include Coronation Street, Exile, Great Expectations, Misfits, The Street and all three parts of the Red Riding Trilogy. He also narrated the BBC series Our War, the documentary Space Dive about the record-breaking skydive by Felix Baumgartner as well as the brilliant BBC documentary Hillsborough:Never Forgotten. Shaun's film credits include The Woman In Black and Eden Lake.
Follow Shaun on Twitter @shaundooley
To visit Shaun's blog please click here
Memory added on May 12, 2013
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