10 times2 THE TIMES Thursday September 20 2007 THE TIMES Thursday September 20 2007 times2 11 Dr Thomas Stuttaford Q&A INSIDE Campaign Angelina Jolie reveals Let’s all go pear-shaped a mighty talent 15 to stop lice Ken Russell: how to screen make a sleeper hit 17 timesonline.co.uk/film timesonline.co.uk/health

EVERETT / REX FEATURES CAMERA PRESS/JAMIE KINGHAM where the excess weight is carried A reader from Oxfordshire has in fat. The BMI equation is even written to complain that no more difficult to interpret in child- sooner has a new school year ren, in whom the percentage of fat is started than her eight-year-old different and varies when their hor- has again caught lice. So has his mones proliferate in puberty. The younger brother. Is there any way generalisation is that those who that she can prevent both ‘Darcy In an age of obesity have an early puberty will end up fat- becoming infested? ter and shorter than those in whom and anorexia it’s it is late. Professor Andrew Prentice, the At any time one in seven young vital to understand head of the MRC International Nu- children’s scalps support lice. Now a trition Group at the London School campaign has been launched to beat the best shape of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the insects. Its clarion call is, “Once a said that children who were at a less- week, take a peek”. It is based on simply and composition er risk of the effects of obesity tend- research carried out by the School ed to be those of average size when and Public Health Nurses Association for our bodies born and later grew at the same rate at the Medical Entomology Centre efore the First World War as their contemporaries. Trouble near Cambridge which involved Karen Blixen, the re- was more likely when children were interviewing 4,000 parents. nowned writer on Africa, born small but later grew faster to The research showed that lice was an art student at the catch up and in the process became develop resistance to too fat. Professor Prentice also dis- BRoyal Academy in Copenhagen. She long-established insecticides, some won’t die’ cussed the influence of racial differ- was determined to lose weight as she of which have unacceptable equated a lean figure with being in- ences in the determination of the BMI and its likely influence on side-effects. It also revealed that teresting and bohemian, like her aris- parents no longer think it their Colin Firth tells TIM TEEMAN about teenage tocratic cousins. Conversely, obesity health. A raised BMI didn’t repre- sent, for example, the same risk for business to search for and rebellion, taking drugs and his plan to represented the bourgeois solidarity eliminate lice but think of this as a that she was trying to escape. So South Asians, Caucasians and Afri- job for schools. Hence the “peek” keen was Blixen to become thin that can Americans. Different races finally rid himself of his doppelgänger one morning she threw her lunch- stored excess fat differently and the slogan. Sixty per cent of mothers time sandwiches that her mother ff Colin Firth goes, dart- of me finding out we weren’t immor- assumed that the school took made out of the train window. ing around topics as tal in my family.” responsibility for checking hair for Karen Blixen, who was a bit A rugby player’s BMI unexpected as taking The family returned to the UK chubby-faced in early adolescence, is medically less lice and one in four thought that drugs, screwing up at when he was small and Firth strug- now became slim — and a depres- schools still had regular Oschool and flawed parenting. It’s gled to fit in schools in Bath and sive like her father, who later com- important than an louse-checking sessions with a odd for such a famous actor to be so Essex. “Accents were an issue,” he mitted suicide. Blixen’s house out- school nurse. A third said that as candid, and even odder to find a star recalls, grimacing. “It was a shock to side Nairobi is now owned by the overweight woman’s they didn’t know what to look for, it better looking off screen than he is hear aitches being dropped. I felt Kenyan state and is open to the wouldn’t be much good if they did on — old-school rugged, softly spo- like a freak speaking with the accent public as a museum to commemo- location of the fat stores was impor- check, and nearly 50 per cent ken and mahogany-brown after film- I had. So I changed it and only rate her life. Photographs there tant. It is now generally known that admitted they didn’t understand ing the big-screen version of Mam- started to speak like this when I was show that, although the slimness it is better at all times of life to be that there was a need for anyone to ma Mia! in Greece. The 47-year-old in the sixth form.” she strived for produced some ele- pear-shaped than apple-shaped, far check regularly. When asked how actor didn’t like Abba: “Like most He lived in America for a year gance in youth, in later years the better to have fat on the thighs, often they thought their children’s boys it wasn’t my thing. I was 14 in when he was 12. “I feel quite strong- weight loss was excessive and she shoulders or buttocks than around hair was carefully scrutinised, 50 per 1974 and fancied girls to death.” ly about anti-Americanism. I share was prematurely aged and with- the belly. Equally, if not more impor- Firth’s confessional mood echoes people’s grievances about the cur- ered. A museum curator said that al- cent of parents thought that it was tant, is the amount of fat carried in once a month. In fact, children’s hair his role as Blake Morrison in the rent Administration but I remember though Blixen had other health the abdomen, where visceral fat film version of Morrison’s autobio- my father and I watching the Water- problems her death was attributed should be carefully tended weekly. hangs from the mesenteric tissue at- graphical memoir And When Did gate hearings. Here was a country by some to anorexia. The conclusion of the research, tached to the stomach and guts. The You Last See Your Father?, which arraigning its own leaders. America Dr Susan Jebb, of the Medical Re- summed up by Christine Brown, the adipose (fat) cells of visceral fat pro- evoked the relationship between has a fantastic history of dissent.” search Council’s human nutrition re- nursing adviser to the Medical duce much of the biochemically Morrison and his domineering Something went awry in Firth’s search unit in Cambridge, warned a Entomology Centre, was that lice active molecules known as adipok- father, Arthur. In this moving, quiet- teenage years. “I loathed authority conference on obesity held in Lon- were now so common that nobody ines. When the adipose cells be- ly powerful film Firth and Jim but was frightened of it. My rebel- don this week that parents, schools needed to be shy about them. come over filled with stored fat the Broadbent, as Arthur, have just the lions were sneaky, passive. I didn’t and doctors did not attach enough Children’s heads should be checked Karen Blixen in 1935 — her death has been attributed to anorexia cells secrete adipokines that can right kind of double-edged intimacy. smash windows or get into fights — importance to encouraging children have dramatic effects on insulin re- regularly by parents and a lotion to achieve a weight that is in the Arthur couldn’t be more different if I did I was strictly on the receiv- difference depending on their gen- than their contemporaries. sistance and production, the cardio- used to treat them to which lice from Firth’s “quiet, unassuming” ing end. Like Blake, I took refuge in healthy middle range for pre-adoles- vascular and metabolic systems. der. Overweight girls continued to However the body mass index don’t develop a resistance. Hedrin, father. “But I was a surly, preten- books with the hope of getting laid cents and adolescents. Achieving The proportion of someone’s gain weight, whereas boys, although (BMI), is calculated or expressed, first introduced in 2005, can be tious adolescent, like Blake’s por- by name-checking Dostoevsky. It this would lessen their chance of suf- weight attributable to fat, although and whether it is applied to adults bought over the counter. It contains trait of himself. My father and I wasn’t Hardy or Austen for me, but fering from cardiovascular disease they lost a bit, remained heavier all important, is rarely calculated, al- Dimeticone and Cyclomethicone 5; were not close in a cosy sense but I Camus. I grew my hair long, pierced or metabolic syndrome with its asso- or children, it gives the same though it can now easily read off the these don’t act as a chemical poison, ciated diabetes type 2, high blood message: that average weight is relatively inexpensive Tanita Body am as connected with my father as my ears and then got slightly strand- pressure and several other factors I increasing alarmingly. International Composition Monitor. This look have no serious side-effects and Blake was with his. The difference ed by the punk thing.” when adult. An aggressive or jocular figures show that children need spe- like a set of bathroom scales, but it only occasionally cause skin is my animosity with my dad was He loved music and joined “a not left behind in my teens. But, even terribly good band” doing Doors belittling approach to sensitive ado- Topic of the week cial attention because they are not doesn’t just weigh; it also works out irritation. They don’t poison the lescents about being too fat or too just small adults. Moreover, people what percentage of the weight is louse but asphyxiate it by coating its now, three seconds in my parents’ covers. (A Gram Parsons fan, he nev- thin could trigger a reaction that of all ages are putting on weight from fat, bone or muscle. The per- breathing tube. company and a tone of voice or trig- ertheless vociferously denies being a might lead to eating disorders. Every Wednesday at 1pm because the energy taken in as calo- son then knows whether their ger will bring me back to being 15.” “dad rock nostalgic” and name- Nor should family and teachers Dr Stuttaford answers your ries isn’t being balanced by the weight, fat mass and body composi- Firth was born in Hampshire, checks Wilco and Lambchop.) He feel reassured by the thought that health queries online. To energy expended by exercise. tion is similar to that of comedians Ask Dr Stuttaford then moved to Nigeria where his also started to write, although “there comes a point,” he says gently, “when plump children and adolescents are submit your questions on Determining the significance of Dawn French and Matt Lucas and Send your questions about father taught. His parents have the BMI is always complex. The always been “eternal students” and unless you practise something you only suffering from puppy fat. Dr this week’s topic, food related to fat, or Lawrence Dallaglio current health problems to Jebb said that neither girls nor boys BMI of the raw-boned, heavily mus- and his rugby colleagues whose it is a close family, he says. Firth lost have to classify it as a fantasy, but I poisoning, go to [email protected] or to should expect pre-puberty fat to dis- cled rugby player is less medically raised BMI is a reflection of times2, The Times, 1 Pennington his first grandparent (his grand- do think there are worse writers than www.timesonline.co.uk/ father, whom he was close to) at 35. appear when adolescent. The important than that of the short, strength. Street, London E98 1TT weight graph showed only a slight health overweight apple-shaped woman, Tanita UK www.tanita.com “It was a shock,” he says, “some part (continued on page 12) W 12 times2 THE TIMES Thursday September 20 2007 THE TIMES Thursday September 20 2007 times2 13 screen ‘If I’m not on a horse it’s considered a stretch’

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me who have published novels.” some of those things, I probably can me to read Shakespeare, I wanted to 20-plus years of simmering rivalry school nickname you can’t shake. It should do this postmodern thing, (Acting and writing are linked as well.” How did your father find read Thomas Mann. If someone and resentment. “Rupert got on with occurred to me the other day to change my name by deed poll to Mr Darcy does . . . Darcy “because I quite like to do what I do out about the drugs? Did you smoke tried to make me listen to Brahms, I very few people. He found us all change my name to Mr Darcy and be Darcy. Then people can come up to to hide — by obscuring yourself you cannabis at home? “Nahhhuhhhh,” had to listen to Hendrix.” On the ghastly, naive and bourgeois. I done with it.” I laugh but he is seri- me and say, ‘But you are not Mr Dar- can reveal something”.) Firth mutters. “It was a whole series morning of A-level retakes, “I envied his confidence. I was inter- ous, despite parlaying the Darcy im- cy’ which would be different. I dare Another Country (1984) Darcy Firth Sr could cope with the long of things and was as much as to do thought, ‘F*** it’ and went back to mittently flamboyant but felt outside age to his advantage in the Bridget say it will be my saving grace when in training: Firth’s first hair but not Firth’s “bad choice” of with what he suspected. It wasn’t bed, it felt like a treadmill I didn’t [and he puts on an LA twang] my Jones movies, playing Mark Darcy, the only employment available to me experiment with a furrowed friends. There was a charismatic one incident.” The worst rows with want to be on.” Firth pitched up, comfort zone.” They have worked much obsessed over by Helen Field- is opening supermarkets dressed in brow (committed Marxist-style) hard nut at school who led Firth his father “were about washing dish- “like Dick Whittington”, in London “very happily” since on The Import- ing’s lead character. breeches and a wig.” and pairs with it the astray. Or “the misdemeanours that es and homework. There wasn’t a wanting to act and he got a job at a ance of Being Earnest and — coming “The frustration is anything I do Away from this half-jokey fretting, gentlemanly, earnest, dignified go along with wanting to be rock- massive meltdown,” he insists. theatre switchboard. He read Kafka in December — St Trinian’s. not on a horse looks a stretch,” says Firth is socially conscious. He has gaze he would practice in . . . and-roll and hippy, the music festi- But his teenage rebellion was con- in his cubbyhole, and “stared into His looks and upper-class, ruffled Firth, smiling yet serious. “When I campaigned to stop the deportation Pride and Prejudice (1995) The vals, staying out late.” Drinking? “I certed. “I would have gone to univer- the abyss”, until he met a casting demeanour meant he graduated did Fever Pitch, to get into my own of a group of asylum-seekers. He is lake scene has been replayed a was a bit naughty in that respect,” he sity had I not allowed myself to be director who smoothed his way into from playing posh schoolboys to jeans to play a guy living in North the executive producer of a docu- thousand times on a thousand says. Drugs? Firth looks stricken. derailed into moody adolescent drama school and then to a part in posh older men. There were appear- London where I lived, to play a char- mentary at this year’s Times BFI Lon- clip shows. Firth hones his stilted “I’m not at liberty to go into detail laziness. I liked to characterise it Julian Mitchell’s Another Country. ances in A Month in the Country and acter from my own background — don Film Festival, In Prison My but honourable shtick. about such misdemeanours. Yeah, it then as a defiant decision to resist Sudden fame “blew me away”. He a controversial Falklands drama, people considered that a stretch.” Whole Life, about Mumia Abu- Bridget Jones’s Diary/Edge of was all the usual stuff. If Labour the system. But I was just resistant didn’t get on with his co-star Rupert Tumbledown. But Firth’s life really Well, it’s not that bad, I say. He’s Jamal, a former Black Panther who Reason (2000, 2003) Firth Cabinet ministers can confess to to schoolwork. If someone wanted Everett though denies all reports of changed when he emerged, sodden- about to play a Roman commander has spent more than 20 years on sensibly just gives in — the big D shirted, from the lake as Mr Darcy in death row for the murder of a police- is given a modern update. the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride man. (Giuggioli is producer.) Girl with a Pearl Earring and Prejudice. The screenwriter ‘Part of me thinks Firth is clearly an intense thinker (2002) His Vermeer is the most Andrew Davies recently revealed I should change my and considers everything — family, charming painter ever on screen: the plan had been for Darcy to be career, politics — quite deeply. Mor- terribly polite, slightly bumbling. naked. Firth had “a bit of the usual name by deed poll rison’s book made him pause before Hmmm. Reminds us of someone. tension about getting your kit off” teasing his two younger children (he Love Actually (2003) Ahhh. but thinks it remained sexy because to Mr Darcy’ has three; a son, Will, by the actress Darcy’s language-barrier love. we “rerobed, not disrobed, Austen”. Meg Tilly and two younger boys And When Did You Last See He groans at the very mention of in The Last Legion and there’s a with Giuggioli). He jokingly agrees Your Father?; The Last Legion Darcy, whom he regards as “a part- scene in And When Did You . . ? in with “whoever said that when he (both 2007) No more Mr Wet time burden. It got my name recog- which Blake masturbates in the bath. upset his children he put a dollar in Shirt Guy. Firth does serious and nised but it also put me in a box. Firth shakes his head, smiles weari- a jar for their future therapy”. modern and Roman and butch. Things were going well; I was build- ly. “Every single film since there’s Firth’s own father is 73 and the ing a diverse working life.” been a scene where someone goes, Darcy made him feel “a bit of a ‘Well I think you’ve just killed Mr star” (he smiles pleasurably at that Darcy’. But he is a figure that won’t ‘This film made me thought), his wife Livia Giuggioli die. He is wandering somewhere. I would greet the sight of him dishev- can’t control him. I tried to play with think we let our elled every morning with an ironic, it in Bridget Jones. I’ve never resent- parents die with “Oh look, it’s Mr Darcy”. But, Firth ed it — if it wasn’t for him I might be says, “12 years on it feels like a languishing, but part of me thinks I things unsaid’

Blake Morrison film “made me think we let our parents die with things un- said”, but he cannot imagine a rela- tionship with his father where “everything has been resolved”, even though they are close. Firth himself isn’t sure if he is a good father — “I’m not going to be writing the review on that one” — but says he tries to make himself “available” to his children. He reveals that he squeezed himself “into a bourgeois life to reach a sense of being settled”. Why? “Serenity. When I was a Clockwise from top right, end. But it gets lonely. There came a teenager I romanticised the idea of Firth with Jim Broadbent in time where I wanted to settle down. artistically deranging oneself, whe- And When Did You Last See Excessive praise is like a drug but it ther it was a rock star f***ing him- Your Father?; In his first film doesn’t stay around for long. People self up with drugs or Rimbaud’s con- success, Another Country, can’t come with you while you’re up scious disordering of the senses. with Rupert Everett; that your own a***. If you want to have Being sane was a tedious, suburban wet shirt in his Mr Darcy any companionship you have to have thing to be. Unfortunately it’s not turn; in real life, with his wife a little bit of generosity.” So he’s the brilliance, but rather the screw- Livia Giuggioli created “new disciplines” to main- ing up, that’s easy to achieve.” tain close relationships. He broods momentarily, agonises, This is said in a halting mumble. It looks down. “Acting messes with reminds me of the gruff intimacy you. Whatever it is to seek that kind between Morrison and his father in of attention is combined with the the film — that particularly mascu- ability to play different characters — line trait of revealing something so there’s something fractured heartfelt by sounding as determined- there. You take a person like that, ly unheartfelt as you possibly can. subject them to all the vicissitudes of And When Did You Last See Your Father? praise and attack and critique and is released on Oct 5 you are going to wreak havoc with To watch a Q&A with people who aren’t stable.” I director Anand Tucker Is he talking about himself? and author Blake Morrison, go “Yeah . . . I didn’t go off the deep to timesonline.co.uk/film