the horse

Today I was lucky enough to film a conversation with Marco Pierre White in his restaurant in St James St, London.

Much has been said about this man and in the past few days many people have warned me I'd be in for a rough ride. They wished me luck and some even ventured to tell me what he's like as a person, even those who hadn't actually met him.

So, he was a hard man to get any time with. Not surprisingly.

But today, finally, we spoke on camera for thirty minutes. And then off camera for longer.

I'll write a little more about my experience later next week, when we've shown the film and my big deadline has passed.

But for now, I'll just say that on an anonymous Wednesday afternoon in March I met a vibrant, passionate, funny and powerful man.

Albert Roux, so Marco told me, called him 'the horse' because he worked so hard and ran everywhere.

I didn't meet a horse today. I met a gentleman. In every respect.

Thank you chef.

The pleasure was all mine.

kia kaha

Sometimes I get to do some really cool things.

On Friday I interviewed Sean Fitzpatrick, ex-captain of the All Blacks. And I have a signed rugby ball to show for it...

Sean is a gentleman. An articulate gentleman. And a sportsman. With that refreshingly brutal and simple approach to winning. What it means. How you do it. Why you do it.

Sean's also a very good storyteller which means that he can easily slip into stories he's told before, with all the rehearsed riffs and well-placed pauses that come with telling the same story over and over. So my job was to get behind the line and steal fresh insight; to reveal a hidden track. (Patience really is a virtue when it comes to making an interview into a dialogue.)

So at the risk of revealing too much here before I've finished the series of short commissioned films I'm doing at the moment, I did manage to steal some fresh insights...

One of which was just how little the All Blacks would celebrate their victories.

They hate losing. It's the pain of losing and the fear of failure that drives them harder than anything else.

Not for them the celebration of success or the glory of victory.

Winning is what they're expected to do.

It's the day job. So there's no fuss made. We won. Job done.

Now - who are we playing next?

Thanks Sean. It was a pleasure talking and listening to you.

(Will be back on more regular blog duty soon. Right now I'm a bit crazy busy...)