Tom Wiggins, Letter Carver & Writer

For the past four or five years, I’ve been “one of those people” who stays up to watch the Academy Awards. For those who are more dismissive of the schmaltzy back-patting elitism prevalent at The Oscars and its like, may through association also single me out as “one of those people” who stands behind the barrier at red carpet premieres with “the rest of the sad sacks” in search of that elusive glimpse at that lesser-spotted A-Lister. Okay, so I admit, I have craned my neck as a Leicester Square celeb obsessive on more than one occasion, but those days of waiting for the esteemed filmmaker and (as Hitchcock once addressed them) his cattle are, you’ll be pleased to learn, very much behind me. However, the need to see the Oscar winners and losers is immediate, and, as such, a live feed of the big night is a necessary one. Here’s a blow-by-blow account of my night: 21:00 Fall into a deep sleep and miss all of The Oscars. (This of course is a joke) 21:13 After that ice cream ear...

‘Is that it?’  I asked my dad.  ‘Is it over?’ ‘Yes, it’s over.’ I couldn’t decide who was more disappointed: my forty year-old father or my ten year-old self. It was 27 th July 1996.  A Saturday.  Linford Christie had just been disqualified from the 100 metre final at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.  At 32, Christie became the oldest man to win Olympic 100 metre gold in Barcelona four years earlier.  Just to reach a consecutive Olympic final at the grand old age of 36 was extraordinary.  Linford Christie's disqualification in Atlanta proved that physical strength is only half the battle. Nowadays, of course, Christie wouldn’t have been given a second chance.  As of 2010, the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) implemented a zero tolerance approach to the false start.  It was a rule that attracted heavy criticism from the athletic community, and one that came under much wider scrutiny when Usain B...

While browsing my journal, I came across the following passage I wrote on Saturday 9th April 2011 in response to seeing Zach "300" Snyder's Sucker Punch.  I thought I'd share it, if nothing than to dissuade others from the monumental error of giving it a second's attention.  "In truth, [Sucker Punch] was just awful.  My concentration waned and my mind quickly wandered to surveying audience reaction, or rather lack of it: it was unable to rouse any sort of reaction - good or bad - from a single member of its audience.  If the screen had been covered in black paint prior to its screening, in the very least the experience may have provoked building yawns of disengagement; hell, someone may have even walked out!  I almost wanted someone to play the Nokia ringtone - a 21st century smelling salt.  Because - let's be honest - this was a cinematic coma (cinecoma?) that required very drastic measures if there ...