How agreeable are you?<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t even agree with myself. My job is to watch movies, have opinions about them, and then explain those opinions, but quite often I find myself going back to them, not agreeing with any of it. Due to the miracle of the internet, I know that some people find me profoundly disagreeable. I know this for a fact because I\u2019ve heard from some of them in person.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s your middle name and what do you think of it?<\/p>\n
My middle name is James, and I love it. I probably prefer it to Mark. I was named after my grandfather, on my mother\u2019s side, who is from the Isle of Man. My grandfather, a great guy, I loved him, was James Stanley, known to everyone as JS. I always thought the idea of being known just by your initials was the coolest thing, because it sounds classy. Would I like to be known as MK? Well, since JD Vance<\/a>, the idea of being called by your initials has gone to the wall, hasn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n Where is your favourite place in Ireland?<\/p>\n My favourite place is Donegal<\/a>. There\u2019s a beach, Rathmullan beach, which is just beautiful to walk on, and at the end of it, there is a proper pub, the White Harte. We were there last year. I hadn\u2019t been in the pub for, literally, several years. I walked in, and they went, \u201cAlright, Mark, pint of Guinness?\u201d I have nothing but good memories associated with Donegal. Whenever we go there, you can feel everything dial itself down.<\/p>\n Describe yourself in three words.<\/p>\n Quite funny sometimes. I think it\u2019s important to have a sense of humour about things, and so I\u2019m saying that as a glowing compliment to myself.<\/p>\n When did you last get angry?<\/p>\n When I started as a film critic, I had a reputation for being the angry guy who does the angry rants. For a long time, I thought it was part of my personality, but I learned that I just don\u2019t like anger at all. I went online and bought some books with titles like How to Control Anger and What is Anger? I read them all, and I stopped, pretty much, getting angry. I still get irritable, but I don\u2019t really do anger any more, and I\u2019m very glad not to.<\/p>\n What have you lost that you would like to have back?<\/p>\n I long for the sublime innocence of the time when I neither knew nor cared to know anything about Donald Trump<\/a>, and I absolutely long for the time when he and his grotesque family and supporters are consigned to the dustbin of history, and we don\u2019t need to think about them ever again.<\/p>\n What\u2019s your strongest childhood memory?<\/p>\n I was quite young, under five, and my mum had a little Morris Minor. One day, I got in the car \u2013 this is before the time of safety belts \u2013 and my mum asked me if the car door was closed. I said it was, and to prove it, I leaned on it. I fell out of the car onto the road and landed on my face, which resulted in scars and a tooth going through my tongue. I was taken to the hospital, and because I\u2019d been a good little boy, they gave me a Corgi Simon Snorkel fire engine with stabilisers. I\u2019ve never forgotten the incident, but what I remember the most is the red fire engine, which I think is in the attic. I would never have thrown it away.<\/p>\n Where do you come in your family\u2019s birth order and has this defined you?<\/p>\n I\u2019m the middle child. Everyone says that middle children are difficult, awkward, anxious, and they don\u2019t know where they fit in, and I\u2019m absolutely the classic middle child. I get on really well with my younger brother and older sister, but, yes, I am a classic middle child. The difficult, awkward, narky one, that\u2019s me.<\/p>\n What do you expect to happen when you die?<\/p>\n I have no idea what will happen. If there is some amazing, cosmic plan, it isn\u2019t going to be bothered whether or not I know anything about it. Kurt Vonnegut<\/a> had the quote on a tombstone in his novel Slaughterhouse-Five: \u201cEverything was beautiful and nothing hurt\u201d.<\/p>\n When were you happiest?<\/p>\n It\u2019s now, if that doesn\u2019t sound too naff, but the problem with the question is that it\u2019s past tense. It implies that the happiest you\u2019ve been in your life is already gone. I\u2019m 62, and I am now playing in a band with a guy that I played with when I was a teenager. We used to listen to the Gang of Four album Entertainment! and say wouldn\u2019t it be amazing to be able to sound like that? We stayed friends, we each played in bands, and when we both turned 60, we said maybe we actually could play that album. So we\u2019re coming over to Dublin to play an album that meant the world to me when I was a younger, more vulnerable person. Meanwhile, as we\u2019re having this conversation, my wife, who I\u2019ve been married to for 34 years, is the love of my life and the most beautiful woman I\u2019ve ever met. And when we\u2019re finished talking, we\u2019re going to Cornwall to be with our two children. I don\u2019t think it gets much better than that, does it?<\/p>\n Which actor would play you in a biopic about your life?<\/p>\n