Who's The Greatest?

neilj@tdv.com

In the beginning.

I was born in Hong Kong and have lived there the majority of my life, well seventeen of my twenty-two. My Mum, two Uncles and Grandad were also born in Hong Kong and no I'm not Chinese, which seems to be the first question people ask when they meet me, "So is it your Mum or Dad who are Chinese". I did however grow up speaking Cantonese, thanks to my Mum and the rest of my family wandering around the house yapping away in the native tongue, it kinda stuck.

Then I came here to sunny old England, to a theatre school in the middle of Surrey for three years and the Chinese in me gradually became unstuck, and then one day fell off.

In the space of three years I was reduced to one language and a knowledge of the theatre, and acting.

For two years after college I roamed around London working as a freelance runner for various film and theatre companies. One day I had just finished working for a small independent theatre company and was in the process of spending my earnings at my local pub when Adam, whom I knew from across the pool table, cornered me and said that the company he worked for were on the look-out for a runner. So after a few more games of pool and a few more pints I accepted, and have been here ever since.

Some facts about My Home Town.

1) Third most densely populated place on Earth

2) 6 million people squeezed into 386 square miles

3) Consumes the most cognac in the world

4) Has the highest per capita ownership of Rolls-Royces

5) Has seven of the world's ten busiest MacDonalds

6) One fifth the size of Prince Edward Island, just off South Africa.