101 Faces - 10

46-50 - not sure if I'll get to 101 without going a bit heavier on the rock guys. Turns out, I have a narrower range of interests than I gave myself credit for! But anyway ...

JOHN GRAY

The fact that John Gray appears to be a Brexiter – or at least, not ant-Brexit, is about the only thing that’s ever given me pause for thought on the matter. He seems to have said so much that is unpalatable and true. Straw Dogs was really as eye-opening a book as I’ve read, and there is very little of it that still doesn’t ring true.

CATE BLANCHETT

In 1995, my friend Stephen and I went, with his dad, to see a play in a small warehouse in Croydon about an Australian couple who lost their dog. I’m not totally sure why we went. It was pretty good. I seem to recall we all did think the female actress was excellent. I’m not sure it was til about 10 years later that I twigged that it was Cate Blanchett.

Blanchett is maybe the great actor of the age, alongside Day-Lewis – when is she not utterly brilliant (in Indiana Jones, is, of course, the answer, but it’s helpful to have something like that to realise how good she is the rest of the time). Of course, she’s brilliant when she’s showing off, playing Bob Dylan, or when she’s playing these brittle aristocrats, but she’s also completely funny and can be heartbreaking too.

DAVID LAMMY

Lammy has risen to be the political hero of the age over and over again in the last few years, on Windrush, on Grenfell, on Brexit, on being exactly what a Labour politician should be.

AGATHA CHRISTIE

How I could not include Christie, this cool skating, surfing girl from decades ago … still making the nation argue … I can’t really remember if her books were well written – I just remember I devoured them when I was young – I remember an officious librarian telling me I was too young to get them out as they had death and stuff in them, and bringing my mum back to say it was ok.

And I devoured the Suchet Poirots – mannered as they were, that was a great televisual achievement. As were the Hickson Marples. And, yes, I love the recent “controversial” ones too. Definitely one of my four favourite Christies.

RONNIE O'SULLIVAN

I just don’t think anyone else has ever done anything as well as Ronnie has done snooker when he’s at his best. Honestly. Sometimes I can’t tell if Ron is a crusading hero or a megatwat, but he’s basically both all the time and really just an astonishing thing to watch when he’s flowing.