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The roller derby skater Maddy “BB Gun” Wilkinson has speed and scale on her side. The 24-year-old jammer (primary point-scorer) for the Adelaide team the Wild Hearses is 156cm tall (“I push just 5’ 1”, maybe”) and easily weaves between small gaps left by the opposing team, shielded by taller teammates from the scanning eyes of their rivals.
Wilkinson is fast too, and fearless, darting out to knock an opponent off balance – although she has never forgotten the time she broke her collarbone competing in junior league.
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If Simon Stone had not set out to become a theatre- and film-maker of international renown, he might have instead followed his parents into science, perhaps even remaining in Melbourne where he spent most of his childhood.
“Australia would have had everything I needed,” he says – although, during our interview, the youthful-looking, bearded, passionate writer and director gives the impression Europe would have still held its allure.
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When British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla farewelled the hit series The Crown and his character, Dodi Fayed, he knew he was saying goodbye to a role with a depth and significance well beyond merely a love interest for Princess Diana. “Dodi is one of the first Arab characters I can think of in the history of [western] film that you get to know and love, not fear,” says Abdalla, seated in his London home two years after the series ended. “And so, when he dies, you mourn him.”
Glasgow-born Abdalla, 45, whose father and grandfather were leftist political dissidents in Egypt, well understood the cultural significance of fleshing out the character of Alexandria-born Fayed beyond the playboy of legend.
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