Chariots of Fire

The Actor Ben Cross aged 73 died suddenly this week. Cross, star and great actor played Harold Abrahams the British runner in the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire, the true story of the 1924 Olympics when the great Scot Eric Liddell upheld his Christian belief not to ‘ run on the Sabbath ‘

Prior to the race start a competitor squeezes a piece of paper into the hand of Liddell on the starting block with the scripture from 1 Samuel 2 v 30 for those that Honour the Lord, He will honour. Liddell goes on to win Gold and scripture is fulfilled. Ian Charleston plays him perfectly and with striking resemblance

The film was directed by Hugh Hudson and produced by Lord David Putnam whom per chance I met on a flight from London to Cork in Ireland where he lives. Putnam was a lovely man and we chatted up till baggage control. On departure he smiled a said to me ‘ Keep running ‘ . I’ve been running ever since.

Putnam of course produced that other great movie Mission and I’m not sure if I prefer the theme music of Morricone or Van Gelis. My favourite beach is the sand dunes of St Andrews which I’ve walked on many times and features in the movie as the boys run through the water edge.

Eric Liddell was born in Tianjin in 1902, ran the Olympics at 22 and played Rugby for Scotland. I visited his birthplace in Tianjin China but not the Japanese Internment Camp where he died age 43. Eric’s life was spent as a Christian Missionary.

As for Harold he died aged 78 and cut a piece of his gold medal off for his wedding ring. Harold was an avid Freemason and I don’t know if later they ever ( E & H ) met in their lives. Ian Holm player trainer Sam in the inspiring movie. Colin Welland of Z Car game the script. My wife and I saw the play in London’s west end though the boys running down the isles didn’t quite work and I left the theatre with a crooked neck.

Rest in peace Ben…. you certainly ran your race well. We will all be catching up with you at some point but you’re a tad bit faster than us. It must be the fire.