Find out Michael’s first grown-up book he read, first movie he saw at the cinema and more:
First TV show I watched religiously
Monkey was a Japanese TV series on the BBC. It was about a monkey, a pig and a fish. They were all on a pilgrimage with a Buddhist monk called Tripitaka, who was male, but played by a woman. Monkey had a magic staff which was big, but he could make it very little and put it in his ear, and he would travel on a cloud.First trip to the theatre
It would have been at the Dolman Theatre in Newport; probably a Gilbert and Sullivan show like The Pirates of Penzance or a classic musical like Oklahoma! or Carousel. The first professional play I saw was As You Like It at the RSC in Stratford with Fiona Shaw and Alan Rickman.
First play I loved
I was in youth theatre when I was 14 and I remember sitting cross-legged in a rehearsal room, watching Russell T Davies in a run-through of The Crucible; it absolutely knocked my socks off.First pop-inspired fashion trend
When I was 10 or 11 the ska revival happened with Madness, Bad Manners and the Specials and I remember wearing the two-tone trousers and tassel shoes. One night when I was on my way out to our local disco wearing bleached jeans, Dr Martens and a Fred Perry shirt, my dad told me: “You’re not going out like that!”First role on stage
Up until fairly recently, I thought my first role on stage was “voice of baby crying” in a production of Hello, Dolly! in Liverpool, that my mum and dad were both in. It turns out that wasn’t me, it was my sister. So she robbed me of my first role. So I think it would have been the wizard in a school production of The Wizard of Oz.First film I saw at the cinema
I went to see The Jungle Book and I have a very specific memory, not of the film, but of the outing. I was with my mum and my sister, Joanne. She’s three years younger than me and I remember making my mother take her out of her pushchair so I could sit in it. I was far too old to be doing that, but that’s my memory of going to see The Jungle Book.First grown-up book I read
When I was about eight or nine, I read Kevin Keegan’s autobiography, because I was a massive Liverpool fan at the time. And then after that, it would have been The Lord of the Rings.