EDITOR'S PERSPECTIVE: Only snakes, no ladders

The sadness in his eyes when he told m: “Jimmy Carr gets all my jobs now”. I Googled him. He still does.

It's like he knew that day 25 years ago that he was at the top of whatever ladder he had climbed and the six he had shaken was only going to take him to the head of the snake, while Carr was going higher than he ever had.

I thought he was a poor lad and so, apparently, did the other kids on the council estate on which he grew up. He had done okay as a stand-up comedian and fronted some “cutting edge” TV before the drink, the drugs and the pain became too much. He’d done well enough since, plenty of radio and podcasts, and talked about his personal problems, but now has a ”normal” job.

Jimmy Carr doesn’t have to do that. He doesn’t have to do anything he doesn’t want.

The second guy was a local television regular. He would turn up in the pub, largely to be seen and recognised so he could talk about himself. Behind that mask, that ego, there was a vulnerability.

He described his childhood and was referred to as an “ugly duckling” and got so upset he had to be convince3d he was now a “beautiful swan”. The facade was brittle and one day, playing football against another local side, I fouled a guy and was surrounded by angry opponents, who he then threatened to take then all on. When chastised by members of our team at half-time, he shaped up to take us all on.

For a TV presenter he seemed screened, not natural, unable to connect.

I Googled him too and discovered he has been involved in a few scrapes since his star waned, though he is still on the radio.

A third chap, popular on children’s television, ended up dead near a railway station.

Drink, drugs, depression, death – none of these appeared in their dreams when they first made it onto the stage or in front of the TV camera, but there’s a reason dreams only take place when you are sleeping – and no-one ever dies in them. You never get caught.

Take your eye off the ball when you are awake though and there’s always someone or something waiting to shatter them. Whoever you are.