Crying, me? Nah.

I'm an (overly) emotional geezer, but, paradoxically, I very rarely cry. I cried the night I slept at my nan's house after mum told us that "dad won't be living with us any more" -- I was 12; I cried walking home from my first proper girlfriend's house after we split up -- I was 18; I cry at funerals, mildly -- usually when we're all singing Abide with me, and particularly this final verse:

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

I'm an atheist, but still...

There are some film/TV moments that make me fill up, too:

(1) The opening sequence of A Matter of Life and Death, when radio operator Kim Hunter is so moved by David Niven's plight, trapped in his burning bomber over the North Sea -- there's something heartbreaking about knowing that these are his last moments, and that only in the face of imminent death can he admit to his feelings, and there's also something about the way that they've found each other over the airwaves and can never consummate this precious love.

(2) The bit in ET, when the extraterrestrial comes back to life in the back of the van. Christ.

(3) The end of Nostalghia, when the deranged guy sets fire to himself in the public square.

(4) The end of It's a Wonderful Life. Please. Stop. (The trick here is in the build up, where you've seen what a great guy George Bailey is, and all the beautiful, considerate things he has done for other people, out his generosity of spirit. It lifts it way beyond sentimental melodrama and drives home the truth of how irreplaceable the love of family and friends is.)

(5) Any episode of of The Boys from the Blackstuff, but especially: (a) when Chrissie shoots the rabbits in the back yard; (b) when Dixie confronts his son in his bedroom, challenging him about not having a job; (c) when Chrissie stands up in the church and challenges the drunken priest when he gets George's name wrong at the funeral. That's brilliant fucking writing, and makes the truths and the suffering of these ordinary people blaze brighter than any so-called 'epic'.

(6) Any episode of The Rock and Roll Years that features music I remember, and tragic pictures I remember seeing on the TV -- the final US withdrawal from Saigon, for example, or the Berlin Wall coming down, or the Iranian Embassy siege, or the Heysel/Bradford City/Hillsborough football disasters.

Enough, already. I started out here suggesting that I don't cry much, but I clearly do get close to it pretty often.

Do yourself a favour: have a bloody good grizzle.