• Why do Dickens characters still resonate 200 years on?

    By Pete Jeary , NBC News

    Peter Jeary / NBC News

    A bust of Charles Dickens in the author's former home in London, now a museum.

     

    LONDON – Having fallen victim to a pickpocket on my journey through London this morning, it feels curiously appropriate that Tuesday marks the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens.  The great chronicler of Victorian England's underworld would probably have been amused – and literally inspired – as I was adroitly parted from my cell phone.

    As the country tips its collective hat to celebrate his 200th birthday – Prince Charles is leading ceremonies by laying a wreath on the writer's grave and actor Ralph Fiennes will give a reading, among other notable events – I wonder why does this most "modern" crime feel so immediately "Dickensian" in nature? Why do the settings, such as the workhouse of Oliver Twist, and characters, such as Ebenezer Scrooge, which Dickens drew in word portraits, still resonate today?

    I believe the answer lies in the fact that millions in the English-speaking world – and countless more who don't speak English as a first language – are able to conjure up a name, plot or title for something associated with Charles Dickens. But here's the rub – it is the transformation of his work into other media that has fuelled this ubiquity.

    Peter Jeary / NBC News

    Billboard for an 1837 theatrical production based on 'The Pickwick Papers.'

    At my English elementary school, our rare cultural day-trips were reserved for worthy matters.  In one case, there was a trip to the movie theater to see a black-and-white screening of Great Expectations, which opens in the bleak landscape of the Kent marshes. 

    Just a few years later, Lionel Bart's stage-musical-turned-Academy-Award-winning Oliver! transported me to an equally strange Technicolor world, where Victorian London encountered the Swinging Sixties. 

    The start and end of my teenage years were marked, like solid wooden bookends holding up a shelf-full of Dickens books, by Smike (a musical TV adaptation from Nicholas Nickleby) and Nicholas Nickleby itself – an eight-hour stage epic, in two parts, written by David Edgar and produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

    Google pays tribute to Dickens with a special 'doodle'

    And so it transpired that I felt like an expert in Dickens, without ever having read a word.  The Jeary family volume of A Christmas Carol remained unopened for many years, apart from the well-thumbed pages with illustrations.

    Peter Jeary / NBC News

    Dickens acting the part of Captain Bobadil in an amateur production, portrayed in an engraving of an 1846 painting by C.R. Leslie.

    To a large degree, the blame must lie with Dickens himself.  He was a keen amateur actor, and adored his staged readings and lecture tours. His work was so "theatrical" it was often pirated – illicitly transformed into a stage rendition before the serialization was complete. 

    The plots and settings are quintessentially cinematic – there are around 100 known movies dating from the silent-movie era based on Dickens' novels.  He is also, without question, one of greatest authors of flawed characters in English literature. 

    As the Archbishop of Canterbury said at Tuesday's service at Westminster Abbey to honor Dickens, "the figures we remember most readily from his works are the great grotesques.  We have, we think, never met anyone like them – and then we think again." 

    And so it was inevitable that Miss Havisham, Smallweed and Sir Leicester Dedlock would creep in to the common psyche, as the TV mini-series became the modern-day literary periodical.

    These media transformations produce incredible interest in Dickens and his literature.  The London Museum has a special Dickens exhibition that's proving hugely popular and the line for the Charles Dickens Museum – right around the corner from the NBC London bureau  – ran out the passage and down the street (the fact they were offering free birthday cupcakes may have had something to do with it).

    Peter Jeary / NBC News

    A bookcase in the author's London home, now the Charles Dickens Museum.

    The trouble is, as wonderful as adaptations are, they can never recreate the complexity and density of the original.  Reading Dickens is like embarking on the trans-Siberian railway-- a marathon journey encountering multiple characters in unfolding landscapes.  I remember feeling punch-drunk upon completing my first full read-through of a novel (Bleak House) and still need to be in the right frame of mind before starting a new one.

    But there is something compelling and inspiring about his writing that becomes infectious. I have made my own dismal attempt to adapt Martin Chuzzlewit for the stage, but it's proving hellishly difficult; so unfortunately "Pecksniff and Pinch" won't be at a theater near you anytime soon... but please keep an eye out for my cell phone.

     

     

  • UK all a-Twitter as celebrity secrets are laid bare

    PAUL HACKETT / Reuters, file

    Jemima Khan was unwittingly swept up in the 'super injunctions' Twitter scandal in the U.K.

    By Ian Johnston, msnbc.com

    LONDON – In England, wealthy celebrities facing allegations of affairs, sado-masochism, sexual harassment and the like have a simple way to avoid being embarrassed by a blaze of bad publicity: go to a court, pay about $100,000 in legal fees, and get an order preventing journalists from running the story.

    Or rather it was that simple until a Twitter user decided to risk a prison sentence by revealing some of the legally protected secrets contained in the orders or "super injunctions" as they are popularly known.

    On Tuesday, Twitter had its highest ever number of U.K. Internet visits, according to analyst Experian Hitwise, as the news spread like wildfire. Getting the lowdown on scandals so juicy that they had to be officially hushed-up proved irresistible to vast numbers of Brits.

    And by Thursday, the tweeter had attracted more than 100,000 followers, all of whom could possibly be prosecuted and similarly sent to prison if the tweets show up on their page.

    But, in what some are hailing as a victory for American-style freedom of speech, the courts have yet to take any action against what appears to be a flagrant breach of the contempt of court laws covering England and Wales.

    Jeremy Hunt, culture secretary in the British government's cabinet, spoke about "this crazy situation where information is available freely online, which you are not able to print in newspapers."

    "Technology, and Twitter in particular, is making a mockery of the privacy laws," he said at a lunch with journalists Tuesday, according to an emailed statement from a government spokesman.

    The anonymity provided by Twitter, its ability to spread news quickly, and the fact that it sits outside the jurisdiction of English courts, appears to be why it has taken the lead in challenging the injunctions.  

    Britain's leading publicist, Max Clifford, told msnbc.com that he was representing three of those identified by the tweeter: the "famous actor" who allegedly had sex with a prostitute; the prostitute, Helen Wood; and former beauty queen Imogen Thomas, who allegedly had an affair with a famous, married British sports star.

    'Very upset' actor
    Under the terms of the court orders, the actor and sports star cannot be named, but the orders don’t prevent the naming of the women.

    The actor, whose Wikipedia page is currently protected from editing, was "very upset" about being identified, Clifford told msnbc.com.

    "His name has been mentioned on Twitter – along with lots of other people whose names aren't true – and he's not getting the protection he thought (he was getting)," the publicist said.

    However, the actor had subsequently recovered his composure and was "doing absolutely fine," Clifford added. "Because of the names on Twitter that are wrong, he's more relaxed about it now." 

    When asked if there was any chance of an interview, Clifford said the actor was keeping a low profile and "would faint" at the idea.
    Would the bad publicity affect his career?

    "No, absolutely not," Clifford said. "I think probably 50 percent of the nation are having affairs. Unless you are the Archbishop of Canterbury, the pope or the queen, it doesn't really make too much difference."

    Perhaps surprisingly, even Clifford thinks so-called super injunctions are wrong.

    "You cannot justify super injunctions because they are only available to rich people. That's just not democratic," he said. "Most people don't have 50,000, 60,000 pounds [$81,000, $97,000] to spend."

    Staying out the spotlight has been the strategy adopted by most of those named by the tweeter.

    The wife of one told msnbc.com, "I don't think he'd want to comment." She added, "I'm not making any comment.”

    'Vile hate tweets'
    However, one person named as being involved in a super injunction, socialite and human rights campaigner Jemima Khan, has been all over the British newspapers. But only because the information about her is wrong and therefore it can be written about in newspapers without fear that the journalists will be sent to prison for contempt of court.

    "The proof that I haven't got a super injunction is that the papers have printed my name (and no one else's – for fear of being sued)," Khan wrote on Twitter.

    She also wrote about being "trapped in a bloody nightmare," receiving "vile hate tweets." She hopes that the people who "made up this story" – alleging that she appeared in intimate photographs with a married TV presenter –  realize "that my sons will be bullied at school because of it."

    But while some complain about the damage done by false rumors, others believe Twitter is bringing American-style freedom of speech to the U.K.

    "I think it is. And it is to be applauded for doing so," leading media lawyer Mark Stephens said. "I think the [U.K.] judges and social media have been in a race and the judges have come [in] comprehensively second. I think people are beginning to realize that more and more."

    Speaking to msnbc.com by phone from Montreal, Stephens said "super injunctions" – which he said were more accurately described as secret injunctions – had been obtained in closed-door hearings, meaning that claims submitted as evidence could not be challenged.

    "I think secret justice is a bad thing," he said.

    While the public might not need to know about the sexual antics of sports stars, Stephens cited the case of a sportsman who had unprotected sex with a prostitute while his girlfriend was pregnant.

    "The court connived to prevent that information going to her (the girlfriend)," Stephens said, meaning she was unable to protect herself and her unborn child from the risk of a sexually transmitted disease.

    "That seems to me to be immoral," Stephens said. "Many of these men have had unprotected sex with a third party, potentially compromising the sexual health of their partner."

    The English courts and the people who took out the injunctions do not appear to be trying to prosecute, but Stephens said it was possible that legal action could be taken against the tweeter as "their electronic fingerprints will be all over this.

    He said anyone re-tweeting what was said was also committing contempt of court and even someone who simply followed the tweeter would also being doing so – if one of the tweets appeared in the feed on their Twitter page. (Many people began following the tweeter after the now infamous posts went out – in the hope that there will be future revelations). 

    However, Stephens is confident enough that the tweeter’s followers are not at risk of a spell behind bars that he became one himself, stressing he was "interested in it from a legal perspective."

    "The court couldn't deal with 100,000 people," he said.

    There is talk in government of reforming the law to take into account the effect of social media.

    But Stephens, who has been representing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, said this was unlikely to have any consequences for Twitter, as it is based in California.

    He dismissed the idea of fencing off parts of Twitter from the U.K. or attempting some kind of censorship.

    "You cannot do that, outside of being a totalitarian regime. It's very difficult to do," he said.

    Instead, England's laws would have to bend to a new reality.

    "When people have asked me for a super injunction, I've said, 'One, you are painting a target on your back. Two, I can't guarantee it will be secret. And three, it's going to cost 50,000 to 70,000 pounds [$81,000 to $113,000].

    "Even a rather thick footballer [soccer player] is going to understand there's not much point."

    Editor's note: Msnbc.com was advised by a media lawyer not to publish details of the injunctions as the writer lives in London and is therefore subject to English law.

    Newspapers in England have not published the username of the tweeter for fear of prosecution. 

    Some of the information in the tweets is not true. The tweet mentioning Jemima Khan is wrong, and a legal source told msnbc.com that the injunction about the actor does not mention use of a sex toy. There may be other inaccuracies.

  • Analysis: U.S. 'playing catch-up' in battle against lone-wolf terrorists

    By Andy Hayman, NBC News counterterrorism analyst

    LONDON - The pressure on the security and intelligence services is unrelenting. There hardly seems to be a month that goes by without a terrorist alert or an actual attack.

    Nearly a decade on from the 9/11 atrocities, an attack by extremists remains one of the biggest threats to the safety of citizens in both the United States and United Kingdom.

    However, during the early part of this decade, the U.S. appeared immune to a particularly dangerous form of terrorism well-known to authorities in the U.K. — home-grown, "lone-wolf" attackers.

    Last year, that started to change.

    In May, Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-born U.S. citizen, tried to detonate a car bomb near New York's Times Square. In November — at the lighting of a community Christmas Tree in Portland, Ore. — Mohamed Osman Mohamud allegedly attempted to detonate a car bomb.

    The lone-wolf terrorist is undoubtedly more challenging to detect and stop than the typical cell of six to 10 people.

    Undercover operatives
    With those kinds of numbers, there is a much greater chance that the cell's internal security will break down and a leak will occur, giving the authorities an opportunity to infiltrate the cell with undercover operatives or set up surveillance.

    A lone attacker only has to look after themselves and ensure they talk to no one and keep under the radar of friends and the authorities.

    Preventative techniques become more difficult to deploy which actually means the lone operator can present the greater danger to public safety than an organized cell of several people.

    Home-grown Islamist terrorists struck in the U.K. in dramatic fashion five years ago when 52 people were killed in the so-called 7/7 attack on London's transport system.

    The chilling sound of suicide bomber Mohammad Siddique Khan reciting his martyrdom video in a broad regional accent brought home to all the British authorities that, right under their noses, was a new breed of Islamist: English people radicalized within their own communities to the point where they were willing to kill.

    The revelation prompted the U.K. to re-think what was needed to deal with this combined threat from the home-grown and international terrorist.

    A slight twist on the homegrown, lone-wolf bomber was the attack in December by Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly. Although a Swedish citizen he had permanent resident status in the U.K. It is believed he became radicalized while in the U.K. and left his family home in Luton, England, to mount an attack in Stockholm, Sweden.

    Focus diverted?
    The worrying aspect is that there do not appear to be tangible lessons which can be shared with the U.S., which it could be argued is playing catch-up on how to deal with the threat of the home-grown bomber.

    There is always the danger that trying to deal with the threat at home could divert focus away from plots being hatched overseas, and vice versa.

    And we know that providing additional resources is not necessarily the answer and that focusing on community programs to prevent radicalization has only limited success.

    Despite nearly five years of effort and £100 million ($160 million) of investment into counter-radicalization programs, terrorist cells are still emerging.

    In December, nine terror suspects were charged with acts preparatory to the commission of acts of terrorism after they allegedly plotted to mount attacks on iconic London locations during the holiday period.

    Such activities, if proved, raise questions about the merits of the British preventative program.

    It might sound bleak, but it may simply be a case of conceding defeat within the preventative agenda and preserving scant resources to keep one step ahead of the terrorist with greater intelligence coverage and proactive security operations.

    It is still not clear just how well prepared Britain and America are to deal with these types of attacks.

    Whether the U.S. can find a better solution than the U.K.'s strategy to prevent the radicalization of its citizens alongside policing operations, remains to be seen.

    Andy Hayman is a former assistant commissioner with London's Metropolitan Police. In that role, he was the highest-ranking police officer responsible for counterterrorism in the U.K.

  • Party fit for a prince? Londoners hope for 'big wedding'

    Reuters

    Prince William and Kate Middleton made their first public appearance as an engaged couple on Tuesday.

    By Theresa Cook, msnbc.com

    LONDON — "They're engaged. THEY'RE ENGAGED!"

    Those words, uttered by a NBC News producer rushing back to her desk Tuesday morning, would generally prompt a follow-up question of "WHO is engaged?"

    But in Britain, there could only be one answer: Prince William and Kate Middleton.

    After eight years of on-again, off-again dating and a recent spike in speculation, the royal family finally announced a 2011 wedding.

    Londoners weren't exactly shocked by the news. But despite wall-to-wall coverage on every U.K. television network, by lunchtime many people weren't aware that the rumors had officially been confirmed.

    "I was reading about Suu Kyi with more interest," said Anne Smith, referring to Myanmar's recently freed pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

    Smith had been shopping in the city's Covent Garden area with friend Gill Sutch. "They've been going out so long" that the announcement didn't exactly come as a surprise, Smith added.

    Self-described "monarchists to the core," the pair agreed William and Kate will not be able to maintain their media-shy ways for much longer. Sutch said it will be interesting to watch as the public gets an opportunity to know the likely future queen in the months ahead.

    "She hasn't given much away, has she?" Sutch mused.

    'More than modern couple'
    Across from the nearby Prince of Wales pub, Laura Canter had also not heard the news. But the 26-year-old, who has long brown hair and high cheekbones not unlike Middleton's, said she hoped for a "more private, more romantic" event for the "more than modern couple." However, she acknowledged that they'll have to "go big" if they need to accommodate a huge guest list.

    Many Londoners envision a wedding for the ages. By the time their son gets hitched, it will have been 30 years since Charles and Diana's ill-fated 1981 union. A 3,500-strong congregation packed into St. Paul's Cathedral and an additional 600,000 lined the streets of the capital that July day, according to the BBC. The wedding had an additional 750 million sets of eyes glued to TV screens around the world.

    "It should be what it should be — a big wedding," said East London resident Wesley Sargeant, on his smoke break outside the building he was fireproofing near Great Queen Street. "They're the royal family!"

    But will the bride wear a frothy designer gown with a 25-foot long train like Diana? Will the cost of the event draw criticism in a time of economic austerity?

    "Whatever you say about it, it's a good thing because it gives people something to look forward to," said Graham, a sharply dressed London resident in a grey coat buttoned all the way up to protect him against the chilly autumn afternoon.

    A royal wedding, and the monarchy in general, is part of a rich national history that "other countries would kill" to have, added Dean, his 28-year-old lunchtime companion. (Both declined to give their last names.)

    "The only problem for me," he said, "is I'm the same age as William, so now my girlfriend will be pressuring me!"

  • Millions stranded as Tube strike hits London

    By Marian Smith, msnbc.com

    LONDON – When David Sellors tried to catch a taxi at London's King's Cross train station Tuesday, he didn't expect a line so long that he couldn't even see the front. A snaking row of more than 250 people turned several corners before reaching the rank full of cabs.

    Sellors had expected a day-long strike by about 10,000 staff of the British capital's subway system to add an extra hour to his morning commute. But that was before he saw the throng of hopeful passengers – which doubled his delay.

    AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis

    Commuters wait at a bus stop in central London on Tuesday. Millions of Londoners struggled to get to work by road, rail, boat and bicycle Tuesday as a strike by London Underground workers shut down much of the city's subway system.

    "In the industry I work in – the construction industry – they're laying people off all over the place," grumbled the 47-year-old from Derby, England. "No-one's getting a pay rise, so we’re all in the same boat."

    Jam-packed buses
    More than 3.5 million people use London's subway system daily and the walk-out left all but one of the city's 11 Underground lines shut or partly suspended. Commuters were forced to take jam-packed buses, pay for taxis, ride bicycles, use boat services along the River Thames or simply walk to work.

    At London Bridge station, Kirbal Singh, 33, told msnbc.com how his usually straightforward 30-minute commute had turned into a two-and-a-half-hour ordeal involving a two separate trains and a bus.

    The industrial action was in protest over 800 planned job cuts, mostly among station staff. But Transport for London, which runs the network – famously known as the Tube – says there will be no compulsory layoffs.

    'Autumn of discontent'
    As the U.K.'s center-right coalition government attempts to tackle a staggering budget deficit, government agencies are being pushed to suggest savings of up to 40 percent. Almost every department faces spending cuts of at least 25 percent.

    The Rail, Maritime and Transport union said the Tube staffing cuts were just "the tip of the iceberg" and it seems almost inevitable that other unions will launch fights against the looming cuts.

    Three more 24-hour strikes are planned in October and November – branded an "autumn of discontent" by Britain's tabloid newspapers. In 1978-9, the country was brought to a near standstill by a series of strikes dubbed the "winter of discontent."

    "The station staff who apprehended a man carrying knives and loaded guns last weekend, along with the staff whose vigilance and skills averted major fire disasters at Euston and Oxford Circus (stations) recently, are the very personnel whose jobs are on the block," said Bob Crow, the RMT's general secretary.

    When the coalition's cuts were announced in June, Crow called for a "sustained campaign" of strikes targeting the government's so-called "fiscal fascism."

    He described the proposals as a "savage assault on jobs, living standards and public services" and urged other unions to take direct action to stop Prime Minister David Cameron's "cuts machine."

    Little sympathy on streets
    Mike Brown, London Underground's managing director, acknowledged that commuters were facing "disruption" but insisted that the city had not been left paralyzed.

    However, most commuters had little sympathy for the striking workers on Tuesday. The London Chamber of Commerce estimated each day the Tube is shut down costs capital's economy 48 million pounds ($73.7 million).

    "It doesn't achieve anything at the end of the day," said Sue Trewin, 65, as she waited for a pre-ordered taxi outside of King’s Cross station. "It paralyzes the city and people may not get paid if they can't get in to work. In the end I think it's a selfish act."

    But others were not grumbling.

    Shams Selahaddin, 37, who moved to London from Afghanistan 18 years ago, was waiting to pick up a passenger outside an apartment building in Borough, south London, on Tuesday morning.

    "Everybody keeps calling this morning," the driver for a private car service said. "But we can't take any more people – we're completely booked!"

  • Eco-warriors give London small taste of spill pain

    By F. Brinley Bruton, msnbc.com staff

    LONDON – As BP CEO Tony Hayward resigned under a cloud Tuesday, thousands of British motorists got an unexpected reminder of the oil spill that's wreaked havoc in the Gulf of Mexico.

    Protesters with the environmental group Greenpeace said they shut off fuel supplies at 46 BP gas stations across London just in time for the morning rush-hour. Small teams of activists used a standard shut-off switch to stop the flow of fuel oil at the targeted stations. The switches were then removed to prevent most BP outlets in the capital from opening.

    Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

    Demonstrators stand outside a BP petrol station, which they have barricaded with fences, in London on Tuesday.

    And to ensure there was no chance of drivers buying gas, demonstrators in fluorescent vests and helmets locked green metal fences around some sites.

    "What BP needs to do is not just change CEOs it needs to actually come up with a new strategy," Greenpeace U.K.’s chief executive John Sauven said at one of the shuttered stations in Camden, north London.

    Sauven said BP must live up to its pledge to move "beyond petroleum" and stop focusing on squeezing oil from places like the Gulf of Mexico, Canada's tar sands and the fragile Arctic wilderness.

    'Holding us to ransom'
    Anna Jones, who was one of the handful up at dawn to ensure gas stations were shuttered, took a harder line.

    "Big companies like BP are holding us to ransom, chasing profits at the expense of us," the 29-year-old part-time dance teacher said. "The generation before us is largely responsible and the next generation coming up will have to deal with the consequences."

    A BP spokesman described the group's protest as "an irresponsible and childish act which is interfering with safety systems." The firm claimed that only a handful of stations had been prevented from opening.

    Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

    Londoners had mixed views on Greenpeace's actions.

    Daniel Watson, a 41-year-old teacher and tuba player, said BP should recognize the problems of global warming and dependence on petroleum products.

    "We are still living in the illusion that we can live on fossil fuels indefinitely," he added. "There is this kind of approach that it is somebody else’s problem."

    Golden handshake
    Big firms also need to stop handing out big packages to disgraced executives, he said. Hayward's golden handshake included a $1.6 million payoff and pension pot valued at about $17 million.

    "We need controls so that doing a bad job doesn’t get rewarded," Watson said.

    Steve, who has driven a London cab for 37 years and only gave his first name, said he wanted to do something to "save the whales" but branded the protests targeting gas station as "stunts."

    However, Hayward's payout and the behavior of many other executives left the cabbie annoyed.

    "Some of cleverest guys can be the stupidest when it comes to the real world – I see that in my job all the time."

    But not everyone thought Greenpeace was on the right track.

    "Is everybody going to skip driving cars, heating our houses, flying? Get a grip,” said Kathy Wallace, a Canadian who was on her way home to Scotland. “The environment is going to hell anyway, we've already ruined it. All we can do is control the situation."

  • Wimbledon's unsung stalwarts strive for invisibility

    Oli Scarff/Getty Images

    About 700 youths apply each year to be a ball boy or girl at Wimbledon. Only about 250 make the grade.

    By Jack Highberger, NBC News

    LONDON – Disciplined and focused, Zach Murtagh stays low to the ground near the net, never deviating from the carefully choreographed plan he has for every Wimbledon tennis match.

    But the 15-year-old isn’t a threat to Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal or Andy Murray on the court. He’s a ball boy at the world-famous tournament.

    Murtagh and about 250 colleagues put on what can be described as a ballet of practicality; their sole purpose is to maintain the pace of play and tend to the needs of the players, all the while striving for invisibility.

    “I love tennis and being a ball boy is a great way to get close to the action,” said Murtagh, who is from Surrey in southeast England.

    About 700 people apply each year to be a ball boy or girl at Wimbledon. To even qualify for training, an applicant must successfully complete a written exam on tennis rules, pass hand-eye coordination tests and demonstrate the ability to stand still for three minutes. The cut-off age for applicants is 17 years old.

    Rigorous training
    Once accepted, new ball boys and girls begin a rigorous training program starting in February. After Easter, training ramps up to four times each week for as much as 2 -1/2 hours per session. The tournament traditionally gets under way in June.

    Tamsin Potter, 15, also from Surrey, said the training was far from easy. “There is a lot of hard work that goes into it, you need to practice a lot,” the first-year ball girl said.

    Each candidate is constantly assessed on their ball rolling, ball feeding and receiving, as well as their working knowledge of the game.

    “You are fighting for your place and competing for the better courts,” Murtagh said.

    Those who emerge from training on top are rewarded by being placed in one of the four teams of six responsible for the prestigious grand stand courts.

    “Every tennis players’ dream is to go to Center Court and win Wimbledon and it’s the same for us – we want to make it to Center Court at Wimbledon,” Potter said. “It is a great privilege.”

    Physically grueling
    Regardless of which court they are placed on, ball boys and girls have many responsibilities. The nature of their job demands that they adapt to the pace of each match and the players. Their days tend to be long, hot and physically grueling.

    The ability to multi-task is essential for ball boys and girls, with a fluid transition from grabbing and feeding balls to getting players towels all key.

    “Sometimes the players want the towel after every point,” Murtagh added. “You have got more important things to think about, but the players are the priority. Some players, they want the balls fed a certain way and if it’s not right they just leave them for you to pick up.”

    However, Murtagh said that most players are polite and seem to appreciate the ball boys’ and girls’ hard work.

    He believes the unpaid role’s benefits transcend being able to stand only inches away from tennis icons.

    “When employers look at it, Wimbledon is a prestigious tournament and they know the high standards that are needed, so it will help me out in later life as well,” Murtagh added.