Two free tickets to give away!

A special screening showing special footage from The Bible series – one of the most popular shows in the US this year – is to take place on Friday November 8 and Sorted has a pair of tickets to give away. Best of all, one of the stars of the show, Nonso Anozie, who plays Samson in the series, will attend the screening and share some of his own insights.

The screening will take place at Twentieth Century Fox’s London headquarters from 10am until 11.30am. We apologise for the short notice, but if you would like to attend, please email steve@sorted-magazine.com with your name and contact details before 3.30pm today. First come, first served!

If you’re not able to attend the screening event, fear not! Because we were able to secure an exclusive interview with Nonso and have included a snippet here. He described how he got into acting, his influences and some of the prestigious roles he has undertaken (our words not his – he’s far too humble to have said that!).

Becoming Samson

Like many little boys, Nonso Anozie grew up watching and re-enacting superhero films. Casting himself in the main role he would envisage himself saving the world, probably wearing pants over some brightly coloured tights as he did so.

Though now a little older and wiser, Nonso’s love for acting and superheroes has never abated. So when he was offered the role of Samson in hit television series The Bible, he didn’t need to think twice before taking on the challenge.

In the biblical account of the hairy hero’s life, Samson is given superhuman strength: he rips a lion apart with his bare hands, slays 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass and – in the move that brought about his own death – ripped a pagan temple from its foundations. If the word “badass” had been in use back then, Samson might have been afforded a new nickname.

Nonso tells Sorted: “The story is very dynamic, very action-packed; something any guy would want to play. My youth was spent watching superhero movies and my dream was fulfilled playing this role; he’s kind of like a biblical superhero. It was a great opportunity.”

Fortunately for viewers, Nonso agreed to become the biblical strongman, and fortunately for him, the series was a huge hit in the US. Launched in March, the first episode was viewed by a whopping 13.1 million people; the largest cable television audience of the year up to that point. Including subsequent airings, the series was viewed by more than 100 million US viewers.

“That’s more than the Super Bowl!” says Nonso. “Samson was a great role to have and it also pushed my career on. It’s done amazingly great things for my career. To be able to spread the Word of God and actually act at the same time is something I’ve always believed in.”

Other major roles Nonso now has under his belt include Zamoran pirate Artus in Conan the Barbarian, Xaro Xhoan Daxos in HBO hit series Game of Thrones and Jackson Burke in The Grey, which starred Liam Neeson. “I’ve just finished Ender’s Game [with Harrison Ford and Viola Davis], which is released in November, The Bible is coming out in December, and I’m currently working on Cinderella with Disney,” Nonso divulges.

Directed by Kenneth Branagh, the live-action version of the popular fairy tale stars Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Richard Madden and Derek Jacobi, among others, with Nonso taking the part of Prince Charming’s loyal friend, the Captain. All we can say is, Madden had better pull off a pretty good performance as the lead man, because his best buddy is pretty charming himself, pants over tights or not.

Read the full interview with Nonso Anozie in Sorted January-February, out on December 18. You can click here to order our current issue, Sorted November-December today.

The Bible will air in the UK on Channel 5 this December. To find out more about the show, visit www.thebibleuk.org. 

Boom and bust: the false economy

Special guest blog with Tim Childs

One of the things that has been brought to the fore in the last few years is the economy that booms for a time and then goes bust.

The boom and bust economy serves the get-rich-quick mentality. The worst aspect is that it creates super-rich people and corporations who don’t even pay token amounts of tax, while at the bottom it creates low-wage, dead-end jobs; so it only serves to increase the already large divides between rich and poor. 

But I’m not just blaming the rich; I think we all need to rein in our finances. We can all cut down and live within our means. In this age of easy credit, many people are living on money that they don’t have, buying things they don’t really need and then finding themselves in debt. That includes individuals, corporations and entire nations. 

It’s easy to get our hands on money and worry about repaying it later; and we have paid the price for this. It is my belief that no one should live on credit, and that we should all live within our means. I understand necessities are a different matter; but do we need that plasma TV? Do we need a second holiday? Do we need to redecorate the house at great expense? 

The financial hub in London was living beyond its means, and when things went bust – and boy did they go spectacularly bust – everything went with it, and we are all paying the price for it now (except perhaps the bankers who are still on huge bonuses). 

In the end, most societies’ economies are only really about the wealthy and powerful staying wealthy and powerful, and if some crumbs fall off the table for the rest of us, so much the better. 

But the reality isn’t really one of a nation benefitting, that ‘we’re all in this together’. It’s about a precious few making tons of money while the rest of us look on with no real chance of doing the same.

Shouldn't churches and responsible people be talking about this? Shouldn’t governments and parties of every political hue be trying to stop the worst aspects of boom and bust? 

Whatever happens and whatever is said, it’s obvious that until we start to look at this and the moral and even spiritual bankruptcy behind it, nothing is going to stop the boom and bust of wealthy economies. I hate to say it, but as long as rich people make money, nothing else seems to matter. 

The answer is for all of us to stop being greedy, quite frankly.  How many millions of pounds do you need to be happy? How many houses can you live in? How many cars can you drive at one time? 

There is a moral and a spiritual dimension to all of this. It may be legal and above board to make money while the sun shines and to hell with everyone and everything else, but there will be a price to pay.

However rich or poor you may be and wherever you find yourself in the social system, such behaviour is contrary to God’s laws.

So how does a person prosper and live as a Christian at the same time? By putting God first! I think we put God first by acknowledging that there is a spiritual and moral dimension to life, and by regarding other people as being as precious as ourselves, our own families and friends. 

Finally, is it good for people to expect so many years of the high life and then somehow always be waiting for the ‘pay-off’? I believe this creates instability simply because so many of us are expecting it to happen. The rich get richer, even the poor live well for a while, and then the proverbial hits the fan… and most of us suffer the consequences. 

This particular credit crunch might be slightly different in origin, and I’m no economist so I can’t fully understand or explain it, but the effects are basically the same; we’re all in it together through the bad times, but when the good times roll around again it’s every man for himself.

This is the bankrupt morality at the heart of so many wealthy nations and until we challenge it, beginning with our own greed and selfishness, we can expect the same thing to happen over and over again. 

Click here to read more from Tim Childs. 

You can read more on finance and other life issues in the next issue of Sorted magazine, which is hot off the press.

Olympic security is no game

Peter Daulby has been tasked with overseeing the military contribution to the Olympics. 

The military’s role will be to support the police; to provide capabilities and resources that the police don’t have. Peter's personal mission is to ensure that the nation remains safe while the athletes compete and the world looks on.

He told Sorted: “The military’s large involvement – currently 13,500 servicemen and women – wasn’t a surprise to me. All three services contribute daily to the safety of UK citizens and visitors to our shores as normal business.

“The Olympics is very different, but the military contribution to the Olympics builds on existing UK resilience process and plans. The Olympics is vitally important to the UK’s reputation; it is right that the military are doing all they can to contribute to a safe and secure games.” 

Peter’s personal role is chief planner for the entire military contribution to the Games. “That sounds very grand, but it means I have the job of ensuring that I take strategic guidance from the higher levels of the MOD, who themselves are taking guidance from the government,” he explains. In practise this means turning this guidance into actionable plans, missions and tasks that then flow down to the military’s tactical units in the land, air and sea. 

I ask him how much it is possible to prepare in advance for the potential dangers out there. “Defence has been planning its element of the Olympics for years. Preparations have included designing, testing and activating a maritime security plan, primarily in the Thames and in Dorset; the same in the air, although more wide-ranging, and preparing for many security tasks on the ground,” he says.

“We provide the police with what they are not able to provide: typhoons patrolling our skies is one such area. However, we don't just have to prepare ourselves; we have to prepare local communities. Military equipment can sometimes appear aggressive. We are working hard through the media and face-to-face with communities to reassure the public that we are there as a deterrent to anyone who seeks to disrupt the Games. Our mission is to ensure that Britain enjoys a safe and secure Games.” 

There has been quite a bit of criticism about the UK hosting the Olympics with the risks it may be opening up, and with the cost to the taxpayer, but Peter feels it is important to do so, and should be considered a privilege.

“We have lived with the threat of terrorism in our nation for many years and as a nation we have always been determined not to let any such threat stop us from living life to the full,” he says. “The Olympic Games are a spectacular opportunity to celebrate who we are as a nation and to put on the greatest festival of sport in the world. The Olympic Games coming to London is a once-in-a-generation opportunity that Britain will fulfil with professionalism, enthusiasm and resilience; it is an exciting time.”

As a Christian, Peter says it is no different bringing God into his work from bringing God into his marriage. He relies on his faith to help him make good decisions, to stay strong through adversity and to be morally upstanding in his dealings with superiors and the teams he leads.

“My faith runs through my veins,” says Peter. “It seems completely natural to me to pray on the way into work and to cling on to God's 'coattail' when I need to be pulled through a difficult time. People sometimes question whether Christians should be in the armed forces. It has always felt to me that God wants to be a part of ensuring that a potent force has a moral compass. I influence that moral compass in whatever way I can.” 

Read the full story in our Olympic edition of Sorted. It’s going to be a belter!

All change

Photo credit: Coconut85/Wikipedia (Hernandez in his Mexico strip - couldn't bring myself to use a United shot)

I was watching the highlights of the Everton v Man United game on Match of the Day last Saturday when something commentator Guy Mowbray said caught me completely by surprise.

Evra had just supplied a superb ball into the box, providing an easy tap in for Javier Hernandez (Chicharito). It was practically unmissable (unless you’re Fernando Torres, that is).

Following the goal, the young Mexican ran away, slapping the hands of his teammates in celebration. And then he did something we quite often see foreign players do; he lifted his hands heavenwards and thanked God.

This was encouraging to see, but it isn’t what made me jump. It was Guy Mowbray’s comment on the striker’s simple act of thanksgiving that did.

The commentator simply said: “Prayers answered. Thank you for the cross.”

Now I’m not too naïve to realise that he was attempting to voice Hernandez’s feelings and that the “cross” he referred to was Evra’s and not the one on which Jesus died. But it was a great bit of unintentional evangelism none-the-less.

This reminded me of a time a few years ago on the London underground. I was nearly at my destination when I heard some equally startling words. The voice over the intercom blurted: “Kings Cross. All change at Kings Cross.”

These words had a similar effect on me. It was truer than the announcer could possibly have realised! When Jesus, the king of kings, died on the cross, everything – and I mean everything – changed. Forever.

But that’s not it. The “all change” was significant too. To me it reflected the fact that everyone who approaches the cross of Christ can be transformed; our lives can be turned upside down and inside out (in a good way). And the best news is that this change is not just long-lasting; it’s eternal.

Now I’m not suggesting God is using subliminal messages to speak to us through football commentary or tube announcements – although there’s no reason why he shouldn’t. But it’s interesting that even in the most secular of settings, God’s word is inadvertently filtering through.

Maybe it will eventually touch the hearts of some of London’s toughest commuters and even the most debaucherous footballers. I’m not holding my breath over some of the England squad, but everything is possible with God!

Read more football-related content in the next issue of Sorted magazine.