Sam Mendes is the supreme all-rounder whose only duck has been his marriage to Kate Winslet

Rosie Millard on the stage and film director, 50 today

Mendes's genius is not a revolutionary one, but an ability to revamp revered classics in a daringly new setting (Rex Features)

Wunderkind, from the German 'wonder child'. Can we say that Sam Mendes, 50 today, was one? Yes, on the face of it; a First in English from Cambridge, a cricketing Blue, directing in the West End at 24, running a theatre (the Donmar Warehouse) at 25. But his was no bright spark doomed to flare and dim; this cricketer enjoys the long game.

His genius is not a revolutionary one, but an ability to revamp revered classics in a daringly new setting. Old-timers such as Cabaret, revamped with Jane Horrocks in the Minelli role, and Oliver! for which he persuaded an uneasy Jonathan Pryce to adopt the Fagin leer, got dangerous, sexy and must-see status under Mendes.

British theatreland lay down and offered itself to Mendes, but he thanked it, kissed it goodbye and skipped off to Hollywood to direct American Beauty, recrafting old gems Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening, and snatching a Best Director Oscar in the meantime. More reliable than Kenneth Branagh, more transatlantic than Peter Hall, Mendes is the supreme all-rounder, batsman as well as bowler, whose only duck so far has been his marriage to Kate Winslet, which ended after seven years.

Then, the most revered jewel in the movie business. The Bond franchise. Could this slightly dandy, intellectual chap deliver cliché, car chases and Daniel Craig? Damn straight he could. Skyfall brought in over $1 billion and the best villain for years in the dentally challenged Javier Bardem. His second, Spectre, is about to be unleashed. Can Mendes do it again? Do you doubt it?

The Square by Rosie Millard(Legend Press, £8.95) is out today