Page 3 Profile: Daniel Radcliffe, Actor

Daniel Radcliffe, Actor (Getty)

Expelliarmus!

Original… But I think Daniel Radcliffe has moved on from Harry Potter now. Didn’t you see him naked on the West End in ‘Equus’?

Oh ok, so what’s he got lined up now?

Young Potter, sorry, Radcliffe, has got a film coming up in which he will yet again be appearing naked - ‘Kill Your Darlings’ - but that isn’t today’s big news, it’s that he is set to play Sebastian Coe in a new film about the Lord’s Olympic achievements.

That’s Lord Coe to you. So it’s a film about how he won London the 2012 bid? Who’s playing David Beckham?

No, not the London 2012 Games, the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Coe is a gold medalist Olympian in his own right, hence his involvement in the London bid. The film is going to focus around the build up to the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow and Coe’s fierce rivalry with fellow Brit Steve Ovett.

So who won? Not that I want to ruin the ending?

Well as it already happened, so there’s no spoiler alert needed - Coe took the 1500m Gold and Ovett the 800m, not a bad year for team GB on the tracks, which is why the film is suitably named ‘Gold’.

Why has Radcliffe got the gig then, isn’t he a bit, erm, short?

True, at 5’5” Radcliffe is four inches off Coe’s 5’9”, although Coe’s slender frame does make him look taller...I’m sure the director will do something clever.

Who will be directing, now you mention it?

James Watkins. He also directed Woman in Black, one of Radcliffe’s other big recent outings. If a repeat of that partnership isn’t getting you excited, the script is by Simon Beaufoy, who wrote Danny Boyle’s Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire.