TVB movie critic and Sunday Morning Post Magazine Contributing Editor, John Dykes, found himself the potential star of a Category III drama last week.
Returning from a cricket tour of Thailand, the Renaissance Man was delayed by customs officers surprised by his choice of souvenir: a bunch of tall, beautiful but definitely illegal, dried opium poppies. Dykes, whose knowledge of horticulture was the exact inverse of his knowledge of films, tried to explain he was locked into the classic innocent-tourist-in-Asia plot. 'I bought them from Chiang Mai's night market for my flat. I had no idea, etc etc.' All to no avail. Before you could say Midnight Express he was whisked away to an interview room and grilled for several hours. Dykes, whose idea of an interview usually involves sitting poolside and shooting the breeze with Arnie, was kept riveted throughout. 'Every time I began to get annoyed at their questions over what was obviously just a mistake, the interviewer would glance at a pair of rubber gloves on the table between us. It sort of focuses your attention.' Whether he will introduce the same technique on TVB remains to be seen.
