56 UP – Clip with Tony
'Is it important to fight? Yes!'
Tony was brought up in the East End of London.
'I want to be a jockey when I grow up. Yeah, I want to be a jockey when I grow up.'
At fourteen, he was already an apprentice at Tommy Gosling's racing stable at Epsom.
At fifteen he'd left school.
'This is a photo finish when I rode at Newbury. I'm the one with the white cap. I was beaten [by] a length and a half for third [place] and I had a photo finish.'
'Do you regret not making it?'
'Well, I would've given my right arm, at the time, to become a jockey, but now…I wasn't good enough.
My greatestperformance in life, when I rode at Kempton in the same race as Lester Piggott. Proudest day of my life.'
'And you let it go.'
'I let it go.'
'What will you do if you don't make it as a jockey?'
'I don't know…if I know I couldn't be one, I'd get out of the game. Wouldn't bother.
'What do you think you would do then?'
'Go on taxis.'
At twenty-one he was on the knowledge…and by twenty-eight, he owned his own cab.
'It's surprising who you pick up, you see er… I once met Kojak, I picked him up.'
'I'll give you this story, which (h)appened. The doorman called me up and it was Buzz Aldrin, the spaceman. And we drove out the forecourt of the hotel and a cab pulled up and the taxi driver said, "Can you get his autograph?" So I (h)eard it and I said, "Mr Aldrin," I said, "Can I have your autograph, please?" and the cabbie said, "No, I don’t want his autograph, I want your autograph," and I couldn't believe it and I said, "You're joking, ain't you?" And do this day I thought to myself, you know I'm more famous than Buzz Aldrin. He was the second man to land on the moon!'
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Vocabulary
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ain't
apprentice
autograph
Buzz Aldrin– Edward Eugene Aldrin, born 1930. Member of Apollo crew (lunar module pilot) and second man to walk on the moon.
doorman
Epsom– town near London, England well-known for its racecourse.
forecourt
give your right arm
Kempton– Kempton Park Racecourse, well-known racecourse near London, England.
Kojak– American TV detective and TV police drama programme of the same name popular in the 1970s.
Lester Piggott– Lester Keith Piggott, born 1935, famous retired jockey who won 4, 493 races.
Newbury– another town near London, England well-known for its racecourse.
photo finish
pull up
the knowledge– notoriously difficult test of knowledge of taxi routes in London that drivers have to pass in order to get a London taxi licence. (Average training time: 34 months.)