SIR KENNETH BRANAGH

Leaving Belfast was the key moment of my childhood. I knew who I was there. I felt a great sense of certainty and security and felt literally and spiritually – if I even understood what that meant at the time – that I could not get lost. We were related to half of Belfast and went to school with the other half. But after leaving [during the Troubles, for a new life in Reading, aged nine], there was a great sense of insecurity, of not knowing who I was, where I came from, not even knowing how I sounded. I was on high alert. If my life transformed that quickly, it could happen again. That influence on the rest of my life was quite profound.

Part of embarking on my new film was to acknowledge and thank my younger self. I wanted