Remember how Samson defeated the Philistine army in Old Testament times? “Vanquished by a sorry jawbone [of a donkey], the victory was not in the arm, not in the weapon, but in the spirit.”
Five years ago, a film was released that took its title from this quote.
Jawbone was written by and starred Johnny Harris, at the time best known as the monstrous Mick in This Is England. It followed a man called Jimmy McCabe’s decent into alcoholism and homelessness, who returns to the one place he ever felt safe, his old boxing gym.
Harris’s film was not autobiographical, but it was deeply personal. At 13, he dropped out of school but found direction at the Fitzroy Lodge club in South London, where trainer Mick Carney took him under his wing. At 16, Harris was junior Amateur Boxing Association national champion.
But his battles outside the ring were tougher than any opponent. For almost 15 years, Harris was “just keeping a face on
