Ray's brought to book

Nigel Goodall has encountered problems in the past - Winona Ryder, for instance, appeared not to be too pleased that she was about to become the subject of an unauthorised study of her life.

Kylie Minogue, Johnny Depp, Christian Slater, Davina McCall and even the notoriously prickly Demi Moore however all emerged from the Goodall treatment with their reputations intact.

But Nigel’s latest subject has made himself a name for being a real tough guy - he’s a former schoolboy boxing champ who found fame playing a Borstal boy in the controversial Scum and has since then majored in tough guys ranging from Henry VIII to blood-soaked Sweeney Todd.

And when Ray Winstone heard that a friend and colleague had already talked to Nigel, the alarm bells sounded and the Winstone camp did their best to put the brakes on the project.

“It was all very peculiar,” says Nigel. “I approached Ray’s agent but he didn’t respond at all even though there were four or five emails that went to him.

“But then I did hear from Philip Jackson, who had been Ray’s co-star in Scum. We talked about the film and it was just a very casual interview but then he or a friend of his mentioned it to Ray and Philip said he couldn't contribute any more, that Ray wasn't very keen, though he was happy for me to use what Philip had already told me."

Mr Jackson may have been silenced but one person who was happy to go on record was Jayne Knight, of the Corona Stage School in London, where Ray had been a student.

"It's funny because she talked about how she couldn't remember him that well!" Nigel laughs.

'We talked about the film and it was just a very casual interview'

Nigel Goodall

"She's the niece of the headmistress who threw him out of drama school but he didn't impress her that much."

Needless to say, nobody else in the Winstone camp was going to lend a helping hand which left Nigel doing what he does best, assembling a life from the mountain of press stories and interviews that have appeared in the past.

And the rest? As Nigel points out: "There's nothing in this book to have Ray reaching for the elephant gun!"

Instead, it an in-depth study of Ray's life and work, with Nigel clearly an admirer of what has been achieved in the transformation from East End bruiser to star of Hollywood blockbusters like Cold Mountain, King Arthur and Martin Scorsese's The Departed.

The book comes out at just the right time as the actor is about to star in what promise to be the two biggest movies of his career, the epic fantasy Beowulf - in which his co-star is Angelina Jolie - and the long-awaited fourth episode in the Indiana Jones franchise, which will see him rubbing shoulders with Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett and, if the stories are to be believed, Sean Connery.

Nigel does admit that when Ray's antipathy did lead him to feeling down about the project but then, as he points out: "If you're a celebrity, you're going to be written about."

Undeterred, Nigel is now looking for a fresh subject - morning TV show host Phillip Schofield has been suggested but as Nigel points out: "He's just so boring. In biographer terms he didn't burn his school, he hasn't gone shop lifting."

Instead, he hoping to get his publisher interested in mega-star of the moment Matt Damon and even if he's not gone shop lifting himself, he's dated somebody who has - as anybody who read Nigel's book on Winona Ryder will already be able to tell you!

Ray

Winstone: The Story of the Ultimate Screen Hardman is published by John Blake at 17.99