‘You like that?’ he asked.

She smiled again, but less surely.

‘Nice,’ Gill said.

His tongue played along his lower lip. For a moment or two, his attention seemed to drift. Then, quickly, he turned to the boy again.

‘So what’s your name?’

‘Stephen, Stevie.’

‘Great, Stevie,’ Gill said. ‘Step forward to the front of the room.’

Gill positioned the two students, Carmel at the front of the circle of chairs, Stevie just inside the room door. He spoke quietly to each of them separately, checked back to see that they knew what they were doing, and spoke to the group again.

‘Okay,’ Gill said. ‘I’ve just been directing my actors, telling them what I want from them in this scene and, because I like you guys so much, I’m going to let you in on it too, and I’m going to talk you all through the scene, and I want you to watch along with me. Now, to do that, I want you to make little rectangles with your fingers to see what the camera sees. I want you to go in for a close-up on what you like, on what looks good, to read the scene, to see what it’s saying, what it means. You all ready? Great. But before we start, does anyone know why I picked Stevie here, instead of one of the other guys?’

‘Cos he’s only gorgeous,’ one of the other boys shouted, to great hilarity.

‘You’re all equally beautiful to me,’ Gill said. ‘But, no, seriously, anyone?’

‘Em,’ Carmel said. ‘Might it be the contrast between us?’

‘Say more,’ Gill said. ‘I knew I liked this girl. I can pick ’em, you know.’

‘I can pick ’em.’ Like he picked Deirdre?

I shuddered. Should I say something? But what was there to say?

‘Go on,’ Gill said.

‘Uh, well, like, what you were saying about the image, like,’ Carmel said. ‘So, em, the, like, visual contrast would look good on screen, like, maybe?’

‘That’s right, Carmel. I sense you have a talent for this, and I’m never wrong about these things. This is going to be great. And remember, audience, this scene is silent. No dialogue. Let the actors and your imagination do the work. Now, scene 1, take 1, and action.’

Gill slapped his hands together in imitation of a clapperboard. I heard the sound echo around the inside of my head, but I didn’t say a word, and the truth is that, by then, he had me too. I was waiting to see what happened next, just like the other sheep in that room.

‘Okay, Stevie, turn, you see Carmel, you wave, that’s good, she sees you all right, oh yeah, but she’s pretending she doesn’t, that’s good, Carmel, you’re the ice queen, remember?

‘Now, Stevie, you’re getting a little frustrated, you want her to acknowledge you, but she’s still ignoring you.