James Corden - May I Have Your Attention, Please?

October last year – my 1^st Christmas present idea – James Corden’s autobiography, ‘May I have your attention, please?’ For someone who isn’t a big reader, asking for a book was a rather weird thing, but I’ve really enjoyed watching James Corden recently – mainly in Dr Who (The Lodger is one of my favourite episodes), but also his sketches for Comic and Sport relief. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve watched Smithy win coach of the year. I’d never seen ‘Gavin and Stacey’, but am now part way through season 1 and it’s great!

This has been one of the easiest books I’ve ever read. I started Christmas Day when family were asleep, and finished it last week (this is fast reading for me). His story telling ability is incredible, and I laughed very loudly during the chapter about his time on the school rugby team.

His first memory was when he was just 4, at his sister’s Christening. Corden’s parents are both Christians with the Salvation Army, and the Church and Christianity have were a big part of his life growing up. Anyway, at this Christening, at just 4 years old, Corden knew what he wanted to do with his life. Due to being small, James couldn’t see what was happening at the Christening, so the vicar got him a chair, so he could see – however, what he actually saw was much different. He saw all the people looking at him, so he started to dance, pretend to sing, and pull faces, and he loved the feeling of people looking at him, and performing, so when he sat back down again, he felt bored. In his head it was simple – people looking at him = good feeling, so from then on, every day was a quest to be noticed, and to have people’s attention.

School wasn’t a great time for James – after all, it was boring. He would focus on subjects he enjoyed, and when school plays were on, but never any other time, and would make life difficult for the teachers. He was the class clown, and he can admit that looking back, his behaviour was not cool, but really immature.

After school, he really put his effort into acting, and would go to many auditions, and not get the parts. He got a part in ‘Fat Friends’, and then in ‘History Boys’ – a play which later became a film. He’d met Ruth Jones on ‘Fat Friends’, and together, they came up with ‘Gavin and Stacey’, which is obviously what he is most famous for.

He’s had rise and fall throughout his career, and he’s learned some good lessons on the way. Initially, he let the fame get to his head, and he became someone he never wanted to be, but after going through times of difficulty, he pulled through.

Life has changed now for James Corden, following the birth of his son.

“And as I look back on the boy I wrote about at the start of this book, the boy who needed all that constant attention, who craved the limelight like oxygen, well, I realise I don’t feel that anymore – not as much, anyway. I still have ambition, lots of it, and there are plenty of things I dream of achieving. But ‘attention’ is perhaps not the right word for it any more. The flame is still there; it just doesn’t burn as brightly. Now everything I need I get from Jules and my son. It’s their love and their attention that’s the most important thing to me now.” – pages 335-336

This comes right at the end of the book, and it’s great to see him realise this – and this is an incredible change when you read the preceding 300 pages. Have a look at this quote from the apostle Paul from Ephesians 2:1-10, and notice an even greater change.

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.  All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph 2:1-10 TNIV)

The first few sentences aren’t an easy ready read, but this is what all of us either were or are. Dead is the word used. What makes us dead? Because we followed the ways of this world, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature, following its desires and thoughts. Basically, going our own way, and not God’s way. Doing what we want to do, when we want to do it. By nature, deserving of wrath. Dead people can’t help themselves – our very nature is sinful and nothing we do can make us alive again.

BUT (what a fantastic word – there is hope!), and that hope is the fact that God loves us, and is merciful to us, and has provided a way for us to be made alive, and that is through Jesus. With Jesus, we have/can be made alive. Because of God’s love, we can be in a relationship with the almighty creator of the Universe, and this is a gift – we have a choice whether to accept it or not.

James Corden’s change from attention seeking to loving his fiancée and being a father is big, but the change offered by Jesus to be made alive, and to be in a right relationship with God is so much bigger and so much better, and it’s a change which I have experienced myself, and continue to experience.