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What does working with John Hurt have to do with copywriting?

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John Hurt, Sir Neville Marriner and I walked into a bar... No, that isn't the opening of a joke; it actually happened on Saturday. (Yes, it really did.) Luckily, there was no rerun of any alien-bursting-out-of-the-stomach scene. Always a bonus.

So, apart from the shameless name dropping, what was I doing in a bar with John Hurt and Sir Neville Marriner?

Well, I was rehearsing for one of the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, along with the London Philharmonic Choir, with whom I've sung for the last ten years or so. The bar in question was the artists' bar, and we were on nothing stronger than coffee. Hey, it was 10am. John Hurt may be quite rock 'n' roll, according to his hairdo on Doctor Who, but a coffee and a very crumbly croissant was all he could handle at that time of day on a weekend.

We were rehearsing for a performance of Henry V, William Walton's soundtrack from the epic film starring Laurence Olivier. In fact, S'Nev (as he said he is often called) had given the same performance with S'Larry more than half a century earlier! Yesterday, the day of this performance, the Royal Albert Hall was packed to the rafters – a complete sell-out – due, I'm sure, to the calibre of the performers, which also included the violin virtuoso Joshua Bell playing Bruch's famous violin concerto in the first half.

What does this have to do with writing a blog for Creativepool? Well, as much as we all love Shakespeare, the bard's lucid vocabulary is not always the easiest to understand. When I read Hamlet for my English A-level back in my school days, each page of the play came with an accompanying page of explanatory notes. No offence to amateur dramatics societies but that's partially why performances of Shakespeare plays can appear to be somewhat tortuous. If you get an actor who just doesn't quite “get it”, even the greatest play can come across as just meaningless babbling.

Yesterday, John Hurt was remarkable. Truly, truly remarkable. Once I'd got past the initial glee of having had a coffee with him, all the while thinking, “Wow, you were in Alien, and 1984, and An Englishman in New York, and The Elephant Man (and oh, aren't you in Hercules? Not sure I fancy that, but anyway...) and you are terribly, terribly nice and affable,” I was amazed at how he managed to bring Henry V to life for me. In the wrong hands, battle scenes and long and drawn-out speeches of encouragement can be as dull as instructions on how to use a dishwasher.

But in the hands of a legend of the stage and screen, they are absolutely mesmerising. And, crucially, it all appears to be effortless.

So it is with good copywriting. Those of us with professional pride will always try to make whatever we write about sound as appealing and relevant as possible to the target audience. Let's face it, writing about chicken seasoning isn't exactly going to be riveting, but yes, I've had to do that. And importantly, the client was very, very happy with my work. Yes indeed, they could have paid a lot less; there are many, many websites which I'm sure we've all seen where one can pitch for work. But if a client is stupid enough (sorry, but it's true) to think they'll get a good job for $5 an hour, then frankly, they had disappointment coming.

John Hurt is John Hurt. A legend. He brought the words of Shakespeare to life in a way that very few people could. And he probably helped to sell out the Royal Albert Hall. A lesser, unknown (and cheaper) actor simply couldn't have done that. Whether you're hiring actors or you're hiring freelancers, you get what you pay for.

My advice to would-be hirers? Be willing to pay more. Predictable, I know, given that I'm on the receiving end of the paycheque. But bear this in mind: as is so often the case, quality costs more initially, but it will probably work out cheaper in the long run.

by Ashley Morrison

Ashley is a copywriter, editor, blogger (and he had coffee with John Hurt. Just in case you missed that...)

Follow him on Twitter

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