LUke Littler sits alone in the green room of The Jonathan Ross Show. So far, we’ve heard: Liam Gallagher talking about his dog; Raye recounting her 6am trip to McDonald’s after winning six BRIT Awards; Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown talks about her future wedding; comedian Rob Beckett on his new quiz show. Gallagher and John Squire performed their new single. The chat was smooth. Celebrity laughter is elegant and performative.
With about 10 minutes left, Little was finally called to the famous brown couch. His performance is exactly what you’d expect from a 17-year-old with almost zero experience in a celebrity environment. It’s all confidence and shrugs here, short, bland words that suggest not so much defiance as basic teenage rejection. He doesn’t hate your questions. He doesn’t like your questions. He didn’t even think about your problem. There it was, hanging, and he had learned by now that if he said a few words, the problem would go away, a car would come and take him home, and he could play games on his Xbox.
Ross, a veteran of interviewing young stars, is reassuring, disarming, passionate and relatable in all the right places, and there’s no way he’s 63 years old. These questions are more posed than asked. How did you start throwing darts? How much do you practice? At one point, we see a photo of a Palm Tree trophy he won in Bahrain, and Beckett blurts out, “He bought it from H&M Home.” At another point, Ross asks Littler how to view 81. Littler answered “57, 24,” and everyone applauded him.
You realize that the whole point of inviting this unique sporting prodigy to a general entertainment show is not to interview him or gain any privileged insight into his darts genius, but essentially to marvel. His presence is all that’s needed here: he’s a canvas, a vehicle for the performances of other, more famous people. You might as well invite Picasso and ask him what you get when you mix blue and yellow.
At the same time on Saturday night, through the magic of television, Littler was playing real darts in Belgium. If the fragrant world of prime-time television somehow seems to have dulled and dulled him, giving him three darts and a crowd will have the exact opposite effect.
It’s not just a stunning score, but also grit and verve. Even for someone who has watched the sport for years, everything seems more vivid and intense in Littler’s presence. There is energy and electricity there. Everyone paid a little more attention. Littler’s opponent – this time the stone-faced Pole Krzysztof Ratajski – looked more stressed.
As for Littler, it’s his brown couch and autocue. Here, at the October Hall in Viz, he is Gallagher, Rey, Beckett and Ross rolled into one. Here he walks with purpose, wakes up the crowd, struts, dances and throws almost anything he wants. Since he first stepped onto the world championship stage, it took him about three months to make the stage his own. Things came to a head the next night in the semifinals against Germany’s Ricardo Pietreczko.
Littler’s score was 90 with two darts left. In this case, most players would choose the bull, leaving the tops, or a triple 18, leaving a double 18, or maybe even a triple 20, leaving a double 15. Little did none of these things. He scored a high of 20 points and hoped to leave the Bulls. It was a wild shot, an exhibition match, a flashy performance in the semifinals of a ranking event. He missed it. Pietrecko, for his part, was so upset after the inevitable defeat that he cursed Littler.
Later, he wrote that he hoped Littler’s “arrogance would come back to punish him.” It is not. Littler then hit a nine-dart against Rob Cross to win the title.
Children on the sofa by Jonathan Ross. The child holding the trophy on the stage rushed into another world-class competition at lightning speed. Presumably, it feels like these are the same phenomenon, but in reality these are countervailing forces pulling him in different directions. Little has appeared in cereal commercials. His Instagram grid is carefully dotted with paid promotions. Remember, he’s 17: he doesn’t make any decisions without help.
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Likewise, the ill-advised photo of a copy of The Sun and a kebab thrust into his hands during the World Championships was clearly not of his own free will. Or have him speak to the media the morning after the world championship final. He has been asleep for two hours. He sounded completely devastated. He kept saying he wanted to go on vacation somewhere where no one could find him. Everyone just laughed and continued asking him questions.
Littler is clearly talented enough to get the job done, and if those around him want to cash in on his budding fame if things go well, then by all means. The point here is that the sport has a once-in-a-lifetime talent on its hands, one who paints the world in entirely new colors and makes everything around him feel fresh and alive. It strikes me that trying to turn him into something else—a brand, a billboard, a celebrity, a content machine—is pretty much the most uninteresting thing you can do to him right now.
At the end of the show, a dart board was wheeled onto the set. Beckett, Reay and Brown all attempted three darts. Littler stepped up to the plate with a total score of 83 points. He was wearing a tight jacket. The boards were about two feet taller. He had not practiced darts. Yet at that moment, a vast, liberating sense of peace seemed to sweep over him. All he needs is a crowd and three darts in his hand. He shot 140.
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