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[birds chirping in distance]

[Ronnie]
As soon as I come out of rehab,

they told me it's an inside job,

and I used to go,
"What d'you mean?"

They went, "Well happiness
is not from external things"

and I was like, "Really?"

I've been searching
in the wrong places,

so I kind of realised
that, you know,

it wasn't good
to try and search for the happiness in snooker,

but it was hard.

So, I kind of had to
off-set that a little bit

and go, "Okay."

What was
the question again, Sam?

[Sam] Were you looking
away from snooker for peace?

Yeah, listen,
if I wanted to quit snooker,

I could've found peace, man.

I could've gone in
to some ashram,

and gone to Buddhist centres

and sat there on a cushion
and ate vegan food

and had a fantastic time,

you know, no stresses,
no work, no this.

Ride a bicycle. You know?

But I was never
gonna be that person,

I was too driven for my snooker.

So it was kinda like,
I'd have that bit,

and then I'd go
and play snooker,

and then I'd be like "Oh",

and like the chaos
would enter my life again.

That’s why I had to just play,
do my job, play my game,

be happy and content.

D'you know what I mean?

Cos it's like, you can't win.

[calm music playing]

[faint background commentary]

[Referee]
Ronnie O’Sullivan to break.

[Commentator]
Ronnie breaking off.

[static buzzing]

When the weather’s
cold and damp and miserable, like it is today,

it's nice to be able
to have a good game to play indoors.

[Interviewer] Who is Ronnie?
One, two, three.

[clapperboard snaps]

[Interviewer] Okay.
Bath or shower?

Either.

- [Interviewer] Tea or coffee?
- Neither.

- [Interviewer] Cats or dogs?
- Neither.

- [Interviewer] Book or film?
- Book.

[male voice] The most
popular indoor sport in Britain

is played on this table.

This is called a billiard table,

on which you play either
billiards or snooker.

[Damien] I watched
snooker as a kid,

I remember watching
when I was younger,

it was brilliant.

The biggest sport on TV,

millions of viewers,

super high glory and drama.

And I think it's art
at the end of the day.

A really great example of art,

because it's full
of contradictions.

I love the fact
that theoretically

you could make a machine
to do it perfectly,

sort of this kind of angular
mathematical thing going on,

but the fundamental game itself
is really beautiful, you know.

[Man] This is the line of aim,

anywhere where it
can strike that point,

this ball will go back
along that line to the pocket.

[Man] The different
coloured balls score different points

when they're potted.

[Man] Matthew will pot
the red first of all.

[Roy] And then you have
to pot the colours, you see.

[Man] Oh dear.

- [Man in crowd] Hey!
- [Applause]

- [Man] A pot.
- [Commentator] One.

[Man] Here’s another good one,
we're on the black.

- [Interviewer] Home or abroad?
- Both.

[Interviewer] EastEnders
or Coronation Street?

Neither.

[Interviewer] Quality or
quantity?

Both.

- [Interviewer] Stick or twist?
- Who?

[Damien] With Ronnie,
they say he's got the most natural talent

of any snooker player
who's ever lived.

That’s a good description,

just totally instinctive.

[Man] Don't think there's
asafe ball on the table.

This is as good
as I think I've ever seen.

I mean, in the manual,
you say you get down, check the potting angle,

he just gets down and like...

seems as though he hits the ball
and they they disappear.

[Damien] I mean,
you can talk about it in terms of genius, I guess.

[Commentator] Now, surely
he's not gonna make 147

from the left handed cue, is he?

He can create
the most unbelievable things.

I mean it's magic.
If you wanna call it that.

- [Crowd] Yes!
- [Commentator] Go on white.

Go on white. That is perfect!

[Crowd cheers]

What a shot left handed,
ladies and gents. Unbelievable.

[Damien] People who don’t
know about snooker,

they go "Don’t know
snooker, but I know Ronnie."

When you get to that level,

it's like some sort of
nutty Christ-like thing going on.

[Interviewer] Savory or sweet?

Neither.

[Interviewer] Family or friends?

Neither.

[Interviewer]
Comfort or adventure?

Both.

[Damien] But in order to have

that kind of level of talent,

you're not
in a comfortable place,

and it creates,
you know, massive highs

and massive lows.

[Static buzzing]

[Crowd cheers]

[Commentator] Ronnie
O’Sullivan, a genius at work.

That’s a magnificent 147.

[Damien] You think,
"Who wants to live there?"

No one,
especially as you get older,

you go, "I'd really like
to regulate my life and just have 'okay.'"

But I think Ronnie's
much more on the edge than anyone I've ever met.

It's the edge of risk,
it's the edge of danger,

of fear, of doubt,
of surety, of confidence,

it's the edges
of all those things,

and that’s where he lives,
and it's like...

It's not
a comfortable place to be.

But it's the only place
for him to be.

[static buzzing]

[Choir music]

[Ronnie] Hi mate,
I'll be going up to, um,

sorry, I'm yawning now,
I'm absolutely fucked,

I've not been sleeping recently.

Knackered, mate.
So, I'll be going up to, uh, Llandudno on Tuesday,

be there Tuesday night,
play Wednesday.

If I get through,
I'll definitely stay up there.

If I get beat,
gonna come home, mate.

But yeah, all right, cool.

Everything’s alright,
I hope you're well mate.

And, yeah, I'll speak
another time, yeah. Bye mate.

[Ronnie] I'm all right, mate,
I'm all right, I'm all right.

I'm just sort of like enjoying
just being away, chilling out,

like a bit of a holiday, really.

Paid holiday, mate. Huh?

Well, no, I had twelve days
in York, that was nice.

York’s beautiful,
so that was nice.

I had a couple days
in Liverpool,

so I was with some friends
and I was playing in Bolton.

So that was nice. And then here,

so it's different,
but it's a bit--

You know what's good
about this place?

York was a bit busy and nice
and all that sort of stuff, here,

there's no one about here,
it's like just full of like old people.

You know what I mean? [laughs]
It's like all mobility scooters flying around

and that, you know?

There's, erm, yeah, a tournament,
it's on Eurosport, yeah.

So...

Can you... You keep losing me.

Hello.

Hello, hello, hello, hello.

[Compere] Good afternoon
and a very warm welcome

to the Betvictor Scottish Open,

here at Venue Cymru,
in Llandudno!

[Applause]

[Compere] A record breaker
with more ranking titles

than any other in history,
with 37,

he's a seven-time
masters and UK champion,

and the six-time
champion of the world,

the Rocket, Ronnie O’Sullivan!

[Applause]

[Melancholy piano music]

[Reporter 1] As we approach
the halfway stage of the snooker season,

the Scottish Open begins today,

with Ronnie O’Sullivan
facing Dominic Dale

in the first round.

A contractual issue means
the event has been moved

from Glasgow to Llandudno,

but O’Sullivan says he intends
to make the most

of the beautiful
North Wales scenery

and indulge
his passion for running.

On the table, the Rocket
may not have won a tournament

for over 12 months,

but the six-time world champion

will never be written off.

Today it’s the Rocket
against the Spaceman.

Ronnie O’Sullivan
and Dominic Dale.

[Reporter 2] Ronnie might
have claims to be the "GOAT", the greatest of all-time,

but 2020 is his last actual win.

I think he could do with
lifting another title, and of course,

he's one of the favourites
to do so, as ever.

But a few errors today
from O’Sullivan

- [Balls click]
- [Murmuring in the audience]

[Reporter] Hi Ronnie,
great to have a sportsman

of your stature
here in North Wales.

Good victory today. Um...

it was touch and go for a long
time there, but, you got the win.

Yeah, touch and go,
but managed to get over the line in the end.

[Background music]

Mm.

Mmm.

Mm!

I love Chinese tea, man.
My favourite.

[choral music playing]

[Ronnie Wood] Ronnie is
seeing life from a much more controlled standpoint.

But everybody takes pleasure

in seeing a genius flow,
you know.

And we want him to be the winner
that we all know he is.

So, hopefully, he's charging up
for the new season,

because it all culminates
in the world championship,

and if he's got a target
to concentrate on,

fine, you know,

then he could come out of it
with a positive

aim.

[Damien] Ronnie is a hero
to many, many people in many different ways.

It's a sort of dream
that we're all a part of that’s not the reality,

which is you just
want this winner who always wins,

but then that’s not really
what Ronnie’s success is about.

You know, he says things like,
he'd rather play good and lose,

than play crap and win.

And that does my head in,

cos I just think
it's all about winning.

You just gotta win it.
Even if you crawl over the line, a win is a win.

And you think
for someone at Ronnie’s level,

he should think like that,

but he genuinely
doesn’t think like that.

[Hitting ball]

[Applause]

[Commentator] ...for this
tournament in North Wales,

and Ronnie O’Sullivan
through to the last six.

[Ronnie] After three or
four tournaments this year,

I felt like I played okay,
you know?

So, I suppose this year
is just more about can I still win a tournament?

That’ll be interesting.
That’ll be the one, you know.

Don’t feel like it at the
moment, to be honest with you,

I feel like
I'm a bit too in and out.

Then you start to think,
right, I'm 45, 46 now,

at some point I've gotta
like venture in to this world,

and then the next step
is just to not play snooker.

Cos, you know,
that’s that’s the final step.

But I'm, I'm not ready
to do that just yet,

because I've found
a way of enjoying it,

and I've found a way
of it not killing me.

I've found a way of going
"Oh what?

Got beat, see you tomorrow.

"Looking forward
to the next one, lads." [laughs]

Whereas before, I'd be
like in the car, beat up, ringing this coach up,

"Here, look, with me cue action,
like, can we get me arm right?"

All this and that, you know.

Oh, mate, I even thought
about having a have a new hip.

I thought about having
a hip replacement,

cos I thought my hip
was swivelling too much,

which didn’t allow me
to get on the shot right.

So, I phoned my dad up,
I said, "Dad, what d'you reckon?"

I said, "I'm thinking
about getting a new hip", he went, "Why?"

I said, "Cos I think if I
get this hip solid,

I'd never miss." [laughs]

I said, "Cos it's
just a repetitive sport

and if I could repetitive
get in the right line,

I'd be like, you know what
I mean, with my talent I should be...

I should like never lose."
He thought I was crazy,

but I thought it was quite
a sensible sort of thing, you know?

I know I'm a bit mad,

but I was a purist and
I just wanted to play snooker,

I wanted to win titles,

and it meant so much to me.

I'm a snooker player, ain't I?

Like, what other
option is there?

[Young Ronnie]
My dad got me a table,

and I weren't allowed
to play on it until Christmas.

And we had it in for two weeks,

and he kept saying,
"No, no, you're not playing on it",

I used to cry
and he used to play all his mates.

[Interviewer] He bought it
for you, of course?

[Ronnie] Yeah, and at Christmas,
I was on it all the time.

[Ronnie Sr.] Hey, look,
there's another one to see ya.

Say hello to Father Christmas.
Sit there.

Now, hello. Hello, guys.

[gulls calling]

Get her on now. Can she
sit on your lap, Father Christmas?

Yes, yeah, why not?

[Man] Come on,
you're a bit stuck.

[Male voice] Ronnie O’Sullivan
has already won

several thousand pounds
from tournaments at the age of 11.

How d'you feel when you
watch snooker on the television

and you see the Steve
Davises and everybody else? Is that where your head is?

[Ronnie] Yeah.

[Male voice]
How big d'you wanna be?

Five ten.

[Laughter]

[host] Good evening,
ladies and gentlemen, over the next few programmes

we're gonna try and teach you
how to play snooker.

It's a sport that’s
getting more and more popular.

And how about this?
It's a snooker table duvet cover.

Everything from
board games to toiletries.

[Male voice]
The world professional snooker championship.

It's a dream
of all the young players.

This is the event they all
most desperately want to win.

[Crowd cheering]

[Young woman] Did you know
that one out of four kids in primary school

have their own snooker
table in their garage?

And they all say
they can beat dad.

[TV Interviewer] Ron Senior.

His lad’s a good snooker player,
he's a good hurdler.

That was
a tremendous performance.

Ronnie Junior, first of all,
are you really only 14?

- Yeah. Just six weeks ago.
- And I'm 14.

[Crowd laughing]

[Ronnie Sr.] I had a
nice house in Ilford there,

but there was a house
round the corner I went and had a look at,

and the garden was
just beautiful at the back.

So, I took him round there

and I went, "Look, I'm gonna
build a massive big snooker room

at the back there."

I said, "I'm gonna have you

plenty of space
round the outside",

I said, "D'you wanna go for it?"

He went "Yeah",

he said, "What happens
if I don’t make it?"

I said, "You come
and work with me." [laughs]

I was working up the West End,

and it was exciting times
for young men,

working class
boys getting good money.

One day, this fella said,

"D'you want a job
in the sex shop

down in Charring Cross Road?"

They was taking X amount
and I quadrupled the money.

You know, cos I knew
what was good sellers,

I was well on it.

The money was starting
to roll in a bit then.

So, I said, "You can have
anything you want to do with snooker",

cos I had the money
to be able to sort of let him enjoy his life.

[Ronnie] In porn
he’s well known as Mr Sullivan.

- People should respect him.
- O’Sullivan.

[Ronnie] O’Sullivan.
But here, you can see

he's just
a domesticated husband,

making four cups of tea,
as you can see.

See how the other half live.

They are all China cups.

All paid for and supplied by by

the perverts
of England. [laughs]

[chuckles]

[Maria]
He was a bit shy, Ronnie. Could be a bit shy at times.

He had more of a laid back
personality than his dad, thank God. [laughs]

But he loved his dad
and said he wanted to make his dad happy.

Fucking hell.

[Ronnie] My dad,
he was such a big personality.

And I literally went
everywhere with him.

And wherever we happened to be,

he would go,
"There's a snooker club there,

we’re gonna play there today."

He said it was like a crèche.

He said, "I could drop you off,

know youse was
gonna be alright",

he said,
"I can go and do my business,

come and collect you,

and I thought he's safe."

And I just loved
playing snooker.

[Man] When Ronnie joined
the club, he was ten,

and he played a member
and he knocked in 117 break in the first round.

Um, the guy threatened
never to come back again.

[Ronnie] I remember the day
snooker changed for me.

We was
at Barking Snooker Centre,

and we were playing in a primer
and the winner got 600 quid.

And I remember,
I got to the last 16

and it was about
five o'clock at night,

and I remember beating this guy,

I think it was
about two-one down,

and then I won three-two,

but the last two frames
to win that match

were like two frames
I'd never played before in my life.

[repetitive electronic music
playing]

I ended up winning
the tournament,

cos I just caught fire.

I just thought, "I didn’t
realise this game could be played like that."

You know, it was just
the noise, the sound.

And I'm like, "This is amazing."
Something clicked that day.

Something clicked
and made me realise

how easy this game can be.

That was the first time I went,
"This cue is like... pff, that is my wand."

Know what I mean?
It's like, "Wow, this is... I can produce magic with this."

And then from that moment onwards,

that become
the fascination for me.

[Commentator]
He has beaten Jimmy White

by 18 frames to 12,

to become
the youngest-ever champion.

[Hendry] I was world champion.

The 90s, when I was
winning everything.

But I remember, there was
talk about this kid in Essex,

how talented he was,

and, um, played an exhibition,

Ronnie played one frame,
he must've been 13 or 14,

and, yeah, you could see it.

Just pure ability.

The natural game for Ronnie,
similar to myself,

is to is to get in
early in frames

and win frames in one visit.

Use your biggest weapon,
which is to

pot every ball on the table.

It's like you
just see the puzzle

and envisage how
you're gonna clear up.

That’s when you're in the zone.

He had that ability then.

And he's become
the best I've ever seen.

[Crowd cheering]

[Music stops]

[Reporter] Attention turns
to Llandudno this evening as two of snooker’s all-time greats,

Ronnie O’Sullivan
and John Higgins,

face each other for a
place in the final of the Scottish Open.

O’Sullivan has struggled
to find his rhythm so far,

but often saves his best
for the big occasions,

with the Masters
and World Championship looming in the new year

[Applause]

[Commentator] What an occasion.
What an atmosphere here in Llandudno.

Ronnie O’Sullivan to get
us underway in the 72nd version

of this long-held rivalry.

[Jimmy White]
One part of O’Sullivan says,

"Right,
I don’t have to prove anything,

I'm the most successful
snooker player there is,

I don’t wanna
put myself through it,

I don’t wanna go practising",

but that’s not true.

[Commentator] No.

[White] D'you understand?
While he's still capable,

he will still
keep wanting to win.

But you can't keep
switching on and off.

[Commentator]
And in the semi-finals of the Scottish Open,

John Higgins has just
taken a three-nil lead against Ronnie O’Sullivan

[Crowd applauding]

...125 in the third frame,
the highlights so far.

So, John is looking.
He could be a long way to winning this match.

[Applause]

Ronnie O’Sullivan, surely
the most gifted player ever to pick up a cue,

but for all-round
match play excellence,

John Higgins makes
a very strong case for that accolade.

O’Sullivan, he'd love
to finish in the second century.

Yeah, well played, John.

[Applause]

[Commentator]
Quite brilliant from John Higgins,

you'll be lucky to see
a more complete display from

[Ronnie] To be honest with you,
Sam, I'm absolutely over the moon that I've lost.

I might’ve been disappointed
for about half an hour,

just because
I played absolutely shit,

but otherwise, I was thinking,
"You know what, fucking touch, get out of here."

Can't wait to get home.

Which is great.
But it's not great.

[laughs]
If you know what I mean.

I don’t wanna come across
as this moan-y old twat.

But sometimes I think,
"Pff, why do I bother?"

- Hello.
- [Man on phone] Hello, mate.

You alright?

[Ronnie] Oh no, no, yeah,
I was out running this morning.

I listen to myself now
and I just think "Fuck, what's happened to me?"

I feel like I've been
so hard and down on myself

that I've kind of ripped out
any joy that was in me.

[Static buzzing]

Sorry! Nothing to it.

When you see me as a kid,
you know, I was just a happy-go-lucky sort of person.

But, I lacked
a lot of confidence.

My dad had that confidence
and belief in me,

but I needed that guidance.

That’s what I said,
with my dad around,

I thought,
"Everything’s gonna be alright."

I kind of got
really attached to him.

I remember early on,
we had this sort of serious chat.

He said, "Right, if you're
gonna be the best player in the world’, [laughs]

I'm like, I'm nine or ten.

Just found a sport
I quite enjoy.

[Ronnie Sr.] D'you think
they’ve got a future in the game?

- I think they might have.
- [Ronnie Sr.] Yeah?

[laughs]

[Ronnie Sr.] Alright.

[Ronnie] I needed it, I think.

Because, you know, I...

Yeah, I think I needed it,
I think it sort of changed me

as a player, as a person.

[Static buzzing]

[Maria] I remember when it
first happened, Sam.

I got a phone call
early hours of the morning,

and I just knew
something wasn't right.

I couldn’t tell Ronnie,
and he was due to go to Thailand about three days after.

His manager, Barry Hearn,
phoned me up, he said,

"Maria, you’ve gotta tell him."

I said, "Barry, I can't."

"I can't, it’ll break his heart,
I can't do it."

I said, "Can you
send Ronnie to Thailand?

"Because he I'm trying
to protect him, Sam."

I thought if he goes there
three days early,

he won't know what's going
on and it's gonna be a bad dream

and his dad’ll come back
out again.

It's gonna be a mistake
and he won't know no different.

But this guy John took him
to Thailand and then Barry said,

"Maria, you've gotta get
on the phone and tell him

cos it's gonna be in
all the papers tomorrow."

So I phoned up,
John picked up the phone,

I said, "Put him on the phone,"
I said, "Ron", I told him.

I said,
"Ron, your dad’s in prison."

He said, "What for?"
I said, "It's... they’ve done him for murder."

And I heard him screaming,
screaming down the phone, Sam,

I went, "John, hold him,
just hold him",

I'm gonna start crying, Sam.
Sorry, but it was that hard,

I said, "John, just hold him."
"Come here" I said.

It was hard
for me to tell him, Sam, know what I mean?

Cos I knew how close they were.

[sobbing]

And John held him
and, uh, he just collapsed in the hotel room.

I shouldn’t have sent him.

My regret now is, Sam,

that I should’ve told him
straight away.

But I thought I'd protect him,
and it was wrong.

And I don’t think he ever
forgave me for that, Ronnie.

I don’t think he ever
forgave me for that,

"You should’ve told me",
but I couldn’t.

And that’s one regret I've got.

Just didn’t want him
to get hurt.

[Ronnie Sr.]
Before this man died,

and before the other one
got hurt,

that one hit me with
a pub ashtray over my head.

It broke in half,

he tried to shove
the other half in my face,

I blocked it with my
fingers, he severed my fingers.

Right? I backed off.

As I was backing off,
the other brother come up behind me

and sledgehammered me
with a full bottle of champagne.

And I don’t remember
nothing after that.

But I know
I took that man’s life,

and I know I hurt the other one.

And I don’t wanna
talk aboutn this

because it's not fair
on the people that have lost their son.

I'm still alive, thank God,

but if I hadn't have done
what I done, I would've been dead.

When they sentenced me,
I cried when I got downstairs.

Not cried for meself.

I cried for
me family losing everything.

I left 'em, didn’t I?

They see you as,
"No, you left us."

Know what I mean?

I didn’t think
he was gonna play anymore.

I thought it was over.
I thought like "That’s over."

Everything was over.

[Ronnie] Nothing can
prepare you for that.

I couldn’t make sense
of any of it.

I just couldn’t believe it.

We got the verdict through,

and then obviously everyone
was frantic on the phone,

speaking to the solicitor,
"What can we do now?" You know? "What's the next steps?"

And then she just said,
um, she said...

You know, as he was
walking down, my dad,

as he was like being carted off,

he'd been sentenced,
he just looked up to the woman, and, uh,

[exhales emotionally]

He...

You get a bit emotional
sometimes, don’t you?

Really, you get emotional,
and you

[Sighs]

And, uh...

He just said,
"Tell my boy to win."

Typical.

"Just tell my boy to win."

That’s it.

[Sniffles]

Fucking 30 years ago. [chuckles]

[Production crew]
Okay, here we go now. In three, two, one.

[Announcer]
Now turned professional,

and in his first season
amongst the big boys,

Ronnie O’Sullivan!

[Applause]

[Announcer] Ronnie O’Sullivan.

[Commentator] He's not 18 yet.

[Ronnie] Part of me
was thinking, "Fuck you" and "Fuck this."

You know, "Just fuck everybody."

The healthiest thing for
me to do would probably be just stop playing snooker.

But I didn’t, you know,
I felt like compelled to stick with it.

[Interviewer] Dad isn't
really with you at the moment, but, does that affect you?

[Ronnie] No, that’s another
thing that really spurs me on.

Now I'm a man

and I've gotta go out
and do what I do best,

and that’s play snooker.

And if I win
a tournament this year,

that’ll be definitely
for me dad.

[Static buzzing]

[Commentator]
Snooker history here.

Ronnie O’Sullivan’s smiling,
his first-ever major tournament, he's done it,

and he's done it...

[News reporter]
The UK’s new snooker champion,

Ronnie O’Sullivan,

arrived at Gartree Prison

for what he described
as an emotional visit.

[Journalists yelling
indistinctly]

[Ronnie] I didn’t wanna
blame everything on that situation with my dad,

but I just think
I'd rather not have the snooker,

I'd just have
just a normal family. [chuckles]

Not had to have
gone through that, forget the snooker,

just a normal...
whatever normal life is.

Cos like you say, yeah,
it was a dream, and it was this,

but looking back at that,
it was a nightmare.

[choral music playing]

I wasn't very good at
having all this stuff locked inside me.

People could see
that I was imploding.

[News reporter] In snooker,
Ronnie O’Sullivan is given a suspended two year ban

for assaulting
a tournament official.

[News reporter]
Ronnie O’Sullivan’s ability at the table

comes accompanied by
all the baggage associated

with a wayward genius of it.

[TV presenter]
I think that there's been some internal emotional thing

gone on in the last few months

which has led to a certain
amount of character change.

A mixture of, I think,
depression and rage.

[Ronnie] If I would really
let it all out, they'd have locked me up.

They'd have said like,
"He's a danger to himself."

[Applause]

[Commentator]
Greater players, deservedly.

[Ronnie] Just self-doubt
and self-sabotage and hatred towards myself.

[Jimmy]
With O’Sullivan, he's like...

beyond human comprehension
how good he is.

[Applause]

[White] But he can
go and play near-perfect snooker

and come off and say,
"I didn’t play very well."

[Commentator]
Well, that’s just absolutely brilliant.

[White] But, as a perfectionist,

and if your emotions are
not in tune with it,

he could get down on himself.

- [Applause]
- [Referee] 129.

[Commentator]
Perfect, yes, absolutely perfect.

- [Male voice] I don’t
believe this. - [Referee] 134.

[TV reporter]
The snooker player, Ronnie O’Sullivan

has made the fastest ever
maximum break in history of the game,

he cleared the table
in just five minutes 20 seconds,

and earned himself £147,000.

"The money’s not
important to me", he said,

"I just wanna be happy."

[Hendry]
A lot of people talk about genius in sport,

but, that is genius in sport.

If you know how hard it is
to make a 147,

it is so difficult.

You can't translate how
unbelievable that is to do that in that speed.

I think it's the greatest
thing that’s happened in any sport, ever.

He played a match against me

and he played
90% of shots left-handed.

He beat me.

[Referee] Seven.

[Hendry] But certainly
in the 90s,

I always felt
I was mentally stronger

and could hold myself
together better

when the big pressure
came in a match.

[Cheering]

Because you can't imagine
any sport being psychologically intense as snooker.

You're out there on your own

and out there
with your thoughts.

You'll play a shot
and you'll be a centimetre out of position.

[Commentator] That’s a bad shot.

[Hendry] Sometimes millimetres,

when you're in amongst
the pink and black.

[Referee] Thirty.

[Hendry] A millimetre out
can stop you

being able to play
the next shot perfectly.

And it’ll devastate you.

You could see you're
kind of walking a tightrope.

[Referee] Ronnie O’Sullivan, 30.

[Wood] He drowned his sorrows

and a lot of his inner thoughts

with the... booze
or the dope, you know,

and escaped it.

It wasn't just a gram.
You know? [laughs]

He’d have an ounce,

and that was
the indulgence of addiction.

[Maria] I just was shocked
to see the change in him.

It was hard to see
my son like that.

He'd have highs and lows
and he'd be right up on a buzz

and then he’d go flat
as a pancake.

And I thought,
"What's wrong with him?"

I could see the torment
in his face, I could see it.

[Cameras snapping]

He must've had
that inner strength, that inner, you know,

"I'm gonna...
I'm gonna do this."

Yeah.

[crowd cheering faintly]

[Ronnie panting]

[Ronnie] At this moment,
I look back and I think, "Wow, how have I got through that?"

Cos it was that bad.

The darkness
and stress and addiction,

I didn’t know how to live sober.

It's not healthy to wrap
your identity up in what you do as your work,

and they tried to teach me
that in the Priory.

But I find it
really hard. [chuckles]

And I realise that, you know,
my addictions are good, in many ways,

cos it drives me on,
but just needs to be managed.

[Grunts, pants]

I used to have a mate of mine,
he used to come and pick me up,

we done like five,
six miles round here.

He weren't even out of breath.
I was dying.

And that’s when I
got in to the running.

I was already out of rehab,
so I was in a decent place,

but this was just like
the final piece of it, the jigsaw, for me.

D'you know what I mean?
Just feel like my mental... mental health.

[chuckling] Hashtag.
Mental health.

Been saying that
for 20 odd years, mate.

That’s the funny thing,
people will be like,

"Oh, you know what it's like,
he'll have to come off the table."

"Er, he's this,
he's that, he's not right."

Now, all of a sudden, it's cool.

I was 20 years ahead
of the game, mate.

Twenty years ahead
of the game, mate. [laughs]

They all jumped
on the bandwagon,

that’s what I love,
you got all the bandwagoners.

"Oh, mental health!"

It's cool to be
mental health now.

Fucking does my head in.

Don’t know what a bit
what mental health is.

They get up, have a bad day,
not enough likes,

"I'm having a fucking
mental health crisis."

Jesus Christ!

What is it all about, eh?

[chuckling] Oh.

Anyway, it's all done.

Okay, mate, I'll see you
at the venue tomorrow

and we’ll just play it by ear
and do what we gotta do.

I feel like getting
a bit of butterflies now, just thinking about it,

cos it's 2,000 people,
whatever it is, it's in London,

I'm gonna wanna go out there,
I'm gonna wanna play well,

I'm gonna feel like a bit
of expectation like that I'm gonna do something good.

So, yeah, I feel all that,
but after maybe one frame, I should be alright.

Cos, you know,
it's all fucking, whatever.

But, yeah,
I'll see you soon, yeah.

Alright, mate. Bye bye. Bye.

[Damien] I once
had a time with Ronnie

where he called me up
and he just said,

"Look, I'm in the Masters,

I'm fucked,
I need to go to the Priory",

I went, "Yeah",
I said, "I'll come in my car

and I'll take you."

"We’ll go right now,
you don’t have to worry."

He goes, "Do you think
I'm bad pulling out?"

"You're not bad
pulling out, if that’s what you feel,

I'll come and get you."

And I went in,
he's in a complete mess,

and I just said,
"Look, I've got the car, I've called the Priory,

"I've booked you in, you
can go there, it's all sweet, we’ll just go straight there."

I said,
"Don’t worry about the snooker,

don’t worry about Barry Hearn,

we're gonna go to the Priory."

And he went, "Okay",

and then we sat down,
had a cup of tea,

and he calmed down a bit
and said,

"D'you wanna have a little
knock-about

on the practice
table before I go?"

And I went,
"Yeah, sure, come on."

[Balls clanking]

So, we did a little knock-about
on the practice table,

and then he went, "I think
I might play this afternoon."

I went,
"Okay, I'll stay with you."

And I stayed and he won
the fucking tournament.

[Cheering]

Now I tell that story,
it's ridiculous, but it's all real,

you know,
it's just totally genuine.

It's harrowing,
and sometimes we will go to the Priory,

I just always try
and look at him and just go, "Look, it's about you",

it's like,
"No glory’s worth it if you're not alright."

[Radio presenter]
The snooker tour arrives in London this weekend,

as the world’s top 16
players battle it out

for the Masters title
at Alexandra Palace.

Restrictions finally easing,
a capacity crowd is expected,

they’ll be cheering on
the local favourite, Ronnie O’Sullivan

as he looks to add
to his seven titles.

[Hendry]
The two tournaments that I wanted to win

at the start of every
season were the World Championship, obviously,

and the Masters.

Cos the Masters is
the top 16 players in the world,

and I wanted to beat
the other best players.

The Masters is intense,

almost 3,000 people.

Without a doubt they're
more vociferous in London, they always were.

You know, for Ronnie,
they’ve got that huge expectation.

[Commentator] Hello,
good afternoon, and welcome to Alexandra Palace,

always an electric
atmosphere when Ronnie O’Sullivan is in town.

This is his manor

and Ronnie fans are here,
waiting to cheer on the Rocket!

[Cheering]

Erm, I was very, very edgy,
to be honest with you,

all night, all this morning,
I was like making myself ill,

I was in a bit of a state,
so I went for a run,

went to the gym,
didn’t overdo it.

I kinda I knew, like, you know,
I just had to control it,

but I felt better
for doing that.

And I got in my car
and I and I shake my tip up,

and I thought "Come on,
like", you know, and then I was like...

Got to the venue and done
my practice and I kinda...

and it's not as bad.
D'you know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah, no,
it's this and the worlds,

it's just cos it's like
probably close to home, London crowd.

You know, obviously it's like...

[Commentator]
Ronnie O’Sullivan's own Masters' records,

matches played, 75,
matches won, 56, centuries, 77.

[Ronnie] It was years ago
when my manager spotted it in me, you know.

We going soon? Come on.

Cos he was around me a lot,
he’d go to talk to me,

and he would just say
"You get stage fright."

It is, it's a bit like
a stage fright, it's like the build-up,

that’s what I struggle
with is the build-up. Even now.

[Announcer] Ronnie O’Sullivan!

[Ronnie] And it's like that,

not knowing from
one day to the next,

"Is my game gonna be good?

"Please, please, please,
I'll get there and it’ll be good",

"Oh God. Oh I can relax now,
everything’s gonna be alright."

And I'll do that every day.

[Crowd murmuring]

[Ronnie] And if it wasn't
alright, I'd be scared,

I'd be like in bits.

And I'm, like, panicking.

And you're thinking,
like, you know,

I've had six days
where it's been great,

but you're just hanging on.

And then the seventh day,
it's gone,

and you're like,
"Oh, I knew it’d happen."

And then you're
left, like, broken.

You know, that’s why
I walked out of matches,

you know, I'd quit
halfway through, mentally.

[Commentator]
He’ll be pretty annoyed with himself.

What? He's shaking hands,
this is quite incredible.

[Male voice]
Fucking leave, Ronnie.

[Commentator] I cannot
believe he's conceded the match.

Don’t know what's going on.

I've never seen
anything like this.

Don’t start with
these cameras and shit.

[Commentator] Something is
clearly not right with him at the moment.

[Commentator] No, absolutely.
There's something going on there, he's...

you just don’t do that.

He just said he's had enough.

It's bizarre.

[Man] We all want to see
Ronnie playing at his best,

because he is a star attraction.

It's what people come to see.

But, sadly,
there is a flaw there.

[Damien] I think Houdini said,

"If you want to get
a large audience anywhere,

just say at a certain
time, in a certain place, someone may die."

They're gonna do something
where they may die,

and I think that’s
what happens with Ronnie,

it's like,
you just think the drama is so big

that there's like
death involved,

and it feels like it,
even though it's not.

You know, you feel
his health, his wellbeing,

that he's gonna die
if he misses a shot.

[Commentator] He's behaving
quite strangely, yeah, I think, Mia.

[Commentator] His demeanour
around the table is, er, odd to say the least.

[Ronnie Sr.] I knew
what he was going through.

I shared all his
snooker tournaments,

in his bad times,
his good times.

I've been on the phone
to him in prison,

and I've heard
the anxiety in him.

Just totally like
collapsing on the phone.

[Ronnie] I feel like
I'm really close to like a bit of a breakdown,

and I don’t wanna end up
in a fucking nuthouse or something, you know.

So, it's about my health
at the end of the day,

and I haven’t been really well.

[Ronnie Sr.] I used to
put the phone down, come off the phone, totally in bits.

You know, a lot of that
was my fault, you know.

I blame myself for that,
you know, going to prison,

it wasn't good for him,
you know?

And he's saying,
"I've had enough.

Yeah, he wanted
to put his cue down, done.

[Ronnie] I'm very, very
relieved that it's sort of over

and I can honestly say
that I probably won't be playing next year.

You know, I have to do
what's best for me, what makes me happy,

without driving people
mad about it

and just make
a decision and do it.

I really have thought about it,

this my last season as a player,
to be honest with you.

Thought about it, yeah. Heavily.

[inaudible] sometimes, you know.

[Ronnie Sr.] I jack him up,
I go, "Come on, what's up with you?"

"Stick around
for a little while longer, mate,

cos it's like a visit for me,
I can watch you on the telly."

I said,
"And that’s nice to see you",

I said, "Win or lose,
I'll watch you and it's fantastic,

and if you win
it's even better."

[Indistinct announcing on PA]

[Crowd cheering]

[Announcer] At this point,
the most successful player in history...

- [Man] Ronnie O'Sullivan!
- [Crowd cheering]

[Announcer]
Ladies and gentlemen, here comes the Rocket,

Ronnie O'Sullivan!

[Cheering]

[birds chirping]

People listen
to the chaos in my life,

and then they can't work out
how I can go and play snooker.

They're kinda
just baffled by it.

And I go, "Yeah, but
that’s the only time that

I really truly do get peace."

[chuckles] I said
that’s when I'm like,

no one can get to me,
no one can ask me anything

and I just think,
"You know what, I'm safe here."

Ah!

You fall in love
and out of love with snooker. Well, I do.

And it's not like falling
in and out of love,

I just get in to a zone
sometimes where just you're feeling it.

And for me,
snooker’s fantastic when you're in that space.

When it's really, really good
is when you're out there in the big tournaments,

and you're able to do it.

Because obviously
the pressure there

is much more heightened,

so the more you can get
in to that place,

the more you can
deliver under pressure.

It's a place where you
just you lose yourself,

you don’t think.

Your mind feels clear,

it feels free,
free from any thought.

It's like, it goes beyond that,
in a way, it becomes very instinctive.

And quiet.

But yet very sharp.

It's like you're razor sharp.

It's like you're
kind of floating

in in many ways, you know.

[gentle, dreamy music playing]

It feels like I've got
all the time in the world.

And it's just...
Yeah, yeah, it's just good.

Huh.

It feels good.
It feels powerful.

[Crowd cheering]

[Ronnie]
I had moments when I was young where I'd feel invincible.

And that’s an amazing
feeling to have.

Snooker brought out
something in me, naturally.

I know I can't go back
to that time,

but I know
what that feeling’s like, and I love it.

You know, I want that high.

- [Referee] A hundred and forty.
- [Crowd shouts]

[Commentator] This is as good
as anybody can play the game.

And you’ll be enjoying
every bit of this, Ronnie.

[Man] Pocket Rocket!

[Commentator] You know,
at the peak of his powers,

playing as well as he can.

- And it's all over!
- [Crowd applauding]

- Ronnie.
- [Ronnie] Thanks, guys.

That reception
tells you everything.

Brilliant performance,
and what a way to finish.

Yeah, I struggled
early on, you know,

I was so nervous,
really, really nervous, you know.

Such a big crowd,
been playing behind closed doors for so long,

I forgot what it was like
to play in front of a crowd,

let alone a crowd like this,
full of mad Londoners.

[Crowd cheers]

So I was feeling the pressure,

but then after the second frame,
I calmed down a bit,

I thought, "Okay, let’s just
try and play snooker now",

and, you know, and I
played alright, you know, I played okay.

[Announcer]
And from one big match to another great afternoon,

you and Neil Robertson,
what an opportunity that's going to be for both of you.

Well, I just savour
every match I play, uh...

20 majors, most successful
player of all-time,

I've just gotta
keep thinking of that,

and take that in to the match,
and let him worry about me.

[Crowd applauds]

[Announcer] Well done
this afternoon, Ronnie,

they absolutely loved it.

Ronnie O’Sullivan,
ladies and gents.

[Woman] Settling backstage,
you're having your sandwiches.

- Yeah.
- [Man] It's a picnic.

Well, we was meant
to have something a bit more substantial,

like a scone with clotted cream,

but, he fucking
bought the scones

with no clotted cream,
I'm like, "There's no point."

- [Woman] Ronnie’s favourite.
- Is it?

It's my favourite,
from Marks and Spencer’s,

it has to be from M&S
cos they just do it right.

- I love scones.
- [Ronnie] It's the best.

But they’ve gotta
be a good scone,

I can't have a shit scone.

[Wood] Ronnie deserves
to have more of that feeling all the time.

And the flow...

you know, it's hard
to maintain the engine,

tournament after tournament.

Like Chekhov said,
"Anybody can face a crisis,

it's the day to day living
that drives you mad." You know.

[Indistinct announcing on PA]

...the reigning world champion!

[Sports reporter]
Ronnie O’Sullivan faces Neil Robertson

in the quarter finals
of the Masters later today.

A confident display
in the first round suggests

O’Sullivan could challenge
for an eighth Masters title.

But Robertson’s in
excellent form this season,

and as a previous winner,
knows what it takes...

[Sports reporter]
Make no mistake, Ronnie will be nervous,

but I was very impressed
after his match against Jack Lisowski,

maybe he's gearing up
to the world championship.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

[Referee] Thank you,
ladies and gentlemen,

the first frame,
Neil Robertson to break.

[Commentator] Neil Robertson,
the world ranked number four...

[Crowd member] Let’s go, Ron!

[Commentator]
...gets this match underway.

Quite an atmosphere, John,
quite a welcome for both players.

Hairs on the back of my
neck are standing up.

[Crowd murmurs]

Yes, and I don’t think
it needs any explaining, no matter how good you are.

There's gonna be that little bit
of tension in the arm, Ronnie just over-hit that.

[Crowd murmurs]

[Applause]

Whenever you play
Ronnie O’Sullivan,

particularly in the Masters,

it's a feather in your cap
if you come out victorious,

and it looks that way now
for Neil Robertson.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Congratulations and wish him
the best for the rest of the tournament.

He's a major contender,
the Australian,

and he thinks
Ronnie will serve him

in his backyard
by six frames to four.

[Ronnie] First time
in a long time,

probably five, six years,

I thought, "Oh, I wish
I was out there playing." You know?

Feel like I'm playing alright,
so actually I want to play.

So, like, in that environment,
that venue, with that crowd,

and you're playing
alright, you think, "Oh, I wish I was out there", you know.

[Laila Rouass] I want you
to do what makes you happy,

I don’t tell you to stop
or to carry on. I would never make...

- It's not...
- [Laila] Put you in a situation like that.

You're okay with it
though, aren't you?

[Laila] No, no,
I am okay with it,

I just think
it's about management.

There's just so much
self-criticism involved, I think.

- Yeah, but I think I'm more--
- And a lot of time on your own to think.

Yeah, but I think
I'm much more comfortable with it now

- than I ever have been.
- No, I think you are.

And if I didn’t stop before,
when I was really uncomfortable,

why would I stop now if I
feel more comfortable with it?

D'you know what I'm saying?
It's as if I've overcome my demons, in a way.

But I think
that’s your mood today.

When you see it
in a romantic way,

but the reality is,

it's hard to watch somebody
go through that emotionally,

and that’s when
the kinda questions come in.

So, you notice it?

"Jesus, why is he doing this?

Why does he
put himself through it?"

It's like so, like,
soul destroying.

D'you know what I mean?
But that’s because I think cos you do love it,

as much as you maybe
hate to admit it.

Cos I feel like I'm
on top of it.

Do you think your dad
being here now has helped?

- Cos it's like in
the last 10, 11, 12 years... - I don’t think so.

I think it did help, yeah.

You know like the guilt
and the stress and

I think it helped
having him around

going "Alright, listen",
you know?

He's alright, know what I mean?

- Yeah.
- You know

It's that sense
of responsibility, isn't it?

I suppose like you
I've done my time, he done his time,

I've done my time,
we've done it together.

Now he's out, he's happy,
I'm like,

"Alright, I can
just play snooker now."

Because I wanna play, you know.

But just working stuff
out for myself

and going, "This is
actually good for me."

You get what I'm saying?

Yeah. Yeah, it's just
keeping on top of that isn't it?

Yeah.

Otherwise, it's like
self-sabotage, isn't it?

It's like self-harm.

Yeah. No, no, yeah, no

- Which you’ve gone in to.
- Absolutely.

I won't ever go there again.

- No.
- No.

Up until ten years ago,
meeting Steve Peters,

I think I got so good
at being hard on myself,

I didn’t know how
to be any other way.

I think by meeting Steve,

I managed to at least try
to sort of like

work this brain.

Get it to work for me
instead of against me.

So, I can be all confident

coming up
to a world championships.

That if I do X, Y and Z,

I'm gonna be alright.

[Steve Peters] From your
point of view,

what do you need to
remind yourself of going in this time?

[Ronnie] I think a big
thing for me is I have this fear that I'm gonna fall apart,

the game’s gonna desert me,
like a self-fulfilling prophecy,

I bring it on, I make it happen.

[Peters]
What's gonna make you win?

It's gotta be all about
what you do on the table.

Anything else is, even
including your own thoughts,

are just distractions
and they're not gonna help you.

Yeah, no I know that, but
why is the world championships

so different
to all the other times?

Cos all the other times,
I can just pull up, play,

feel a few butterflies
out there, boom, boom, boom,

but why is it this
tournament that I can't get a bit sort of

[Peters] The rewards
for this are massive, I mean it's the world championships,

it's the pinnacle,
so you expect your mind to get up for that,

cos it believes this is
the end of the world if I don’t get it.

Which is where we started,
ten years ago.

And that’s why you were
getting really in a distressed state.

You were being
eaten alive by it,

whereas now,
you're recognising it and boxing it in.

[Ronnie] I just lost the
plot and just went down this perfectionism route

and I just started
doubting myself and then I stopped enjoying it,

and it sort of
and I went on that until

I was like that until I
come and see you, so I was like that for about eight

[Peters] Yeah. A long time.

Eighteen years.

I tell you what the
biggest thing I felt though, when we first met,

I really tried to pin you
down and say, "What is it you want?"

and what I really liked
was you didn’t say "I want another world title",

cos at that point you
hadn't won anything for about three years,

and I was expecting that,
and you didn’t.

You just said, "I just
wanna be happy playing snooker",

and I thought,
to me that is the winner.

Because it's common sense,
it's self-evident that happy people win in life.

So, I thought "If we can
just get him to be happy,

and then we’ll work
on the rest."

[Ronnie] Yeah.

You’ve got there.

[Ronnie] You know what
my other worry is? My age.

I'm now 46 so it's like -
like at some point I'm trying to

Well, if you I mean,
snooker, obviously,

it's a sport that’s not
as physical as some,

but there is an element
of precision and so on,

and clearly, you will
lose it as you get older,

cos you're not gonna be
doing this when you're 80 at this standard, I assume.

So what age can I go to
so I don’t have to question myself? Because

Why ask the question?
Why not see what you do?

No, I'm trusting you
because I like to have a plan as well.

I'd like to go, "You know
what, I've got ten years,

if there's good and bad in
it, I've got ten years."

I don’t have an answer.
What I can say is that if you keep looking at your age,

you'll go back to these
self-fulfilling prophecies,

you're gonna start saying,
"Oh I'm 46, I won't do as well",

and I don’t want that,
I think if you wanna win,

and you wanna keep
producing the goods, then forget age.

[Radio presenter]
The championship’s, of course, this weekend in Sheffield,

the next 17 days at the
Crucible Theatre

sees the culmination
of the snooker season,

and a chance for one
of the 32 players

to become part of history
at the sport’s most iconic venue.

[Hendry]
When you used to drive down,

when I was playing on a
Saturday morning, you’d come up on the Thursday,

you get off the M1, the
road in to Sheffield, you can feel it, it's like so intense.

It's your legacy
at the end of the day.

You know, I wanted
to beat Steve Davis’s six,

Ronnie wants to beat my
seven, you know,

although he never admits
it, but he does.

The world championship is
what you're defined by, if you are one of the elite players.

It's a huge test of everything.

Your game, your skill,
your stamina, your temperament, your compo everything.

And even when I go back
there now, I get goose bumps.

Cos it's just the greatest
place to play snooker.

[Radio presenter]
Big 17 days of snooker as the world snooker championship

gets underway in Sheffield
at the Crucible later.

[Announcer] Ronnie
O’Sullivan making his 30th appearance

at the crucible this
afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome to the greatest
snooker arena in the world!

[Applause]

Six times champion of the
world, back at world number one,

at the age of 46, the one
and only, Rocket Ronnie O’Sullivan!

[Commentator] Ronnie
O’Sullivan begins his campaign at 2.30 this afternoon

against David Gilbert,
the game’s most popular player is trying to equal

Stephen Hendry’s record
of seven world titles,

an achievement
that would end all arguments

over his position as
the greatest player of all-time.

[Commentator]
Yeah, I think that this particular stat,

of seven world
championship wins,

is a type of thing
that could gear him up.

[Commentator] I think
Ronnie’s gonna play a huge part in this championship,

I watched him in the last
tournament, I thought he played outstandingly well.

[Commentator]
What about the longevity of this man?

You know, on his first
world ranking title at 17, that was in UK,

and his most recent

[Commentators talking
over each other]

[Applause]

[Ronnie] The Crucible, I
don’t know what it is about that place, but it's hell.

It's not suited for me.

But, it's a choice, you
know, I've got a choice.

You know, it's like I
always said, you have two systems,

you know, you’ve got
the winning system, which is you’ve gotta,

you know, smother yourself
in the mustard, and just go deep within it.

Hurt, you know, and suffer.

Or I can take the approach
that I've done for the last five years,

and I just enjoyed every
game and played like I was just on the practice table,

and the minute I didn’t
wanna go deep, you know, I didn’t really win.

So, and that was okay
as well, you know?

You know,
there's less battle scars,

there's less depression
that comes with that. You know.

In many ways you're just
enjoying it and playing it

like you did when you was a kid,

but, that’s not gonna
win me the world championships, you know.

Sometimes you have to
choose which one you're...

you know,
how bad you want it really.

[Applause]

[Applause]

[Applause]

[Commentator] Snooker,
Ronnie O’Sullivan is in first round action

at the world
championships, it was Gilbert that made a fast start,

he raced to a three nil lead.

Yeah, I ordered a
breakfast, is it on its way?

Cos I ordered it about
15 minutes ago and we're sort of

Yeah. Okay.

Why don’t you have
this breakfast?

No, you have it.
Don’t be silly, you have it.

No, I've got that,
I'll have that one up.

No, no, I'll wait, I'll wait.

What you gonna go on then if

give me them
them eggs then, that’ll do.

You sure? You alright with that?

Cos the bacon’s not on
there, but you can have mine when it comes. Yeah?

Wicked.

Let me get you a cup of
tea. D'you want tea?

Yeah.

- It's all very civilised,
Jim, isn't it? - Yeah.

Yeah, how things have changed.

[Ronnie laughs]

How d'you feel
you played yesterday?

You know what,
I actually feel I'm doing alright.

- No danger.
- But, I felt like quite tense.

You look very comfortable,
you're obviously under pressure,

doesn’t matter whatever
you do, whatever things you're doing,

if you don’t feel the
pressure, you're not gonna get the buzz as well, right.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

But, I watched every shot, obviously.

When you was three nil
down, right,

before you went three nil
down, he's missed one and got out

- on 30 the first game.
- [Ronnie] Yeah.

He's missed another one
and left you awkward,

a very thin cut
in the middle pocket, right.

What d'you think happened
there then?

[Ronnie] Them first two
frames, I just felt like I was like ov

not overthinking,
but just trying to not make a mistake.

But I wasn't just flowing,
it weren't like bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

There was a point
where I was sitting there going

"I need to calm down here,
mate, I need to just chill out."

Fucking I was nervous
and I got I got my head round it

and I got and I come through it

and that’s what
you do at Sheffield.

[Jimmy] Yeah,
but you don’t show you're nervous.

No, I know, cos you kinda like

you know, you have to sort
of style it out, don’t you?

Okay. So, then
all of a sudden you're three nil down,

you pot a difficult long
red. -[Ronnie] Yeah.

Then you clear up, cue it,
three one. Then you go six three, right?

Totally in control of
that. He's struggling, right?

Cos, you know,
it's hard, he's playing you, right?

[Ronnie]
Yeah, yeah, course, yeah.

[Jimmy] Normal
circumstances, from six three, got control of the game.

Seven three, eight three. Yeah.

[Jimmy] Alright, okay.
Right. It gets better.

It gets better. [laughs]

[Jimmy] The next game,
he's cleared up from 58 behind so he feels good, doesn’t he?

[Ronnie] Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[Jimmy] And then
all of a sudden, he's cleared up again.

To go within one,
and then all of a sudden it's on him a bit,

he's got that pressure
ball red in the middle and he's sort of thought

"Right, well I will go for
this, I'll show O’Sullivan that if I can get it

[Ronnie] Yeah, "I'm in."

I'm in", but then
all of a sudden it backtracks,

the mind sets backtrack
and thought well wait a minute,

and he missed the red
and that’s all over.

[Ronnie] Yeah. You know,
and then when I went six five, and I got in, I found a rhythm,

but that still weren't enough.

Tell you when it clicked
for me was whenever I fluked the yellow.

That’s what I'm saying,
snooker’s a craz

[Jimmy] But that’s snooker
gods and everything. You know what I mean?

But then all of a sudden
they come on your side, and then boom, boom.

[Ronnie] Yeah, yeah, no I
know. I know. I know. But, fucking hard man.

Of course, it is.

[Ronnie] It's hard.

- Course it is,
it's amazing what you're doing. - It's hard mate.

[Jimmy] I just feel, for
me, I just feel you're sharp,

you're up for it, you're
mentally right. I'm buzzing for you, you know?

- Are you?
- Yeah. Because it's great

[Ronnie] I hate I cos that means

it's all snooker and
you're buzzing cos of snooker.

No, I'm buzzing you're
happy and you're enjoying yourself and then you're gonna put

you know, this could be
the best one for you, couldn’t it?

- Oh, don’t say that.
- Shut up.

- Oh mate.
- Listen

I wanna yeah, I wanna
I'm enjoying playing,

but, fucking hell mate,
it's it's an evil event.

- Yeah.
- It's an evil event.

- Yeah, you’ve got
you know, you’ve got - It's evil, mate.

It's mustard, innit?

[Cheering]

[Hendry] When
you're playing against Ronnie,

you’ve gotta stay away
from admiring him.

That’s the worst thing
you can do, I've seen players do it,

it's like they just get hypnotised,
they get drawn in to it.

Cos he never has to think.

He walks round a table
and the cue ball’s where it should be.

It's what, even now,
stands him apart from the rest.

But you come to the
Crucible and you think

"God, I've gotta play well
for 17 days, gotta be concentrating,

I've gotta play my best,
I've gotta have the courage

to overcome players in
that arena day after day after day",

and negative thoughts
can creep in.

Why why’s that the cream?

[Man] Yeah.
You’ve gotta be happy with that straight.

Alright, I'm alright,
listen, I'm just gonna play.

Just gonna play, if I win,
great, if I don’t, fuck it.

What can you do?
You know what I mean?

[Ronnie Wood] It's so
intense when you're actually in the room.

- [Referee] One.
- [Applause]

That’s what it all
comes down to, is to string those shots together,

to play the game with
control, you know. Control the game.

But there's a lot of
personal science involved, keeping a break going.

You mustn’t over analyse.

[Commentator] Not happy
with his tip fibres coming out again.

Think he needs to try
and forget about that tip

and just put all his focus
in to the shots.

I'd say probably six,
seven times in the last six,

seven years where I've had
a tip that’s cost me a tournament.

I accept what you're
saying, I mean, it's your world, not mine,

and if you're saying the
tip’s really important then it's important,

but what I am saying is
if you can't do anything about it, why focus on it?

[Referee] 26. Ronnie O’Sullivan.

[Applause]

[Commentator] Ronnie
O’Sullivan is through to the quarter-finals here,

the six time champion
resumed twelve four up against Mark Allen this afternoon.

Breaks of 87, 131 and 96
were the highlight from the six times champion.

[Interviewer] How did you
assess your your performance? Obviously

Don’t assess it actually,
you know the answer to that question,

mate, stays out there.

Yeah, gonna have some
dinner tonight, relax. You look younger.

- [Interviewer] Thank you.
- What you done? It's your hair.

Your hair looks good like
that. -Thank you.

[laughs]

[Male voice] You gonna do
then? -Not enough press.

[Male voice] More tournaments.

Not enough tournaments,
not enough press, these fuckers are doing my head in.

[Male voice]
Does anyone else want a drink?

[Referee] 30.

[Damien] He's hyper
sensitive, so we don’t see what's going on in his head,

but if he sees it, he
feels it. It's hard to work out what he needs.

[Man] Well

[Ronnie] There's enough
meat on it?

[Damien] But I think one
thing that Ronnie maybe doesn’t realise,

is that people like
the hope and the fears,

they like him fucked
and pulling off a good shot,

rather than just doing
amazing shots and playing perfect snooker.

Perfect snooker’s kinda boring.

He's always looking
for perfection, I don’t think it's about perfection.

It's about drama.

[Knocking sound]

[Male voice] Five minutes.

Fucking hell mate. Oh, god.

[Commentator] Six time
winner, Ronnie O’Sullivan is trying to wrap up

his world championship
quarter-final against Stephen McGuire.

[Applause]

- Nice one.
- Good luck, mate.

Yeah, yeah.

[Commentator] find
victory, he resumed eleven five up this morning,

the damage was done
in the second session yesterday

where he played really
well, so he marches on

[Journalist] I know you
don’t talk about records,

but d'you ever
look back on your career

and sort of look back
on how you’ve done things at different times

and try and draw from it
when you come in to a big tournament like this?

Not really. No.
I just back myself.

I just back myself
that I've been brought up to be a winner.

I was never born a winner.
And I'm not saying I am a winner.

But I've done alright.
But I had to have it drummed in to me.

Bit like Serena Williams,
a bit like Tiger Woods, maybe.

I had that type
of father-figure, where he was just like

"You are gonna be a
success" and I didn’t

I weren't bothered,
I was happy-go-lucky.

So, I had to have it
bashed in to me.

And when I say bashed in
to me, I mean mentally, I was toughened up.

So, like I say,
it doesn’t come natural to me,

I wasn't born like
this fierce competitor, but you know,

once you get a taste for
winning and it's been drummed in to you,

it's hard to sort of
settle for anything less.

My dad used to come home
from the club, and he'd go

"Right, running, you run,
you play better."

I was like "Okay."

And he'd follow me round
in the car sometimes, just to make sure I was doing it.

I'd just see this car
crawling up, he'd go "You alright?"

I go "Yeah, yeah",
"Keep it up, not far to go."

With his mate in the car.
I know, fuck. Humiliating.

[Ronnie Sr.]
Ron, there’s no way you'll beat me.

- No way.
- Nah.

- [Ronnie Sr.] What?
- Be tough.

[Ronnie Sr.] No, sorry.

[Ronnie] I thought, yeah,
alright, been right on pretty much everything else,

made me realise that
he was right, I was just a lazy bastard.

And I just didn’t wanna do
the hard work.

I still don’t wanna do
the hard work.

[Ronnie Sr.] Just that, Ron.

Time you went in the bath
innit, you dirty stinker.

[Ronnie] I needed that,
otherwise I'd have been a loser.

And he weren't having it.

I'm telling you mate,
he's got like this fucking thing

where he just makes you
believe you can do anything.

Honestly, it's fucking scary.

But now, I just go,
"You know what, let’s just be a positive person",

and now I just take
certain bits, cos I think if I was to listen to him,

I'd probably run off the
fucking cliff and go "I can fly",

and then go "Fuck me, I can't."

[Maria] His dad was
always, you know, pushing him.

[Ronnie Sr.] Ronnie!
Ronnie, come on, move about, stay on side.

[Maria] You’ve gotta be
that, you've gotta toughen up,

and obviously Ronnie
used to look up

and think that’s how he
thought he should be.

[Ronnie Sr.]
Well played, Ronnie.

Two players, you've done
'em, son.

Get down that line, boy.
Come on, son. Let’s work.

[Maria]
"And I've gotta toughen up

and I've gotta be strong
and I've gotta be this"

but really, Ronnie wasn't
like that at all. That’s not his personality.

[Interviewer] No nerves
about being on television? -No.

[Interviewer] As long as
dad isn't sitting in the front row,

- that’s right, isn't it,
you don’t like that? - No.

[Interviewer]
So, dad knows his place

and you certainly seem
to know yours Ronnie, well done.

Thanks.

[Applause]

[Ronnie Sr.] And I used
to tell people when I used to go football,

I said, "My boy’s gonna be
a world champion one day."

I says, "He's gonna be
a world champion"

cos I was watching him
play and I thought "He hits the ball different."

But he was so vulnerable,

he used to say "Yeah,
he's better than me, I can't

you know, he hits
the ball better than me, everyone’s hitting the ball ",

everyone’s better than him.

And then he’d win
the tournament, and I go, "You’ve just won the bloody tou

what's going on?
How comes we win the tournament with you,

and I feel like
we've lost the tournament."

[Ronnie] No, I hope don’t
get offended with what I say,

but you know, still not happy,

it's just it's the way it goes.

[Ronnie Sr.] But then
when you see him play and he you go "Oh."

And he's just so natural.
He's so intricate.

So much style and finesse.

Perfection.

That’s what he
he was looking for.

He's still trying to master it.

Addicted, ain't he?
He just can't master that game.

[Commentator]
Let’s look in on that semi-final

at the world snooker
championships in Sheffield,

the six times champion,
Ronnie O’Sullivan,

and the four times winner
John Higgins.

The Crucible Theatre
at his absolute best.

It's Ronnie O’Sullivan
who gets this match underway.

[Referee]
Ronnie O’Sullivan to break.

[Applause]

[Ronnie]
Some players can grind it out.

Got a good temperament,
they're very methodical, very robotic.

And you just think,
"He ain't breaking down."

I remember John Higgins
give me a complete smashing in one semi-final.

That hurt me.
You know, I felt humiliated.

He I could hear
people laughing, at how good he was playing,

that’s how good he was,
there was people laughing.

I'm an instinctive player,
I play better when I'm instinctive,

I play better
when I don’t have to engage my brain.

But I can get dragged down
in to other people’s way of playing.

[Referee] Thirty eight.

God, Jesus, that's

[sighs]

It's

[Referee] Ronnie O’Sullivan, 30.

[Applause]

[Ronnie] How the fuck
has that happened?

For fuck’s sake, man. Unbelievable.

I think that getting
sucked in to playing at that pace, then I'm fucked.

Know what I mean? Two hours.

[Man] It's one and a half
hours for the first two frames.

Yeah but I'm just saying
like, but I

not cos of me,
you know what I mean?

[Man] No, it wasn't cos of you.

When do I get involved
in two hour fucking four frame

[Man] Yeah, it's bollocks.
Nothing to do with you.

Just not even it's gone
beyond granite, it's like

it's like Selby-like snooker.

- Worse.
- Know what I mean?

I wanna keep you out there
as long as I can, until fucking you crack.

And get bored.
Know what I mean? But I ain't.

Yeah.

The trouble is, if I get
to the table, I'm just going bang, bang, fuck it,

set my shot up, I ain't
you know what I mean?

As long as I don’t wreck
my rhythm, they can be out there

they can do that for as
much as they like, I don’t fucking care.

Cos I ain't got nowhere
to go anyway.

- Yeah.
- Know what I'm saying?

Can't beat a salmon
and cream cheese, mate.

- No.
- No.

[Commentator] Well, it's
been an interesting start to this match

between these two legends
of the game, Steve,

neither player has been
able to dominate so far,

they resumed some four
frames all this afternoon,

John Higgins then built
a six five lead,

but Ronnie O’Sullivan
quickly replied with a break of 99

to level proceedings at
six all at the mid-section interval.

[Ronnie] Gotta play
the right shot, play it positive.

[Man] He's blinking
cycling himself out of it.

- Mm.
- If that’s the case.

Well, he might win this
match, he might win a few matches,

but at some point,
someone’s gonna come out

and play lights out
snooker and you're gonna fucking you don’t know what to do.

D'you see what I'm saying?
And I don’t wanna be that person.

I wanna be that person
that plays the game, a winning game. At all times.

If my game’s on and I'm
playing, I'll win, if I ain't, fuck it, you know.

One of them things.
But I'm not going negative.

[Man] No.

[Commentator]
Starting to impose himself

just walking down the
table like a wild animal almost. Looking for his prey.

Come on.

[Ronnie] I'd rather lose,
playing a winning game,

than fucking win
playing a losing game,

cos I know that if you win
playing a losing game, eventually you get fucked.

D'you know what I'm
saying? -[Man] Yeah.

[burps]

[Commentator]
John Higgins led three nil,

but three frames behind
with a big last frame of the day.

It's very absorbing, the
session of snooker, goodness me, the intensity in it.

What is at stake?
Incredible semi-final.

And what a frame
it could prove to be for both players.

John Higgins closed the
gap to just two.

[Applause]

[Ronnie] Agh! Balls snap.

Whipping it.

[Commentator] All eyes
at where the black goes.

And in a poor place
for O’Sullivan.

Look where the black’s gone.

If Ronnie does get a
chance, he's gonna need that black.

No way of getting on
the black from this, it seems.

Jesus, state of this table.

[Crowd laughs]

[Commentator] I tell you
what, he's looking at taking the red on.

In to the left corner,
screwing off the side cushion,

top cushion and back
in round behi

this’ll be the shot
of the championship if he pulls this off.

[Applause]

Have a look at that, well,
what an effort that was.

It goes.

Brilliant shot then,
wasn't it? Really was.

Quite simply a must-pot.
On the black now.

[Cheering]

Would you believe it?
It's unbelievable.

It looks good,
if it misses the blue.

He's on the black,
doesn't wanna be straight.

[Applause]

The slightest of angles,
try and get, somehow, on to the yellow.

No, he's okay,
I think he's still got a shot at the yellow.

This is tough.

[Applause]

It's there. Ronnie
O’Sullivan has done almost the impossible in this round.

What an amazing play that
was from Ronnie O’Sullivan. Wow.

Even a little reaction
from Ronnie there.

[Ronnie] Deserved that.
Deserved that, I deserved something.

[Robbie Huxley]
Absolutely -Deserved some bit of luck.

- That final frame
- I had fuck-all luck

Yeah, that final frame
was stupendous.

[Ronnie laughs]

Unbelievable. Jesus.

I played the canon on the
red to get the red out there.

Yeah, that was amazing black.

I'm coming round for the
black, I've come straight,

and then I pinged the
yellow in, I've zipped it in,

I played a good brown,
I flicked it in

and I've sort of hit the
pink fat, and left myself a little bit dodgy on the black

and I thought, "Oh whoa."

Yeah, that was amazing.
That really was

- Know what I mean?
- John Wayne stuff.

Oh, John Wayne.

It was blinking True Grit.

True Grit.
No, I just sort of like

I dunno, I dunno, I just sort of

I dunno mate, I don’t know.

Anyway, well done.

I don’t know.

[Robbie laughs]

Only halfway through mate.

You alright? [laughs]

Oh!

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

[feint talking]

I know, yeah I know
you struggled in that half.

I know you struggled.

[Commentator]
The world snooker championship in Sheffield,

Ronnie O’Sullivan
beat John Higgins by 17 frames to 11 to reach the final.

[Sports presenter]
Millions of people will be watching with us on BBC TV,

there must be many
hundreds of million of people watching the final

around the world as well,
it's just incredible what he's trying to achieve here.

And if he does it,
you're gonna have to say, well, he is the greatest.

Two more days to go.
Fuck. I'm in it now.

Last night, I was a bit
rattled, you know what I mean,

I was kinda... my head was
a bit all over the gaffe yesterday.

Cos I might not ever
make another final.

Truth is, I might not ever
make another final, d'you know what I mean, Crucible final.

I said to my dad, "Come
down", he was like "You sure?"

"Come down,
I want you to enjoy it,

I want you to experience
being here with people",

like "You sure? You know",
I went, "No, come... let 'em come down",

"My kids", I said,
"Yeah, bring 'em down, I want them to enjoy it."

So today I just kinda
need that quiet,

just be in here on my own,
going to the venue on my own.

Just not having
to deal with anything

other than just a knock
on the door, five minutes, boom, go out there, play.

[Sports presenter]
Lots of excitement

around the world
snooker championship,

the final between
Ronnie O’Sullivan

and Judd Trump
gets underway later.

This final doesn’t need
any hype as it should be a bank holiday blockbuster.

Judd Trump is also
a fast-attacking player,

he's trying to be crowned
Crucible king for a second time,

he says playing the
sport’s biggest star in the final

is a career highlight for him.

Sometimes when I look
out this window,

I feel like I'm looking
out from a jail.

You look out and you think,

"God, all them people
enjoying themselves, and I'm in here."

But I think visiting my
dad so many times over the years, just brings it back.

[Ronnie Sr.]
I'll tell you a little story,

he was playing in the
world finals with Graeme Dott,

this guy had a television
three doors away, you know, I...

yeah, I thought he might
give it to me for the night,

but he didn’t,
that’s alright, but I said to him,

"Look, when my boy gets
in the balls, just tap twice,

if he's not in the balls
tap once and then I'll know what's happening."

And then I had to go
Radio Five Live.

[Radio presenter]
They're opening five frames,

but yesterday O’Sullivan
responded by winning ten...

[Ronnie Sr.] Every hour
on the hour it comes through,

and I'm pacing about the
wing and I'm thinking, "Fucking hell",

sorry about my language,
but I'm thinkin, "He's... he's gonna get beat."

[Radio presenter]
There for a moment,

cos the Rocket’s just
finishing off at the Crucible, Phillips done.

[Commentator] Yeah,
it's all over Mark, what a champion we have here,

an absolute genius with a
cue, Graeme Dott shakes his hand, congratulates...

[Ronnie Sr.]
When he potted the last ball to win that world championships,

every wing was smashing
the doors for him.

At night, where it's all
quiet, everyone’s got their nut down,

and all of a sudden
the doors are coming off,

you know, boom, boom,
boom, boom.

Six hundred cons smashing
the doors, for my son,

it just blew me away, you know.

I just wanna say, for my
dad, you know, this one’s for him, you know, so, for my man.

[Applause]

[Ronnie Sr.] And I sat
there, and I got emotional.

You couldn’t give me
a billion pound for that experience.

This is what I'm talking
about, fulfilling dreams.

[Maria] I look at him
sometimes, and I think, "God, how do you do it, Ron?"

I've been there at
Sheffield and it's horrible.

Honestly,
your stomach’s churning. Couldn’t eat, I felt sick.

Cos I just want him to win.

He used to get so down,
and I thought "Oh no", and I felt his hurt.

And I wanted that hurt,
what he felt.

So, I want him to win
all the time, to make him feel good.

As he's getting older, I
think he's managed to cope with the anxiety, the pressure,

and I think he's learnt
to push it down a little bit,

but Ronnie likes
living on the edge.

About 20 years ago I realised

to find happiness within
snooker was a dangerous thing.

And I said I never wanna
go to them dark places,

but sometimes you have to.

[Cheering]

[Ronnie]
The world championships, when that door opens,

you can't run away from
it, you can't kinda like "Oh", you know,

"I don’t care",
they’ve gotta know, I want this. Which I do.

I then need to kind of
embrace it and kinda go up and gotta grab hold of this.

And I'm saying "No, I
wanna win this tournament", and then you're off and running.

[Cheering]

[Commentator] This is the one,

this is the one match
that every snooker player wants to win.

[Referee]
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

This is the one that
matters. -The first frame...

[Commentator]
The world championship final. May the best man win.

The first mistake
could be costly.

- [Applause]
- What a shot!

[Ronnie] And I think
the lethalness and sharpness

and the little shifts
in momentum, you know,

where the other guy’s on
me, but you kind of have to respond,

I see it and I go bang,
bang, bang, and it's like I just know.

[Commentator] Let’s see
how Ronnie feels now in this second frame.

[Referee] Six.

[Commentator] I don’t
think he can get through, no way through...

Anxious looks,
just got a little bit too much screwing to the cue ball.

There's only a safety
shot available. That will annoy Ronnie a little bit.

It's just
little shots like that,

the difference between
winning and losing the game.

[Applause]

D'you think about that
for a three-ball plant?

[Ronnie]
And that momentum and that speed

and that energy is sort of...

it's getting stronger
and stronger

to the point where you're
all over your opponent.

[Commentator] Well,
that’s... -[Referee] Twenty six.

[Commentator] That little shot.

[Ronnie] You're strangling
him, it's just that... that power.

[Referee] Eight.

[Murmuring]

[Commentator]
Why hit it so hard? I mean.

[Referee]
Ronnie O’Sullivan, eight.

- Fucking...
- The first seven.

Nightmare.

[Commentator]
So unlucky to snooker himself.

He should’ve taken
a little bit more time escaping from the snooker.

- Yeah?
- I've seen a gesture...

- Sorry? A gesture?
- Yeah.

What gesture did you see?

I saw it.

No, no, you tell me,
what did you see?

- I'm not gonna...
- Tell me what you saw,

cos you saw nothing.
You saw nothing.

Go and look at your camera.
You saw nothing. Don’t start.

Don’t start.
Go and check your camera.

To be a winner,
it is black and white,

there is no in-between.

To be at your best, you
know, when you're really in it.

Yeah, there's no stopping
it basically.

[Commentator] And a chance
if Ronnie can get this black

all the way
round the angles of the table.

[Cheering]

That’s what you call
a cocked-hat double.

How did he play...

Ronnie O’Sullivan
placed his lead, twelve frames...

Barring one
of the great Crucible comebacks,

Ronnie O’Sullivan is on
course to even Stephen Hendry’s record of seven...

I think I'm gonna go, yeah ...

[Commentator] By twelve
frames to five, the first to 18 wins.

It's very hard to see
a way back for Trump.

I mean he's in real trouble.

[Ronnie] Hi mate.
Yeah, I'm just...

don’t know what to think
really, to be honest with you.

Seem like in a bit of
a fairy land sort of place really,

I didn’t expect it
to be honest with you

and I'm not sure
if I played good, bad.

Everyone seems to think
it was really great and this and that,

I don’t know if he was
just bad and it made me look good.

I dunno, I feel quite calm
now, I feel quite calm, quite relaxed.

You know, I was like zoned
in. D'you know what I mean? Yeah.

Good day’s, work mate.
Good day’s work.

Gotta go again tomorrow.
Take it easy, bye.

[Damien] Gordon Burns said
one of the greatest horrors for snooker players

is fear of winning, and
it's like when you know you can see the winning line,

you know you're gonna win,
and you’ve got it, and you just sort of sabotage it.

Sabotage, that’s probably
a word I use with Ronnie more than anything else.

His ability to make it
more difficult in difficult scenarios

is a nightmare and a
constant thing you’ve gotta deal with.

You’ve already got
millions of viewers, you've got like a live audience,

and you’ve got
all this stuff going on,

the pressure that Ronnie’s
under is like some sort of horrific torture.

And loads of it's imagined
and loads of it's real.

But you’ve just always
gotta look at that and go "Is it worth it?"

Even though I'm twelve
five up, I still feel nervous.

Still the same stuff.

As I'm talking to you now,
I'm sort of shaking a bit.

You know?

[Man]
Because you're talking or just because...

No, cos it's the build-up.
It's the build-up, mate.

It's the build-up.

[Commentator] This
afternoon, the situation is very simple for Judd Trump,

he needs to make a fast
start if he's to have any chance

of turning around
this twelve five deficit.

And the opening frame
of the session,

there’ve been early
chances for both players,

but it looks like Trump
is the favourite to claim this frame,

- he's at the table now...
- [Applause]

It's a long way back
but he's got one foot on the ladder.

[Murmuring]

[Crowd yelling]

[Commentator]
Can Ronnie find something here?

Been playing second fiddle
most of this session.

[Crowd] Oh!

[Ronnie] Nervy, nervy.
Nervy. Nervy, nervy, nervy.

[Commentator]
So, Judd Trump has played three this afternoon...

- Nervy, mate.
- ...and he's won all three.

Hate this bit, I hate this bit.

Gone from heavy leg,
jelly leg to feeling tired.

It's a horrible feeling.

Part of the job, isn't it?

Stick with it.

[Commentator]
He's needed two opportunities to claim this frame,

but at the moment
he's getting these chances.

[Applause]

Well, what have we got
going on here? He's now reduced to four.

I'm questioning my
technique, I'm out there and thinking

"Oh, I don’t wanna stand
here, stand there,

get on that line,
get on this line, get there."

[Applause]

But I then think
"How am I gonna go and play?"

[Referee] Thirty three.

[Man] Great shot.

[Applause]

[Ronnie] Fuck that. I feel ill.

- Are you alright?
- Feel ill with pressure.

- Jangling all the way.
- Oh, it's fucking horrible.

I'm just tired.
Oh, I hate it, mate, I hate it.

Think I need to wash my face.

[Applause]

[Commentator]
This is turning out to be a classic encounter,

we're now back underway
after the break,

Judd Trump has just won
the last two frames, which were close,

he now trails 13 ten
so it's game on,

especially if Trump can
win the final two frames of this session.

[Ronnie] I feel fucked,
energy’s drained.

I feel like I've got
stage fright, Steve, it's horrible.

I fucking hate it,
I feel like I wanna cry.

[Crowd roars and applauds]

[Commentator]
How big a fluke is that gonna be?

- [Ronnie] Hell.
- This is the test now,

it's meant to be tough,
and it is.

[Ronnie]
I don’t even feel like I wanna face it, Steve.

- You're fine.
- No, I can't,

I feel like my arms
are like fucking... I can't even get ...

Yeah, we've got a break
now, we're gonna regroup.

I feel so tired.
D'you know what I mean?

It's like I can't even
put the cue through.

No but even on every shot,
I think I'm gonna miss this, like fuck!

And God I'm looking at my
cue, I feel like my eyes are blurry,

I'm looking,
I think I'm blurry eyes, honestly Steve,

like honestly,
fucking horrendous.

I'm sorry,
I just don’t wanna face it.

You’ve gotta go out there
with attitude now.

- [Ronnie]
Fucking scared, mate. - Yeah I know, alright, I know.

[Ronnie] I'm scared.

[Ronnie] Hi, mate,
I just thought I'd send you this voice note,

but this is like
fucking horrendous for me.

I froze today, mate,

and that’s why I don’t
wanna do it, mate, cos I knew I was gonna freeze.

I've just been keeping it
under fucking manners, mate, but it's killed me.

I don’t want it, mate.
Emotionally, it's just got me involved again,

and I fucking hate this
shit, mate.

Listen, I'm rambling on,
I'm talking shit,

but I'm just sharing it
with you, mate,

cos that’s where
my fucking head’s at, mate,

I just wanna get this over
and fucking done with,

and have a beer
with you guys tonight.

And just fucking give you
a big hug, mate.

I feel fucking battered.
Alright, I'll speak to you later, bye.

[Ronnie Wood] When it's
under such intense conditions,

like the world
championship, that cry is his identity as a human being,

not just a snooker robot.

I think Ronnie did
an amazing job,

a very noble job

of saying

how fucked up he is inside,

and how he's fucking
thinking, you know.

But, he can only play

so much out of his system
with the game.

[Sports reporter]
A big headline here is this incredible comeback,

but what about Ronnie now?

He's really got the
pressure on and it's the whole situation,

this whole chase for seven
is very heavy.

[Sports reporter]
Absolutely. We're involved in a world final match now,

a real match,
and Judd Trump has all the momentum...

[Ronnie sings]

[Sports reporter] ...and
going in to tonight’s session,

those first couple of
frames tonight are gonna be huge.

[Sports reporter]
It's worth mentioning that it's Judd who’s won

the last four finals
between these guys

over the last, what,
three, four years.

[Sports reporter] Yeah,
and I think if you offered Ronnie

at the start
of the last session, he’d probably take it.

Shaking.

[Commentator] Everybody
asking the same question, "What happens now?"

Ronnie O’Sullivan leads
to Trump fourteen eleven.

[Applause]

Now, first half
opportunity for Ronnie O’Sullivan,

this lone red in to
the bottom right corner pocket.

[Applause]

Got a bit to do
with the cue ball here.

And here it comes,
how’s your luck, Ronnie?

[Applause]

It looked easy.
Some shot he's played there.

He's made a good start
to the match,

O’Sullivan exchanges lead
for fifteen eleven.

Fuck me,
I feel absolutely bashed up.

I feel bashed up, Steve.

I don’t feel I can make 20
when I get the balls. I don’t.

I feel better than I did,
I feel a bit calmer.

But I still feel like when
I'm amongst 'em, I think there's lots to go wrong here.

D'you know what I mean?

[Commentator]
Yeah, just looks so relaxed, so cool.

[Referee] Thirty four.

[Commentator] Would've
said, at times in this afternoon’s session...

- [Referee] Thirty five.
- ...he got a little bit nervous.

It's understandable, of
course, on a precipice of history, glory,

and of course,
equalling seven times,

he's gonna need to bring
this red below the pink,

out in to play, a little cannon.

[Applause]

O’Sullivan wins three
of the first four,

and one away from winning
his seventh world championship title.

I look like shit.
What's the score, is it seventeen eleven, is it?

So, he's gotta win
seven on the bounce.

Oh. Fucking hell.

[Commentator]
Well, this red is potable, but,

I don’t think Ronnie will
even give it a second look.

And he is, and he's
playing the cannon on the red, by the black.

He's played the cannon.

[Applause]

Fabulous pot.

And is this the beginning
of the end of this match?

[Applause]

[Hendry] I didn’t
want Ronnie to win seven, of course I didn’t.

But when I was watching him,

I felt like almost
a little bit of pressure off, almost.

It's almost like
"Okay, he's gonna get it now."

[Applause]

He’ll get that mantle.

[Commentator] The end is nigh.

And just this black.

[Applause]

And he's gonna
join you now, Stephen.

[Referee] Sixty eight.

[Hendry] I said
it was an honour to be

at seven with Ronnie, and it is.

Because he plays the game

the way it's supposed
to be played, he's an artist.

[Commentator] Gonna have
to be a double on the yellow

to submerge it so that...
just didn’t perform on day one left to play.

[Applause]

Ronnie O’Sullivan is
in seventh heaven.

[inaudible] against Judd Trump.

He's the greatest player
in the world.

Eighteen frames to thirteen.

Enjoy yourself, enjoy
yourself, don’t let 'em burn you out.

- I won't.
- Pick and choose,

you're too good
to let them fucking burn you, alright.

Right, thank you,
thank you for letting me practice with you.

No, listen. You're a good boy.

You took your time out
for me and I really appreciate that.

I'll always take my time
for you, I respect you, you're a good man.

- Thank you so much.
- And your family’s good, yeah?

- Thank you.
- Alright? Love you man.

- Well done man.
- Go and enjoy it.

You're my best player
of all-time.

- Cheers, mate.
- Fucking love you, man.

I can't believe it!

Great, well done man.
It's a fucking...

- I won!
- Incredible.

So much hard work as well.

- It fucking kills me.
- You fucking deserve everything,

right, you deserve
everything. -Thank you.

- Mate... mate...
- Thank you.

Mate, you're amazing,
like the dedication, everything that you’ve put in,

you deserve
fucking everything, man.

You're a legend, mate,
you’ve always taken care of me.

You fucking helped
everyone, mate. Mate, mate, everyone is so proud of you.

- Thank you.
- The whole team behind you.

- Thank you.
- Go celebrate with your family,

- man, enjoy yourself.
- Love you.

Okay, well done, mate.

[Applause]

[Ronnie]
I can't do this anymore.

I can't. I can't do it.
It’ll kill me.

[Male voice]
I'll always love you. Always.

- [Ronnie] I know.
- [Man] No matter what.

[Woman] You’ve got this.

- [Man] No matter what.
- [Woman] We love you.

[Ronnie] I know.

[Woman] We love you so
much. -[Ronnie] Oh.

[Choir music]

[Cheering]

Dad, that’s Fred.
Fred’s a top man.

- Hello, Fred.
- That’s me dad.

- Hello, mate.
- Yeah.

- Alright, mate.
- Want these, Ron?

No, fuck that.

That’s it, innit? Oi.

Fucking hell. I dunno, mate.

- Done now, ain't ya?
- Dunno.

[Ronnie laughs]

Yeah, yeah, course, yeah.
Lovely, cool. Thank you, cheers.

[Crowd cheers]

That was me in my peak state.

That was me kinda
going in the trenches

and kind of having to go
"No, I wanna win this tournament."

And you guys were lucky
enough to obviously film and get all that.

But there was a lot of rocky
little patches along the way.

But with snooker,
you’ve gotta put up

with all that toxic sort
of competitiveness that...

argh, it's so ugly.

That’s why
I have to just play...

do my job, play my game,
be happy, content.

D'you know what I mean?

Cos it's like, you can't win.

There's no end to it.
There's no end to it.

There’s no end to like,
"He's falling, he's slipping.

Oh, now he's winning,
he's great.

"He's amazing,
he's the greatest player of all-time."

And then he's losing,
"Oh, he's slipping, oh, is his days numbered?"

I'm like "Oh God,
I've heard that for 30 years."

30 years!

They're always
gonna find a problem.

And I just go,
"You know what, fuck you."

I don’t give a fuck.

That’s how I've got with it.

You're damned if you do,
you're damned if you don’t,

but I don’t give a fuck no more.

I've taken control of my life
and that is it.

The most important thing is,
I'm happy.

And I play snooker

to a fucking extremely
high level enough of the time,

and I win enough
to go "You know what?"

"I don’t give a fuck
what any of you say, don’t care. I don’t care."

You know what I mean?
I'm doing it my way.

You should try doing it my way,
cos it fucking works.

That’s what I think.

D'you know what I mean?

That’s what I think of them.

Don’t know where
that come from, by the way.

It's fucking...

Fuck, that’s what I really feel.

[sighs] It's all good.

["Better Days" by Graham Nash]