I'm struck by some of the similarities between Jez Butterworth's play "Jerusalem", whose "edge of town" character is played by Mark Rylance, and "the legend of Raoul Moat" as played out in the national media recently.
Admittedly, Moat's character - as played by himself - is rather more morally culpable than the hero of Jerusalem. Yet the central ambiguity remains. For Moat, although murderer, woman and child beater, and increasing threat to police and public, is also regarded as good neighbour, much loved family member, brotherly comrade and cult hero.
What is most striking about the story of Raoul Moat, however, is the manner in which the national media - usually so reluctant to move beyond London and the Home Counties - headed North in their droves.
Recent memories of homicidal Cumbrian taxi driver Derek Bird no doubt contributed to the media exodus from its home turf, but the hunting of Raoul Moat to the Nortumbrian town of Rothbury created its own unique social and police drama.
My feeling is that Moat is another character to whose story Rylance's acting skills could ultimately bring justice, as he did to the very different tragedy of David Kelly, who, nevertheless, was also hounded by the media to his own death.
As to the real lessons to be learnt from this extraordinary episode, many may feel that the socio-economic millieu of modern Britain's Jerusalem has increasingly excluded post-industrial man to "The Edge of Town". Against this background, Moat does not deserve to be simply pathologised.
Ultimately, however, "the legend of Raoul Moat" is testimony to the powerful dramatic adage that "character is fate".
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