'LIFE IS FULL OF MAGIC AND JOY'

Tom Hiddleston gets existential as his new film explores the importance of living in the present and savouring the moment

- INTERVIEW: GILL PRINGLE

Eleven years ago he became a viral internet sensation after performing an impromptu dance routine on Alan Carr's Chatty Man, thrusting his hips as an open-mouthed James Corden looked on.

Now Tom Hiddleston's moves are setting the screen alight again, thanks to an epic six-minute performance in the forthcoming film The Life of Chuck, an adaptation of Stephen King's thought-provoking 2020 novella.

The British actor, who has no formal dance training, prepared for the scene with a six-week crash course in everything from swing and samba to cha-cha and the quickstep.

When we meet Tom's character, the accountant Charles "Chuck" Krantz, he is dressed in a suit and carrying a briefcase. Passing a street drummer, he suddenly begins to dance - first shyly, then with joyful abandon.

Tom's costar, Annalise Basso, plays Janice, a woman who spontaneously joins him, and together they deliver an impromptu performance so electric and unguardedly alive that it turns an ordinary day into something unforgettable.

The film's writer and director, Mike Flanagan, enlisted the acclaimed choreographer Mandy Moore to create the complex number, which includes Michael Jackson's famous moonwalk.