people from their cars and some people had to spend the night in community centres. and there are still weather warnings to come. now on bbc news — amol rajan interviews the man playing for his eighth uk snooker title, ronnie 0'sullivan. ronnie o'sullivan is generally regarded as the greatest player ever to pick up a snooker cue. a son of essex, he's broken record after record and he's as exciting away from the table as he is on it. a child prodigy, he became the youngest player to ever win the uk championships. he's compiled more century breaks than any other professional... cheering and applause commentator: i mean, the boy is such _ a genius, he really is. ..and his unbeaten 147 time of five minutes and eight seconds is one of the most famous moments in all sporting history. what a break! what a fantastic maximum break that is! in 2022, he went after stephen hendry�*s record of seven world championship titles. he'll have dreamed of this moment, equalling. but what is the true price of victory for him? o'sullivan has battled addiction to alcohol and drugs, fought a continuing battle with his mental health and, at 16, had to overcome an unimaginable trauma — his father sent to prison for murder. but overcome it, he has. today, the father of three is still the number one player in the world — uncowed and outspoken. i don't get appreciated on the snooker circuit. none of the top players do, in my opinion. how did �*the rocket,�* as he came to be known, stay at the top of the game? and where are he and snooker going next? ronnie! good to see you. how are you? you all right? come and take a seat. thanks for inviting us over. it's all right, mate. this is where the magic happens, is it? sometimes. how do you choose which table you go? that used to be my favourite one, when i first started, then that one. that one, not so good. here we are on an industrial estate in romford and i know essex is home to you but it does show something, doesn't it, that this is — you kind of never left this place. this is where you come. you don't need somewhere glamorous to practise. you come here because it's, what, familiar, it's nearby? it's quite strange, really, because years ago, i used to play in a club in ilford snooker centre and they had three really great tables there and, you know, it's a big club, you know, you had an atmosphere there of a lot of club members, the fruit machines going, it was just a really buzzy place to go. but then, a lot of snooker clubs closed down when the smoking ban come in... oh, yeah. ..so they went out of business. so, then, a lot of the players now have to find their own facilities to practise. ijust come in here, ijust put my music on. i play twice a week, and i'll do five hours each of them days. but for me, just being in here on my own is — i enjoy that space and that time, you know? you've got a lot going on because you've got this new autobiography out, you're doing this interview — have you reached a kind of a stage in life where you feel like you've learnt a lot and you've got some lessons that you want to impart? well, to be the best, which is number one in the world, winning all the major titles, you know, it's not an easy thing to do, you know? being the top four in the world was easy. i'm comfortable there, i can do that in my sleep. but to be number one and to win the world championships multiple times and being the, you know, the player that everyone wants to beat and having the pressure on you every time you go there, that you're expected to win, that's not an easy sort of position to have. so, you know, you have, you know, to take on a massive amount of pressure, an onslaught from players that bring everything — you know, because every match i play is like a final — for them, not for me, you know? but i do realise that, you know... because they're taking you on. yeah, they want to beat me. if you want to win, you have to dig in and you fight and you're prepared to fight for every ball. eventually, the game will come around for you. and when that moment comes, you just don't know, but all you can do is hang in there. if you don't hang in there and you quit mentally, then you never get to win them tournaments. so, that's what i mean about going to them dark places, you know? cheering and applause in may 2022, o'sullivan had to go there again as he looked to equal stephen hendry�*s seven world championship titles. he made it through to the final againstjudd trump and was leading going into the last session. but the pressure was on. i was pumped. i was ready. i was like a caged lion. i was like a caged lion, mate. it was like — i was up for it, i was up for the row. i didn't care who it was, i was like, you know what? i wasjust in battle mode. is that addictive? yeah! yeah, that's why it's hard to leave it alone. that was me, like, thinking, "right, i've got to squeeze every bit "out of this," you know, "i'm not leaving no stone unturned. "i'm not leaving an ounce. "i'm here to win. "i'm here to win this tournament," you know, "and i'm going to have to do it my way." he has proved... he did, and he won, equalling hendry�*s incredible record of seven world championships. in this tournament, in this final, ronnie o'sullivan has proved without doubt that he is the greatest player in the world! but, believe it or not, there was a time when snooker wasn't everything, when ronnie wasjust a normal schoolboy, keen to play with his friends and spend time with his family. how do you look back on those early years? yeah, i had a good time, you know? i loved my football, loved going to school, i loved playing sport — you know, i'd be playing tennis nearly every day, i was out on my bmx, so, yeah, i have an amazing memory of childhood. it was a home with italian food on the table and snooker on the telly. the 1980s was the heyday of the sport. tobacco advertising — which was then still legal — brought the money pouring in. it attracted big characters and big audiences with nearly 20 million tuning in to watch the world championship final in 1985 between steve davis and dennis taylor. cheering and applause snooker players of the �*80s, they were like rock stars, really — likejimmy white, alex higgins, tony knowles, cliff thorburn, davis — all these different characters, they were like celeb — you know, big celebrities, then, you know? because i loved snooker, you know? and, you know, when i got my first real good cue — which was a powerglide cue from a shop in leytonstone, i think it was about £125 — it's probably one of the most exciting days in my life. you know, i remember going down there, i knew straight away the cue i wanted, because i'd been in there looking and looking and my dad took me down there and he went, "yeah, you can have that cue" and i got this cue and i was like, "wow!" and it was the same as stephen hendry�*s cue that he used. o'sullivan's father, ronnie senior, ensured ronniejunior got plenty of game time. you spent a lot of time in snooker halls and i love these stories of how — what was it, what would your dad do? he'd drop you off on the city road or something. yeah. and what — you'd just spend all day there, would you? yeah, literally, like, in the summer holidays, yeah — obviously summer holidays. he'd drop me off about10:30, 11:00. i'd play snooker till maybe 9:00, 10:00 at night, sometimes midnight. cos my dad obviously went in and he said, "look, this is my son," you know, "and there's the money. "he plays all day. "keep an eye on him," you know? and that's what they did. it's free childcare, weren't it? that's what he called it. you know, he said, "i was happy to leave you in there cos "i knew you were safe." you know, "i didn't want you on the streets "and stuff like that. "so, for you to be playing snooker in a snooker club..." it was good for him, you know? how quickly did you realise that you were going to be quite good? i always practised with people that were better than me, so my only goal was to beat that person. and then, once i was better than him, it was like, "right, who's the next best player?" then, i'd want to beat him. and then, eventually, i'd beat the best player in the club. and then, it was like, "right, 0k, who's the best player in the area?" so, i'd always... my dad would always take me places to play better players. he won his first tournament by the age of nine, potted enough balls consecutively to achieve his first century break by the age of ten, and by 13 had won the under—16 british championships. how do you feel when you watch snooker on the television, you see the steve davises and everybody else? is that where you're headed? yeah. yeah? ronnie 0'sullivan has already won several thousand pounds - from tournaments at the age of 11. i hear you were earning more from a tournament than your teachers were earning for months of work. i never even saw the money — i'd just give it to my dad. as long as i got a trophy, i didn't care about the money. i mean, i was fortunate enough that my dad would pay for everything, but i wasn't bothered about money — i'm still not bothered about money. i've always been in it for the trophies and the love of it and the desire to just play the game, you know, that i love. was itjust the love of the game? was it that you wanted to sort of not let ronnie down? i loved it too much and losing never hurt me and my dad didn't like that. you know, he said to me, he said, you know, like, "why are you smiling?" you know, i was like, "why not? you know? i lost a game to some kid. it was a challenge match. anyway, we got in the car, went home, and he was like, he destroyed me. i didn't see it coming. so, from an early age, you know, i had to have a winning mentality and i didn't have it. and my dad was loving and supportive, but you had to win, you know? and he was probably right. if he didn't give me that tough sort of, you know, "get on with it," you know, "you're on your own here," maybe i would have not been able to succeed. known as �*big ron,�* 0'sullivan�*s dad ran a chain of sex shops in soho. but in 1991, when ronniejunior was just 15, he was arrested on suspicion of murder following the death of a man at a bar in the king's road in london. bruce bryan had been stabbed twice and died on the pavement outside. ronniejunior was told once he arrived in thailand for a competition. to get that phone call when i was in thailand, i was so far away from home and i just didn't want to be there. so, that's when i first found out that my dad had got involved in whatever had happened. so, yeah, ifound that really hard, you know — 15 years of age, away, you know, ijust struggled so, yeah, that was tough. when he got sentenced for 18 years — you weren't in the courtroom — but he was being led out of the courtroom and he looked up, and he said something very particular to someone that was there and i know that has stayed with you. what is it he said? yeah, he just said to the woman — i think she was, like, working on his case. hejust looked up to her and just said, "just tell my son to win." that was it. has that stayed with you? well, yeah, it's more of like what's. .. of how he could — just that was the only thing on his mind, you know? you know, you're going down for 20 years and all you're thinking about is my son winning. i was like, forget winning. i just wanted my dad, you know what i mean? didn't care about winning. the same year his dad went down, he turned professional, winning 7a of his first 76 matches. but more trouble was coming. when he was 19, his mother went to prison for seven months for tax evasion. 0'sullivan was in emotional turmoil and addiction was taking hold. alcohol, drugs and food would come to dominate his life. the thing is, through all of this — so, through all of this, you're doing — you're notjust winning through all this but you're doing things that people had never seen before. you scored this 147 maximum — that's 15 reds with 15 blacks. yeah. did it in 1997, it's the fastest ever — five minutes, eight seconds — described by stephen hendry... mm. ..as the greatest thing that's happened in any sport, ever. umpire: 72. john virgo: well, one more red and the frame's safe. _ but ronnie's got the thing on his mind, and so has . everybody in the audience. dennis taylor: listen, john, i know you've commentated i on a maximum before. i have never, and i'm starting to get a bit excited here. i understand you hate watching it back. yeah — it was flawed, that's why. it was flawed. there was so many mistakes in there. it wasn't clinical. it was just done off instinct, which is all right — anyone can do something off of instinct — but for me, i was never going to win the world championship playing that way, you know? my goal was to win the world championships. and although i made that 147 in five minutes and eight seconds, it was done out of fear. it wasn't done out of feeling confident. 113. that wasn't a confident man out there playing, it was someone that didn't feel confident, so he kind of sped up and it wasjust... you know, do it so quick that you don't actually have to think. that can win you one frame, and that's great and everyone gets excited by it, but deep down, i knew it wasn't — i wasn't going to win that tournament. you know, i knew i wasn't going to win it. there was no way in a million years i was going to win it. so, that's — that's why i don't have a good feeling about that 147, because it was just a frame. cheering and applause what a break! what a fantastic maximum break that is! ronnie 0'sullivan's delighted, the crowd's delighted, john virgo and i am delighted. five minutes for one — unbelievable maximum break. that record—breaking 147 happened during the seven—year period ronnie says he went off the rails, losing himself to addiction. from assaulting an official and receiving a two—year suspended ban to his nights out, 0'sullivan was the bad boy of snooker and prime tabloid fodder — a man whose addiction to drugs became all too public in 1998. ronnie 0'sullivan has been stripped of his irish masters title, plus the £61,000 prize money, after testing positive for cannabis. however, he has escaped a ban. two years later, he checked himself into a rehabilitation facility. and when you admitted yourself to a private psychiatric hospital, what happened? cos it changed your life, in a way. well, the 12 steps was great — you know, probably one of the best things i've ever done. what did you get out of it? just people just sort of like — you know, every day sober was a great day and for me, when i was just in the midst of six, seven years of not knowing how to have a day clean, you know, that was — i couldn't do it. ijust couldn't do it. and to kind of go to a meeting and get clean and be around people that had been through the same experience as me and was getting clean and i could see that they were well — their eyes, they were happy, i was like, "i want this," you know? so, for me, it was — that was probably the best thing i'd ever done. but 0'sullivan also faced mental anguish, suffering from depression and anxiety, which reached a nadir at the world championships in 2001. so you've got your first world championships. yeah. and at the start of that tournament, you're on the phone to samaritans? samaritans, yeah. you can laugh about it now. what was going on? basically, i'd — i'd nine months clean, might have been — yeah, about nine months clean. i'd been in rehab the year before and they said, "once you get clean, you realise why you took "substances because of the feelings that it brings up " — you can't numb it any more." so, whereas before, i'd feel a bit dodgy, i'd have ajoint, drink, get plastered, and that was it, you know? now, you don't, you know, so you kind of have to live whatever was, you know, naturalfeelings, and i was just new to it all. you know, i'd had six, seven years of having a blast, so it was like trying to function in the world, you know, normal. um, so i found that quite difficult, to be honest with you. what'd you say to the samaritans? um, ijust said, "i'm really struggling," you know? i said, ifeel like i was having anxiety, panic attacks — that was when i first started having panic attacks — and then she said, "maybe you should ring your doctor "and maybe talk to him." so, i phoned my doctor and that's when they started putting me on antidepressants. a few weeks after calling the samaritans in 2001, 0'sullivan won that tournament, claiming his first—ever world championship title. but recovery has had its ups and downs. his behaviour around the table has at times been erratic. one of the most famous moments came in 2006 while playing stephen hendry in the uk championships. he'll be pretty annoyed with himself. well, he's shaking hands. this is quite incredible. i don't believe what i'm seeing here, clive. what's the matter? i've never seen anything like this. what was going on? i had a lot of personal problems, a lot of stuff off the table which i don't talk about but, yeah, i had a lot of stuff going on off the table. it was a pretty bad time for me. so, yeah, that walking out the match was on the cards, you know? i nearly done it two or three times before that but that just seemed like the time to just go, "right, i need to do it now." do you regret that? no, not at all. why? not at all. because it was coming. and if it wouldn't have happened in that match, it probably would have happened in that match. and it was only once i'd done it and i'd realised the consequences of it, that i went, "i can't "do that again." around 2012, 0'sullivan appeared to press reset on the stresses in his life. the reigning world champion, ronnie 0'sullivan, has decided to miss the rest of the snooker season. the chairman of the sport's governing body, barry hearn, says 0'sullivan has personal issues that he needs to resolve. he took a break from the game and started working with renowned psychiatrist steve peters. he returned in 2013 to win his fifth world championship. it's not going to be a century. but what a fantastic defence... cheering ..in this world championship. what a smashing final we have! and you've credited dr steve peters, who's a sports psychiatrist, who wrote the chimp paradox, with helping you to really rebalance your life and achieve greatness. what's he done for you that no—one else could? i think he just taught me tojust be resilient. you know, prepare for the worst. you know, i'm very good at preparing for the worst outcome. you know, once i've embraced the worst outcome, then nothing, really, after that is an issue, you know. how's your mental health today? yeah, i feel great. i feel happy. i feel very happy. how much of the fact that you are in a good place today is to do with the fact that you're addicted to running? ijust like being outdoors, i like being over the forest, i like the community. i like the friends that i have through running. i like that it gets me up and out of bed early in the morning before the whole, you know — 7:00 in the morning, it's still very quiet. and i love that peace and quiet, you know? snooker, you spend a lot of time indoors, you know, sort of bottling up feelings. with running, you're outdoors and you're releasing it all. so, for me, it's a great release, if you like, but i don't think it's a way of fixing stuff internally, which is what i've sometimes done, i think you need to — that needs to be addressed, as well, so... let's talk a bit about the game more broadly. so, when you were growing up, snooker was regularly watched by over ten million people. yeah. we live in a very different age now. many, many more channels, youtube, and snooker can't command that kind of audience — at least not here in the uk. mmm. what sort of health is snooker in, do you think? um... i don't think there's enough good matches. you know, i think there's a lot of players that people don't know that don't play the game in the right way. i don't think it's very hard to be a top—16 snooker player. i could probably get away with playing once a week for two or three hours a day. i have high standards, i suppose. it's sort of difficult. i need to try and put myself in their shoes but i find it hard to put myself in their shoes because i was in their shoes and i didn't accept top 50 as 0k. so, i don't — i'm not a great loverfor mediocrity. i'm not a fan of it. ifind it quite revolting, in some ways, when i see people accepting that. what's gone wrong with the game today, though? because you criticise facilities, prize money. i mean, i remember growing up, you always see these smoking brands... yep. ..and it looked like snooker was well—funded, it was glamorous, it was rich. what's happ...? why is that? too many tournaments, not enough quality, really. that's what i'm saying — i think it needs more quality than quantity. it's gone quantity over quality. but are the tournaments, i wonder, in the wrong place? you mentioned you spent — did you say four of the last six months in china? yeah. it's a country investing massively in the sport and its big—money exhibitions are attracting top names. but some of those events have clashed with world snooker tour matches — matches uk players are contracted to compete in. they've been threatened with sanctions if they skip tournaments. 0'sullivan has already spoken out, claiming players were being almost blackmailed. the world snooker tour, which represents the professional sport and hosts tournaments, has said it has dealt with all players in a respectful manner and reached a satisfactory outcome by moving a tournament date. you said about china that you can no longer speak out. is that true? i mean, what's going on? is it a legal thing or is it — do you feel they're trying to stop you talking about the health of the game that you've done so much to promote? i mean, i have no option there, you know? if i can't go and do what i need to do — which is play a lot in china, do my stuff out there — i won't ever play again. so, we're at a kind of sort of crossroads now. why? why do you say that? because there's just not enough here in the uk for me to justify the effort that i put in, you know? when i go to china, i'm playing great venues, great crowds, great prize moneyjust in fantastic venues. you know, i'm promoting my own — doing my own events, basically, and i love it. and if that gets to the point where i'm not able to do that, i'm not allowed to do that, i probably won't play. i'll probably go and play chinese 8—ball because i still want to play snooker, i still want a cue in my hand. and i have to go where is best for me. i don't get appreciated on the snooker circuit — none of the top players do, in my opinion. yeah. i'm an individual. yeah, i'm an individual, and if someone's going to respect me and value me more, why would i not go there? i'd love to be able to just keep playing snooker for the next five, six, seven, eight years. but if i'm going to be forced into a situation where that's not possible, then i'm not going to just accept, like, what the other 130 players do, which is go and play tournament after tournament, week in, week out. what i consider, you know, not to be... it's very difficult because i'm under disciplinary at the moment, so they're going to kind of... i've got a big thing coming up soon, so they're going to kind of give me a good seeing to, which i'm going to have to take on the chin, but i've been told not to speak and not to say anything. the wst told us broadcast and attendance figures and the standard of play indicated the right amount and quality of matches were being played. it said it was delighted for ronnie to build his profile in china, as it benefits the whole sport, but it faced challenges fitting new tournaments into an already busy schedule. the wst said ronnie's claim he isn't appreciated is ridiculous, describing him as a legend of the sport, but said it exists to serve and protect the interests of all professional snooker players. but how much longer can he stay on top? arguably, the greatest break builder in snooker history knows there is a difference between good and great, but the fight isn't getting any easier. the great player will get there within one or two shots — like, stephen hendry will get that one out of the way immediately and then, he's around here. but someone will go blue, red, blue, red, pink, red and then get that one. so, it makes break building more difficult. so, that's the sort of mathematic sort of way of it. but snooker is quite a technical sport, so a lot of it is just about technically hitting a ball right, so there's a lot of players that have got no talent but they've got great technique and they're really difficult to beat because they don't really miss many shots but they don't do anything brilliant but they're just solid and they're the really tough players to play. listen, i know you've got to go. it is really, really good to talk to you. thank you so much. v0|ceover: just after this interview was recorded, we discovered 0'sullivan had tweeted he was withdrawing from a champions event for the sake of his mental health. his internal battle continues. if you feel distressed by the references in this programme, if you have been affected by this story, had to... live from london. this is bbc news. israel says the ground offensive in the south of gaza has begun. a senior military leader says the operation will be conducted �*with no less strength' than in the north. one person is killed in a knife and hammer attack in central paris. anti—terror police says the suspect had pledged himself to the islamic state group. weather warnings for snow and ice are in place across parts of the uk, after heavy snowfall caused major disruption. good evening. the israel defense forces have announced the beginning of a new ground operation in southern gaza, just north of the city of khan younis. israel's chief of the general staff, lieutenant general herzi halevi, told troops that the operations in the south would be conducted �*with no less strength' than in the north. israel continued its renewed bombardment of gaza for a third day, having told more palestinians to leave areas in and around khan younis immediately.