Oo, Ah, you're nicked!

Eric Cantona, the former Manchester United and Leeds footballing ace who became famous on screen for a kung fu incident on the wrong side of the law, has now been firmly copped.

After novelty roles in Elizabeth (as the French Ambassador) and Ken Loach's Looking for Eric (as himself) 45-year-old Cantona gets his juiciest movie to date playing Detective Forgeat in a new thriller, Switch, which opens here next month.

As befitting the one-time sports god who decided to take spectacular high-kicking revenge against a mouthy Crystal Palace fan during a match in 1995, his big-screen cop has to go outside the law while tracking down a ruthless killer in Switch.

All in all, a kind of re-enactment of Cantona's most notorious case when seagulls followed the trawler because they thought sardines would be thrown into the sea.