Cliche of the Week 74 – Hit the Big Time

Hitting the big time is a regular reachable dream for those who write, act, make films or play sport.

Up to 150 people hit the big time each month in news reports in the mainstream media around the world.

It is better to leave the phrase out and show or define how the individual's or group's success has arrived. Readers will work it out themselves.

"An Alice Springs-raised actor looks set to hit the big time when she stars in a blockbuster to be filmed in the Northern Territory" (Northern Territory News, November 30).

"A director has hit the big time after the short film he made on the Curry Mile for just pound stg. 1.75 scooped a pound stg. 30,000 prize" (Manchester Evening News, November 17).

Soccer: "After winning 71 Northern Ireland caps from 1991 to 2004, nothing would thrill him (Michael Hughes) more than to see his country hit the big time again" (The Belfast Telegraph, November 12).

"Remember the name Husky, because the band is about to hit the big time" (The Ballarat Courier, November 10).

"Former Trinity student (Tana) French hit the big time with her debut thriller In The Woods and her latest is another bestseller both in Europe and the US" (Irish Independent, November 7).

Cliche of the Week appears in The Australian newspaper Mondays.

Cliches in the media are tracked across the world using Factiva and Dow Jones Insight.

Chris Pash's book, The Last Whale, a true story set in the 1970s, was published by Fremantle Press in 2008.