London | It’s often said that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s political hero is Winston Churchill: man of letters, bon vivant, and a patriotic, boosterish leader who rose to meet an existential crisis. Johnson has even written a biography of his Downing Street predecessor.

But almost 15 years ago, Johnson – then aspiring to be London mayor – said his greatest political hero is actually fictional: it’s Larry Vaughn, mayor of the town terrorised by the giant killer shark in Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film Jaws.