Random Encounters with Celebrities

[Nickslikk2112]

How could I forget, once shared a lift with Prince Naseem in Coles, Sheffield.

Seen Ian "The Bard of Barnsley" McMillan on trains a few times.

[pxr5]

Having a beer (underage at 17) in my local pub and stood next to me was Paul Young also having a beer. He was in the Q-Tips then and a mate of the Landlord.

[Matt2112]

Ex-footballer Geoff Horsfield's career was spring-boarded between 1996-1998 after 70-odd appearances for Halifax Town, when his goals - at a rate for us of 1.6 per game - were a major factor in our return to the football league at the time, but it was only last year when I actually met him: former players from that glorious era were invited to The Shay Stadium for a league game and I was the beneficiary of a pre-match hospitality package.

I was taking a leek in the gents and he came in and used the urinal next to me.  So of course I thanked him for what he did for us and quickly went over some away day memories and he was not only extremely gracious but inquisitive about how the currrent team were playing - the conversation ended with us shaking hands after having a laugh about making sure we'd washed them first. 

I worked with someone who played with Geoff for a while. Maybe at Carlisle, or Scarborough?? Anyway, he spoke very highly of him.

That'll probably be Scarborough, when his day job was brick-laying.

[Slim]

I said hello to Hugh Laurie when I passed him in Charing Cross Road in 1995. He replied with a disinterested "alright?".

Noticed the Labour MP Frank Field on the opposite platform at Westminster Station once in the late '90s. Noticed Sir Jonathan Miller a few feet along the platform from me while waiting for a Northern Line train in 2002. Can't remember which station, London Bridge probably. He was an author, theatre director, TV presenter and one of the original Beyond the Fringe crew with Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and Peter Cook.

Went in Virgin Records on Oxford Street in 1996 to enquire if they had a copy of Victor. Just as I arrived at the counter, a pleasant old man wearing a cap was turning away from it. Before I could utter a word to the assistant, she blurted out "That was Ivor Cutler!"

I saw Terry Hall (Specials, Colourfield, Funboy Three) in Our Price records at Covent Garden in 1998. Always been a fan but never said hello, he was with a young woman and they were having a laugh about something.

Saw Jemima Khan on Bond street one day in the Noughties. She was standing outside one of the shops talking to someone on a mobile phone. Hugh Grant, maybe? I smiled at her. She noticed that I'd recognised her.

Passed Nigel Havers on Jermyn Street in 2006, I think he'd just come out of one of the shops.

Tony Robinson ('Baldrick' from Blackadder of course) peered through the window of the Sushi place where I was eating in Covent Garden, apparently fascinated by the rotating conveyor belt carrying Japanese delicacies. I waved, and he smiled from ear to ear, apparently delighted to be recognised. 1998, probably.

I saw Simon Ward (Young Winston, All Creatures Great And Small) on St Martin's Lane in the late '90s. Perhaps he was appearing in a play near there. Also saw Jamie Theakston there, sporting a moustache at around the same time.

[Matt2112]

I was working in a private healthcare clinic in Leeds who moved to bigger premises in about 2002 - the formal opening was conducted by long-standing Leeds Central (as was) MP Hilary Benn, current Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

He turned up with his missus in a red Nissan Micra.  He spent a fair amount of time talking to every staff member individually, including me of course.  He came across as a very pleasant chap indeed.

About six or seven years ago I was visiting a friend who at the time lived in Chiswick Green.  Minutes after he told me that quite a few celebrities lived in the area, we were walking over a rail bridge and Alex Jones of The One Show walked by us in the opposite direction, wearing a smart summer dress and shades.

[Matt2112]

A "Facebook Memory" from 14 years ago has just cropped up on my feed: I was playing with my band at a charity festival for a local hospice and, somehow, the organisers had persuaded Preston from The Ordinary Boys and Celebrity Big Brother and Lisa from Steps to each perform a short set, albeit their respective stars weren't exactly in the ascendancy at the time.

I didn't interact with Preston because word quickly got round the other performers that he was a complete knob, playing up to every pathetic pop star diva stereotype known to mankind.

However, Lisa was entirely the opposite, a smiling, charming young lady who willingly posed for photos, including a couple with my band mates and I that reappeared on my timeline today.

[Slim]

A particularly fondly-remembered encounter was with Elvis Costello, on Piccadilly, not far from Green Park tube station in 2003 - he walked out of a shop just in front of me accompanied by a young woman, and impulsively I shouted 'Elvis!' - he turned round and I stuttered something sheepishly about just wanting to say hello, feeling slightly starstruck - and he smiled broadly and offered a warm handshake - he couldn't have been nicer.

I found myself standing next to Ronnie Corbett, at the pedestrian crossing opposite Jermyn Street on Upper Regent Street late one night in the '90s. He was with his wife, very smartly dressed in a bow and tie. He looked up at me, expectantly waiting to be recognised - I smiled and said hello, and he said "hello, how are you?" - as if I'd been trying to get his attention, rather than the other way round. National treasure.

In 1984 or so I saw Paul Daniels smugly strolling through Eldon Square in Newcastle. A nearby woman exclaimed "Eee! It's Paul Daniels!" - and Paul obviously enjoyed the moment. About ten years later I encountered him again, emerging onto Regent Street from a side-street in his Roller, slightly incautiously, while I was crossing the side-street in question at the time as a pedestrian. I raised a reproachful eyebrow as he braked, and he gave me a withering look from the driver's seat.

Went for breakfast with the bonkers Japanese woman I was dating at the time at a Portuguese caff next to Fulham Broadway station in 1997. The Fairbrass brothers (from Right Said Fred) were also having breakfast there.

Around about the same time, I was walking along the Fulham Road one afternoon. Someone I recognised from the telly passed me coming the other way. She looked pleased to be recognised, but I didn't say hello. I only realised who she was months later - Sally Knyvette (Jenna from Blake's Seven).

I saw Janick Gers a few times round the pubs of Hartlepool in the late '70s and chatted to him a couple of times. But he was merely the guitar player in Hartlepool's own White Spirit at the time. My brother tells me that he brought Ian Gillan with him to one of Hartlepool's hostelries in 1981, which caused a bit of a stir. But I wasn't present for that myself.

[Slim]

I saw John Entwistle in the bar at the London Music Show at Wembley in 1993. Oddly, he was wearing something like a Kimono and had an Asian cutie in tow. He swaggered in like he owned the place, but he didn't get much attention. I saw Paul King (frontman of King, later an MTV 'VJ') at a London Music Show a couple of years before that. Come to think of it I saw Micky Moody there talking to a rep at the PRS stand one year in the early '90s.

Late one cold winter's night in 2000 while slightly drunk, I emerged from the Meridien Hotel on Piccadilly and saw Nicholas Parsons, wearing a wooly hat. I went up to him to say how much I enjoyed Radio Four's Just A Minute; he was most gracious and warmly, almost effusively appreciative of my gesture. Lovely man.

When I was working in New York in 1998, I used to wander round Midtown in the evenings sometimes. One evening my attention was drawn to an event that was going on at Rockefeller Plaza, as I passed there. A choir was singing and a small crowd was gathered. I went and joined them for a minute. Looked round and noticed Chevy Chase standing a few feet away from me.

Not long after I started working in London in 1994 I was browsing the racks in Our Price Records on Bishopsgate. Harry Hill strolled in, looking a bit bemused for some reason.

[Nick]

Had to pop up to get a visa from the Chinese embassy in London today. As I arrived at Paddington I crossed paths with Rory Stewart, told him I enjoyed his podcasts.

[captainkurtz]

Went to get a coffee in a new coffee shop that's 5 minutes from home.  Newcastle defender Fabian Schar was in there on his own having a coffee and some cake.  He looked very handsome.

[Slim]

I saw Jeremy Bowen, now the BBC's international editor but then a reporter I think, near the BBC building at the top of Oxford Street in 1999 or 2000. I passed him coming the other way, he could see I'd recognised him but I didn't say anything.

I walked past a cafe near Carnaby Street about 20 years ago, Mike Read (the DJ, not the East Enders actor) was having a coffee outside with some pals. I saw George Layton (star of It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Doctor In The House) standing chatting to someone in a small branch of WH Smith on the Strand in 2000. Come to think of it he was in a couple of episodes of The Sweeney as well.

Late one night in 1996 I got on the Central Line at Holborn. The carriage was empty apart from myself, and a few seats further along, Jane Horrocks deep in effusive conversation with a sycophant.

I said hello to Pete Way at Manchester Airport (or possibly Birmingham Airport) in 2006. Chatted to him for a minute, he was lovely. He asked if I was coming to see UFO on their tour and I said yes (of course), but I didn't.

Saw most or all of Shed Seven in the guitar department in the Rose Morris shop on Denmark street in 1995, haggling over the price of musical instruments. Also saw Steve Hillage in there the same year, having a laugh with the guy behind the counter.

Climbed aboard one of the old slam door trains at London Bridge in '98 or so, en route to Charing Cross across the river. Sat down, Dominic Lawson was sitting opposite me, reading a newspaper.

Andre Previn strolled into a branch of Pret a Manger on the Strand while I was browsing their baguettes. 1996 or so.

[Slim]

Kevin Lloyd played DC "Tosh" Lines in The Bill, and I saw him chatting amiably to a small group of people in Wollaton Park near Nottingham in 1993. About five years later his brother, the ITN journalist Terry Lloyd walked past me in Bloomsbury. He glared at me when he noticed I'd recognised him, though I had no intention of approaching him. Seemed to be in a hurry.

Both dead now, sadly. Terry was killed by the Americans in Iraq in 2003.

I saw Don Warrington, best known from Rising Damp, with one of his kids one evening in Newcastle city centre, in the '90s I think. He looked bored.

[Thenop]

Every now and then I run into Rob Jacobs, former football player and manager for most of this regions' clubs, including Feyenoord and Excelsoir. I looked him up just now, he is 81. Starting to look it as well.
He appears on local TV quite often as a football analyst.

[Slim]

When I lived in London I often frequented the guitar shops of Denmark Street in London and in 1995, while doing a bit of window shopping there, I noticed Bernard Butler and his girlfriend standing next to me.

In 1984, I stayed at a boarding house in Northampton for 6 months (I sometimes refer to this time as my "lost weekend"), and in September that year, an English actor called Patrick Holt came to stay for a few days while appearing in a play at the Derngate Theatre. He'd been the star of a few British films in the '50s and '60s. He had a small speaking part as an RAF officer in Thunderball. He recounted some old war and acting anecdotes to me over breakfast each morning he was there (three or four days I think). He gave me and our landlady free tickets for the play. Really nice bloke. Len Adamson, who had been written out of Coronation Street the previous year, and Derren Nesbitt, the SS Major from Where Eagles Dare were also in the play.

My most encountered celebrity is Michael Palin. I briefly exchanged a friendly greeting with Michael in Covent Garden one Saturday in '96. Saw him there again a few months later. Then in 2004 my wife and I went down to London for the day, got on a tube at Green Park in the late afternoon, sat down on the only two adjacent seats in the carriage, and he was sitting directly opposite the other half. I thought about saying hello again, but he seemed to be hiding behind a newspaper. Perhaps I'd have addressed him as "Mr Wensleydale", to be discreet. But I didn't.

[The Picnic Wasp]

I forgot about this one until now. Many years ago I went with my mum and sister to the local country park to walk our dogs. Afterwards we visited the park tearoom. As usual it was extremely busy but we found a table and settled down to enjoy a well earned rest and bite to eat. Another two couples squeezed past and sat at the tables behind us. I thought that I recognised voices so had a quick look over my shoulder to discover it was Gregg Hemphill and Sanjeev Kohli with their wives. They are of course Victor and Navid from the sitcom Still Game.

They quickly joined in with some light hearted banter with the surrounding tables and couldn't have been less like luvvies. I just wish that we had been sitting closer as it sounded very entertaining above the hubbub of the place. Navid steals the show every week as far as I am concerned. Sanjeev also attended my school, as did Tom Conti and Armando Ianucci.