Celebrities you have met and admired and celebrities that you wish you hadn't met

[Swanny200]

Many years ago I saw former Warwickshire and England cricketer Dermot Reeve break up a fight in the Dome nightclub in Birmingham

And when I have attended Comic Con with my son, we have interacted with:

Colin Baker (Doctor Who) - lovely bloke, very chatty and happy to pose for selfie photos (which seems to be a rare thing these days)
Mark Williams (Fast Show, Mr Weasley in Harry Potter, Mark Williams on the Rails, "We wanna be together" advert etc...) - again, lovely bloke and happy to pose for selfie photos
Sam J Jones (Flash Gordon, Ted 2) - was nice but in a bit of a rush so we didn't get chance to thank him for saving us all
Chris Barrie (Red Dwarf) - was not as tall as I thought, don't believe he really wanted to be there

I read a few years ago that Chris Barrie was going to stop comic-cons for a while as he got bored by them and got annoyed with constantly being asked to do the salute and only being known for being Rimmer and not for his other notable work. Craig Charles has supposedly got better in his advancing years after his personal issues, he did a DJ gig a few years ago near me and people that went there said that he was charming and really down to earth, although sometimes I have to turn off the Gadget show because he can be a bit O.T.T at times, the other two I am unaware of but Llewellyn seems a nice guy, Norman Lovett (Holly) was at a comic-con last year, but never got to meet him.

 

[Darandio]

Quite a few really, mostly through being a driver's mate back in the late 90's. I suppose the use of 'celebrity' is subjective so maybe these aren't all what you'd class as that.

Tony Blair - Met him twice, once in my hometown of Ferryhill when he was meeting folk ahead of the general election and the second time a year or so later when delivering parliamentary wine to Myrobella House with armed police training their rifles on me. Signed for his own case of wine as well! Very polite both times.

David Blunkett - Again, delivering parliamentary wine. I assume it was some suburb of Sheffield but cannot remember exactly where. Thoroughly nice bloke.

Delivered to every other consituency throughout the North East & Cumbria during this time, cannot recall any other Members of Parliament or at least they didn't leave much of an impression if I did meet them!

Met loads of Newcastle players and staff during 1996-1999 or so when the club gym was still at St James Park, we used to deliver bottled water for the coolers in the gym and offices.

Kenny Dalglish - Met him outside the lift at the main reception at the ground not long after he'd taken over. A hero of mine with an infectious smile, the general consensus is don't meet your heroes but no disappointment for me.

Freddie Shepherd - Again in the reception at St James Park, he was chairman of Newcastle at the time. Held the door for him as I was leaving with an empty sack barrow and not so much as a thankyou, then talked down to the receptionist and security guard. Utter turd of a bloke.

Alan Shearer - Have briefly seen him at the ground but delivered bottled water to his house in Ponteland multiple times when he was out for most of the season through injury. Not the most interesting fella.

Various other players that were there at the time in the gym included Steve Howey, Keith Gillespie, Darren Peacock, Steve Watson and Phillippe Albert, there were probably more but I cannot recall them. No real lasting impressions good or bad but spoke to them in some shape or form whether it just be a hello.

Kevin Keegan - Never actually saw him at St James Park because i'd only started in the job a couple of months before he left the club first time around. Did deliver bottled water to his house in Wynyard on various occasions in the few months afterwards. Another hero of mine and again not disappointed.

Eric Gates - He's from Ferryhill the same as me. In primary school he came and presented a football award to me, he was playing for Sunderland at the time.

Mike Hooper - Was the reserve keeper at Liverpool for many years behind Bruce Grobbelaar before moving to Newcastle. Straight after leaving football he ended up broke and living in a council house in my street in Ferryhill, saw him daily walking two huge dogs. My boss at the time was chairman for Spennymoor United and he'd asked me to get him his phone number to try and see if he would come and play for them. The response wasn't repeatable, it was clear he'd fallen out of love with football, thoroughly miserable.

Joe Pasquale - He was in pantomime one year at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle and we used to deliver bottled water there as well via the stage door. Full of jokes when talking to anyone he encountered, cracking bloke.

Leslie Grantham - Also in pantomime at the same time and the total opposite. Miserable, snappy and very much up himself.

Toyah Wilcox - Another pantomime rendezvous, this time at the Sunderland Empire. Held the door open as I wheeled the bottled water in. No complaints, very polite.

Jethro - I've always been a huge fan of his comedy. Went to see him at the civic in Darlington and he came in the bar beforehand, talked to a few people and signed some autographs before asking which way to the dressing room. "Dressing room, where the fox hat?"

If i've taken anything from this it's made me realise I delivered one hell of a lot of bottled water!

 

[83A]

I have been a television broadcast engineer for going on 20 years. Therefore you’d think I’d have a celebrity autograph book the size of a phone directory!

Not so

Normally my work is done before any “talent” arrives at a studio or OB. Or I’m so busy trying to get something on air (or keep on air) I normally would not notice !

Therefore celebs I have barged past in a hurry include:

Lots of Wimbledon players including John Mcenroe and Martina Navratilova, Williams sisters etc
Jamie Rednap
Most of the BBC news team
Some F1 drivers


However my colleague who used to be a freelance vision mixer and producer has worked on many a TV program and met a huge list of celebs.

He categorically told me the nicest people in the business are Mel and Sue !

 

[jb108822]

He categorically told me the nicest people in the business are Mel and Sue !

I can well believe that, given they're on record to have sworn loudly and profusely during parts of Bake-Off recordings when contestants were upset so as to make it unbroadcastable.

 

[trebor79]

Levi Roots - Happened to be finishing up a book signing at Nottingham Waterstones one day as I was going into the shop. Seemed very up himself, got up from the table and with his assistant in tow literally swaggered out of the shop with his chest pushed out looking down his nose at every at he silently and slowly made his way. Very odd.

Neil Morrissey - I and a few friends went for a drink in a slightly dodgy Nottingham pub mid-week. Couldn't work out why it was so busy, and full of attractive young women in tight dresses and short skirts. Till we spotted him - seemed cheerful enough and was having a good session!

Alan Sugar - At Stapleford airfield. I went for a pee and as I walked through the cafe he was sat at a table with his coterie. Had a face on him that had "bugger off" written all over it, so nobody other than his group dared engage with him. Apparently he is well known for being grumpy!

Alan Carr - Sat opposite him on a train in the early days of his career when he was the fall guy for Justin Lee Collins. Lovely guy, not annoying like he is on the telly, had an interesting chat about all sorts of things with him.

Dale Winton - Randomly bumped into him at a record store in London years ago. He was very amused and gracious when I blurted out "Oh my god, it's you!"

Rob Pittam - Roving reporter with "Working Lunch". Did a training course for us, nice guy, very down to earth and it was a great course too.

HM The Queen - OK, I didn't meet her but my father did. Although she did walk about 6 inches away from me - she is absolutely TINY. Dad claimed not to be able to recall anything that they spoke about as she pinned his badge on him.

Rowan Atkinson - My aunt met him at some function years ago. Apparently he was quite unpleasant and as he left managed to drop his wallet. Someone picked it up, ran after him and tapped him on the shoulder at which point he snatched his wallet and turned on his heel without a word of thanks.

My grandfather used to drink with Eddie Stobart when he just had a couple of lorries. Also used to drink with other well known people from those parts, but I can't recall any of the names now.

Kirsten O'Brian - Before she was a "broom cupboard" presenter. My friends and I won a competition to produce a segment of a local TV science show, and she was co-presenter. Lovely lady and good fun, she told us her dream was to be a CBBC broom cupboard presenter - the next year there she was.

 

[route101]

Bumped into Frankie Boyle in Glasgow last year. I said hi but he walked off to avoid me.

 

[Calthrop]

I scarcely qualify, I feel, for this thread -- have been a very short distance away from various famous folk, including some of the Royals; but can bring to mind only a couple with whom I've had even the slightest actual interaction. One Speech Day at my school -- must have been circa 1963 -- the guest of honour was the Conservative politician R.A.B. Butler (1902 -- 1982): presenting me with a book as prize for something-or-other, he shook my hand and said a word or two, and I said "thank you". And, I met -- peripherally -- Eliza Manningham-Buller (Director-General of MI5 for a while; member of the House of Lords), long before she was famous. This was at university, a little over fifty years ago: my then girlfriend had a nodding acquaintance with E. M-B, who was in the same college as her -- I believe that Eliza and I exchanged a couple of words on one or two occasions.

(I seem to have a bit of a way of running into people who landed up in the "spying" business. I'm given to understand that the [then all-male] school I attended, produced a disproportionate number of chaps who rose to high positions / did noteworthy stuff in the milieu of MI5 and kindred outfits; this has included one bod who at said school, became a good friend of mine -- he never got particularly famous, as such; but then I suppose that in the nature of things, the ideal on that scene is to remain as-unknown-as-possible to the general public. My regard for that school as it was 5 - 6 decades back, is not high: I'd describe it as a cheapjack, fifth-rate would-be-public-school, staffed largely by people many of whom ranged from incompetent, to borderline certifiable. If it actually turned out an appreciable number of mandarins of the espionage / intelligence-gathering trade, then perhaps it was not such a dead loss as I've been assuming...

Have just remembered: a pupil at that school at the same time as me, with whom I was acquainted, was Andy Peebles; who I gather went on to become a DJ of a certain degree of renown.)

In the exact opposite corner I spent five hours sat behind Ann Widdecombe in first class down to Truro and she's probably the vilest person I've seen, belching and farting and snoring and being insulting to staff who wouldn't give her freebies because don't you know who I am. Eugh.

I'd long had a bit of a soft spot for Ann Widdecombe, while not being in agreement with her politics -- for one thing, I've found her love of hedgehogs, and concern about the species's being in trouble in Britain nowadays, endearing. But reading this post and others in the thread, has me feeling rather sadly, that she sounds like a real "piece of work", for whom my affection has been misplaced. Inveterate belchers / farters / snorers, can still be nice people in their dealings with others; but it would appear that that doesn't apply to our Ann. A pity.

 

[bearhugger]

Met Diane Youdale (Jet from Gladiators) a few times when she was a presenter for BBC Radio Tees. Lovely lass who always remembered me when I saw her around town and said hi.
Also met a few people from Dr Who at conventions. Colin Baker, Paul McGann both lovely and Sylvester McCoy was always made time for fans, in particular at the end of one day he was doing a signing / autograph session but kept on going even though he was obviously in some pain to get through the queue of people who were waiting.

 

[MotCO]

This was a story told by Tom Swarbrick, a presenter on LBC.

Tom was in a pub, talking with a friend, when a stranger tried to butt into the conversation. Tom was a bit peeved about this and ignored the guy. It was only when he was on the way home that Tom realised that the stranger was Paul Macartney!

 

[Busaholic]

Morpurgo. A very humble man indeed.

I met him many moons ago on a residential school trip, my Primary School used to be involved in the “Farms for City Children” initiative, for Inner City schools and showing Country life to children from under-privileged backgrounds. Michael and his wife set that up back in 1976, and in 1999 they both received an MBE for their services to youth! Anyhow... in Spring 2001 my school visited Nethercott Farm in Devon not far from where he lives...on one of the evenings he read us one of his latest stories, really brought it to life. The day before we all went back to London...he was there to sign copies of his books that were available for us to purchase!

Very friendly and down to Earth he was. Sadly the next year my school went down there, in Spring 2002, Michael and his wife were away in the USA so we didn’t get the book reading...and any new books came with a Pre-Written Sticker Autograph!

Michael Morpurgo came into my bookshop unannounced several times over the years, but as he seemed to be a creature of habits I never met him, as it was always on a Saturday lunchtime. My wife said he was a nice, modest man who always signed any copies of his books which were in stock, and we always had multi copies of any set in Cornwall or Scilly, even his native Devon!

 

[alex397]

I have a rather different opinion on Michael Morpurgo when he visited my school. He didn’t seem to like children. But, everyone has a off day every now and then! And perhaps I’ve remembered it slightly differently.

 

[Tetchytyke]

I've seen Guy Martin quite a few times at MTB endurance events and each time he was the complete opposite of how he appears on TV, instead of being the warm and friendly he went about keeping completely to himself and speaking to no-one

In fairness to Guy, he's very open about his Asperger's and that's going to affect how anybody is socially.

 

[yorksrob]

And there's nothing wrong in wanting to keep oneself to oneself.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Inveterate belchers / farters / snorers, can still be nice people in their dealings with others; but it would appear that that doesn't apply to our Ann.

If she was asleep and snoring then that's one of those things, I can sound like a band saw too when I get going. It was the belching and farting and general obnoxiousness when she was awake that was the issue.

 

[FQ]

Only one comes to mind right now for this, from attending a fair few Passenger gigs before he made it big, Mike Rosenberg is easily one of the nicest, most genuine people I've ever met. The first of his gigs I ever went to was a free one in the top floor of a Cafe Nero in Bath when pretty much no one knew who he was, and after the gig I had a good chat with him and mentioned my favourite of his songs (which he hadn't played in the gig) so he just grabbed his guitar and played it just for me and the couple of people I was with. Hearing about him nowadays it sounds like he's really kept that humbleness through the fame and it's great to hear his music on the radio etc (even if it is pretty much exclusively 'Let her go' cause he's done so much other great stuff).

 

[Calthrop]

If she was asleep and snoring then that's one of those things, I can sound like a band saw too when I get going. It was the belching and farting and general obnoxiousness when she was awake that was the issue.

Fair enough; but I can have some forgiveness for what the Yanks would call physically "gross" practices (especially if the bod makes some sort of apology for them): but being thorough-goingly nasty in interpersonal dealings -- that is, in 1984 language, doubleplusungood.

 

[Andy Pacer]

The obvious one I can think of was Michael Portillo on the Tyne & Wear Metro platform at Newcastle Haymarket. Stood all on his own with a look of "do not even think about coming and speaking to me" on his face!

 

[Welly]

My parents and were on a ferry from Denmark to Harwich when I was 10 and we met Robert Hardy in the restaurant. He was playing Seigfreid Farnon in the first TV adaptation of All Creatures Great and Small at the time. My parents asked if we could join him and he graciously agreed and he and my parents chatted with him!

 

[Essan]

I used to drink with (the late) Ray Butt - producer of Only Fools and Horses. Lovely guy, even if he did like his booze, and he gave me a lift home a few times (going quite a bit out of his way). I only realised who he was when his name came up on question in a pub quiz game!

 

[SuspectUsual]

One step removed, but my grandma used to tell a story about how she found herself sitting next to Percy Thrower and his wife on a flight to Amsterdam. They were all off to some sort of flower show. Anyhow, the flight was extremely bumpy, to the point that Mrs Percy was violently sick into her lap, with my grandma and Percy picking up collateral damage from vomit shrapnel. At which point Percy announced loudly that his wife disgusted him, got up, and demanded a seat elsewhere. Lovely man

 

[birchesgreen]

Its interesting that a few people in this thread have met the same famous person and had vastly different experiences, but then again famous people have good and bad days too.

 

[Merle Haggard]

Travelling one Christmas Eve some time ago, I thought I saw Chris Rea getting on the train.
Listening to radio 1 I realised I must have been mistaken

 

[Meerkat]

Its interesting that a few people in this thread have met the same famous person and had vastly different experiences, but then again famous people have good and bad days too.

Or maybe it says something about the person who met them!

 

[Busaholic]

I have a rather different opinion on Michael Morpurgo when he visited my school. He didn’t seem to like children. But, everyone has a off day every now and then! And perhaps I’ve remembered it slightly differently.

Slightly off topic, but Alison Uttley, the creator of the Little Grey Rabbit books, towards the end of her life agreed to attend one of the very first 'book gatherings' in the U.K. She was on a stage together with reps from her book publisher, and a gaggle of young girls had been invited without her knowledge. At the end of her talk they rushed the stage screaming St Trinian's style, whereupon Uttley stood up brandishing an umbrella and proceeded to start beating them back. It wasn't reported at the time, but the Observer got hold of the story years later. Beat that, Morpurgo!

 

[Bevan Price]

I don't follow so-called celebrity culture, and can't recall ever meeting any. The nearest encounters were perhaps at school, before they were famous.
Alan A'court, Liverpool & England footballer was in the 5th form during my first year at Prescot Grammar School.
And, though sadly I cannot recall seeing him, Stuart Sutcliffe (an early member of The Beatles) was at that school at the same time as me for a few years.

And once, when I was at Earlestown station, I saw someone looking like the then Labour leader - Hugh Gaitskell, but I did not speak to him. Unfortunately, he died too young, and the country lost someone who might have become the best ever Labour P.M.

 

[Trackman]

Met Diane Youdale (Jet from Gladiators) a few times when she was a presenter for BBC Radio Tees. Lovely lass who always remembered me when I saw her around town and said hi. ..

My Mums next door neighbour about 4 years ago before mum moved.
I went to visit and mum said 'you know Diane next door, she knows *insert family member name*'
You know Diane etc.. carried on for a bit.
When leaving and just getting in the car and after racking my brains I gave up, so I asked how we were related/friends to 'Diane' .. Mum says.. oh no we are not, it's Jet ... I said 'eh?'. This went on for a bit until 'Gladiators' was mentioned.
A really nice person by all accounts.

 

[hexagon789]

I met Ruth Davidson at an event I think early on when she was the Scottish Conservative leader and was impressed how friendly she was without feeling fake.

I on the other hand have met Nicola Sturgeon and I'm afraid I couldn't say the same about her...

 

[Peregrine 4903]

I went to school with Grant Shapp's son and became friendly with him, so have met Grant Shapps. I even went to his house for a party and when I met him there he was so nice, although I didn't speak to him much.

I have then also met through an event at the House of Lords for Ambitious about Autism I was invited to speak at, giving a speech about my experiences of living and growing up with Autism.

I met Lord Clement Jones who is such a wonderful and lovely person.

I met Sir Trevor Pears who is also such a wonderful and lovely person.

And I also met Chris Pond who is once again such a wonderful and lovely person.

And in particular all three of them are doing wondeful work with ambitious about autism and helping with their employ autism programme.

 

[C J Snarzell]

I remember seeing Bruce Jones (aka Les Battersby) in a Blackpool boozer not long after he was sacked from Coronation Street. He looked a little dishevelled, but was quite sombre and kept himself to himself. I believe his downfall was his mouth after too much lubrication. I don't think he ever acted again and he has simply disappeared into obscurity now.

CJ

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Who is Michael Morpurgo? Thought this thread was about celebrities? Never heard of him!