In the latest issue of The Fence - the most original new magazine for years - readers tell of their brief encounters with celebrities, both memorable and mundane.
‘Ainsley Harriott once asked me to recommend the best sandwich in the Brent Cross Starbucks,’ writes Rose Fiore. ‘When I was in college,’ writes Mark O’Connell, ‘I worked in a hotel. I brought room service to Tiger Woods, who was sitting in his underwear, watching himself play golf on TV.’
Reading of these chance celebrity encounters has inspired me to compile a list of some of my own.
1. Twenty-five years ago, I saw Terry Wogan standing outside Harrods. He must have been waiting for a car to pick him up, but didn’t want to be recognised, as he seemed to be trying to look conspicuous and inconspicuous at one and the same time.
2. In 2019, I was sitting in a smart Spanish restaurant in the West End when I happened to spot the American actor Bill Murray at the bar. I was with a friend who, being a traditionalist, was furious that Murray was just wearing a T-shirt and a crumpled suit. ‘In the old days,’ he said, ‘stars would dress like stars.’
3. In the early Eighties, I passed the chubby (and unfunny) comedy actor Terry Scott in Carnaby Street, loitering in an outsize fur coat, looking furtive.
4. As we were driving along the Euston Road in the early 1990s, my wife spotted Frankie Howerd standing on a traffic island. She was so excited that she shouted, ‘Hi, Frankie!’ but I don’t think he heard over the roar of the traffic.
5. A couple of months ago, I was queuing to enter the Menier Chocolate Factory theatre in Southwark when my daughter spotted Liz Truss five people in front of us. Annoyingly, our seats were in the row in front of hers, so there was little chance to study her expression as the play progressed. As Truss passed us on her way out, my daughter said: ‘I just heard her husband call her “mum”.’ I thought this a bit odd. Later I realised the man she was with must have been her security officer, and he had called her ‘ma’am’ not ‘mum’.
6. On the Eurostar from Paris, Steve Coogan was in the row on the opposite side of the aisle. He spent a lot of time on his mobile. I was struck by how like Alan Partridge he sounded. At one point, he said, ‘I’m going home for a little R&R — rest and relaxation!’ He wasn’t trying to be funny.
7. At Poughkeepsie rail station, an hour and a half from New York, I looked around for someone to tell me if the approaching train was the fast train to New York. I collared a tall man, who I then realised was Garrison Keillor, the great humorous writer and broadcaster. Without looking at me, he told me this was the fast train, and then darted off down the platform, I suspect because he didn’t want to sit near me.
8. At a small bookshop in Chelsea, Elton John was standing quietly on the ground floor, browsing through various hardback books. As I left the shop, I noticed his chauffeur-driven car was waiting quietly outside.
9. Six weeks ago, I was on the train from Liverpool Street to Ipswich when who should walk past me but Su Pollard from Hi-de-Hi!, dressed very brightly, bearing an empty coffee cup. A few minutes later, she passed by again, and then again.
Just before the train arrived into Manningtree, she approached me and said: ‘Excuse me, do you know if there’s a bin to put my rubbish in? I can’t find one anywhere.’ I pointed one out, and she was very grateful. ‘I don’t like to leave my rubbish lying around, do you?’ she said, with a smile.
She was so friendly that I wished I’d managed to strike up a proper conversation with her.
10In another rail-based encounter, I was standing on Saxmundham station in 2018 when on the platform opposite I spotted Peter Purves, the former Blue Peter presenter. I pointed him out to my companion, but he had never heard of Peter Purves, so was much less excited.
More celebrity encounters in Thursday’s column.