Have you ever met a celebrity? And did they act or look different to what you were expecting?

[PrincessHoneysuckle]

I met Chris Gascoigne once who played/plays? Peter Barlow in Corrie.Very short and quiety spoken.

I met Prince Andrew many years ago. He was actually charming and I was surprised to find that I quite liked him as we chatted. He had remarkably shiny shoes! 😆😆

I met Helena Bonham-Carter, who used to live near me. We were both with our dc at the village children's playground. We exchanged pleasantries. She seemed nice and looked fab, dressed in her usual eclectic style (as were her dc!). Tim Burton was there too, but he kept his distance in the corner of the park, looking aloof.

I've been a tv extra and met some Scottish actors, probably local celebrities

All were just normal. Some nice some. Some not

they are invariably MUCH shorter than they appear on screen, the women usually tiny, generally quiet, as their onscreen presence is a persona and not the real bona fide person

Living in London, celebs, actors, switch off their stardust and shop/walk/the dog/prams/schoolkids/tube/bus/pub/art galleries/unmolested, ie, they can only disappoint if you have expectations of them.

I have met loads through work. Most are absolutely lovely, and nearly all are much smaller than you would think they are.

Met a fair few through work (mainly TV actors), but best which was last summer was Robert Plant who was in a pub in Pembrokeshire, just having a pint with the locals!

John Cooper Clarke lives close by and he’s often seen out and about. What you see is what you get - always friendly and very approachable. Genuinely nice guy.
I recently met Ginny Holder (Darlene, Death in Paradise) and she was very openly friendly. She is way more beautiful in real life than on screen and has a spontaneous dazzling smile.

Didn't meet her as such, but I was on e in Selfridges shoe department and Keira Knightley was in there trying on some shoes. She was on her own and just so normal and low key and really polite to the sales assistant when they didn't have her size. For some reason I expected her to be a bit of a diva!

Michael Gambon through work about 10 years ago. He was lovely - very friendly and quite funny.

I met Jimmy Saville in the 1990s in a hospital corridor.

He was wearing a metallic union jack string vest. He was very small.

It was a disturbing encounter and this was before any of the information came out about him.

Joe Wicks is very strange. A hyperactive toddler in a thick as pig shit man’s odd looking body. He would shag himself if he could.

I 'met' Hugh Bonneville recently - as in, I spotted him on a Saturday afternoon in theatre land and spontaneously shrieked 'Lord Grantham' 🙈

He grinned, I asked him for a selfie and he was so friendly and happy to oblige.

Made my weekend!

My husband once barred Laurence Fox from the pub he was working in. Unsurprisingly he was a knob!

In the last few years he’s become increasingly proud of that decision.

I was in Stoke Mandeville hospital as a child and he regularly used to visit the children’s wards, as he was there due to his association with the spinal unit.

I was about 11 and it was the height of Jim’ll Fix It, so him sitting on my bed was like the best moment ever. At the time.

I haven’t met Ricky Gervais but I have met his brother Bob, who was a painter & decorator and did some work for us years ago. Sounded very similar to Ricky and was also hilarious. His best line was telling us that Ricky was not that funny - in fact not even the funniest in their family 😂

Russell Crowe - extremely friendly and polite, came in to a shop I was working in. Greeted everyone and said goodbye with handshakes when he left.

I have but I'm not sure it qualifies.... he was in a group called Seona Dancing and I was about 12. Don't remember much other than he was very cool and very aloof!

😄

Funny enough, one of my favourite RG jokes is the one about his brother Bob and their uncle Mike in the graveyard. They sounds like a close, normal family. Please could you tell me more?!

What I'm curious about is if Ricky Gervais, with all his millions, gives any of it to his working class family. I wonder if that's something famous people even do, or if that's awkward and avoided.

Yes, which would be why I namechanged.

To save you the bother, it was Streatham Hill and Clapham High School. In those days it was on Wavertree Road in Streatham, which is now just the junior school I believe. Had a hideous snot-green uniform back then. The former journalist Cordelia Kretchmar was in the same class.

HW's mother was an opera singer. Sang at the centenary service for the school at Westminster Abbey in I think it was 1987, though not sure on the year.

She was very pretty, good academically, one of the top dogs. I can still remember her rage once when she and a pair of her little pals grabbed my bag and started throwing it to one another so I couldn't get it, and I just started to laugh over how fucking stupid it was - and they were. Her face contorted with disgust and she hissed, "Why are you laughing?! This isn't funny for you!" I can visualise her that moment, all these years later. Silver blonde hair, slim, tall. Suddenly much less pretty - as if her personality was suddenly written all over her face.

That's actually one of the nicest stories I have of her. At least one of the rest, as I have no evidence all these years on, would be actionable. But yes, I remember her, and in my (clearly subjective) view, she was deeply unpleasant. To the point I shudder every time she's on my screen, or her name appears in print, all these decades on.

Years ago…
John Humphrys: just as you'd expect from Today: gruff, grumpy, rude and obstreperous for the sake of it. Horrid individual.
Alan Titchmarsh: quietly spoken, laughed at my 'joke'.
Joan Bakewell: impeccably dressed and groomed, beautiful manners, made delightful light conversation as we waited for and shared a lift. I worship her.
Paul Merton: shy, quiet, pleasant, came to life when talking about comedy history, which he is obviously genuinely passionate about.

Not exactly an A-lister, but had some dealings with the actor Jamie Sives as he lives locally. The most charming but down to earth and lovely man. Just not “starry” at all.

I served Ronnie O'Sullivan a drink (orange juice) and he was lovely, quite chatty, very polite.

I discovered Seona's Dancing's song 'More to Lose' last year, and I have to say I absolutely LOVE it. Apparently it was a huge hit in the Philippines to the extent that it's actually part of their historical pop culture.

I've met quite a few theatre-types through work. The ones that stand out (in a good way) are Lindsay Duncan (very humble and sweet), Gemma Whelan (properly funny) and Samuel Barnett (just a lovely, kind, funny man). And in a bad way, Ralf Little. He was an attention-seeking arsehole. His girlfriend (hopefully now his ex!) had brought an opening night present for him which was a bit quirky (but cute!) and he viciously ripped the piss out of her for it until she was in tears. Horrible.

My favourite, though, was Paul Gross who was the mountie in Due South back in the 90s. I was a HUGE fan when I was young so I was properly star struck when I met him!