Have you met a celebrity villain?

[pawsies]

Someone that is controversial in the media or comes across unpleasant on TV or whatever?

What were they like in real life?

AIBU to think there might be some surprises and some of them will be a persona on TV or whatever?

@PuppyMonkey

I helped Jeremy Beadle carry out a prank for a local charity event. Not for the telly, just a group doing this as a surprise for someone who’d volunteered with them for years. I was covering it for the local paper, but they needed some help for the “set up” , me pretending to interview the bloke before Jeremy in disguise did something stupid, can’t remember what exactly, and caused havoc. Gradually the bloke realised it was Beadle’s About etc etc. Anyway, Beadle was a right laugh and really lovely and enthusiastic.

I also had a cup of tea with Brian Clough and his wife in their house. He was lovely!

And yet my family have met Brian Clough a couple of times and found him vile, obnoxious, rude and pervy.

Jimmy Savile because I live locally, and yes he was a disgusting oild perv and everyone knew it.

The guy who played Jimmy Corkhill in Brookside tried to get my dad to buy him a beer on a train in a "don't you know who I am" way. It was a bit weird.

Harry Gration from Look North patted my pregnant belly and said "Very good, carry on" when I was waiting for a table in a restauran and he walked past. That was also very weird.

Boris Johnson whilst he london mayor at Wimbledon train station, we were next to each other on the platform and was very twinkly eyed and charming chatted for about 2 mins about the weather (it was ridiculously hot) and he got ushered off up the platform by his minions. It was all a bit surreal but I hate to say he was extremely likeable.

My dad used to work the larger royal dinner functions at Buckingham palace for about 20 years and his faves were prince phillip who he said was so nice and funny and princess Di. He couldn't stand Charles.

I met Jeffrey Archer at a friend's wedding. He was OK - polite, amusing. His wife, Mary, was charming. This was before he went to prison!

I was on the same flight as James Corden, his wife and kids a few years ago. Also queued behind him to go through customs. I thought he was an unpleasant man, moaning and whinging. Threw a tantrum because customs would not let him jump the queue and made him wait like everyone else. Left the “childcare” to his (visibly knackered) wife. This was after an overnight long haul flight.

Jimmy Savile because I live locally, and yes he was a disgusting old perv and everyone knew it.

I was told he was a perv when I worked in the entertainment business. I didn't believe the person who told me as I was very young and assumed any victim would have told the Police and he would have been charged.

A friend of mine is an actress and had a small part in Emmerdale as a really horrible person. So funny to watch as, IRL, she’s one of the loveliest people I know!

I met Jeffrey Archer at a friend's wedding. He was OK - polite, amusing. His wife, Mary, was charming. This was before he went to prison!

Mary Archer was one of DH's lecturers at university in the late 70s. She was known as "the fragrant Mary" and I get the impression that she had the undergrads eating out of her hand - especially the male ones!

Like a few others, I will say Gordon Ramsey. Met quite a few times through work over a few years. Actually very friendly, pleasant and sensible in real life with a great sense of humour and not afraid to poke fun at himself and his tv persona of Shouty Gordon. Hugely proud of his wife and kids.
I'm Scottish so we enjoyed a good chat about our favourite swear words on one occasion, he's funny and very "normal". I could forget he's a "celebrity" and have a pint with him any time.

@PuppyMonkey

I helped Jeremy Beadle carry out a prank for a local charity event. Not for the telly, just a group doing this as a surprise for someone who’d volunteered with them for years. I was covering it for the local paper, but they needed some help for the “set up” , me pretending to interview the bloke before Jeremy in disguise did something stupid, can’t remember what exactly, and caused havoc. Gradually the bloke realised it was Beadle’s About etc etc. Anyway, Beadle was a right laugh and really lovely and enthusiastic.

I also had a cup of tea with Brian Clough and his wife in their house. He was lovely!

DH worked with Jeremy Beadle once and said he was charming. Same with Gordon Ramsay - really unaffected and polite.

I used to buy flowers from Buster Edwards, one of the Great Train Robbers, when he had his stall at the back of Waterloo Station. He was always pleasant & it made buying a bunch of daffs quite a unique London experience.

Jeremy Clarkson, nothing like his portrayal in the media he was really kind to my DC with special needs. He was down to earth and very polite.

I've never met any of the current crop of villains you see on TV like Cheryl Cole, Hugh Grant, Stephen Fry or Gino D'Acampo.
Are they villains?

Cheryl Cole - found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Judge Richard Howarth, sentencing, called the incident an "unpleasant piece of drunken violence" and said the singer had "showed no remorse whatsoever". A second charge of racially aggravated assault was dropped.

Hugh Grant - arrested and fined for "lewd conduct in a public place" with a prostitute.

Stephen Fry - spent 3 months in jail for stealing and using a credit card.

Gino D'Acampo - Sentenced to 2 years in jail for burglary (he stole £4,000 of guitars and a platinum disc after breaking into Paul Young's house.)

My sister went to a birthday party of one of Katie Hopkins’ kids. I went to pick her up afterwards and KH was really friendly and just nice and mumsy. She said that my sister was a really polite young lady and that she could come round whenever she wanted. I don’t know what I was expecting but she was just a completely normal, nice mum.

Oh, and Jeremy Clarkson I met through my work with a conservation charity. He makes himself out to be a massive petrol head but he’s massively into bird watching and it had clearly been an interest for years as he was talking about all these different places he’d been birding and how he will often drop stuff and fly out to the Hebrides or wherever if a rare bird is spotted there.

@ancientgran

Who takes clothes off the rack and throws them on the ground?? So not believable Judging by the state of my local Primark at the end of the day I'd say it is a hobby for some. Not that I imagine MM shops in Primark.

I once worked in a high end quite expensive high street women's shop (where the sales assistants are trained to be more personal shoppers than sales assistants, we once had a visit from the Duchess of Cambridge before she was married).

You would not believe the amount of 'well to do', wealthy women who came in, took armfuls of stuff to try on in the lovely luxurious fitting rooms and then left them screwed up in heaps in the floor, stepping on them or kicking them out of the way if they weren't picked up or moved quick enough. Beautiful, heavy beaded dresses just booted across the floor out of the way. Spoke to staff horribly. Some people have zero manners or decency!

Some were lovely though. The DoC was apparently super polite, chatty and nice (I wasn't there). The lady who played Pat Butcher was utterly rude on the many occasions that she came in, despite her posh voice!

Gary Glitter

Back in the 1980s. He turned up to one of our house parties.

I warmed to Jeremy Clarkson considerably when it turned out he was a remainer.

I've met quite a few in my time. Gordon Ramsey, Simon Cowell, James Cordon, Kate Moss, Kevin Spacey, Helena Bonham-Carter, David Walliams.

James Cordon was the worst. I won't say too much about exactly what he said to me in case it identifies me but yeah...it was incredibly inappropriate and his wife/girlfriend was stood right next to us.

Gordon Ramsey seems like a nice guy but is not a nice guy to work for. The obnoxious shouty chef persona is not just for TV.

Kevin Spacey was creepy. Didn't surprise me at all when the revelations about him came to light.

@jcyclops

I've never met any of the current crop of villains you see on TV like Cheryl Cole, Hugh Grant, Stephen Fry or Gino D'Acampo. Are they villains?

Cheryl Cole - found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Judge Richard Howarth, sentencing, called the incident an "unpleasant piece of drunken violence" and said the singer had "showed no remorse whatsoever". A second charge of racially aggravated assault was dropped.

Hugh Grant - arrested and fined for "lewd conduct in a public place" with a prostitute.

Stephen Fry - spent 3 months in jail for stealing and using a credit card.

Gino D'Acampo - Sentenced to 2 years in jail for burglary (he stole £4,000 of guitars and a platinum disc after breaking into Paul Young's house.)

Stephen Fry was a minor at the time, if I recall correctly. If he was over 18, it wasn't by much. He served his sentence in a Young Offenders' Institution and then went to Cambridge. Model citizen ever since, has been open about this incident and about his bipolar diagnosis. He committed the offences during a manic episode. None of this makes him a villain.

Met John Humphrys in a passport control queue and had a chat - he was perfectly nice and normal.

@springtimesunshine Not just Primark then. People can be horrible. I had a Saturday job in M&S when I was a teenager. No air conditoning back then and one day it was very hot and a customer complained about the heat. I agreed with her and she indignantly said, "Why are you complaining, you're being paid to be here." You can't win sometimes.

Jeremy Clarkson several times. Isn’t actually all that interested in cars but as mentioned above loves birds (and engineering). Has always been a really lovely man in my experience and almost nothing like his on-screen persona

Nigel Farage and John Prescott. Both unpleasant, dismissive, rude and bullying. Yuck

@baroqueandblue

How convenient that after this week's revelations and tantrums we have a thread populated by lots of people saying how vile MM is and how saintly PM is - sometimes in the same post Oh, and how genuinely lovely members of the RF with form for racism are in 'real life'.

You can call me paranoid, I don't care. People can manipulate the internet and convince you of anything. Like, Savile and West and other dangerous, criminal psychopaths can sit neatly next to opportunities to sanctify PM and denigrate MM. I ask you

People are only commenting on what they have personally seen, so it's totally relevant. Plenty of people say she is lovely, many are undecided.

I used to live round the corner from ‘Nasty Nick’ 20yrs ago in South London. Often bumped into him on the way home from the pub. Always said hello.