i was lucky enough to hear mr $100 laptop speak at a conference yesterday in westminster. here he is with his back to us.

i saw debbie mcgee at a train station yesterday. she kindly let me take her photo and was very nice.

i spotted vanessa feltz on the other side of marylebone highstreet yesterday

as i came out of a meeting at a company head office last week i saw ellen macarthur being professionally photographed. i only realised it was her once she'd walked past me and out the door though, so apologies for the lack of picture !

she's quite small and was carrying her own bags.

and the next day i saw chris eubank in his almost-invisible-on-london-roads lorry cabs. his lorry cab pulled up (on a red route) and he jumped out the passenger seat and ran in to a chemist shop.

see, my celebrity knowledge extends beyond comedians, and includes (at least 2) sports people !

how's this for a celebrity spot ? it's sue pollard. we saw her in the audience at the blue peter proms.

esther said she liked her hair and she thought she was called Sue Bollard which would have been much better.

if only i'd known she'd been one of the voice of Noisy in Little Robots, i could have appeared more knowledgeable and down with the kids

for the third time of spotting (here and here). once again, fantastically nice and happy to have his photo taken. he even smiled this time hence the movement in the picture.

to celebrate the end of jane's marking, jane and i went to Cliveden House yesterday for a walk. The place is getting ready for wedding on saturday

it's obviously going to be quite an exciting event for someone

there's a big disco thing being set up on the terrace (2 days early)

and i liked how they stored all the flight cases in the underground vaulty bits

you can see how big the undercover area is from these distant shots

and on this one you can make out the thames 200 feet lower down on the left to give you some idea of the geography (google earth sky-view here)

update: the wedding is between Steven Gerrard, 27, Liverpool Captain and Alex Curran, 24, former nail technician who met Gerrard at a nightclub and is mother of his two children, Lilly-Ella, three and Lexie, one. I know this because it was in the London Evening Standard this evening. Once again, Funkypancake was first with the news !

seems they got what they wanted

possibly wendy richards

they were recording midsommer murders at this train station on monday. if you look carefully you can see john nettles in a big jacket.

i spotted the crew fiddling about with a ladder by the normal station sign

and by the magic of gaffer tape, it was converted in to Causton station

seconds later (once they'd all got off the ladder and moved to the other side of the platform) and small gust of wind blew the sign back off. i'm not sure what happened next as i viewed this through my train window which was only parked up for a few seconds

we remember blaine in a box. now it's rich is a box.

here's a funny old celebrity spot which might be one of my favourites so far. i was walking to a meeting at a government meeting and saw labour MP Roy Hattersley walking by. i took his photo as he turned the corner. he's here on the left. but that's not the end of the story. oh no, my friends.

he then changed directions and he and i walked opposite to each other for the next 5 minutes or so. he was walking slower than me, but i kept stopping to take photos of signs, puddles and mattresses, so we were quite even. eventually he went in to a house.

however, even that's not the best bit ! when i got home i googled for 'roy hattersley dog' to see if it really was him, and found out that the dog is nearly as famous as he is ! assuming it's the same dog, then it might be buster in the photo (see here for more details)

i shook roy hatterley's hand in 1992-ish when he was at a labour party rally in Sheffield. i was in disguise as an old person, so i suspect he wouldn't have recognised me. In fact, you can read about the rally here [scroll down to the sheffield rally bit, it's only short - i was right next to that famous central aisle sitting by some very excitable people].

i only went because it was free and i was a penniless student. this was pre-blair of course.

i'd decided to go dressed as an old man with a grey wig, a big thick polo neck jumper and a beige jacket with leather elbow patches. it was all set off with some broken national health glasses. i fitted in quite well if i remember correctly.

look how many words i wrote in this post ! this is almost like a proper blog. funny what memories come flooding back when you see an MP and his dog. (i walked past geoffrey howe last year but he didn't have the same effect, although he did look quite sweet)

the globe theatre should be renamed the glove theatre i think.

filming is going on in london for run fat boy run staring previous blog spotted Simon Pegg. i only saw the sign though (outside St Paul's cathedral)

on the eurostar to brussels last week i happened to be in the same nearly empty carriage as John Cleese. You can see his arm between the seats in the picture above !

bizarrely i spotted him seconds after i'd read a piece about Fawlty Towers videos on youtube. you can see his head reflected in the roof on the picture below.

i asked if i could take his photo but he said he'd rather not (he had a good excuse - and as i ask i have to accept people will say no!). instead he gave me his autograph and we had a chat for a quarter of an hour about all sorts of things (including my world of telecoms regulation !). I did give him a link to funkypancake so he may even be reading this.

he seemed a really lovely, geniune chap. i was delighted to meet one of my comedy heroes - especially the monty python stuff.

yesterday i saw Paul Weller walking down Edgware Road. he was just stopping at a pedestrian crossing and before he started going over it i asked if i could take his picture. He didn't say anything but stepped back a bit and did this funny pose !

After i'd taken the photo and thanked him kindly he then stepped out on to the road and nearly got run over by a white transit van. luckily he spotted it in plenty of time and there was no real danger (in case his life assurance company are reading this).

if he had been run over i would have gone down in history as one of the great celebrity deceasors. i'm not really thinking mark chapman, probably more like the chap who planted the tree which eventually got Marc Bolan.

still, paul weller is a proper celebrity int 'e ?

here is peter stringfellow walking past a door (not to be confused with a different stringfellow)

i was talking to my mum on the phone walking back to the train station yesterday when i spotted badly drawn boy outside the BBC radio studios. That may be tori amos next to him, but maybe not.

it's moira stewart

this is the last week where i'm effectively doing my old job (although my new job is mostly the same as i'll just be working in the strategy team of the company that bought the company i did work for, and it'll be based in their office further outside london).

Due to the location change, and the fact i'll be driving to work, celebrity spots in the street like this might become rarer, we'll have to see. I'm going to reduce the amount of photos i post daily just in case the photo pool runs dry (although i've got a store of around 1000 unposted photos ready to go)

Anyway, here's philip scoffield and fern cotton Britton from This Morning

if this blog is not about photographic evidence, then what is it about ? well, yesterday i saw 2, possibly 3 celebrities, all close up and i got NO photos !

the first one was possibly Alan Davies sitting outside Starbuck. He was deliberately obscuring his face by looking down with his hair dangling. i'd give it a 70% chance of being him.

about 5pm i walked past James Dean Bradfield who was standing talking on his phone, with his guitar in a case and a bottle of beer on a windowsill. it was only when i was round the corner that i realised who he was (and then checked his website for a photo). no photo there either.

Finally, i was on a work call whilst walking up Marylebone High Street and i walked past Rich Hall (who has a very small head) dragging a wheely suitcase. Again, it was definately him as i heard him talk to a shop keeper, but because i was on a call, i couldn't stop to ask him if i could take his photo (even if i'd managed to do a one hand photo take).

So, instead, here's a picture of my lovely wife jane, who has been generally feeling very down in the dumps the last few days. so perhaps this will cheer her up. she's better than any celebrity picture in my onion anyway.

some people were setting up for the after screening party of the pirates of the caribean earlier this week. yaah.

clive sent me this excellent picture of Jim Bergerac (john nettles).

he was filming midsomer murders at hambleden lock

uri geller lives here. anonymously of course (which is why it has a big arrow pointing to his gates down the driveway !).

it's danny baker in a smart suit on the other side of the road (last seen by me here)

my colleague toby spotted this outside a cafe. it's Chris Eubank's lorry cab. i wouldn't bother following the link to his site by the way.

i walked past the This Morning studios on the way to a meeting this morning.

this lady was sitting on a wobbly chair in a rain coat

and this man was topless jogging

i've no idea who they were or why. but they are probably someone vaguely famous otherwise they wouldn't have bothered filming them. although they could be just turning up for an interview (read this)

i saw this top trump card on the floor near our chalet at Spring Harvest last week. i flipped it over and took a photo, but didn't look at who was on it until i got back home a few days later

imagine my surprise then when i discovered it was Daniel Beddingfield. He'd been the surprise guest at that same evening's big top event. what are the chances of that ?

(by the way, just in case you are wondering, he's definately not my taste in music !)

i was part of a live Songs of Praise on Easter Morning. did you see us ?

it was part of Spring Harvest which we were at last week. and so were the BBC

and here is Steve Chalke who said hello to me.

i walked up tottenham court road yesterday on the way back from a meeting and thought to myself "i'm going to see a celebrity in a minute" and 2 minutes later i bumped in to Ricky Gervais ! I asked him if i could take his photo and he said "of course" in an 'extras' rather than 'the office' style.

here he is in full holding a cup of coffee walking past NatWest Bank

i squashed my face against the window where they were filming on tuesday and they were obviously coming back.

it's good to know kitkats are popular in the world of film.

i occasionally see film shoots around town and sometimes i'm brave enough to ask people what's going on. but i wasn't yesterday.

it was something quite high profile as there were quite a few police keeping guard, even hidden in doorways round the corner. it was either someone important, or someone very attractive.

here are two of the British Downhill Super G atheletes i got to meet last week.

roger cruickshank sat in front of me at the men's slalom

finlay mickel came skiing with us on the last day

for no money you can walk down Oxford Street in London and see some of your actual things as actually used in the actual harry potter film

much cheaper than going to a museum or something

but i should have told you about this ages ago as it's gone now. sorry about that. (i'm raiding some of my preuploaded but not published entries as i've been ill for the last couple of days)

here's DJ of the year 2005 Danny Baker. i saw him yesterday lunchtime and he seemed a genuinely nice bubbly chap.

yesterday i also had two separate sightings of ricky gervais from two separate colleagues in two separate places. how strange is that ?

on the way back from a meeting i walked past jono coleman trying to get britiain smiling (by playing Amarilo).

i think it was to do with this show. i was invited to stand in the background and pretent to be happy, but seeing as i was meant to be at work i thought that would be a bad idea !

i'm sure if all the people just turned round the view would have cheered them up. and it would have been much less anoying than watching jono coleman jiggling to Amarilo.

so, we eventually found out London's Avenue of Fame / Walk of Fame / London celebrity name plate things has been taken away as it was only ever a temporary thing.

there were some good names on the plaques, including Ricky Gervais who i once spotted in the streets of london (see here).

i have to say i'm still not satisfied we've got to the bottom of this one, so i'll go and ask in the church next time i'm passing. if you missed the original story it's here

back in September there was much fanfare when the london celebrity walk of fame was opened (see story here).

Here's a picture i took back in October. I thought it was a bit of a death trap as those stars were really slippy in the rain and i nearly came a cropper. i never got round to posting this picture - sorry about that !

anyway, i took a short cut through there yesterday and all the stars are gone ! What's happened to them ?

read the latest on this here

it's Mr Denis Norden again. in the same place as last time. i think he may be stalking me.

jane and i went to Oxford last night for the Returning Home The Prodigals (a quick skim of the front page of this website explains what it's about). It was very good.

rob parsons of Care for the Family was the main speaker. he let me take his photo for funkypancake (though i think he was a bit confused when i explained what it is)

Rob Parson wrote all those excellent "The Sixty Minute" books which offer encouragement to dads, mums, spouses, are really easy reads and full of great fun ideas (and can be read in an hour!)

jane and i went for a walk down the (side of the) thames yesterday near Eton/Windsor-ish. From the north side of the river you pass Oakley Court Hotel and Bray Studios.

Oakley Court Castle is famous for being in various films including Saint Trinians, Dracula (the Hammer version) and the Rocky Horror Picture Show (history here). For an obsessive fan site which shows how the castle was used for the Rocky Horror Picture Show, see here

next to the Castle are Bray Studios which are famous for the Hammer Horror films. Nowadays it's more used for telly shows and bands practising before going on big arena tours (i think)

i spotted ian hislop in front of me as i whizzed by tate modern on the way to a meeting. he nipped in to this cafe before i caught up with him, so i took this dreadful photo through the window !

i think you can still tell it's him !

i had a feeling i'd see a famous person whilst walking to the station this evening. so much so that i took off my headphones and got my camera out, so i was all ready when Griff Rhys Jones walked out in front of me a bit further down the street. he's a really nice chap !

more south bank 'this morning' outside stuff. one of these days i'll go by when they are actually recording something.

it's steve wright on the steps of all souls church

after nearly 5 years of searching i finally got a close up of Denis Norden. Here he is on Tottenham Court Road yesterday morning

what a delight to see Dale Winton after my unfortunate Nora Batty incident.
he was sitting in the 'celebrity seat' outside this cake shop on marylebone high street, exactly where i once saw barbara windsor

i asked him if i could take his photo and he said "of course you can darling" !

pity the photo came out so badly. oh well.

jane spotted the lady that plays Nora Batty in Last of the Summer Wine walking by when we were in Bournemouth. She, and her male companion stopped near where we were walking to look at the view.

i approached and asked nicely if i could take a photo and the bloke's first answer was "well, how much are you going to pay me". i was taken a back and said "er nothing, sorry" so he said "who do you want to take a photo of" and i said "i don't mind, both of you together perhaps" and he said "well, what are you going to do with it" and i said "put it on my website" and before i could explain any more he said "well, in that case, absolutely not".

he wasn't very friendly really, but i suppose they must get hassled lots when they are out and about. i had my big camera so i probably looked like a paparatzeeee. i've no idea if he was famous in his own right. he looked a bit like paul daniels (but he wasn't).

so instead, here's a picture of a person we saw by the beach made of sticks, pebbles and a plastic cup.

it's not uncommon to see outside broadcasts on the South Bank, particularly from This Morning whose studio is right next to the river..

yesterday when i walked by they were having trouble with a load of fashionable garments which were blowing away.

the presenter is the one on the left.

i was lucky enough to have a work dinner in elena's l'etoile on charlotte street last night. in the room below us sat Terry Wogan and Tim Rice !

in our little room where we ate were various drawers, including one marked Roger Daltry

george harrison used to live in henley behind these gates. this house is just the gate house i think.

once again, right place, wrong time

jane and my mum were convinced this was the chap off Rogue Traders and/or watchdog or something similar. i don't really know who he is but i did get this photo.

wadyafink ?

update: jane found this link for us matt allwright

yesterday was the big funkypancake radio interview at BBC Radio Berkshire.

i walked from the local train station and arrived over an hour later so wanderoursly aimed through a local copse. unfortunately i was got a bit lost and had to ask a passing dog-walker for advice on how to find the main road again !

here is Phil Kennedy with Suzanne Courtney (new name) through the window

i was in the studio from 2.30-4pm (the end of the show) and had a really good time. the banter was good and people seemed genuinely interested in the site (if only for Soose's wedding photo which are here)

Phil noticed that i had visitors in my web stats from a country called Niue and there followed a few minutes of Niue facts as can be seen on the screen here:

i had a whale of a time and was made to feel very welcome. so thanks to Phil and the team for inviting me on !

i suspect this is an imposter. i spent ages talking to it but it wouldn't even wink its lights.

i mentioned that there were other famous people at the wedding, and here they are.

Soose works for BBC Radio Berkshire and two of the presenters were there:

Andrew Peach:

Phil Kennedy

and then there was this lady who it turns out has the best most famous job of all. she's the voice of some of the UK's major banks' telephone announcements.

so when you've been left on hold and a disembodied voice says 'please accept our apologies for the long wait, we are aware of your call etc', it could be her voice !

i've deliberately not mentioned her name so she won't be found here via Google.

yesterday we were privileged enough to get to go to the wedding of top celebrities Soose and Anders.

here they are looking for confetti love hearts that the children had hidden in some plant pots for them

and here are shoes as worn by the groom and a best man:

and here are the bride's shoes:

Soose was one of the finalists on Pop Idol

Andrew is the drummer with Pure Reason Revolution

and finally the groom's parents who are also our daughters' prayer parents which makes them prayer sister-in-laws to soose i guess ?

there were a few more 'celebrities' there, including someone totally cool who'd you'd never guess, but i'll post them up tomorrow ... (now here)

so, it was a celebrity wedding, but it was also very definately a Christian wedding which is the most fantastic celebration of all !

i should have gone up. but i didn't. sorry

Popular daytime TV program This Morning is filmed on the South Bank. I walked by as they were setting up for the weather forecast. it was obviously going to be quite elaborate involving an inflatable thing and a big map of britain

quite why you need an inflatable for the weather i don't know

last week they had a tent up. what a shame i have to go to work rather than sit at home watching people on the telly. (of course i could have skipped my meeting and sat and watched it in real life, but i didn't)

jane has said a few times she's seen debbie magee (husband of Paul Daniels) in our local supermarket. today was the first time i'd seen her myself.

she was busy at the checkout so i didn't feel i could ask her for a photo at that stage. we hung around a bit after but she was buying quite a bit of stuff and we needed to get back home so i didn't get a chance to ask her for a photo then either.

so you'll have to do with this one which is of esther, but if you look in the background you can unclearly see debbie (serves me right for having my macro mode on)

she looks like she's adjusting herself, but i think she's just checking her watch !

what better way can there be to spend your lunchtime than waiting in a queue to meet non other than Gene Wilder ? What a man !

here he is, wearing a hoody (i think hoodies are still legal wear if they are pastel coloured. his looked more like a pyjama top)

i had to borrow john's camera for the trip as mine is down the menders. as a result i managed to get very few actually in focus (and none of him looking normal).

the girl in front of my in the queue asked me to take her photo with him because her batteries had run out, but i didn't do a very good job of getting it in focus. so if she's reading this - many apologies. oooops.

here is me and him (taken by the bookshop lady). she couldn't work john's camera either. i was going to get him to do a little video for the blog but he looked way too tired.

here's a weird coincidence. i was speaking to a friend yesterday who said one of his colleagues had been in posh restaurant the day before and had spotted Gwen Stefani complete with husband and kids a few tables away in a restaurant.

when i got home i inspected this picture of a CD i found in the street to see what it was. and guess what ... Gwen Stefani. eeek.

these photos are ages old, but it shows the fickleness of fame

one day the presenters were there:

and the next they weren't:

when i took this photo i should also have asked him what his name was !

click for big

i walked past a sandwich shop on tottenham court road yesterday morning and who should i see in the window but Roland Rivron. this was where i once saw denis norden

i took this rather poor photo as i passed on the way to another shop

anyway, on the way back from my other shop i saw him in the street waiting to cross the road. i stood next to him and poked him on the arm and asked if i could take a picture of his head. he said yes. here is the evidence:

click for celebrity bigness

I saw Tony Blair's new tenants locked outside their new house this morning. I'm not sure if it was the actual Michael Caton-Jones and Laura Viederman but the paparatzi were taking plenty of photos.

here is an article about the house and here is more on the new tenants.

the house and delivery truck

click for big

Tone bought his house on Connaught Square for when he stops being the Prime Minister and i walk past it on the way to work each morning.

there were worries about security but if people can't even get through the front door when they've got a key i don't think the PM need worry !

key holders and paparatzi:

no idea if this posseeee are famous. perhaps we shouldn't care. but they seemed to enjoy playing up to the cameras.

click to see if you recognise anyone

i went to a posh work do last night and comedian Ed Byrne was the entertainment.

he was very funny and here's his picture.

and here is natasha someone or other (BBC morning newsreader apparently):

It's Charlie Dimmock from Ground Force wearing a coat on Tottenham Court Road.

click to inspect this celebrity

we went in to town this morning to do some shopping. i went off with kezia to look at guitars and cool stuff whilst esther and jane did proper girl shopping for clothes etc.

kezia and i ended up being in a shopping centre where they were announcing that they were going to turn the christmas lights on and some celebrities were on the way.

so we waited. for 30 minutes. but nothing happened. despite it being past the allotted time. eventually we had to run to meet the others back at the train station.

apparently we were waiting for Bradley Walsh. but we didn't. So sorry about that.

here are some fairies getting dressed behind the tree and a giant bear giving out teeny weeny bears:

here is the bradley walsh detonating device.

i walked past ex radio 1 dj simon mayo. it was dark and my flash wasn't on (and you wouldn't have wanted a flash photo of the back of his head anyway).

so here he is in blurry greatness. interestingly, the bench on the bottom right of the photo is where i saw a long-haired richard e grant over the summer enjoying a al fresco drink (but failed to realise it was him until i was on the next street).

the second celebrity i saw last evening was none other than global megastar noel gallagher (of oasis fame).

he was simply swaggering slowly across marylebone high street without a care in the world. he's a funny looking chap. and i was surprised he wasn't surrounded by bouncers.

bizarrely i have been looking out for him for the last week since i discovered he lives in a muse house just off the north end of the marylebone high street.

i approached him and said "can i take your photo please ?" (in the same way i had to michael burke a few minutes earlier). He raised his hand in a 'no thanks' kind of way and off he wandered. but we did have eye contact !

so i took a photo (without flash) as he walked off. Oasis have a bit of a violent history in relation to the paparazzi so i didn't want to make him think i'd taken a decent photo of him !

when i left my office last night i thought to myself "the only celebrities i see are either c-list non-bodies, comedians or nigel havers. i then got worried that i don't watch telly enough and i may be seeing loads of celebrities in my daily life and not realising it.

so i set off and i convinced myself i was going to see three famous people. i did see two though (about 1km apart).

the first was michael burke the BBC newsreader. i did a google for him so that you non-UK readers can learn all about him.

i was surprised to see that my last spotting of him was the number one hit ! try it here

click to admire him in his fullness

the other celebrity is here

we popped in to the Royal Festival Hall this afternoon for a cup of tea and a nice sit down. it's a great place to sit and do nothing without feeling you are getting in the way of anyway.

anyway, who should walk by but (solo artist and ex-Softboy) Robyn Hitchcock . he was moving a speed but kezia (in her buggy) and i managed to catch up with him and after waiting a few minutes whilst he talked to the ticket desk i asked if i could take his photo.

"no" he said "i'm in a rush" and ran off. luckily i'd got a photo of him walking by. but it would have been nice to have got a closer one.

i think he was having trouble getting in to the venue next door so was quite flustered. i'm sure he's a nice jolly chap usually.

remember on wednesday night i ended up on national tv for split second thanks to walking past live TV cameras in paddington ? (see here or here if not).

well, at one point a chap squeezed between the two main cast members who were singing in to each other's faces. this man was our good friend (and esther and kezia's godfather) Steve.

we spotted him on wednesday evening when we watched it but it was repeated this evening and i got a photo for you. so here he is (on the left by the pillar)

no one i recognised.

i had another late night at work (this time a company 10th birthday party) so i arrived at paddington at around 8.30pm. i didn't know it at the time but they were recording a live opera in amongst the random commuters in paddington station (see BBC site here)

i had 4 minutes before i got the train so whizzed through the crowds and just caught my train.

i got these photos (vision man, orchestra by the sushi bar and camera man):

on the train i read my paper and noticed in the TV guide they were doing a live flash mob opera at a mystery location, and realised that's what i'd just seen.

it went out live on BBC 3 TV 8-9pm but they repeated it again 10-11pm and i just go back in time. so i got to see my bald head go by for a split second on the TV. i even managed to take a photo of the telly when it was on. here it is (i'm the bright white bit on the bottom right of this photo):


on the telly we saw that alan yentobb, so i missed a celebrity photo opportunity. and there must have been the BBC concert orchestra lorry somewhere too. oh well.

update: our friend steve was there too (see here). also, in the morning i'd seen them setting up (see here)

there's filming happening all over london. it was paddington station this morning and a few hours later i spotted this lighting rig in soho on the way to a meeting.

they were setting up a BBC outside broadcast studio in paddington. if you are in those parts today you might want to go and have a nosey.

update: see here

here are some people filming a playstation advert. not sure who they are.

a few minutes before i'd been walking past the National Theatre when i heard there was a book signing so i went in. dunno who it was either, but it was cancelled anyway. so there you go.

well, i don't know about you, but i was working from home this morning and had to go in to the office for a meeting from 6-7.30pm. so i travelled the 2-hour journey and managed to arrive early.

about 2 days early.

it's actually on wednesday. so i came back and on the way had a look in the paper and noticed that Duran Duran were signing their new record in HMV on Oxford Street. Aha ! i thought and negotiated the tube system to reach my destination with 15 minutes to spare before they were due to finish their signing.

unfortunately i went to the wrong HMV and ended up arriving at the proper one just after they had stopped letter people in to the queue. so instead i skulked around the barriered off bit and got the shots below (but actually the last load of people didn't get anything signed so i was better off wandering around instead of being stuck in a queue)

once they had finished signing there was little interest in the signing table, suggesting it was Simon le Bon and his musican chums people were more interested in. except for this one lady who was inspecting the table for her own interest (probably):

so i left and saw them coming out the side door and climbing in to their cars:

afterwards i read in another london paper that Eddie Izzard and possibly joanna lumley were just down the road in virgin megastore. if i'd known that i would have popped in there too. oh well.

i saw ricky gervais yesterday morning whilst walking to a meeting.

A bit later at the meeting one of my colleauges who also works nearby said he sees him most days. and he's a regular Denis Norden spotter too.

click for big

when george w bush visited london there was massive security around this luxury hotel. this morning the security had returned (but was obviously being prepared last week)

it's weird as from the outside this hotel really isn't very nice to look at. but then i guess when you stay in a hotel you are more bothered about what your room looks like than the exterior walls.

maybe that's where i've been going wrong.

clive swift

it's cold feet / fast show star john thompson. Good to see my celebrity photo capturing skills haven't been lost over the summer.

these inflatables are in a window leading down some stairs to what i assume is some kind of recording or TV studio.

one morning (before cameras began) i saw the Edge from U2 appear from this door, and another time i spotted (and photo'd) the Sugarbabes when they were at number 1 in the modern hit parade.

today it's just inflatable sea creatures.

i'm not sure whether this is top DJ tim westwood's car or simply a car which advertises him as a person. it's covered floor to ceiling with his name.

i'm thinking of getting one done for funkypancake. maybe not.

i walked past the filming place from last night to see they were setting their stuff up for today. so if you want to see woody allen or some of his cast then this is probably the place to go today ...

i KNEW it was gong to be a celebrity day today. i may have seen posh spice (david beckham's wife for those who don't know who she is, but then you might not know who he is either, and i can't say that's a bad thing). i would say it was a 5% chance of being her (ie not very likely).

then i saw barbara windsor again on the way back to the station in the evening:

then as i continued my journey after a while i saw some massive lights which indicating filming, so like a moth i went closer to inspect them (i did it for you readers). it was apparently a woody allen (see article)

and behind this very window he is making a film. i know this because some local residents were standing next to me complaining that he had stolen their parking spaces. she called woody something quite shocking which i won't share with you.

here's the building. people on the first floor and an old lady on the 2nd floor look out at what's going on:

then, on the train, it only turns out i used to know the lawyer who is representing Libertines singer Pete Doherty (see here). i've not seen him for a while so it was a shock to see his name up there with the stars !

and finally, i think i walked past Richard E Grant a couple of weeks back. probably 80% chance of it actually being him.

(celebrity round up finished)

this is possibly john hegley. certainly looked like him and sounded like him. but i'm not an expert on his appearance.

i may also have walked past john cleese but it could just have been any old chap with a moustache so was probably a false positive.

impromptu new reporting on the street corner. it was a glamourous news lady earnestly speaking about iraq. no one i recognised and if i'm honest i thought she was trying a little too hard.

another celebrity comedian on Tottenham Court Road. The street is full of them.

this time it was Ross Noble. He was chatting with someone whilst walking purposefully so i didn't stop him to ask for a photo.

but here's his website.

here are uri geller's front gates. they are made of metal. surely that's asking for trouble ?

i bumped in to Heinz Wolf this evening as i left a work meeting. he was heading south from Barbican station and i asked him if i could take his photo. he said "yes, if you can tell me where something or other square is"

i said yes, took his photo then we looked at his AtoZ and we both went on our ways.

i've mentioned before i'm a man of science and that's partly because of his influence when he did the Great Egg Race on telly when i was a nipper.

(by the way in the last week i've also stood next to Steve Wright (radio 2 DJ) in the street and Tim Burgess of the Charlatans in a record shop. I wasn't 100% sure they were who i thought they were at the time so i didn't take a photo, so sorry about that. i'm pretty sure they really were them though. ooops)

update: thanks to tony for pointing out that Heinz was on the BBC website today. great quote:

Heinz Wolff is a self-confessed boffin, and the affable professor is quite proud of it. When asked to define exactly what a boffin is, he pauses, and then says, "Well, I am one.

"It isn't a negative word," he says. "It is no more negative than egghead. It describes a person of some intellectual ability, who has unconventional ideas."

random government minister Chris Smith spotted on the wobbly bridge

so, what did we buy at the auction ? not much. but what i did get was this fantastic piece of TV memorabilia.

it's a T-shirt, jumper and board game which you can only get from being a contestant on Supermarket Sweep. I got it for £3. no one else bid.

but that means that someone at esther's school has a parent who was on supermarket sweep, won the prize and gave it away to be auctioned for school funds.

Dale Winton himself has apparently touched the merchandise you see below.

click to see it in all its glory

marylebone high street is the place to spot fast moving celebrities / millionaire dot-com business people. here is martha lane-fox.

i could have got a photo of her from the front but she was carrying loads of bags and talking on her mobile and i was a bit embarrased so i waited until she'd passed.

will you just LOOK at the size of those turnups !

i heard this morning on the radio that they are going to make a knightrider movie. at that moment i was standing by this sign.

how spooky is that ...

remember nigel havers ? well i saw him again today. in paddington station this time. he's my most photographed spotted celebrity. (i've seen Simon Pegg three times and Dennis Norden three times, but only snapped them once each). Nigel's IMDB entry is here

click for big version

these wires on are the south bank near the ITV studios. when i worked at a previous place i walked past this space every morning and enjoyed the occasional glimpse of GMTV being presented al fresco.

i once saw dale winton and loraine kelly you know.

it's well known that celebrities don't operate correctly unless they are literally wired in to a television studio. these wires indicated to me that there had been some celebrity interest at a point earlier in the day and i had missed it.

oh well.

here's a classic celebrity spot - it's Simon Callow, of 4 weddings and a funeral fame. he was walking down the road in the opposite direction to me and by the time my camera he'd got a long way !

But it definately was him.

remember they painted over elvis ? well, he coming back (thanks to the black paint wearing off)

here is one of the blokes from Adam and Joe (not sure which one) on a bike.

minutes before i walked past Rhona Cameron. The streets were full of celebrities this evening

(updated 27nov09 as of course it was adam buxton - and also updated link to their BBC 6music page)

following last week's appalling attempts (and spellings) at finding famous people, here is a group of people who MUST be in a band.

they were standing outside my office looking all pop-starry. but who are they ?

i haven't a clue who this celebrity is. and i suspect you won't either (even Tim who seems to know all the celebrities). you can be forgiven for your ignorance which is due in a large part to my poor photography.

i need a camera with a bigger zoom and more pixels. If you are reading this Mr Christmas then please put that on my Xmas list.

this filming involved fake snow which was blowing all over the place and causing the presenter (seen here with white boots on) to get plastic snow in her eyes and to eventually storm off). i got some snow on me. it was plastic.

i walked past this chap earlier and realised he was being filmed. i had ruined it by walking past him. oops. but it did give me a chance to go to the other side of road and take these photos.

who is he ? i vaguely recognised him.

here is his head:

remember laura ? she emailed me yesterday to tell me she was on the front page of a national newspaper yesterday. and so she was.

who's that in the back seat of that silver car over there in the distance you ask ? well, it's phil jupitus, that's who.

his car drove past where i was walking and i looked in the window and there he was texting away on his mobile. by the time my camera has booted up he was way in the distance.

it's good to see my celebrity spots are back to their usual remote viewings follow a couple of good celebrity spottings.

i just walked past top UK comedy marvel Simon Pegg. He's one of my favourite comedians and has been doing a very funny show on XFM for the last four Fridays. His masterpiece was Spaced (the spaced website is superb!)

I wasn't sure if it was him or not so i said "simon pegg ?" in a loud and questioning voice. he confirmed and i asked permission (which was granted) to take my photo which i then did. marvellous.

update: i now get lots of visitors to this site from people googling for "simon pegg". if that's you then welcome !

Go and see Shaun of the Dead (which is very good though my wife thought it a little gruesome - but that's zombie's for you) and/or get the Spaced box set and relive the moments.

meanwhile, make yourself at home.

andrew, who was very kindly babysitting the blog whilst i was away, spotted this Starsky and Hutch photo call today. it's got the new and the old. and the car.

typical. the one day i'm not in london today and i miss it !

he also sent this glove and this trolley disaster:

without claudia, alan and the paps, covent garden looked quite empty.

i walked along the street briefly with barbara windsor this evening on the way back to paddington station. she got out of a car next to where i was walking and wiggled along to a nail beautification shop.

i asked if i could take her photo as she went in to the shop and she said she'd prefer not so i didn't. the same happened with hugh grant you may remember.

i also didn't mention i saw a two of the guys from a League of Gentlemen outside my office last week but was too slow to get their photo (i was heading off to a meeting in the opposite direction).

i'd never make a proper pap

here is a picture i found on t'internet of barbara windsor. it's from a while back i think.

here is claudia schiffer. i couldn't get any closer because of the paps.

surprisingly i was able to get a better shot of Alan Yentob once she had glided off !

(it was some promotional thing to do with painting by numbers and Totally London - no i didn't understand either !)

meercats with cameras

how's this for a celebrity spot - Johnny Vegas on Tottenham Court Road. he was walking towards me and for once i had the presence of mind to react before he'd walked on down the street.

I asked if i could take his photo and he said 'yes of course' and i said "i'm really looking forward to your new film" and he was really chuffed and said "oh, thanks". then my camera was ready and i took my photo and that was that

click for big version

a few minutes later i walked past a bus which was advertising his new film which comes out tomorrow (see bus side for details!)

click for big version

i took this photo near buckingham palace. an [bunch] ? of police motorcycles bloked the road to allow this car to pass by. i got my camera out just in time.

it's probably royalty. you can compare to it my previous shot of royalty to be sure.

click to inspect bigger version

here's an interesting celebrity-interest thing. i feel i know you well enough to share this now.

i'm just 3 people away from Michael Jackson. ie he's a friend of friend's friend's dad.

Michael was once the most famous person on the planet - so in theory i could get a message to anyone in the world.

let me know if you've got anything important to say and i'll pass it on.

i went to a conference today and this chap from CBBC was wandering about. he had an entorage of about 10 school girls (who were also presenting). they were hanging on his every word and giggling furiously. it was most amusing.

i think he's called jake or something

remember laura who cut her finger in a dramatic office accident incident ? well, apparently she's going to appear on The Salon this evening on Channel 4 at 6pm.

She's being sprayed orange. Will she mention the accident which nearly destroyed her receptioning career ?

not sure if i'll get home in time to see it. if i don't, please be my eyes and let me know what you see.

UPDATE:
Laura did not appear on the program and refused to make an official comment.

Instead she said: "I think you should act as my spokesperson as i'm far to famous. Please explain that only Ade and Leo's clients were featured as they are up for eviction this week."

I can only apologise to anyone who had to sit through the program last night. If it's any consolation, i know what you went through !

here is ann widdecombe on whitehall.

last night whilst walking back to the train station i was listening to an FM radio. However, i experienced electro-magnetic fluctuations which caused the channel to become unlistenable. what else could this have been other than Bush's secret agents secretly communicating ?

i've had enough of all this excitement, so i've decided to go to Berlin for 25 hours. It's a business trip of the worst kind - fly to berlin, taxi to hotel, sleep, get up early for conference, taxi to airport, fly home. no site-seeing for me this time.

i'm not even taking my computer so there may be no blog updates until tomorrow (thursday) pm !

it's quite easy to spot which hotel Bush's people are staying in. It's the dozens of police in flourescent jackets at the front of the hotels, the multitude of black cars with black windows, the odd stretched limo (!) and piles of very big blokes in very big suits standing around trying to look natural ! Usually there is nothing but a doorman and the odd taxi.

here is some rubbish i found in the street. i'm sure there's a story behind it. maybe there's an urban legend that if you mix beer and toothpaste you get high or something ? i'm sure 14 years olds would believe that !

George Bush and myself have at least one thing in common - today we have meetings in and around Westminster. He's even staying over at the Queen's place. I live in commuting distance so don't need to worry about that myself.

My meeting was attended by people with fancy names like 'Lord so and so' and Baroness this and that'. and me. and was in a very fancy building.

My walk to the meeting from Paddington Station took 40 minutes and my walk back to the office took about 30 minutes. Comparible times to travelling by tube and much less stressful.

On the train this morning it occured to me that George W might be doing exactly the same journey, so i photoed lots of tourist things to do on the way.

I shall call this the George W commemorative walk and i'll do a seperate entry on it.

here are two of the ITV news team. The bloke on the right is John Stapleton and does the breakfast news when i wake up. i had seen him 2 hours earlier on the telly and happened to walk past where he was standing 2 hours later (and he was still there). he was wearing glasses which he removed when i asked if i could take his photo.

the photo on the left is of a newsreader bloke and a random lady hiding behind a van. i don't know who he is, but i'm sure Andrew, a regular reader of the blog will tell us.

I also saw Michael 'parky' Parkinson outside the Iv:

as is my way with celebrity spotting, he moved to quickly and went behind a taxi. i want a camera with a quicker start up time !

i walked past Buckingham Palace this evening on the way back to the station. Michael Burke, the newsreader was outside the palace recording a live bit for the BBC evening news.

he was probably reporting on the Prince Charles thing which all international (non UK) readers of this blog can read in their local papers, but we in the UK can't. but that's alright as we're not bothered.

i have some nice Royal commemorative items i could show you sometime. i might take a few pictures of my favourite Charles and Di items tomorrow. you can look forward to that if you want (optional)

here is one of those old phone boxes like dr who used to drive about in.

i expect some kind of comment from Matt who is the landlord for the server where this blog lives. he loves dr who he does.

we've just got back from attending the film premier of Bright Young Things, which is the first film directed by Stephen Fry. It was a real posh affair (black tie) and we got to walk throught the paperatzee (spelling corrector required - basic rates of pay, no benefits).

we arrived at the same time as david mellor which was nice. prince charles turned up eventually and we all sang a song to his mum (god save 'er)

we saw loads of celebs as well as prince charles. here are a few photos

jim broadbent, stephen fry and some of the cast (Dan Ackroyd on the right)

angus dayton with an equally unfashionably shoulder bag

john sessions with one of my colleagues in the background

ben elton and rowan atkinson

apologies that most of the photos are of people's backs. i was good at spotting people just too late ! we also saw tracey emin and salmon rushdie on the way out. There are some better photos and an interview on the BBC website

the film was really good, the seat comfortable and we all got a free bottle of diet coke as well.

Apparently my davescollections website was on Terry and Gabby a few weeks back ! i think they may have pitched it as 'photos reunited'.

no wonder people keep pointing at me in the street.

big car boot sale today in Henley. i wore a hat to stop my oozing head getting even more burnt. two of our very good friends were (seperately) selling their wares. we wanted to buy from them to support them, but also didn't want to buy any of their old cack (we have enough cack of our own).

amongst all the general car boot sale nonsense was some TV recording of some car boot sale program.

when i got to heathrow last night i thought i would go looking for celebrities as there is no where for them to hide in the baggage reclaim area.

i went and stood at the side and there was ulrika ! she was just leaving so i grabbed my camera and caught this rear shot. i wasn't sure if it was her as her hair looked a bit of a mess, but then she said something to her travelling companions and she had the voice of ulrika.

BA781 from stockholm:

this chap looks like richard whiteley. but don't be fooled. because he isn't

compare to the front page of richard whiteley's book 'himoff':

if you are an international visitor to this site and want to know more about Richard Whiteley and the program he presents called countdown then go here or here !

elvis was on the plane. whenever i saw him he was talking on his mobile and looking quite angry. so i went for the sneaky photo option instead of the blatant asking approach

there is much in the news about the Hutton enquiry. the enquiry itself is of interest, but of equal interest is the media surrounding the trial (which is itself about manipulation of the media etc).

they aren't allowed to film in the courts so they get people to draw what happened instead.

brief aside: do you remember when they had to do that for people in Ireland. i was too young to understand at the time of course. poor children must have thought ireland was full of drawn characters like in the comics they read like the Beano. i support that is why there are so many Irish comics (it's the way I tell them) - when they are not betting on pies climbing up walls of course.

anyway, i always assumed that the drawings were nicely scanned in before they appeared on the news. but in fact they are stuck on old doors and filmed for the telly:

here is the media frenzy:

upon closer inspection of the photo i realise i may have been spotted taking it (they appear in the top right of the photo above):

i'm glad there were plenty of barriers between me and them

they are filming some movie near my office this morning. very exciting. i didn't ask who was in it or what the film was. here is a picture from the street

have you ever wondered what is on the other side of the smoke in 'Stars In Their Eyes' ? i recon it it's a space time portal thing. anywhere you see smoke look to see if there is anyone dressed as elvis, buddy holly etc entering or emerging from it.

perhaps i've been reading too much harry potter and this is an extension to the Flue network thing. or maybe i've stumbled upon the truth ...

here is one entry point i saw at near Paddington Station this morning. A man had just gone through the smoke and dissapeared (he could have just gone in to the van of course).

it's impossible to have a quiet drink in a london pub. here is a man minding his own business, whilst being stalked by the paparazzi.
who is he ? dunno. no one famous i think (i didn't recognise him). probably a local news program "man drinks alcohol in pub - we have exclusive footage"

on my way to work this morning i met foppish celebrity Hugh Grant. He got out of a car near Harley Street and was hobbling over to a parking meter, obviously in some discomfort (looked like his back was giving him jip).

I asked if I could take his photo and he said "oh don't please", which i took to be a negative. i left him in peace to go about his day.

I guess I could still have taken his photo as he is a 'celebrity' and therefore public property, but I decided that was a bit cruel.

I did a quick search for Hugh Grant and Back Pain and it appears he has suffered from back pain before. I should have shared some of my stories of Chronic Pain with him. We could have bonded over some Gabapentin (or something).

i was sent to coventry today. whilst there some men demonstrated the future of telephones (it's much like the present with telephones, only you get some video as well and you can see who is phoning on your TV). my two colleagues and I were joined by a Saudi Princess for the presentation, which was nice. she didn't say anything, but that's what being sent to coventry entails.

as you can see below I nearly saw Kylie and did see nigel havers. I also saw that bloke off scrap heap challenge who gets excited about old pieces of metal. he was at paddington station waiting for a train. didn't get a photo. sorry about that

after not seeing kylie i did see nigel havers:

he posed nicely
here he is big

nigel with a scarey man

she was due to arrive at 10am. I was there 9.50am on the way to a meeting. So i didn't see her.
She's the new face of BA. face my arse.

so i never got to see the pint sized aussie

other people were making the most of the giant sand pit though

Denis Norden, round the corner from my office. he's often mooching about.

this morning was quite sunny so there is lots of reflection in the window giving him a ghost like appearance. and if he were a ghost he wouldn't be buying sandwiches. unless he was just reminiscing about eating.

best of all - whilst researching Denis for the link above I came across Bill Hanson who does a Denis Nordan tribute show ! It was the real one i saw this morning.

This whole entertainment site is fantastic