celebrity interest

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)