celebrity interest

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

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