Your unlikeliest celebrity sightings

[mothman]

Actually, I saw Jane Asher at my workplace; she was accompanying her husband (Gerald Scarfe). Thing was though I didn't realise it was her at the time, just thought she was an older, but oh my god still utterly smoking hot, lady. Had no idea they were married. In the course of my rather rarified working life, you just don't expect to be sitting less than 5 metres from Jane Asher.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I once saw racist ex-football manager/pundit Ron 'Big Ron' Atkinson hobbling across the forecourt of the petrol station by the Lydiate Ash island. He nodded and said 'alright lads?'.

[DrGreggles]

A few years back I saw the gigantic 6' 7" ex rugby player Martin Johnson squeezed into a lycra outfit

"BRING ON THE WALL!"

[Dex Sawash]

Gordon Kennedy and Peter Baikie queueing up for jacket potatoes at Jackets in Clapham High Street (miss that place).

Would also qualify as jacket potato story
https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,56520.msg2976227.html#msg2976227

[a duncandisorderly]

unlikely, & with a hint of a slighting too.... I was on my way home from a long day at osterley (helping to build sky's new building) in late 2011... miserable wet pre-christmas tube horrors....

& found myself sat next to carl palmer.

I don't know why his mrs continued to stand, but he sat down next to me, so it wasn't like I had her seat or summat. anyway, I had my old ipod classic playing, so I discreetly whizzed it around to 'toccata' off 'brain salad surgery', then held the thing so he'd look at the artwork.

"yes, it's me" he said gruffly, before turning away. actually, it was quite a while before he spoke to the lady, so I didn't even know it was his mrs... maybe they'd been having a tiff, or maybe just the awfulness of west-end christmas shopping, which they'd clearly been doing....

OR MAYBE what the fuck are you doing on the piccadilly line, rock-star? where's the ferrari, in the shop? chauffeur got the day off?

they got off a few stops before me, & he turned to me as he was going through the door- "cheers", he says. feeling guilty?
sometimes you just catch people on a bad day, eh readers?

[finnquark]

Billy Drago in a pub in Nuremberg

[thecuriousorange]

I had a conversation with the actor who plays Eric Pollard in Emmerdale when he was the celebrity guest at a golf-equipment event in Scotland.

[Dannyhood91]

I saw Dom Jolly on a mountain in Canada in 2009

[jobotic]

When me and my then girlfriend went to one of  them Phoenix Festivals years and years ago she left a day before I did and she saw Guru of Gangstarr and Donald Byrd in a motorway service station at one in the morning.

They had played and presumably were on their way to an airport so not inexplicable, but you don't expect them boys to be buying a pastie in a serve, I think it's fair to say.

[Noodle Lizard]

Paul O'Grady on the dodgems.

[Jockice]

When me and my then girlfriend went to one of  them Phoenix Festivals years and years ago she left a day before I did and she saw Guru of Gangstarr and Donald Byrd in a motorway service station at one in the morning.

They had played and presumably were on their way to an airport so not inexplicable, but you don't expect them boys to be buying a pastie in a serve, I think it's fair to say.

My oft-told anecdote about sneering at a Keith Flint lookalike at Tibshelf Services then realising weeks later that The Prodigy had played at Leeds Festival the previous night and would have been travelling down to Reading that day.

Additional bit about us sharing birthdays.

[hermitical]

Harry Redknapp, behind me in the queue at the chippy in Bournemouth

Suzi Quatro, I opened the door after befouling the crapper on an Easyjet (or Ryanair, I forget) flight to Lübeck and there she was, waiting to use it. Sorry Suzi.

Not a sighting but I did renew Dr Hilary Jones' books over the phone when I worked at the library of the Royal Society of Medicine.

[DrGreggles]

Billy Drago in a pub in Nuremberg

That's Nuremberg!

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Of course, should have mentioned this before; I had a piss next to David Warner in a pub toilet in top capital city of Lithuania, Vilnius.
" Hello, David. " I said to him.
" Hello, there. " He did reply back.
This was during the top footballing competition of the World Cup in 2002. Yer man Warner was watching the televised footie at the time ( John Hannah was with him, apparently ). England were playing , I do believe.. I thought about saying something like " Hey, David, don't panic if England aren't doing too well in the footie today- don't lose your head !! "( this would have been a great reference to the part he played in that " Omen" film, and David would have had a right old laugh at it ). Unfortunately, I thought of this comment approximately 17 minutes after my initial encounter with the great man, and he had long since gone by then  :(

[Keebleman]

I served Elliot Gould in an Oxford Street branch of the now defunct chain Books Etc.  He bought a volume of Yeats' poetry, Philip Roth's American Pastoral and something else which I've forgotten.

[ASFTSN]

Harry Hill sniffily presented his Diners Club card to me as proof of ID when collecting some tickets.

[Jockice]

My other oft-told anecdote of meeting Paul Barber (aka Denzil from OFAH) in the sauna at the Hallam Towers Hotel, where I used the gym/pool and he was staying while filming. He told me it was a low-budget movie about strippers which he wasn't expecting to be a hit.

Leading into my also oft-told anecdote about a very pissed Danny from Supergrass wandering into the gym while I was on a rowing machine and ending up going for a drink with him and members of Powder, including his girlfriend Pearl, who were playing in the city the following night.

[Konki]

Bumped into PC Bellamy off Hartbeat in a local supermarket doing his weekly shop. Went and bought a notepad to get his autograph for Mrs Freeze. Not seen him in there since, so am slightly concerned I've spoilt it for him.

I once sold Nick Berry a copy of The Wasp Factory. He's extremely handsome 'in the flesh' but shorter than expected.

[thecuriousorange]

I once squirted water in Tom Cruise's face as a "prank" for a rather crap Channel 4 comedy thing that I bet no-one remembers.

[yesitsme]

I must have told this, perhaps even in this thread.

I was sat near the Lower Mosely Street Metro stop around the back of Manchester Town Hall eating my butties one day when I spotted the bag lady walking up the tram lines.  As she drew level with me a limo pulled up and out popped yer very own Cleopatras of this world.  They weren't cumminatchya/her/me but instead gave her a blast of their latest non-hit 'Life Aint Easy' - which I'm sure all pop crazed youngsters will recall was about being a tramp.

At the end they pushed a small bag of toffees in to her hand, dived back in the taxi and fucked off.

The bag lady looked at me, looked at her toffees and said 'Fucking dick 'eads' before shuffling on.

When I got back in to work no one believed me.

Why would I make that up?

[Attila]

Long-ago encounters:

*My family stayed every August for two weeks in a little beach cottage in Fenwick Island, Delaware. One year, probs. 1971 or 2, I'm playing in the sand by my family's spread of towels and umbrella, and my oldest brother points out to me that the fellow sat enjoying the sun next to us was Dave Madden of Patridge Family fame. The show was pretty popular at about that time, and he did not take kindly to an excited 6 year old exclaiming, 'It's Mr Kincaid!'

*This one is actually not unlikely at all, given the place/context, but I took guitar lessons for years out of a shop in Newark, DE. Aged around 15 or so, I go in, and the guys working there are wetting themselves to tell me, 'Hey, the guy who does "You Really Got Me" is here!!' Queue me thinking, Oh, wow, Ray Davies, here?!' only to have them shove in front of me this grinning, skinny drink of water. I was so out of it when it came to current pop/rock music I didn't immediately recognise and then failed to go nuts over Eddie van Halen being stood right in this music shop. He was crestfallen and actually gave me his address if I wanted to write him a letter. My classmates were furious when I mentioned it to them and that I didn't keep the address.

This is not particularly unlikely as the guy that owned the little shop did a heck of a lot of luthier work for guitarists at the time, and that also Eddie was married to Valerie Bertinelli, who'd grown up in Delaware and still had a lot of family in the area. My brother cordially knew her in passing.

*Another one that probably won't count: Hugh Quarsie, who plays Rick on Holby City, was with his wife at the same time I was at the Viking exhibition at the British Museum a few years back. We got to talking about the artifacts; he is very funny and kind, and he and his wife invited me to join them for breakfast in the members' cafe.

*Another one that wo'nt count in context, but came at a moment of exquisite timing: did the national Popular Culture Association conference in Boston a few years back, and it was based in one of those hotels that has a regular lift and an express lift that skips a lot of floors. Was waiting for the lift to come to my floor as I had a day out in the city planned (including a tour of Fenway Park!), and the lift was taking forever to arrive because it was a busy time of day. One of the other conference-goers was joking around with me about the wait, lift arrives, doors open, and matey says, 'Right, who's been holding up the damned elevator?' right in George Takei's face. [doesn't count in context as he was one of the conference guest-speakers, but it was great timing. He's also a super super nice person and told his handlers he'd rather come with me to Fenway than the stuff they had on his schedule, and then was concerned that I didn't have an umbrella on such a rainy day.]

[Small Man Big Horse]

Of course, should have mentioned this before; I had a piss next to David Warner in a pub toilet in top capital city of Lithuania, Vilnius.
" Hello, David. " I said to him.
" Hello, there. " He did reply back.
This was during the top footballing competition of the World Cup in 2002. Yer man Warner was watching the televised footie at the time ( John Hannah was with him, apparently ). England were playing , I do believe.. I thought about saying something like " Hey, David, don't panic if England aren't doing too well in the footie today- don't lose your head !! "( this would have been a great reference to the part he played in that " Omen" film, and David would have had a right old laugh at it ). Unfortunately, I thought of this comment approximately 17 minutes after my initial encounter with the great man, and he had long since gone by then  :(

Wow, that was a long piss.

Edit: Just remembered one, I once met Star Trek Voyager's Robert Picardo in a train ticket office in Edinburgh, and here you can see just how aroused he was when he met me.

[Mr Banlon]

Bob Cryer (The Bill) buying lead toy soldiers in Harrods. (I only popped in to buy a pint of milk)
Statto from Fantasy Football walking down the Grand Union towpath in Greenford.
Jeff Banks buying Croissants at Paddington Station.
George Melly in his pyjamas and slippers buying a bottle of scotch at 10am in a Shepherd's Bush cornershop.
Jenny Eclair in a newsagents in Cally Rd.

[Dex Sawash]

Long-ago encounters:

*This one is actually not unlikely at all, given the place/context, but I took guitar lessons for years out of a shop in Newark, DE. Aged around 15 or so, I go in, and the guys working there are wetting themselves to tell me, 'Hey, the guy who does "You Really Got Me" is here!!' Queue me thinking, Oh, wow, Ray Davies, here?!' only to have them shove in front of me this grinning, skinny drink of water. I was so out of it when it came to current pop/rock music I didn't immediately recognise and then failed to go nuts over Eddie van Halen being stood right in this music shop. He was crestfallen and actually gave me his address if I wanted to write him a letter. My classmates were furious when I mentioned it to them and that I didn't keep the address.

clearly one for the sLightings threead

[thecuriousorange]

SPOTTED: TV's Toby Anstis walking through a West London pub, past people tucking into Sunday lunches

[thecuriousorange]

I have also spied

Jenny Eclair.

shopping.

[Bennett Brauer]

I've heard Jenny Eclair shopping, if that counts. She was too far away to see.

[ColinPopshed]

Trying to think of obscure ones - the guy who played Jim Robinson in Neighbours, in front of me in the Visa queue at the US Embassy in London, about 2003

[The Culture Bunker]

Trying to think of obscure ones - the guy who played Jim Robinson in Neighbours, in front of me in the Visa queue at the US Embassy in London, about 2003

Presumably off on his way to mid/low-level TV fame in such shows as NCIS and Lost.

[Colin Sanction]

Statto from Fantasy Football walking down the Grand Union towpath in Greenford.

Both handsome chaps