SFXB Forum

Ever met anyone from the world of showbusiness? About 10 years ago, I met Andrew Hall who played Russell in Butterflies, one of our country's best-ever sitcoms. It was in a theatre; he wasn't acting, he was a member of the audience. My dad spotted him during the interval; my mum and I went to talk to him. He was very friendly, and even gave me his autograph on an old envelope; but I think I lost it when we moved house! When I first saw the re-runs of Butterflies in 1991, people couldn't understand why I fancied Adam rather than Russell. I still honestly think Adam was the cuter of the two, when the programme started; he was adorable! (Aah, I fondly remember wishing I could enter the programme and sing the Clout song "If she doesn't come back, I'll be your substitute..." in the episode where he gets dumped by a girl called Annie.) But Russell is definitely the one who looks better now, in middle age.

We had a metro station near our school and Bill Oddie was there making some documentary and part of it, I guess, was about the wildlife in the rafters.They were filming early in the afternoon. I was only there 'cos I was bunking off school.Not an actor but sooo exciting, I nearly died ... not.

met quite a few people over the years.Shane Rimmer - thundebirdsGarrack Hagon and Lisa Ross - the captain and lamiaGreg Grunberg - matt parkman from heroesArchie Kao - as Kai from PR: lost galaxy and archie in CSIDanny John Jules - didn't say much cuz he was scrapping with his binman at the time lolWhen I ran SFP all those years ago i got to chat with Constantine Greggory, Jay Benedict and Peter Marinker.so yep been thier done that got a signed picture and all that other stuff.

Tom Baker - I asked him to sign a picture "To an unearthly child". He looked back at me, flashed that famous grin, and replied (in that slightly airy way of his) "Yes, I can see you have something unearthly about you".

Heh, Tom Baker is a class act. He and Brian Blessed are national treasures and probably the only celebs I would actually want to meet.I did meet the imperial commander who gets choked by Darth Vader in Star Wars in a cinema in Bath at the time of the 1997 re-release. He was in a play at the time and was taking his grandchildren and their friends to see the movie. Seemed like a nice guy and was happy to sign a few things for the ticket seller who recognised him, even though I suspect he wanted to see the movie incognito.

I'd like to meet Boris Johnson so I could shake him by the hand.

The tale about the choking Imperial has just reminded me that I met Michael Sheard a couple of times. He used to pass through the station where I work on his way to our local Star Wars convention. It was always slightly unnerving because I'd be answering his questions about which platform his train was leaving from but part of my brain would be going: "ITS MR. BRONSON! HE THINKS YOU DID THAT THING TO HIS TOUPEE! RUN!"  

Wow! Michael Sheard another class act, no longer with us sadly.Mr Bronson, Admiral Ozzel, and er, Hitler.I remember he reprised his Mr Bronson role for an episode of Dick & Dom where they used to have cult celebrity guests locked up in cages. I think he delivered a patented "YOU BOY!" and a "KENDALL!" Funny thing is - the kids of the day would never have got the references, it was purely for the 20 somethings who were tuning in trying to get over last nights hangover.

I think he actually knew the effect he was having too - it must have shown on my face...

Could the Red Dwarf crew please find an alternate universe in which the "do this, don't do that blah blah blah" criteria = reversed in my favour? When I was mad about Butterflies @ the age of 17, my best mate told me to stop going on about it. It was my dear mother who got me into the programme, as she had got hooked on it when it was originally shown; but after we'd all been watching the moving episode about Annie dumping Adam, I then got lost in music, listening to pop-songs about heartbreak. Mum didn't make the connection, re the theme, she just asked me to turn it down a bit. Is there one corner of the world free from oppression?