Have you ever had a meal or drink when a personality is also in the building

Stephanie Cole in same bookshop as me in Stratford-on-Avon

I don’t think I have but I most probably wouldn’t recognise them out of character I have a job recognising people I know sometimes when there not where they re suppose to be ?

2017 Took stepmother to her doctors in Padstow, Cornwall. Sat in the waiting room with us was Rick Stein.

2007. Queuing at the gate at St Pancras station for my train to Sheffield, I was stood behind Jarvis Cocker.

1986. Cadgwith, Cornwall. We were sat outside the pub having lunch and at the next table was Rodney Bewes having a drink with friends. He lived in the village.

Tracey Barlow off Corrie in Nando's, Michael Palin in the cafe at the Wallace Collection, Sue Pollard in the V and A.

B9exchange

We were privileged to sit at the next table to Desmond Tutu when he came to talk at a local pilgrimage. Lovely unassuming man.

Yes, I met him too when I was very young but probably didn't appreciate it at the time. It would have been when he was at Cambridge.
Strangely enough, a friend we made many years later was at university with him in the 1960s.

Years ago on one of our many trips to Rome, we were sitting outside our usual restaurant watching the world go by, when the waiters started flapping and moving all the diners, apart from us, into the inside salon of the restaurant.
Then I noticed some very handsome gentlemen in sharp suits hovering next to us and eyeing us up. It was when I caught sight of the gun inside of one of the men's jacket, that I knew someone important was about to arrive.

The next thing a group of about ten men in suits came and sat next to us.
One of the waiters sidled up to me and whispered that it was the Italian Finance Minister, a very important man, according to him.
He said we hadn't been asked to move, as they had known us for years and we weren't deemed a risk.

We sat fascinated by the whole palaver! It certainly made our evening.

I did forget someone in a pub in Oxford , which is no longer down Friars Walk .
I had just got off the bus from Brackley ,and stood outside the pub was Phil Tufnell smoking away .
Whilst having a few beers , I sat down , Phil Tufnell and TV film crew were at other end anyway I was in screen view but one of the crew came down and told me to stay put .
They were filming for the One show , with Phil Tufnell interviewing two different people.
I just sat there relaxed whilst others I knew stared in amazement instead acting naturally or being themselves

We were privileged to sit at the next table to Desmond Tutu when he came to talk at a local pilgrimage. Lovely unassuming man.

As a treat a few years ago, my husband and I booked a weekend break at a posh country hotel. At dinner, and again at breakfast we were in the company of members of The Time Team who were conducting a dig nearby.
We never saw Tony Robinson though.

I once had a good laugh with Frank Carson when I was at Liverpool airport. He first asked if " I was going or had I already been ?" We had a drink while waiting for our flights.

Alan Minter in 1980 in a hotel in Jersey . I was on a business trip.

Michael Caine and his beautiful wife in his own restaurant Langan’s Brasserie . We were there celebrating my husband’s birthday.

Robbie Coltrane was dining in The Ivy in Covent Garden years ago when it was an ‘in’ place for celebrities. We were the guests of a friend who is a theatrical agent .

Chris Evans was holding court in the bar in a Midhurst Hotel we were staying . Chris had been a compère at an Eric Clapton charity gig we had been to at Cowdray Park .

Not really famous but he was to me . Matt Mills ex Reading Football Club captain having his lunch in Nando’s in Reading . ( Grilled chicken, rice and water )

Many years ago, before we had children, we had a holiday in Barbados, staying at the Coral Reef Club.
One evening there was a huge Barbeque laid on and later a floor show of dancing and limbo etc.
The tables were arranged around the dance floor and as we were enjoying a drink my husband was having trouble lighting a cigar, the chap at the next table leaned across with a lighter and then offered my husband an Havana.
The chap then invited us to sit with him and his family, it was Tom Jones with his wife Linda and son Mike. We had such a good night with them and ended up arm in arm walking back to our bungalows. They left the next day as he was appearing in Las Vegas.

Just forgot when Tony Blair was in office and George W and his entourage were over, they used our local Marriott Hotel in Durham where we used to go regularly for coffee.
Saw Alan Bennett in Betty’s in Harrogate-he’s very tall.

Sat next to Sir Peter Ustinov in Durham when he was Chancellor of the University.
Stayed in same hotel in York as Adrian from Bread. Saw Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall at Heathrow. DH sat next to Rowan Atkinson on an early morning flight from Newcastle to London. Said ‘Good morning’ then said he wanted to be left alone.
DD2 is a fan of theatre when in New York - she is stunningly beautiful (I’m biased) and most stars are happy to have pictures taken with her - Bruce Willis, Al Pacino, Bradley Cooper and Jake Gyllenhal to name a few.

Son and I were having lunch in Oxford. At the next table was Andrew Motion and a young woman who was not his wife. As we got up to go I accidentally knocked his bread basket to the floor!

A couple of weeks ago I had coffee with a friend and saw Miranda Hart sitting at a nearby table. Except when I got up to leave and heard her speaking, I realised I’d made a mistake, unless her normal speaking voice is broad Aberdonian!

I had lunch in a branch of Leon where Jude Law was also lunching, on his own and studying a huge script.

Dh and I had dinner in Lagos one night at a table near to where the former President Obasanjo was dining. He was very unassuming, with just one young aide with him and none of the blaring security arrangements that usually accompany ‘big men’ in Nigeria. We had somehow ended up living in a prime apartment block where some of his children also lived, plus other movers and shakers in Nigeria, so we would share lifts with notable Nigerians.

The Diamond Chinese restaurant in Barrow-in-Furness, 2007, with a friend. Hairy Biker Dave Myers was in there on his own.

The Sun in Splendour pub, Notting Hill, during a TV strike in the 1980s: Newscaster Alastair Burnet propping up the bar.

Some of the Corrie cast eat and drink at the Black Seal in Trearddur Bay, one of them has a home nearby and is very supportive of the local RNLI. The locals just carry on, no one is star struck.
Our son was in a pub in Valley, Anglesey where Prince William was having a drink with his RAF mates. He said he was very friendly and ‘a top bloke’.
You’ve met a fair few famous bods Mick.

Chris Evans and his entourage turned up at our local pub quiz.
I wasn't even interested in looking at him and they did very badly in the quiz too.

About 10 years ago in a restaurant in San Gimignano a fellow diner was Laura Geller whose make up is sold on QVC. A few times I found Cherie Lunghi standing next to me on a visit to the National Gallery. Last year in Bury St Edmonds I was in the same hotel as John Simpson and his family.

Oh Prunella Scales and Timothy West were on the same Trip as us on the paddle steamer "Waverley" from Portsmouth to Yarmouth (Isle of Wight) a year or so ago. Does that count?

Prunella Scales and Timothy West having a coffee at the next table to us in the cafe at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford.
Last year having lunch by the sea in Devon, Jennie Bond was at the next table.

Helen Lederer and ‘Fletch’ from Holby/Casualty at Chichester theatre last year.

We went to my niece's wedding in Enniskillen in the 1990s and stayed at a lovely hotel on the banks of Lough Erne. Went down for breakfast the next morning and suddenly a group of four or five, obvious security men came in and checked out all of the conservatory dining room. They were followed in by some dark suited men who sat at the table immediately behind us.

I could hear the steady, loud smacking of lips and turned round to see Rev. Ian Paisley slurping a bowl of porridge.

In March we had our last family lunch at a country pub near Guildford and Michael Buerk came in. He was much taller than I expected. Hope to go there again when the pandemic has been vanquished!

Saw Will Gompertz at Tegel Airport (Berlin) about 18 months ago