Anyone have a claim to fame? Just for fun!

Re Cliff - no, it was a bit before I worked for Granada. My father’s secretary once told a group of us that she knew Cliff from when he was still Harry Webb - we were never sure if she being truthful or just fantasizing - anyway - Cliff and the Shadows came to a local theatre - she was given complimentary tickets and I went with her to see the show. When it was over we were both invited to go to the back stage party - which was great fun. They were a great group of young men.

Re Tommy Steele My mother worked for the ABC Cinema chain and at Christmas time ABC always treated their staff to a Ball. Not Dad’s thing at all - so she invited me to go with her. There were two or three ‘celebrities’ there but Tommy Steele really made the effort to be friendly and danced with as many of us as he could. He was very interesting to talk to as well.

Re Ballet Rambert They were appearing at our local theatre and some of their corp de ballet had gone down with the dreaded lurgy so they asked a couple of the ballet schools if they could loan them some dancers - I was one of about half a dozen who were chosen. It was quite an eye opener - I thought our classes were strict - trust me - they were nothing compared to the Rambert regime!

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I don’t know whether it could be called a claim to fame but I discovered that I am distantly related to Gary Lineker. When he was on Who Do You Think You Are a few years back I was astonished to see that some of the ancestors that he was shown were also my ancestors! When I told my sons they were quite excited because they hoped they would get free Walkers crisps!!

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That’s interesting MargaretF! Had to laugh at your sons though, lol!

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Me too. :joy:

A couple of incidents where I stood out from others in minor ways. My name shown on some woodwork and metalwork items I’d made. They were put on display in the town library. Name read out in school on prize-giving day. It was the 3rd form prize. Just a book but oh! the glory of it. :smiley:

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I did ask him how he’d got on and he replied, “I was murdered.” Poor bloke :lol:

Thinking back, there’s quite a few over the years. Mainly because up here are the studios plus various nightclubs and shows were done up here.

Those that instantly spring to mind are:

Matthew Kelly
Robbie Coltrane
Jimmy Saville (spits out)
Paul Gadd (Gary Glitter) (little sniffling wimp)(spits out)
Mark Bolan
Dave Lee Travis
Paul Jones
Anthony J Wilson
Cheryl Baker
Patrick Moore
Princess Anne
Tim Healey
John Thompson (regularly)
Quite a few Corrie lot:
Sally Dynever
William Roach (regularly, the smug prick)
Helen Worth
Bill Tarmy
Princess Anne

On two occasions, photos I’d taken were shown on TV’s area weather news and my name read out.

I once won the Ken Bruce Radio 2 caption competition. He read out a light-hearted news item of the day. A caption for it had to be thought up and e-mailed in. The winners name (me) was announced on the radio. A signed photo of Ken Bruce sent in the post.

Living the dream.:smiley::smiley:

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It doesn’t get any better than that. :smiley:

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Oh my word, how very exciting! I hope you framed it and proudly displayed it where every visitor can see it!

That’s a lot of celebrities! I hope you’ve recovered from seeing Savile and Gadd :face_vomiting:

I should have done shouldn’t I? (or maybe not). I actually have no idea what became of it. I ought to have taken more care of such a prestigious prize. :smiley:

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Paul Gadd/Raven/Gary Glitter lived in my Road in Croydon, Stretton Road that joins the main road called Morland Road and had a lovely Church on the Corner…all gone now…
He had his sash window open in his front room, so could hear him singing and playing his guitar.
I use to walk passed his house and give it a wide berth… I was very shy as a 12 ish year old when he was about 17 years…guessing here.Meant nought else.
Won twice on the Kenny Everett Capital Radio Show…guessing the record Titles…one was Jack & Diane

and the other was Men at Work…

once £100 and the other time a Capital Radio Nylon Zip Up Bomber Jacket and a Capital Gold Holdall…
I entered a competition to win a Sony Walkman no less…
here is my prize.


me far left…so Sony came out in 1979 so this had to be the early 80’s when my Twin Son use to borrowed it for his music, and he easily managed to do what he does best, break it…
he had a Capri the long style ones when he was of that age, and he completely ruined that…the inside was like a dustbin…No idea why he is like that, as cant think who else is like that in the family…
So he is infamous…

All those competition wins! Not surprising they were all music related, haha! Well done :mini: :clap: :clap: :clap:

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Rhys Ifans was in the year below me in high school
He and his mate Myfyr fancied me and my friend Cathryn. I hope now that it was me that Rhys fancied of course but I’ll never know because we dismissed them as immature imbeciles at the time. We did a stage production of Oliver! during his 2nd year and my 3rd. He played Oliver of course and I remember thinking I had never seen any lad act the way he did on stage. You couldn’t take your eyes off him, even when he was supposed to be blending in to a background scene. A star quality he clearly never lost :blush:

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His solo performance of Where Is Love? left no dry eye in the house on any of the performance nights!

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Saville was a creep that made my skin crawl even before all that vile stuff came out. Gadd I will admit to being shocked to hear he was one of those ********* … (insert your own words). Similarly Stuart Hall and Rolf Harris. :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

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I’ve remember another… Ken Dodd. :grinning:
I’m so surprised I forgot about this lovely chap, as he was a nice part of my childhood. The ‘twinkly’ funny man I called him.

In Plodland when the little kiddywinks of plods had a party, (memory fail,Xmas?) he was the entertainer and we had to go to him on stage for our ‘lucky bag’ (in those days it was those brown paper bags with string handles).
Inside was a picture of him, a present (can’t remember what) and an apple and orange. I always related apples and oranges to that twinkly man when I saw him on TV.
Daft of what? :rofl:

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Ah no, not daft at all @Pesta. He always came across as a lovely fellow, seemed a real gentleman, but full of fun.