Eddie Izzard the railway modeller

[Classsix T]

I've had morning coffee with the Queen. But it's rude to talk about such things of course so I won't mention it - oops

Now now Mike, you might not like Mr. Izzard, but let's be civilised about it. Tsk.

 

C6T.

[RJS1977]

I do wonder how many of those "celebrity modellers" actually built their own layouts and models and how many got them built for them. Reminds me of the chap in the radio controlled model flying club my dad belonged to...always claimed he'd built this model aircraft and that one, when everyone in the club knew full well he got them professionally built by someone else.

 

I'm not sure that paying a professional modelmaker like JdF or Allan Downes to build a layout or rolling stock rather than building one yourself is any 'worse' than buying ready-detailed locos and ready-to-plant buildings in red or blue boxes and plonking them on a baseboard. The difference of course (apart from the higher quality of the professionally built layouts) is that the layouts with ready to plant buildings and RTR stock all look the same as each other whereas the professionally built models are all unique.

[RJS1977]

I've had morning coffee with the Queen.  But it's rude to talk about such things of course so I won't mention it - oops  

 

No, you should never name-drop (or so the Duke of Edinburgh told me) ;-)

[NHY 581]

No, you should never name-drop (or so the Duke of Edinburgh told me) ;-)

Quite. As I was only saying to Phil the other day, Liz really should get him the new Hornby Peckett for Christmas.

 

Rob.

[RJS1977]

Completely off-topic but I'm reminded of a delightful story David "Poirot" Suchet told in an interview.

 

Apparently he'd been invited to a meal at Buckingham Palace. Towards the end of the meal, a butler came round with a large plate of fruit, and David Suchet took the piece of fruit which was nearest to him, which turned out to be a mango. David Suchet then realised he'd never eaten one before and had no idea how to! As he was sat next to the Duke of Edinburgh, Suchet turned to him and discretely said, "Excuse me, Your Grace, but I've just done something rather embarrassing. I've picked this mango up and I've just realised I don't know how to eat it!" The Duke smiled, called the butler back, took a mango for himself and demonstrated how to slit it round the outside and scoop the stone out. Apparently David Suchet has met Prince Philip on a number of occasions since, and has always been greeted with "Oh yes, you're the mango man!" 

[PatB]

My sister worked on Time Team for over a decade, and I met Tony Robinson a few times. I have to admit that he was always a nice bloke, and my sister always spoke highly of him. I think what does wind him up is mention of Baldrick, and my sister tells me that some-one calling him 'Baldrick' was enough to make him blow his top. I guess he has had years of the Baldrick jokes and the novelty wore thin long ago.

 

It wasn't unheard of when I was still living at home for a Time Team Landrover to turn up and a bunch of people would pile in for tea as they knew my Mother put on a good feed. I even drove the Time Team Discovery once when I had to move it off my parents' drive because it was blocking me in.

I was always amused, whilst watching "Worst Jobs in History" how often the production team managed to put Mr Robinson on unstable high things, of which he was clearly terrified. I don't like heights much either and so the symptoms are easy to spot

[The Stationmaster]

Completely off-topic but I'm reminded of a delightful story David "Poirot" Suchet told in an interview.

 

Apparently he'd been invited to a meal at Buckingham Palace. Towards the end of the meal, a butler came round with a large plate of fruit, and David Suchet took the piece of fruit which was nearest to him, which turned out to be a mango. David Suchet then realised he'd never eaten one before and had no idea how to! As he was sat next to the Duke of Edinburgh, Suchet turned to him and discretely said, "Excuse me, Your Grace, but I've just done something rather embarrassing. I've picked this mango up and I've just realised I don't know how to eat it!" The Duke smiled, called the butler back, took a mango for himself and demonstrated how to slit it round the outside and scoop the stone out. Apparently David Suchet has met Prince Philip on a number of occasions since, and has always been greeted with "Oh yes, you're the mango man!" 

 

When I was in the meet & greet line up at a certain station in the West Country HRH got to me, last in line, and said 'What you again'?  (I'd spent 5 minutes talking to him at another of my stations the previous day).  Fortunately the next time I met him - 7 years later - he seemed to have forgotten our previous encounters.

[Pacific231G]

As a TV producer I often found people's reaction to "celebrities" (usually just someone off the telly) far more interesting than the presenters themselves who most of the time were just colleagues you worked with. One that really stuck in my mind was shooting an early morning sequence in the East End with a fairly well known female weather presenter who was a bit of a fan of traditional London caffs. There was a good one close to the location so we went there for breakfast. The owner's reaction was priceless, he simply couldn't believe that someone that famous (not me obviously) had actually entered his premises and probably thought it was some kind of wind-up. The food was really good by the way. 

 

In general I've found that on-screen personas are little or no guide to how people behave off-camera. Since there's often a natural tension between directors and presenters (they often want to do another take, you're in a hurry to move on to the next set-up) my  personal rule of thumb has always been how they behave off-camera with usually nervous members of the public who are appearing with them on shows. The very best person for that I ever worked with was Nerys Hughes.

Edited August 5, 2016 by Pacific231G

[RJS1977]

 my  personal rule of thumb has always been how they behave off-camera with usually nervous members of the public who are appearing with them on shows.

 

Quite - I had the very pleasurable experience of appearing on Brainteaser with Alex Lovell about 10 years ago. She was absolutely delightful and really made me and the other contestants feel at ease - bear in mind that this was a live show.

 

There was one mishap which fortunately was resolved before the cameras started rolling - on our entry forms we had to write a story about ourselves which she could refer to during the show. I was a bit stuck for ideas but before the deadline for getting the forms in, I went to help on a church Kidz Camp at the YMCA site near Padworth, which included a very boggy area of ground where children managed to get stuck almost as soon as they had arrived! One child in particular got stuck, and I had to edge in to rescue her. Of course, I got stuck as well and had to be rescued by one of the other kids! So, on the form, I wrote:

 

"Whilst helping out on a church Kidz Camp, I got stuck in a bog and had to be rescued by one of the kids!"

 

The Endemol researcher received all the forms and typed them up into the form of cue cards for Alex, which she ran through with us before the show. When she got to me, she looked at what the researcher had typed and asked me, "So, what's this about you getting caught in a toilet? Was that like George Michael or something?" I'm very glad that didn't go out live!

[Rugd1022]

A mate of mine recently attended a magazine photoshoot in the East End which involved an American actress called Anna Kendricks (no, me neither) lounging about all over his 1978 Rover SD1 while her entourage (all six of them) ran around like headless chickens catering to her every whim. The New York based photographer was an even bigger diva, though, swearing like a trooper at passers by and ('Withnail & I' moment ahoy...)  demanding that one of the gathered lackies should procure 'the finest wine available' for his delectation, pronto, or else.

 

Bloody celebs!

 

Mind you, the opposite was just as often true back in the good old days... my Grandad was a sound recording engineer in Barnes, he knew quite a few thesps back in the '70s and used to drink regularly at various Thames side boozers with the likes of Bernard Hepton, Ian McShane and Anthony Valentine (who also went to school with my Mum), to a man they were all absolute gents.

[Andy Hayter]

I do wonder how many of those "celebrity modellers" actually built their own layouts and models and how many got them built for them. Reminds me of the chap in the radio controlled model flying club my dad belonged to...always claimed he'd built this model aircraft and that one, when everyone in the club knew full well he got them professionally built by someone else.

 

I am sure that the problem for celebs - and indeed many people working in senior or just plain busy positions - is that they find themselves relatively cash rich and time poor.  In that situation, if paying someone to do things is the way forward, why not? 

 

After all I have spent years paying Hornby, Bachmann, Peco, DJH, and others simply because I did not have the time to turn a boiler, scratch build 40 points, knock up some wheels etc.

[rob D2]

My sister worked on Time Team for over a decade, and I met Tony Robinson a few times. I have to admit that he was always a nice bloke, and my sister always spoke highly of him. I think what does wind him up is mention of Baldrick, and my sister tells me that some-one calling him 'Baldrick' was enough to make him blow his top. I guess he has had years of the Baldrick jokes and the novelty wore thin long ago.

 

It wasn't unheard of when I was still living at home for a Time Team Landrover to turn up and a bunch of people would pile in for tea as they knew my Mother put on a good feed. I even drove the Time Team Discovery once when I had to move it off my parents' drive because it was blocking me in.

But meeting Tony Robinson and not mentioning ' baldrick ' is like meeting Europe and not mentioning ' the final countdown '

[jcm@gwr]

But meeting Tony Robinson and not mentioning ' baldrick ' is like meeting Europe and not mentioning ' the final countdown '

 

the band,....................or the continent?

[RJS1977]

But meeting Tony Robinson and not mentioning ' baldrick ' is like meeting Europe and not mentioning ' the final countdown '

 

I believe Bill Oddie gets similarly frustrated if people start talking to him about giant kittens....

[Pacific231G]

But meeting Tony Robinson and not mentioning ' baldrick ' is like meeting Europe and not mentioning ' the final countdown '

And very tedious for the person concerned.

I once had the extraordinary privilege of working with Neil Armstrong for a day. He was recording intro. pieces and interviewing pilots for an aviation show I was directing. He was interested in and knowledgable about all aspects of aviation. After leaving NASA he'd even been a professor of aeronautics at an American university and was then still a very active pilot. Most people only knew about one thing he'd done but  there was so much more to him than that . He was also very modest and a real joy to work with. It was one of the high points of my career.

Edited August 7, 2016 by Pacific231G

[RJS1977]

I know there was one incident involving Neil Armstrong some years before he went to the moon which shows the level of his capability. Neil and another pilot were flying a USAF bomber(?), slung underneath which was a rocket propelled plane due to be tested, the plan being that the rocket plane would be released at altitude and piloted back to the ground. Neil and his copilot had an agreement with the pilot of the rocket plane that if anything went wrong with either aircraft, they would release the rocket plane there and then, giving at least one crew chance to make a safe landing.

 

Neil became aware that one of the engines had caught fire, so, as arranged, he released the rocket plane. Seconds later, the engine exploded, with one fragment going straight through where the rocket plane's fuel tank would have been.Other fragments peppered the fuselage of the bomber, several severing control linkages with the result that Neil and his co-pilot found that one of them could only control the elevators and the other only the rudder. Neil and his co-pilot were able to co-ordinate their actions sufficiently that they were able to make a safe landing, as was the pilot of the rocket plane.

[rob D2]

Tedious maybe , but you kinda make a rod for your own back with your most famous stuff .

 

If you meet baldrick your not going to ask him if he likes sushi are you ! Smacks of ute the hand that feeds you.

 

Apparently Neil Armstrong used to go nuts if you started with ' so was the landing faked ....'

[Southerner]

"The very best person for that I ever worked with was Nerys Hughes."

And the worst?  {)

[Pacific231G]

"The very best person for that I ever worked with was Nerys Hughes."

And the worst?  { )

No  chance!!

[Pacific231G]

Tedious maybe , but you kinda make a rod for your own back with your most famous stuff .

 

If you meet baldrick your not going to ask him if he likes sushi are you ! Smacks of ute the hand that feeds you.

 

Apparently Neil Armstrong used to go nuts if you started with ' so was the landing faked ....'

I don't blame him and I gather that Buzz Aldrin would do rather more than go nuts. I any case there are now aerial photos of the lunar landing sites that show them in considerable detail.   

[rob D2]

I don't blame him and I gather that Buzz Aldrin would do rather more than go nuts. I any case there are now aerial photos of the lunar landing sites that show them in considerable detail.

 

Hmmm, I don't go in for conspiracies but I understand the reason why we never went back to the moon was that aliens warned us off returning....

[ejstubbs]

I gather that Buzz Aldrin would do rather more than go nuts. I any case there are now aerial photos of the lunar landing sites that show them in considerable detail.   

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wptn5RE2I-k

 

The action is at 1:35 but the build-up is worth it.  Sanctimonious (literally) twerp got exactly what he was looking for IMO.  Seems the Beverley Hills police came to a similar conclusion: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2272321.stm

I any case there are now aerial photos of the lunar landing sites that show them in considerable detail.   

 

Oh come on!  If they can fake the launch of 6 million odd tons of rocket, they can surely manage a bit of photoshopping.  You might just wonder why it took them more than 40 years to get around to it, though...

Edited August 10, 2016 by ejstubbs

[rob D2]

Nice punch !

[cravensdmufan]

How nice is this?

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-sussex-45711020/eddie-izzard-launches-model-railway-in-bexhill-tribute-to-father

[rockershovel]

I was recently reminded of having met George Cole. I was working in a cable pulling job for Murphys during the late-80s oil price crash, and the site compound was off Leicester Square. One Saturday morning we were asked if someone could pull their car inside the gates (a common request in those pre-charge days). It was then explained that it was George Cole, due to appear outside the Odeon in half an hour but keeping “out of camera” until then.

 

We let him in, and he spent half an hour or so in the canteen drinking tea and more-or-less conducting an audience. I say this advisedly, because I did get a distinct impression that he was “being George Cole” rather than being himself, but he was very charming and amusing

 

Richard Wilson’s appearance as himself in “Father Ted” pretty much sums it up