Close encounters of the sad kind Part 1 (1983-1990)

Commenting on my last post Picklesmum's reminisced about how she met Tom Baker, (the then encumbent Doctor Who) at Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery. This got me thinking about my own claims to fame and what a random list it entails.

My brush with celebrities began in my youth on a hot summers day in the early eighties, when my friend and I ventured off to Barry Island to see the Radio 1 Roadshow fronted by DJ Peter Powell. I can't remember which bands played that day but I remember that PP got so close I was able to get a photo of his ear. I am pleased to say that my photographic composition has improved since that day.

Having got the bug for live radio, I was daring enough to dial in on a late-evening Radio 1 show with Janice Long and guests discussing fashion. I haven't got the faintest memory of what I said as my heart beat far too quickly with nervous energy for me to have any conscious awareness of what was really going on. The only thing that I remember was that I called myself Anne, which is my middle name, because I didn't want to get in trouble if my mother's friends heard the broadcast.

In 1985, I managed to orchestrate a day at BBC Radio Wales, which included sitting in on a live broadcast with naughty novelist and artist Molly Parkin. She gave me a tour of the building and I peered into the studio where Dave Lee Travis was presenting his Radio 1 show. His hair was grey all over, not anywhere like his usual TOTP look featuring black hair with a silver streak. Strange, he did not look amused at my appearance either. However I think that had something to do with my unannounced arrival rather than my sense of fashion.

Having arrived in Nottingham to do my degree in 1986, I heard that Keith Chegwin was visiting to do an outside broadcast for some sad Saturday evening program. A group of fellow students and I trekked off to Holme Pierrepont and after the broadcast I managed to get the icon of 1980s cheese to give me his autograph (a trait that I never shook off from my childhood holidays at Butlins). With no autograph book to hand, he happily signed my five pound note. Later that night, I accidentally gave that note to my then boyfriend, who spent it at the bar. So somewhere still in circulation could be a 1980s style £5 note with Keith Chegwin's autograph! If you ever come across it, please send it back!

In 1989 I was lucky enough to work at a new educational establishment in the heart of Nottingham's inner city. When we opened our doors to the students the BBC cameras were on-site to cover serious footage of this fantastic flagship college. They wanted to see our fabulous all singing all dancing library management system. Sadly the only components we had were a computer monitor and a lightpen. So I am ashamed to admit that I allowed the BBC cameraman to film me for a national news broadcast *PRETENDING* to issue books out to the students. That was both the debut and swan song of my acting career. The following day a local librarian rang my boss to find out what amazing software we were using....the answer was of course "Vapourware." My integrity has improved vastly since! My mugshot was also splashed over the front page of The Telegraph as part of a staff group photo.

The following year the college had its official opening. There was a big hush-hush over who was actually going to open the college and it was only on the day that it was announced at the staff meeting it was going to be Margaret Thatcher. She arrived with her entourage and I was in the unenviable position of videoing her tour around the college for the "official college video". I know she was pretty important, but she just kept getting in the way of my video camera and I had quite an editing job to do to remove the scenes that just showed her back!