Bumping into celebs in London

My trip to London last weekend produced two celebrity encounters in my last 24 hours there; the first one not completely unpredictable, but the second one a real pleasant surprise. Brian Dowling was at G.A.Y. on Monday, so I couldn't resist going up to him, introducing myself and telling him how I'd voted for him ten times. If my head hadn't been drowning in a sea of vodka and Smirnoff Ice by this point, I could probably have said something interesting to him. Poor bloke - he must get this all the time, but he was polite and friendly. Needless to say, he looked cute, and as with everybody I've ever met "off the telly", much smaller in real life. Not just shorter, but with a smaller face too. Guess that's what comes of having a camera shoved in his face all the time. He also seemed younger.

Then, on Tuesday afternoon, as I waited for a tube at Tottenham Court Road, a familiar face walked past me on the platform. It was Craig Kelly (Vince from Queer As Folk). Luckily, he did remember me. He has amazingly long hair, not for any particular part, but he said it's useful because he doesn't get recognised so much. He looks nothing like Vince now, more like Michael Praed as Robin Hood! We chatted on the tubes for the three stops I was going to Euston. Craig remembered the mad drinking session we went on after the QAF2 premiere, and thanked me for not publishing some of the things we were talking about(!) He thought Bob And Rose was brilliant, and he asked if I thought there were elements of Vince in Bob's character. That's exactly what I thought when I watched it too. Craig has two TV shows coming up. He's in the new series of Clocking Off. I laughed and said "everyone from QAF has been in that!" He said exactly, he told them it was his turn. (It's made by the same production company; Red.) In January, Craig is in a new sitcom, which has been written by Antony Cotton, who played Alexander in QAF. It's called "Having It Off", and Craig plays Billy-Bob, a gay line-dancing teacher, in chaps and full clone moustache. Can't wait to see that! And then Euston arrived, all too quickly. We could have chatted for ages. Once again I left him thinking what a thoroughly likeable bloke he is.

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