Being recognised

One of the side effects of being on television at the moment (albeit on a minor satellite channel) is that I'm getting recognised and approached a fair amount by people who have seen me on their televisions. I don't seek it out (after all, fame doesn't get you anything unless you're mega famous) but it comes to me nonetheless.

Quite a lot of the time, people recognise me but don't know my name. Or they recognise the face but don't even know where they know me from. So I've had random strangers ask me if I'm from Bristol and drink in the same bar as they do (the answer was no, of course)!

And people are much more likely to approach me in the evening. Perhaps it's the effect of having had a few drinks - alcohol releasing them from any inhibitions they might have had. But I get random strangers chatting to me a lot more on a Friday and Saturday evening than in the rest of the week put together!

Another observation is that London people are far too used to seeing proper celebrities and stars to get bothered about someone like me (as an aside, I've seen people including comedian Ricky Gervais and major actors such as Ralph Fiennes and Sir Ian McKellan in London). So a supermarket girl in London didn't even blink an eyelid after recognising me and asking if I was on the telly. Whereas a perfume spraying girl in a department store in Birmingham asked me if I was from the telly and got all excited and started leaping around when I said yes. But I guess they have fewer genuine celebrities in Birmingham so get more excited even when Z-listers such as myself crop up!