Tony Benn as well - have read his diaries, a great read
John Peel was always my favourite "celeb" - shame he never finished his autobiography as it was another good 'un, even if his wife did a good job of continuing it after he died half way through writing it
Willie Rushton
Stephen Fry
Alistair Sim
Alec Guinness (bit of a mean sod in real life, but love his on screen stuff)
Micheal J Fox
Lauren Bacall
Bernard Cribbins
Robert Morley
Denhlom Elliott
James Mason
Cary Grant
Fred Dibnah
Bill Oddie
"Did yer like that!?" "Mmmm. Aye. Oh aye. Y'know?" "A man who says he feels no fear is either a fool or a liar." "I realise that steam engines aren't everyone's cup of tea. But they're what made England great." "The modern world stinks." "We've become a nation of con men, living by selling double-glazing to each other." "Steam engines don't answer back. You can belt them with a hammer and they say nowt." "I set out as a steeplejack in my youth to preserve chimneys. I've finished by knocking most of them down." "Height gives you a wonderful feeling of grandeur. You're the king of the castle up here." "I have a wash more now than I used to y'know... I have a shower every night." "I'm just a bum who climbs chimneys." "Anybody who destroys anything made of stone should be prosecuted. It is not all beautiful, but it took a man all day to make one stone." "Steeplejacking's a bit of a spasmodic job, so you can play with your steam engine instead. It's a bit like being very rich." "If you make one mistake, it's half a day out with the undertaker." "It's a funny thing, this celebrity. If you don't wave back you're a miserable bugger, if you do wave back you're a big-headed bugger. I don't know." "The thing is nowadays, you'll have 20 men working, yet 60 men telling them 'You can't do that, you ain't got a tin hat on'". "Teaching boys to bake cakes? That's no way to maintain an industrial empire." "By 'eck it were grand." "Them fancy London types don't know the pleasure of eating chips with fingers." "That's Bolton's biggest chimney that... and I climbed it for a ten bob wager. Never did get the ten bob though." Fred also previously received two honorary doctorates ..... They were both given by the relevant engineering faculties, but Fred always told people that they were for "back street mechanicing". "I prefer the past to the present. Because life today, with all its modern technology, isn't very good, is it? And the future looks even worse." "I've never fell off a big chimney. You'd only fall off one of them once."
Sid James, JLC, Dawn French...all good calls, the kind of people you think are just very likeable and you can't imagine them having a bad bone in their body. Becks too - nothing malicous, just misguided at times!
Jon Snow is another for me
On the attraction front...Kirsty Allsop and that supernanny bird, Jo Whatsername
Comments
John Peel was always my favourite "celeb" - shame he never finished his autobiography as it was another good 'un, even if his wife did a good job of continuing it after he died half way through writing it
david dimbleby
natasha kaplinsky
david attenborough
hartley hare from pipkins
Stephen Fry
Alistair Sim
Alec Guinness (bit of a mean sod in real life, but love his on screen stuff)
Micheal J Fox
Lauren Bacall
Bernard Cribbins
Robert Morley
Denhlom Elliott
James Mason
Cary Grant
Fred Dibnah
Bill Oddie
Fern Britton
Fern Cotton
and now DA9 made me think about it...
Helen Mirren, there's certainly something seductively sexy about her!
"Did yer like that!?"
"Mmmm. Aye. Oh aye. Y'know?"
"A man who says he feels no fear is either a fool or a liar."
"I realise that steam engines aren't everyone's cup of tea. But they're what made England great."
"The modern world stinks."
"We've become a nation of con men, living by selling double-glazing to each other."
"Steam engines don't answer back. You can belt them with a hammer and they say nowt."
"I set out as a steeplejack in my youth to preserve chimneys. I've finished by knocking most of them down."
"Height gives you a wonderful feeling of grandeur. You're the king of the castle up here."
"I have a wash more now than I used to y'know... I have a shower every night."
"I'm just a bum who climbs chimneys."
"Anybody who destroys anything made of stone should be prosecuted. It is not all beautiful, but it took a man all day to make one stone."
"Steeplejacking's a bit of a spasmodic job, so you can play with your steam engine instead. It's a bit like being very rich."
"If you make one mistake, it's half a day out with the undertaker."
"It's a funny thing, this celebrity. If you don't wave back you're a miserable bugger, if you do wave back you're a big-headed bugger. I don't know."
"The thing is nowadays, you'll have 20 men working, yet 60 men telling them 'You can't do that, you ain't got a tin hat on'".
"Teaching boys to bake cakes? That's no way to maintain an industrial empire."
"By 'eck it were grand."
"Them fancy London types don't know the pleasure of eating chips with fingers."
"That's Bolton's biggest chimney that... and I climbed it for a ten bob wager. Never did get the ten bob though."
Fred also previously received two honorary doctorates ..... They were both given by the relevant engineering faculties, but Fred always told people that they were for "back street mechanicing".
"I prefer the past to the present. Because life today, with all its modern technology, isn't very good, is it? And the future looks even worse."
"I've never fell off a big chimney. You'd only fall off one of them once."
What a legend.
The Irish bird from the one show
Alison Steadman (a few years ago!)
Sid James
Becks
Helen Mirren
Judie dench - in a grandmotherly way.
Jon Snow is another for me
On the attraction front...Kirsty Allsop and that supernanny bird, Jo Whatsername
Used to like her when she did Robot Wars
;)
You mean, she yodels in the valley?