So, the Rik Mayall is in the same hotel as Fidel, the actor playing Sully. I know this because the pair of them met briefly in the hotel bar on Sunday when they both rolled into town. My response when Fidel told me this? "I have to meet the Rik!!! He's my all-time comedy hero!!! Arrange it for me!!!" Anyway, the Rik wasn't in the hotel bar on the two occasions I have been this week - mainly and obviously because he was on stage at the New Theatre performing as Alan B'Stard in The New Statesman. So the dream was over before it began. Then today, I'm sitting minding my own business outside a pub when, across the road, I spy a familiar looking chap having a cigarette and, to be honest, looking a bit shifty. And, yes, you guessed it, it was the Rik Mayall. So here was my chance. "The Rik!" I shouted, expecting him to run away. But he didn't run away. The Rik Mayall pointed at me, smiled his pearly white grin and walked across the road to have a chat. What a lovely man. I knew, ever since I watched him do Kevin Turvey, that he would be. "I have to shake your hand," I said, "the Rik Mayall is my all-time comedy hero." "You won't shake this hand," said the Rik, "because I did a comedy fall off a chaise longue and I've damaged my finger. Shake this hand!" And the Rik thrust his left hand at me. How many people can say they've shaken the left hand of the Rik Mayall? Amazing. The Rik also introduced me to his Hull-born co-star, Garry Cooper, who was Peter in Quadrophenia and counts the fabulous (Jack Rosenthal penned Channel Four film) P'tang Yang Kipperbang among his many credits. "I hate him," said the Rik "he gets all the laughs."
After that excitement I found myself talking to two local historians who, I kid you not, are researching a book about a place in North Yorkshire called Lea Green. One of the other actors in Sully is called Lee Green. Frankly, that's just too weird for my small brain to compute. I gave them a flier for the play, they bought me a drink - even I know that's not a fair swap.
