Enough to drive you to drink
SOME people on the telly or in films hate being recognised in public - or at least they pretend to.
My advice to anyone who's chosen to be famous and then moans about it is to get a real job.
I'm a naturally sociable person and some of the most interesting conversations I have had with a stranger began only because they clocked that I was "the bloke on the box". But the principal advantage of being recognised is that I get served in pubs.
Until I became a TV presenter I was one of those people who became increasingly invisible the closer I moved towards the bar. It didn't matter that I was the tallest bloke in the place, staff just looked straight through me. I started to get a complex about it.
If only research published this week on how to get a barman's attention had been available back then. After many experiments the secret of getting prompt service boils down to three simple steps.
1) Face the bar square-on.
2) Stare directly at your server.
3) Hold a banknote prominently in one hand.
Works like a charm, apparently. If I'd known I would have stayed in radio.