Horrible man who had a dubious taste in friends ( Saddam Hussein) and an egotist.
Speaking of very unpleasant politicians, I did read an account of when Ted Heath visited Germany in the thirties and he found Heinrich Himmler totally evil and humourless.

My aunt was telling me how she once got a couple of runners to knock on the trailer of Rik Mayall, to which he came out straight away and was extremely warm and kind to everyone there which doesn't surprise me as he was renowned for the way he treated his fans.

My dad once collected Boy George in his black taxi as well, he left his phone in the taxi and got his sister to call the phone to get to my dad, my dad dropped the phone back to Boy George and he gave him a nice little £75! My dad was thrilled

My mam works in a hotel & restaurant and over the years she has had a few famous guests.

Roy Walker - According to her he was an OK enough guy though she got the impression he was quietly fuming that no knew who he was (None of them had ever heard of Catchphrase

Jack Charlton - A nice guy but also a bit tight because he doesn't leave a big tip

Liam Gallagher - Kept his head very low, didn't want to be recognised.

I've met a fair few over the years so here is my list of a few of them:

Nice:
Norman Cook and Zoe Ball- very normal and super friendly
Peter Andre-One of the nicest guys
Julie Walters-very undemanding and kept a low profile
Jason Fleming-Normal and apologetic for the behaviour of his mate Jason (see not so nice list)
Jonnie Irwin from A place in the Sun
John Barnes-Very funny and nice
Glenn Hoddle
Gianni d'marco from Eastenders Friendly and unassuming
Clive Owen Quiet and well behaved
Phil Taylor-very approachable
Sid Owen-Bit thick but very nice

Not so nice:
Cilla Black-nothing more to add on this one-just vile
Gary Linekar_Not much better than the above-so arrogant and rude-nothing like his public image
Jason Statham-Arrogant A*se
Beppe de marco (Eastenders) Nothing like his screen brother-loved himself
Patsy Palmer-hanshake like a wet fish and very unfriendly
Katie Price-say no more
Jade Jagger-nasty piece of work

Just heard from a friend who is a very small cog in the huge machine that is the Game of Thrones Production Juggernaut. He has met just about all the cast, although working on location means that he knows some cast members much better than others. There have been some comments about certain younger, female cast members being "difficult", but he says that actually there isn't a bad word to say about anybody. Sure, people are under pressure, tempers get frayed, people wake up with a headache (there is some serious drinking involved), but people is people. Some people just don't get along with other people, and not everyone likes the same things. He tells me that everyone is totally committed to the project and thoroughly professional.

He gave me his list of favourite people to work with, with the caveat that it really is hard to pick just a handful out of such a great cast (his comments in brackets, not mine):
Julian Glover (like your favourite uncle), Charles Dance (very funny), Lena Hedley (fantastic, but cannot be trusted when she starts plotting with Dinklage), Peter Dinklage (= a god), Gwendoline Christie (VERY tall).

I have asked, pleaded, even begged for hints about Season 5. I offered my body and, when that didn't work, threatened him with my body. I've even tried the Mystic Sound Engineer's Handshake. Nothing. I am very disappointed with him.

As a big GOT fan it's nice to hear they're all good people - Charles Dance has appeared on a few things recently and he does appear to have dry sense of humour although you've got to love a bloke who's prepared to read an extract of '50 Shades of Grey' on tv with a straight face.

He never created the impression of being nice when he was on television. He always seemed miserable and grumpy.

Got told by someone who works on sets for programmes that jamie bell was defo not a ppl person and robbie coltrane was a arrogant. He said ewan mcgregor was really nice and down to earth

Met Christopher Timothy last night after a play in Glasgow. He was such a gentleman. Had his photo taken with all who asked, and chatted for ages in such a friendly manner.

Have been lucky in that the celebs I have met have been generally OK.

Bruce Forsyth - very friendly and natural
John Barrowman - lovely, funny and sweet
Jonathan Pryce - shy, scared-looking but was so sweet to a fan who was ill
Martine McCutcheon - A 'Princess' , up herself
Brian Blessed - just as you would imagine, noisy and jolly
Geoffrey Palmer - just like your Dad, a sweetie.
Pierce Brosnan - happy and nice
Dame Judi Dench - friendly and chatty
Dennis Waterman - brash ands sweary
Ricky Gervais - smiley and natural

My bro-in-law has worked with:-

Girls Aloud - nice girls but total nightmares when they are together
McFly - really decent guys who enjoy a laugh
Dolly Parton- thinks she's the Queen
ELO - friendly and down-to -earth
Katherine Jenkins - a lovely person

Interesting and some of those corroborate other accounts, too. Welcome to DS .

Hi Folks, new poster, I've been reading this thread with interest and have 'pooled' my celebrity encounters with those of my mum and dad. Mum worked in Immigration in the 1960's and Dad was in the Met Police from 1967-1998.

Mum's

Clint Eastwood - was in UK filming in 1966. Mum said he was gorgeous, polite, very approachable but did wee down the side of a Police Car

Liza Minelli - filming Cabaret. Very chatty but also very ditzy. Mum couldn't stand Michael York though, said he was 'very up himself and aloof'

Lee Marvin - rough as a badger's arse. Got in a strop when someone asked him for an autograph and kept saying 'Jeez you bastards, just f_off' when people approached him

Robert De Niro - smooth, calm, polite and very unstarry

Dustin Hoffman - Mum's favourite with Eastwood. Polite, generous and thanked the tea lady when she brought him a cup of coffee (for which she also got a kiss)

Dad's

Michael Caine - polite, slightly drunk and a bit cheeky
Sir Trevor Nunn - Lovely, but dad didn't like his wife much.
Jim Morrison - This wasn't Dad's, it was my uncle and his friend who went to LA in 1967 and met Morrison in The Sunset Strip one night. Said he was 'mad, charming but crazy and dangerously inebriated'
Jimmy Page - Dad met him at Heathrow in the '70's. Very polite and happy to chat.

Mine

Ron Pickering - Host of '80's kids show 'We are the Champions' - brusque and very keen to get on with filming so, in his words, he could 'wrap it and get out of this dump' (he was at my school for an episode).
Jimmy Hill - interesting, loves chatting footy, very knowledgeable and polite
Wayne Sleep - Lovely bloke. Made sure everyone got autographs, despite the woman he had danced with going off on one about being late.
Ronnie Barker - polite but distant. Met him at an antiques fair and he was clearly not in the mood for recognition.
John Thaw - Couldn't be bothered. Filming an episode of 'Morse' when I was in Oxford, and, to be fair to him, he was being followed by loads of old people wanting an autograph and chat. Kevin Whately was approachable though, but very quiet.
Gordon Kaye - Rene in 'Allo 'Allo - smashing bloke. Happy to chat.
Jamie Oliver - bad tempered and didn't like one girl near me in his restaurant 15 asking after Jools "What the f_ do you care?" he said.
Harry Enfield - Obviously having a crappy day and was morose. His mate Paul Whitehouse was funny though, and bought me a pint. Top bloke.

Welcome and good addition to the thread.

Dustin H always struck me as a good guy. Jamie O has an edge to him, despite the jolly geezer image. Okay, the girl asked an asinine question, but there was no need for that retort.

Nice : Archie from balamory

I'm surprised more p takes aren't made over Balamory when he's on Mock The Week!

A couple of those, Barker & Thaw, from what I've read elsewhere, are understandable.

Isn't Jimmy Hill in the early stages of Altzemiers, I read somewhere?

He was also Nigel in REV

Would be interesting to hear more about his experience with Dolly Parton. Do you have any more details?

I met Alexei Sayle when he was at a local reading thing and offered to sign his novel for people. He was friendly enough and happy to take a photo.

I also met Brian Conley earlier this year. I decided to hang back at the stage door because he's somewhat of a comedy hero of mine. They say never meet your heroes because you'll be disappointed. He turned out to be incredibly nice, happy to chat, so down to earth, and insisted he'd get another photo with me to make sure it turned out alright. Couldn't have been more made up.

That's nice. I am not particularly a fan of his, a bit too eyes and teeth show biz, and always seems to be auditioning when he is on chat shows, but I can imagine him caring what his fans think of him, and being grateful to have fans.

My cousin met Alexander Armstrong a couple of weeks back. My cousin has Down Syndrome and thinks he knows people on the TV because he can see them and thinks they know him.
Alexander was playing an instrument for something and was doing an interview as my cousin walked up to him, he spotted my cousin asked the interview to hold on a moment while he talked to my cousin and took a picture. My aunt said he was a gentleman.

Anymore details? I had heard stories that are slightly different!

How is asking after his wife an "asinine" question? It's common courtesy traditionally, I would've thought. I guess it's a north-south thing, southerners just don't understand we northerner's need to be more open and personable, I guess.

I've only met a couple of famous people. I met the author Helen Cresswell at an appearance at Waterstones book store in Newcastle in about 1993, when I was 10. We went as a class from my primary school, and I wrote a long poem based on her book The Bongleweed, entitled The Bonkersweed! I was too shy to read it out, so a girl called Claire read it out for me instead, on my behalf! She asked me if I wrote it, I said yeah, and she praised me for it, she was impressed! Quite an honour!

I also met Spencer Tunick at The Baltic art centre in Gateshead in 2006-I'd taken part in his nude photoshoot on the Quayside round there the year before,and he was attending the official opening of the exhibition of the photos he took that day-I asked him for an autograph on the back of my picture, he said he couldn't do this as it would set a precedent, and he'd be innundated. He'd already advised he wouldn't do this, but I just wanted to speak to him, and say thanks! "Thank YOU!" He replied, putting his hand on my shoulder, before turing to someone else who also wanted to talk to him, as you can imagine, he was in high demand that day. I also asked him a question at a Q&A did the following day too, but this had to be relayed by a member of staff sitting next to him, as he didn't quite understand what I'd asked him. Then someone else asked him if he ever took part in his own shoots, I remember thiking I was going to ask him that, damn! It was still nice to talk to him, though! Twice!

I have also shaken hands with both Prince Charles and Kate Middleton-sorry, The Duchess Of Cambridge-but they were shaking hands with everyone really, so it doesn't really count as a personal meeting. I've also spoke to some famous people online, too-on here Victor Ebuwa from BB5, and Jenni Trent-Hughes, who was always on BBLB back in the day. Also Aden from BB12. On Twitter, I've also received perosnal respones from Shell (also BB5) and model Nicola Mclean (who, incidentally, has also been on CBB!), but none of these really count as actual meetings with them, either.

Oh yes, I forgot about her! I met her too when I was about the same age, when she came to our school. I think she was a friend of one of the teachers. She said that she had terrible handwriting, and offered £5 to anyone who could read a page of her manuscript. I took up the challenge but got stuck half way down the page. My friend picked up where I left off and read to the bottom of the page. We got £2.50 each! Decades later, I can still remember her enthusiasm for reading and writing, and how she told us that we should write a story every week, to keep our imaginations working. Lovely woman.

Keep it up guys.

I love love love this thread.