My brush with fame

If you can’t see a film at least you can be in the personal presence of a great movie artist. Accidentally, that is. I’m in England and a week ago was travelling by train back to London from Liverpool. The train had well departed the Liverpool station – perhaps half the way to London – and going at substantial speed, when two women came into first class where I was sitting (the perks of a BritRail pass). Their arrival seemed so out of place that I joked, “How did you guys get on the train – jump on it moving at full speed?” And one of them had a boxy suitcase, upon which seeing I quipped, “Wow, that’s something straight out of a 1940s movie about a transatlantic voyage.” My jokes, lame or not, aside, this woman smiled, perhaps indulgently, at me. She was very good looking and seemed to have a sheen about her. She almost looked like…… She slid into her seat opposite me but by the window. Meanwhile, a “mate” who I’d struck up a conversation with across the aisle, at one point turned to our female companion and said, “Before you go to sleep, I just wanted to say, I really enjoyed you in The Crown.” She plays Princess Margaret. Okaaay….is this confirming who I thought this woman might be? And then my friend types something out on his phone and shows it to me. “Don’t say anything but that’s Helena Bonham Carter.” Suspicion confirmed! So, for the rest of the trip to London’s Euston Station here was one of the world’s foremost actresses nestled in her seat sitting across from me, sometimes perusing her phone or trying to get some shuteye. I thought I heard from time-to-time softy purring sounds. She did adjust her foot when I grabbed my cellphone cord after it became unattached (not that she did it). I don’t know who her companion – an older woman – was but she sat separately down the aisle. But why was HBC on this very train? Simple. Earlier, when in Liverpool, I happened to, yes, take a Beatles tour. As our bus passed a major arena people in costume were pouring out of the local Comic Con. The tour guide didn’t know if anyone famous was attending. One the passengers piped up, “Helena Bonham Carter is.” “She’s pretty famous,” quipped the guide.

Interestingly, this being England, so many major locations have been film settings. This includes King’s Cross train station, where you can see on the concourse floor star stickers with the names of famous films shot there from the 1930s to present. These include Harry Potter, Friday the Thirteenth, The Imitation Game, Alfie, all the way back to Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps ….. Also, at St. Bartholomew the Great parish, London’s oldest dating from the 12th century - and which offers wonderful free lunchtime classical concerts – many movies had scenes shot there. These include Shakespeare in Love, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sherlock Holmes, The Last Knight and Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.