Celebrity Shopping

Wandering round my local Morrison's is the last place I expected to spot a "celebrity" but there we were in the middle of our weekly grocery shopping tonight when who should be stood there next to us but Chris Gascoyne, who plays Peter Barlow on Corrie. I had one of those "is he, isn't he?" moments for a while because he was wearing a flat cap and had his head down and also (sorry Chris, I bet you get this all the time) he was considerably shorter than I was expecting, but it was definitely him.

I shouldn't be surprised - Chorlton has long been a favoured haunt of Corrie actors. Craig Charles famously has a place here (very close to the Morrison's actually - I wonder if he and Chris were planning a boys' night in?) and ex-Corrie writer and archivist Daran Little lived locally too - so it's not unusual, but somehow you never expect to see these people in supermarkets do you? Realising that they have to do their own shopping is almost akin to realising that the Queen has to go to the toilet.

Anyway, cognisant of my recent faux-pas with Wendy Richard I did NOT approach him or shout "Chris! Hi!" or anything of the sort. He looked pretty nervous actually, so I guess he was trying to be a regular guy out doing his weekly shop and wanting to be left alone. Several other shoppers spotted him too, but no-one spoke to him the whole time he was in view, so I hope he got out without having to speak to anyone if that was his aim.

That's the second Corrie star I've seen in supermarkets, thinking about it. I stood behind Anne Kirkbride in a queue for the tills in Cheadle Sainsbury's a couple of years back. I know, I know, you're thinking "how exciting." In a couple of years' time, when I'm a famous author (*koff*) I hope I'll still be able to shop in Morrison's without being mobbed.

Interesting trivia:
When I was searching for a photo of Chris, I misspelled his name "chris gascoigne" and found the website of a famous photographer. The "Images" link on Google contained nothing but his photographs. "Never mind," I thought, "I'll search for Peter Barlow." And I found...the website of a famous photographer. Spooky.