Who's the most interesting person you've met/sat next to on a flight/train?

Offset

Oooh.  Another couple I forgot.  Alan Whicker on a tube train in mid-80s. He looked very affable.   And then Bernard Ingham around the same time on a platform of Clapham Junction station.  He looked anything but affable.

rogd

Hurling_Fruitmig said:

EricTheWeary said:

If I can count the ferry (and not quite next to) but five weeks ago:

https://imgur.com/a/b3ZeH55

Tommy Emmanuel?

Sporky

Lady BMcH.

I generally want most people I end up sitting next to to be raptured.

blobb

On the subject of drinking (and smoking) on trains, I sat diametricaly opposite a guy on a long train journey. I could see him, he wasn't really looking at me. He was well stocked with cans of Stella for the journey and minding his own business passing the time smoking and drinking. After about the 4th can he got a bit confused over which can he was swigging from and which one he was using as an ashtray. 

The dog end went in the drinking can of course but it was his reaction. He looked around, checked no one was watching (oh, how wrong he was!) and tutted to himself, eyes to the ceiling necked the rest of the brew in his hand. Fag butts and all. A gulp and it was all gone. Who's going to waste half a can of stella for the sake of some fag ash and filter tips eh?

thecolourbox

i have sat by myself on a train and a plane and that was pretty interesting

thecolourbox

Hurling_Fruitmig said:

EricTheWeary said:

If I can count the ferry (and not quite next to) but five weeks ago:

https://imgur.com/a/b3ZeH55

I'm disappointed that he isn't being filmed by a chap with a wind-up cine camera under a cloth hood - the faux New Elizabethan charlatan.

his proximity to the pet toilet amuses me in a very delightful way

VimFuego

this is a work thing, so again not a mode of transportation, but I attended a chap who'd been a DEA agent in the 70's and 80's New York. He'd been badly shot (7 times, we saw the scars!!!) in a shootout with a gang that ended his career. Sadly now he was fucked up; heart, lungs, kidneys all fucked. He had some interesting tales to tell, in between the chronic wheezing and coughing. 

EricTheWeary

rogd said:

Hurling_Fruitmig said:

EricTheWeary said:

If I can count the ferry (and not quite next to) but five weeks ago:

https://imgur.com/a/b3ZeH55

Tommy Emmanuel?

You might need to look further back! 

ronnyb

I was once asked for a lift off Jacques Penry the inventor of photfit identikit.

Philly_Q

Not met, but I sat opposite Issy Suttie on a train once.

My brother once sat opposite Jim Davidson. And I saw Goldie getting off a train at Euston.

Slim pickings really.

thecolourbox

Philly_Q said:

Not met, but I sat opposite Issy Suttie on a train once.

My brother once sat opposite Jim Davidson. And I saw Goldie getting off a train at Euston.

Slim pickings really.

I once sat next to Jim Davidson, a fine comedian and a gentleman. And all three of them were interesting individuals (thank you Benny Hill)

mudslide73

EricTheWeary said:

Hurling_Fruitmig said:

EricTheWeary said:

If I can count the ferry (and not quite next to) but five weeks ago:

https://imgur.com/a/b3ZeH55

I'm disappointed that he isn't being filmed by a chap with a wind-up cine camera under a cloth hood - the faux New Elizabethan charlatan.

It was quite odd. JRM, Mrs JRM and a couple of the kids. Jacob being filmed standing in a dog toilet looking out to sea whilst our dog barked at him. I don't think the French people recognised him (the chap looking at his phone was a French man seemingly wearing only his underwear, as if that wasn't odd enough) or were particularly phased by a film crew being there. Using bloody Eurotunel next time. 

This is right up there with the bowling alley story. I've never sat next to anyone interesting on a train that wasn't already known to me.

thermionic

Closest I've got was seeing Frank Carson walk past me in Edinburgh Airport in the 90s. Although I once walked out of Cardiff Central train station on a Friday evening and was aware of a slight figure walking by my side, glanced across, and it was Thom York. I had been on a train from London, so very likely we were on the same train.

EricTheWeary

mudslide73 said:

EricTheWeary said:

Hurling_Fruitmig said:

EricTheWeary said:

If I can count the ferry (and not quite next to) but five weeks ago:

https://imgur.com/a/b3ZeH55

I'm disappointed that he isn't being filmed by a chap with a wind-up cine camera under a cloth hood - the faux New Elizabethan charlatan.

It was quite odd. JRM, Mrs JRM and a couple of the kids. Jacob being filmed standing in a dog toilet looking out to sea whilst our dog barked at him. I don't think the French people recognised him (the chap looking at his phone was a French man seemingly wearing only his underwear, as if that wasn't odd enough) or were particularly phased by a film crew being there. Using bloody Eurotunel next time. 

This is right up there with the bowling alley story. I've never sat next to anyone interesting on a train that wasn't already known to me.

Blimey, good memory. Prior to seeing Mogg on a ferry I had sat by Wagner on a train. But that story does involve trying to explain who Wagner is which probably detracts from any value of interesting. 

Kilgore

EricTheWeary said:

mudslide73 said:

EricTheWeary said:

Hurling_Fruitmig said:

EricTheWeary said:

If I can count the ferry (and not quite next to) but five weeks ago:

https://imgur.com/a/b3ZeH55

I'm disappointed that he isn't being filmed by a chap with a wind-up cine camera under a cloth hood - the faux New Elizabethan charlatan.

It was quite odd. JRM, Mrs JRM and a couple of the kids. Jacob being filmed standing in a dog toilet looking out to sea whilst our dog barked at him. I don't think the French people recognised him (the chap looking at his phone was a French man seemingly wearing only his underwear, as if that wasn't odd enough) or were particularly phased by a film crew being there. Using bloody Eurotunel next time. 

This is right up there with the bowling alley story. I've never sat next to anyone interesting on a train that wasn't already known to me.

I had sat by Wagner on a train. But that story does involve trying to explain who Wagner is which probably detracts from any value of interesting. 

Not at all, the man's a legend.

Offset

EricTheWeary said:

...I had sat by Wagner on a train. But that story does involve trying to explain who Wagner is which probably detracts from any value of interesting. 

Errrm... this one?

thecolourbox

hopefully not this one

EricTheWeary

Offset said:

EricTheWeary said:

...I had sat by Wagner on a train. But that story does involve trying to explain who Wagner is which probably detracts from any value of interesting. 

Errrm... this one?

Yes. Sandwell and Dudley to Euston. Nothing of great note about the journey but he was quite hard to miss (even without the flashy lights). 

RedRabbit

Two instances spring to mind, but I didn't meet them.  It was more a case of just being in the same place at the same time.  Both interesting in their own way though.

First was in a cafe at Glasgow train station in the late 90s.  The was a huge fuss on the platform but we couldn't really tell what was going on, and being English in Glasgow, we decided not to get involved.  A few moments later a couple of goons in suits come into the cafe followed by a smallish bloke and a few more goon.  The goons spread out a bit and it turned out to be Jimmy Savile complete with purple tracksuit and gold chains.  Neither me or my girlfriend were interested so we just finished our coffees and left.

Second one was catching an early train out of Lancaster station while I was at uni (probably around 2002/3).  The station was completely dead, I think it was about 6am on a Saturday.  I was sat waiting on the southbound platform when a gentleman in a long black coat and wide brimmed hat walked onto the platform and just stood quietly waiting for his train.  I looked and looked again, sure that it couldn't be, but sure enough Terry Pratchett was stood less than 5 meters away from me.  Not approaching and telling him how much his books mean to me is one of the bigger regrets in life.

Offset

RedRabbit said:

I looked and looked again, sure that it couldn't be, but sure enough Terry Pratchett was stood less than 5 meters away from me.  Not approaching and telling him how much his books mean to me is one of the bigger regrets in life.

^^ I met Stephen King at a booksigning and took the opportunity to tell him just that.  It was a brief encounter but in that short space of time he revealed himself to have a very dry wit.  I do, of course, still have the signed book.

The following evening I saw him onstage on the South Bank being interviewed by Muriel Gray.  A great weekend.