Stars and bars
MARION McMULLEN raises a glass to those who have enjoyed a pint at the local over the years
2008
Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley had his own brand brew Red Rat to hand at The Beer Exposed exhibition at the Business Design Centre in Islington. He brewed his gold award winning beer in Suffolk and had an active role in the brewing process. The event was organised as the opening of microbreweries was on the rise and visitors were able to sample more than 200 world beers and the newest British Brews.
1987
The Queen Mother was known to enjoy a tipple, but usually a gin and Dubonnet rather than a pint of bitter as she had on a visit to the appropriately named Queen’s Head pub in Stepney, London.
1961
British film and stage actor Albert Finney enjoyed a glass of beer in his regular pub behind the Cambridge Theatre in London back in the 60s. One of the “Angry Young Men” who were sweeping across British culture, he was already making his mark in films like Tom Jones.
1967
Hollywood film star Clint Eastwood was introduced to the joys of a British pub during a promotional trip to the UK for the movie The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. He enjoyed a pint in Manchester and later opened his own pub, the Hog’s Breath Inn at Carmel in California.
1972
Actor and hellraiser Oliver Reed could often be found enjoying a few drinks at his local pub The Dog and Fox. He once said: “I have two ambitions in life. One is to drink every pub dry, the other is to sleep with every woman on Earth.”
1995
Aussie housewife and superstar Dame Edna Everage visited Coronation Street and offered to buy the Rovers Return and rename it The Watering Hole. She joked she had already purchased The Watering Hole in Australian soap Neighbours, renaming it the Rovers Return.
1952
There was one regular who was always at the bar at the The Carpenters Arms, Metherell, in Cornwall. Old Joe was a 50-year-old mannequin that was a talking point at the pub. He sat at the bar and here provided a place for 71-year-old beer lover George Hunn to rest his elbow.
1967
Film star Richard Harris gave up drinking completely in 1981, but once insisted: “I hate movies. They’re a waste of time. I could be in a pub having more fun talking to idiots rather than sitting down and watching idiots perform.”
1960/67
Lawrence Of Arabia film star Peter O’Toole and Welsh comedian Harry Secombe raised their glasses in celebration after being awarded silver heart awards from the Variety Club of Great Britain, left. Peter also took American film star Katharine Hepburn to a pub in Bray in Ireland when they were filming The Lion in Winter in 1967.