Boyd’s star stories

Our TV and entertainment director looks back on his biggest and best celeb encounters

I ’ve been covering TV and entertainment for heat since its launch in 1999. My first assignment was to attend the press launch of Channel 4 series

Queer As Folk, where creator Russell T Davies had to endure a torrent of moralistic criticism.

But heat embraced the series, and my first interview for the mag was with its star Charlie Hunnam, then 19, who was as feisty in real life as on the show, telling me, “I want to play aggressive, cocky sickos.”

From the off, heat championed daring, brilliant stuff like Matt Lucas and David Walliams’ Rock Profile, Caroline Aherne’s

The Royle Family, and Ali G

on The 11 O’clock Show. Soon, I was lucky enough to meet the iconic talents behind the best of pop culture. Ricky Gervais got me to don a wig as an extra in his ’70s-set film Cemetery

Junction. Richard and Judy re-created a John Lennon and Yoko Ono photo in my flat. In my bed. Katie Price invited me to her house, and I was a “judge” on Paris Hilton’s My BFF reality show.

More significantly, I was there when hero David Walliams swam the Channel and the Thames, and I visited the sets of Lost (in Hawaii!), Desperate Housewives, The Office, Sherlock and Poldark. Caroline Aherne took me for a night out at the Groucho, and I played Heather Mills’ lawyer in Channel 4’s Star Stories, and an M&S employee in Gavin & Stacey. Most extraordinarily of all, I interviewed Elton John in Vegas, and he told George Michael to “get out more”. George sent a withering fax to the heat office, saying Elton didn’t really know him. The “spat” made headlines around the world. Years later, I saw Elton at a Kylie concert, and he instantly remembered the imbroglio. “Don’t worry,” he smiled. “You were doing your job.” And it’s still the best job in the world.