Llareggub and ..Celebrity

After we'd booked our annual trip to Solva I discovered that they were filming Under Milkwood with Rhys Ifans there and I was disappointed.  I was worried that my peace and quiet would be ruined by film crews and celebrity.  I have stopped feeling apologetic that I have turned into that sad middle aged person who goes to the same place every year that I would have despised in my teens because I know that going to somewhere to slow down and do nothing with hardly any phone signal is good for me and my family.

The producers of the new film of Under Milk Wood knew what they were doing when they chose Solva as the location of Llareggub (bugger all backwards).  It's the reason I love it.  After a year Claire is still trying to get more people to come to her 'Stitch and Bitch' sessions in the cafe, the Grumpy Old Men still meet in the George, the man who runs the boat trips is still stealing all his questions for his Wednesday night quiz at the Ship from the Monday night quiz at the George, the little old man in the chapel house still has his front door open to demand a weather report from each passing tourist, the houses near the Cambrian still haven't been finished (6 years and counting) and the artist in the old church still doesn't seem to have any new pieces in his gallery.

I shouldn't have worried really.  Nothing can alter the character of this charming village.  The first year we went there were camera crews all over the place anyway and they were very busy, over-excited news crews.  Someone had died and left £500 to each resident of the village over the age of 60 who had lived there for over 20 years.  .http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8070848.stm. There is nothing like a good news story to get news journalists excited and they were excited, running up and down the High Street, taking pictures and knocking on doors.

I doubt the film crew of Under Milkwood were anything like as frenetic at that but I will never know, as they had finished all the location shoots before I got there.  However, the fact that they had been had left a buzz in the village that was evident in all overheard conversations.  The car park attendant told everyone about his 'selfie' with Rhys and his brother, who he much preferred and everyone knew about the local members of the AmDram group who had been part of the film.

                                The Alpacas might have shrunk

It's probably a good job that they had finished filming as I'm not very good at spotting celebrities.  One year at Christmas, I was walking through Trafalgar Square when a short chubby man was looking at me oddly.  He looked fairly familiar and so I said to him, in what was probably quite a cross tone, "Do you know me?" He stuttered, looked shocked and said, "No, I don't think so!" The Long Suffering Husband was very surprised that I had had such a conversation with Ian Hislop.

The LSH and my daughter are excellent at celebrity spotting.  I don't think people look anything like they do on film and TV and so I will swear blind that they are not who they are telling me they are. When we were in Solva, we were having dinner at the Cambrian (the best burger in the whole wide world) and the LSH whispered, "Look!  Over there!  It's Keith Allen!"  My daughter agreed.  I didn't.  "Don't be silly," I said, "Keith Allen is much fatter than that!"  They questioned whether I even knew who Keith Allen was and I said, in a voice that on reflection was probably too loud, "Of course I do, he's Lilly Allen's dad and the Sherif of Nottingham and anyway that can't be him because his daughter (who was with him) is only about 7.  Keith Allen is far too old to have a 7 year old daughter."
The LSH dropped the conversation pretty quickly and I thought I'd made my point and was definitely right, although when I got home he showed me photos including photos of the woman he was with (his wife Tamzin Malleson) and a 7 year old daughter called Teddie, who I had to admit looked rather similar to the people we'd seen in the pub.  He explained that Keith Allen was Welsh and his brother had been the director of Under Milkwood.  So, it probably was him and if you ever meet him please tell him how sorry I am for loudly suggesting he should be fatter and was too old to have a 7 year old daughter and that I hope it didn't spoil his enjoyment of the best burger in the world.