So I had a taste of fame whilst in secondary school, and I was picked to go out climbing with none other than Griff Rhys Jones, actor, comedian (watch vintage Not the 9 O'clock News, Alas Smith and Jones, Three men and a boat), presenter and, it seemed, traveller and adventurer. And when I say picked....well to be honest, I talked the teachers into letting me be part of the team. I had heard about the adventure on the grapevine, as you do at school, and already having been bitten by the climbing bug, was not about to let this happen without me! (You can already start to see where the 'cocky' came in....) To be honest, none of the kids were quite sure who this guy off the tv was, just that it was someone "famous" and that we were going out into the Peak District with a film crew and would be on the telly! Very exciting for a bunch of suburban school kids! Mums and Dads soon excitedly explained who he was.
So here we are, posing angelically, I am on the bottom row, in the middle next to Griff...(on first name terms of course....)
This, of course, was back in the day but obviously more than ten years later I still remember that day with glee. All my favourite things combined! Fame at last! And then came the DVD, and of course there we are...and then the book! What a thrill for a bunch of Sheffield kids! And in case it couldn't get any better, I got a mention in the book. Twice, in fact.
"Except for cocky Jordan, they were novices"
"Who says it was a competition? Jordan thought it was" (Rhys Jones, 2007, Essential Works/Butler and Tanner)
Here it is - my 15 minutes down in print for ever.
Thanks Griff. It was a riot! And I'm still here climbing. Fancy a rematch?
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