Island Life Magazine Ltd January/February 2006 | Page 12

JOHN HANNAM

Sir Cliff Richard

Who
hasn't
John
met?

When I’m travelling back from mainland interviews I still have to
pinch myself to make sure it really happened. Did I actually
interview Charlton Heston, Sir Cliff Richard, Dame Vera Lynn and
Eartha Kitt? I must have been acting out the role of an interviewer.
Things like this should just not happen to a shy kid from the Island.

A year or so later Eartha was appearing at the Kings Theatre,
Southsea, in a Mother's Day concert. I produced the letter and
within two minutes my wife, daughter and myself were all in her
dressing room. We had such a warm welcome and she gave my
daughter her Mother’s Day chocolates.

When I was living in East Cowes I wrote to Eartha Kitt, one of my
all-time favourites. Was it just a schoolboy crush? Well, I did get back
a signed photograph and I still have it. Thirty years later I wrote to
her again. This time at a London theatre where she was starring in
Follies. I simply asked if I could come up and interview her. It was
more in hope than expectation. Imagine my surprise when she
invited me up to meet her.

Last Christmas I decided to try and interview Nadia, who had won
the Big Brother television series. I had never seen the programme –
and still haven’t – but knew that she would be popular on my show.
It took more setting up than some of the Hollywood stars I have
interviewed. Her agent wanted to know so much and made it rather
difficult. In the end I put my cards on the table and spoke my mind.
It worked and the date was set. I arrived early at the Mayflower,
Southampton, where she was appearing in a pantomime. I waited up
until around 15 minutes before the show was due to begin and
Nadia had still not arrived. I was the least of their worries. Who
would play the Mermaid? In the end she arrived in the nick of time
and the interview was rescheduled for another day. By this time I
was beginning to wonder if it was really worth it. In the end she did
turn up, blissfully unaware it should have been a few days earlier.
There was a happy ending. She actually proved very hospitable – and
what legs!

I went bearing gifts – a plant from Haylands Farm and a box of
chocolates. It was a very