An unlikely fan of my current show Big Painting Challenge emerged when I went to interview Sir Patrick Stewart.
As an actor I’ve always thought he bore the challenges of his Star Trek and more latterly X-Men fame with extremely good humour. Despite superhero status he’s continued to challenge his thespian skills, particularly on stage with his fellow Knight of the Realm, Sir Ian McKellen.
Holed up in a bar in Geneva, where we’d both been flown by IWC, the coveted watch brand, to do a Q&A, we discovered we had more in common than a love of fancy watches and a penchant for Samuel Beckett plays! In fact over our late night digestif, I managed to use my Grub of Fleet Street skills to uncover his secret passion. Revealing himself as a lifelong amateur painter @SirPatStew was even more excited than me about Big Painting Challenge, the BBC1 show Reverend Richard Coles and I currently present.
A couple of cocktails in I fancy I’d nearly persuaded him to join us for series two (yet to be commissioned) but before I could get him to sign in ink, he and his lovely American wife slipped off into the night.
Watch this space for Celebrity Big Painting Challenge; the possibilities are limitless with so much untapped talent out there!
You can find Patrick and my IWC chat by clicking here.
Big Painting Challenge is on Sundays, 6pm on BBC1