Claridge’s. It’s like stepping back into 1930’s art deco luxury with 21st-century amenities. Impeccable service and delicious food.
What do you collect?
Pelham puppets. Got two of them for every birthday and Christmas through my childhood and now ‘rescue’ them like orphans at antique fairs, car boot sales and junk shops.
Vintage Pelham Clown Puppet
Alamy Stock Photo
Favourite pub?
I’m allergic to alcohol so never go into any, but love the Churchill Arms in Notting Hill for its extravagant year-round window box displays.
Last play you saw?
Network at the National Theatre. An inspired and prescient multimedia experience.
Bus, taxi or Tube?
Bus and Tube every day using my coveted Oyster Freedom Pass, due to my vast vintage.
Favourite shops?
Liberty — unique, inimitable and sells my Jack perfume brand. Richard James in Savile Row for sartorial style distilled. Waitrose for Poilâne bread and Burford Brown eggs.
Most memorable meal?
J Sheekey’s for a family birthday dinner. Oysters, a seafood platter, apple crumble and lemon sorbet, shared with the people I love and laugh most with.
What would you do if you were Mayor for the day?
Offer free bus and Tube travel and restrict delivery van access from 11pm to 6am. Make wifi free above and below ground and designate a landing spot for Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane.
Where do you work out?
I run in Richmond Park: more than 2,000 acres of oak trees, deer and ponds.
Richmond Park
Alamy Stock Photo
Most iconic Londoner?
Male: William Shakespeare, Samuel Pepys, Charles Dickens and Kenneth Williams.
Female: Elizabeth I, Nell Gwyn and Dame Judi Dench.
Best thing a cabbie has ever said to you?
‘Don’t tell me, you’re whatsisname. Don’t tell me, it’s on the tip of me tongue, you’re that bloke that was in, no don’t tell me, my wife loves ya, you’re, you’re Geoffrey Rush.’
Who do you call when you want to have fun?
Who else but the Spice Girls?!
Richard E Grant and the Spice Girls in Spice World: The Movie in 1997
Alamy Stock Photo
Where do you go to let your hair down?
As both my grandfathers were bald as eggs by my age, I am frankly astonished to still have any thatch on top, although my forehead seems to be growing Munster-sized by the minute.
What are working on at the moment?
Star Wars: Episode IX. The conclusion of the Skywalker saga.
Who is your hero?
Anyone and everyone who shows compassion and kindness in the midst of this current Brexit-Trump debacle.
