More Queens Please

Willy Wonka – Paul B

The Queen – Margaret Southcoat

Holmes & Watson – James B and Scott P

The bail out of Greece, whether temporary or not, has definitely improved our workflow.  We must be the best barometer going for financial confidence because the reaction as far as job enquiries for Lookalikes is concerned,  is immediate.  Amazingly!

The new enquiries are very biased towards firstly The Queen – both for now and ahead – right up to the June Jubilee weekend which is looking like it will be mayhem at this moment, as far as availability is concerned.  We are still hopeful that Jeannette Charles will be well enough to participate and enjoy what should be the ‘swan song’ of her long and ground breaking career as a Lookalike.  Her name is the one that people still associate with the Lookalike industry – the first and still the most famous.  I really hope that she is not forced to retire now of all years but so its just fingers crossed for the results of various tests which should tell us whether there is anything that can be done medically to improve her mobility.  We are all thinking of you Jeannette long may your career continue as that of Her Majesty herself.  Thank goodness, of course, we do have Mary Reynolds, Patricia Ford and Margaret Southcoat but these ladies are no longer in the first flush of youth and have to take life and lookalike work at a slower pace which does not fit in with the what looks like a frenzy of the Jubilee weekend.  What will be will be.

We have been trying to ‘drum up’ some new recruits – alternative possibilities – plus chasing people who we have had on our books for a while but have never worked and searching others on YouTube.  But we haven’t been too successful as yet – age comes with many problems i.e a very expensive realistic wardrobe – and ease of transport coming top of theproblem list it seems.  If anybody reads this and feels they know somebody who would fit the bill – need not be an actor – please get in touch – now!

The rest of the Royals – particularly Kate, are still in demand.  As from her 30^th Birthday and now that she is undertaking her own appearances, most of the newspapers are keen to write articles about her style and wardrobe – very reminiscent of Princess Diana.  We have a new Royal icon – there is no doubt.  Good for us.  We did a lovely article and shoot with 8 Kates which will come out in the July edition of a very ‘nice’ glossy.  The Sun have just this week shot 4 Kates and interviewed them but with a very heavy emphasis on what they can earn as a Kate Lookalike.  This is not something that we encourage because fees vary enormously dependent on what is required and we are always open to negotiation.  As I see it, being a Lookalike is not about becoming rich but more about the experience and fun.  This is not true of us as Lookalike Agents – where it is all about the money because it is a business and we are not here to do things for free.  I say that but in fact we do – usually because of the promise of a name check – which then does not appear.

Apart from the Royals we have done some pretty varied work – we did Holmes & Watson a la Guy Richie – James Bonner  as Robert Downey Jnr and Scott Parham as Jude Law for a daytime reception at ‘ Circus’ in Endell Street – hard work for us as we had to costume them.  Angels were very helpful but as we had to collect and return the costumes as well as delivering them to the venue it hardly makes it worth doing the job – but, of course, we did and got a couple of nice shots of the guys. Lina Sands (Angelina) has continued getting an enormous amount of interest and she did spend 2 days at an exhibition in Paris for us.  But her sights are set firmly on becoming an actress in her own right and those jobs are taking precedence over the Lookalike jobs so a bit of a shame for us but good for her.  But we shall see as we have managed to get a couple of scripts for her.  Mary Reynolds (The Queen) is working steadily and has done a nice PR Company party at Kettners plus an MP’s birthday party in Hampshire on the night of the terrible snowstorm.  Don’t know how she drove there and back to Hampshire that night – well done Mary you are a real trooper.

Alison Jackson has been up to her usual tricks and did a funny Times Online video of Ed Milliband falling down a manhole in the street.  First job for our new  Ed.  Also for Times online she did Putin’s election day – in her way.  All very last minute and time consuming for us.  We are lucky in having so many lookalikes on our books but because there are so many we cannot keep up with all their movements – so any last minute job for a little used/new Lookalike is a nightmare  and quite often we miss these jobs because it takes us so long to trace the person, the job (usually PR or newspaper stunt – not always Alison Jackson) has been forgotten or the client does not have the patience to wait.  One of our main trials!

Luckily we did manage to contact our Bruno Mars (Anton de Whalley) for a little part in TOWIE.  Our newish Beckham Jamie Gleeson made a nice Pizza Delivery boy for an advertising pitch for Iris,  Luke Williams (Harry Potter) worked his magic for a Batmitzva in Whetstone while Paul Buonocore did the same at Alton Towers as Willy Wonka.

The Queen (Margaret Southcoat) and Prince Philip (Vernon Preston) promoted a new ‘Royal’ Chess Set at the Toy Fair at Olympia while Ghandi  (Ramakant Shah) went to Paris for the very prestigious photographer  Rancinan.  Terry Nelson as Richard Wilson joined a Transport Union protest in Kings Cross for a Press Call.

Running out of time – have to search for more Queens – Help!

ALREADY HALF WAY THROUGH JANUARY

Patricia Ford

Gunar B

Darren K

Darren Alboni

I’m sadly still not keeping on top of things as far as blogging is concerned but this is not really because of my workload but because of Oliver, Jacks and Alexander (stepson wife and baby) having booked their tickets from Sydney and will be arriving in London on 27^th March and they are coming to live with us for as long as they want to.  After 11 years away – how amazing is that!

Back to work – Christmas wasn’t too bad – not like the good old days but we had half a dozen or so group bookings, which hadn’t really happened for the last 3 years.  They included a booking from Sternberg Clarke for Prince (Gunar) Kylie (Kirstie) Beyonce (Rachael) and Madonna (Lisa) which was great – main problem was that it was at The Belfry and involved a lot of travel for all of them and a lot of stress for us.  At least it was a Wednesday rather than a Friday – normally December Fridays are historically just the worst for our stress levels. 

Saturday 3^rd December gave us our first real Christmas headache.  Paul Richie (Elvis) had been booked for ages to do a long complicated gig – starting on a Thames boat with the client from Central London and then welcoming and chatting to the guests on the way to The Greenwich Yacht Club where the party was to be held and he would perform later in the evening. (Having already had to set up in the Yacht Club before travelling back into London to pick up the boat – long and complicated).  Paul rang me at 3.30a.m. on the Saturday morning crying off because of a tummy bug. Luckily, oh so luckily, for us Darren Alboni stepped into the breach and on to the boat for us, and the job was saved.  This took all morning to resolve and I just about recovered when at around 4pm I get a message from the client for our evening job, a lovely birthday event at the Savoy, that Ian Beyts (Churchill) had also contracted this bug and couldn’t make it.  Client insisted he was replaced with somebody that would fit in with Jim Chadwick (Sinatra) Pauline Bailey (Marilyn) and Frank Terry (Chaplin) and wonder of wonders Beverley Stone (Audrey Hepburn) raced there and was ready to join the others by 6.45.  Saved again – horrendous day hopefully never to be repeated.

Luckily we had a smoother ride through December after this shaky start:  Jeremy was used as Dickens for the opening reconstruction sequence of the BBC’s Dicken’s Season.  Mark Myers – the greatest Steve McQueen was visiting his 90 yr. old Mum in Finchley for a couple of weeks from his home in Canada and was able to take part in the Motor Bike Show at the NEC for Firebox – I should check and see if they used the pictures on their website.  Paul Carter – our Brucie – took part in a ‘Strictly’ themed event for Reading Borough Council orgnaised for the old and disabled.  Darren Knight as David Cameron did a photoshoot for the Daily Mail – yet to appear still keeping our eyes open. 

Patricia Ford  (The Queen) did 2 jobs for us in December – one in Edinburgh (quite a trek for her) a 60^th Birthday celebration and the other in Sheffield – an appearance on ‘The Restaurant Inspector’.  Patricia is the only person I know that actually reads my blog – so I always feel that I am writing it for her which makes me very careful with my grammar and spelling knowing what her she does in her other life!

Lina Sands (Angelina) has been pretty busy for us and in general to put it mildly.  The little Youtube clip/interview that I did with her a couple of years ago now, has gone International creating enormous amounts of interest Worldwide.  She now has 712,247 hits – far and away more than the others on our channel – well done Lina!  On the back of this renewed publicity for her she had a trip to Bucharest in Romania for a VIP evening in a nightclub.   She also did a corporate PA at the Mayfair Hotel in London, this was with Sam Brown (Brad).  This job came through Garston Entertainments who also booked Mark Beauchamp as Harry Hill last week – always pleased to get jobs in January – historically a struggle and only made worse by the Recession except last year which was different to all previous years because of THE ROYAL WEDDING.   Another job last week was a photoshoot for The Sun using a new Kate to us Jacqui Adams celebrating Kate’s 30^th Birthday.

So far January has been tricky – we spent most of last week working on providing Lookalikes of the new judges for The Voice – Tom Jones, Danny O’Donoghue – The Script,  Will.I.Am – Black Eyed Peas and finally Jessie J – not an easy task and then after days of struggle they decided they only needed ‘doubles’ which is a whole different ball game and fee!  Doesn’t matter what the doubles look like just need to have same dimensions.  So that was that – all in vain sadly – but a good exercise, I suppose, and we will be prepared next time.

Onwards and Upwards……………………………………………………………………………………