London & the Colin Firth connection

So, I recently was in London for a week and if I had really tried I possibly could have met Colin Firth! Theoretically… I maybe could have caught a glimpse…

Just before I went to London I read that Prince Charles would be hosting a reception for Britain’s Oscar winners at St. James’s Palace in London and that Colin Firth would be there! I would love meet Colin Firth one day, if only for a few brief moments… I’ve met Richard Armitage, I’ve seen Pierce Brosnan up close and personal, and I sat just a few rows away from Michael Palin when he came for a talk to The Netherlands, but I have never once seen Colin Firth in real life. And Emma Thompson was also going to be at this reception. And Judi Dench. And Maggie Smith. And.. and… and…

I was going to be in London and I would actually know where Colin Firth would be on a certain day (May 4th) when I was also there! So, I was thinking of staking out St. James’s Palace to try and catch a glimpse of the man. However, I was in London with the family… and I had no idea when exactly on May 4th this reception would be… and I had no idea what entrance Colin Firth would use… I had no idea if I would even catch a glimpse should I even know these things, maybe his car with darkened windows would just whizz by and that would be it!

In the end, there just was no time! My guess was that the reception would be in the evening (a correct guess as it turned out later) and that evening my brother had, as a surprise, gotten us tickets to see the play The Railway Children! As much as I want to see Colin Firth, doing this with the family came first and what a wonderful time we had. So, I did not do my stake out at St. James’s Palace after all and I could not regret that either… But I did see a few pictures the next day:

Colin is behind Camilla with Mark Rylance and Michael Caine. Vanessa Redgrave beside Camilla and on the other side next to Prince Charles we have Maggie Smith and Judi Dench. Emma Thompson is cut off this picture, but she was somewhere more to the right.

Of course I really liked this picture below of Colin Firth looking very pleased shaking Prince Charles’s hand:

And to think that Colin won his Oscar for playing Prince Charles’s grandfather in The King’s Speech!

Apparently Emma Thompson was clowning around with Prince Charles (with Colin Firth in the background):

And I loved this shot of Judi Dench:

There is also a brief video summary of the event:

Then two days later my brother tells me that Emma Thompson doesn’t live too far away from where he lives! He’s never seen her around ‘in the wild’ but we figure out where her house exactly is. Basically we could just walk past her house if we wanted to! But we never do, that would be creepy… I also haven’t held on to the info about her house because what good would that do me anyhow?

I do leave London feeling like I could have almost met Colin Firth! And that I could have theoretically bumped into Emma Thompson at Waitrose supermarket! Just the idea that I could have seen them around makes me happy! Maybe when I come again next time I will? I’ll keep a lookout…