The Real Stella Street: Growing up in the Bucks Beverly Hills
When the lovely John Sessions died recently I was reminded of the series he put together with Phil Cornwall and Peter Richardson, about a suburban neighbourhood incongruously populated by celebrities. On Stella Street, one could bump into Marlon Brando, Alec Guinness, Dustin Hoffman or Michael Caine, or least brilliant impersonations of them. Hilarious.
Then I remembered I grew up there. Well, not quite, but I did spend the 1970s and half of the 1980s growing up in Gerrards Cross, in South Buckinghamshire, where it was perfectly usual to see the stars of film and television in Budgens, the Post Office or the dry cleaners. Gerrards Cross, and surrounding villages, was a kind of mini-Hollywood, and as children we were utterly immunised, blasé even, about seeing stars in the flesh.
My Mum, for example, taught Cilla Black’s kids at the local girl’s school St Mary’s. Cilla was always out and about in Gerrards Cross. My friend did the garden for a Bee Gee. Back in ’69, one of the Bee Gees, Maurice, married Lulu at our local church. Another Bee Gee, Barry, came into the video shop where I worked on a Saturday, and took out an entire box of movies to watch over the summer. When he brought them all back, he handed me a cheque to fill in for all the accumulated fines for lateness. (Daddy, what’s a cheque? What’s a video? What’s a Bee Gee?).
Dave Lee Travis ran a carpet shop on the main drag, Packhorse Road. I know that’s like saying Tony Blackburn ran the fishmongers or Paul Gambaccini worked in the bookies, but it’s true. I think it was more of an interior design sort of place. I recall seeing him in it, surrounded by shagpile. Roy Castle lived nearby, and played trumpet at the local Baptist church. I remember seeing Eddie Large on the zebra crossing, holding a shop door open for Patrick Mower (Emmerdale) and being on the next table to Robert Lindsey (Citizen Smith) in the local curry house. In 1979, locals Roy Castle, Val Doonican, John Laurie and John Mills recorded a fundraising appeal on a flexidisc for the local hospital.
The preponderance of BBC television stars such as Doonican and Paul Daniels can be put down to the closeness to the old Television Centre in White City (and big, expensive houses), but the real stars, like John Mills and Margaret Rutherford, came to the area because it was close to all the classic movie studios such as Denham, Ealing, and Pinewood. Rutherford is buried in St James’ churchyard, under the inscription ‘A Blithe Spirit’.
This closeness to London also drew football stars such as Dennis Wise, whose house was just around the corner from where Amal Clooney grew up. She went to same school as another Gerrards Cross resident, and future Cabinet Minister, Dominic Raab. Up the road, at the convent school, Zoe Ball was getting her seven O levels.
When he wasn’t in Mallorca, Peter Stringfellow was at home in Gerrards Cross. At the other end of the moral spectrum, Kenneth More (Reach for the Sky, Sink the Bismark) was born in Gerrards Cross in 1914, but didn’t hang around for long.
Lest you think this is all a bit B-list, the reputation of Gerrards Cross as a bit of a Beverly Hills in Bucks has been enhanced in recent years. I am told Noel Gallagher lives in one of the villages, and for a while Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie made GX their home. But one star shines bright, although only at night, and that’s Ozzy Osbourne who lives in a country estate nearby.
Now that really is stella.
Paul Richards is a writer-for-hire.
