11th and 25th February 2000

That red headed lad Chris Evans bought Withnail’s coat at the Withnail for Waterford auction for £5000 and then wore it on his show the week after. REG couldn’t appear on the show because he was in Swaziland location scouting and visiting the Waterford Kamhlaba school, but he recorded snippets of voiceovers so Chris could essentially have the coat speaking classic “Withnail” lines.

Then a few weeks later, Richard postponed his trip to Prague (to start work on Pimpernel round 2) because Chris offered to donate another £4000 to the Waterford charity if he did. What a good chap, ended up paying £9000 for “the” coat. Worth every penny!

Nikki told us REG appeared on the show, with a poorly thumb as he’s just moved house and shut it in some windows!!!!! Blood everywhere by all accounts. REG then read this and found it terribly amusing. The truth of it was that he was filming The Scarlet Pimpernel outside Stratford and had to slam some 18 foot double doors behind him, wearing thick leather gloves. On the 15th take, his left thumb got crushed, blood spurting from all sides of the nail. Gruesome, and being a big girl’s blouse, thought it would require amputation. Mercifully not, but it’s the colour of Frankenfurter’s favourite shade of deadly nightshade, but recovering well now we’re happy to report.

Needless to say we’ve had Nikki taken out and flogged!

Neil also spotted a familiar signature on the famous desk (see it below). It’s on Chris’s side towards, the audience and says:

‘Richard E Grant’
‘You terrible cunt’

Well spotted Neil!

Thanks to Jenny for these screen shots.

Carolyn recounts for the mailing list the next day

Well, it’s 7.00am in the morning and Neil and I have just had one of the most exhausting sleeps ever.

In answer to enquiries regarding the W4W, I will now endeavour to fill you in on the details of the event.

After weeks of preparing for W4W, the day finally arrived. The 14 of us had communicated regularly through this message board but we had never met.

We were all staying at various locations in and around London and had arranged to meet beforehand at a bar near to Leicester Square. It was decided that we would all wear carrot badges in order to be recognised. There were carrot badges of different varieties from knitted ones to Tracs large ribbon variety which ended up wrapped around her head at the end of the night (but that’s another story).

When we all met, we instantly got on so well (12 girls and Neil my Husband), who, surrounded by 12 gorgeous females felt like a film star himself.

The atmosphere in the cinema was exciting, with famous bods turning up and everyone was in good spirits, then REG came on and made a speech (he was all emotional) and was amazed at the support which he had received, after which we sat down to watch the film on the big screen.

People kept looking at us wearing our carrots wondering what on earth was going on (who were we?) in fact, it was heard that one person made a comment about us belonging to some sort of Vegetarian Society (tee hee). At certain parts of the film people would laugh out loud or cheer, our cheer came when the reference to carrots was made.

After the show REG made a speech where, along with a long list of acknowledgements Dominique and the REGiment got a thank you and were asked to stand up. The cast emerged and sat on stage one by one (some too humble to come up until cheered on by everyone).

In particular, one famous Policeman who has less than five minutes in the film but quotes one of the most famous sayings of it all “Get In The Back Of The Van”, was applauded along with Presuming Ed.

The auction took a long time and consequently the question and answer session could not go on as long as intended (to REG’s disappointment), but, all in all the atmosphere was electric and I am pretty sure that everyone who wanted autographs got them as the cast stayed on for some considerable time, meeting with fans and signing autographs.

The VIP party was at a club across the road and the booze was flowing free all night. REG and Paul McGann were at the club and quite happy to talk to people and have photos taken, in fact I felt sorry for Paul McGann at one point as he must have been blinded by flash lights as we all furiously had our pictures taken.

Each person was polite and happy to talk even though they must have been exhausted, like true professionals they battled on and gave each and every one of us a night to remember.

Later on in the evening as most of them left ‘the girls’ and Neil descended to the dance floor (the booze still flowing) and so were we, we danced ourselves into exhaustion into the early hours.

Trac, Karen, Di, Neil and myself made our way back to the hotel after the party some of us a bit worse for the wear.

Near to the hotel was a building site, so we started messing about outside, doing usual loud and drunken things etc, and I said, “When you are drunk – you have to do the classic stuff like put a traffic cone on your head’ it is part of the membership of being drunk club.

So, I picked up a firm young cone and Trac found a limp one and we were posing for all sorts of pictures and being generally loud. Suddenly, from a little hut, a man shouted at us to put the cones down, and then another appeared, the hut was very small for two men, so maybe it was a Tardis.

Of course, we all started yelling ‘sorry’ and then Neil shouted “What are you two up to in there? Toilet Trading?” Neil also climbed up a pole to pose for a photo and hurt his private parts.

It probably sounds stupid and immature stuff etc, to those who were not there, but what you have to remember is, we had all had the most fantastic night, and were still on a very large ‘high’ combined with the booze which had been flowing freely all night, lets just call it high spirits.

The next day, how we managed to get up and get to the restaurant for 12.00 noon, Lord only knows. We had all had an incredibly late boozy night and although most of us managed a few hours to get some sleep, I understand that Dominique had, had an incredible urge for chocolate at 5.00am in the morning (I will leave her to tell you that one).

We all waited at the restaurant and was then taken to our table, Neil had found it quite strange when we first got there and saying to the Receptionist “we have a reservation” where she replied “What name?” and he said Richard E. Grant.

REG turned up precisely at 12.00 Noon where he said to us all “you are all early”. I think at first we were all actually stunned because it went incredibly quiet for about a minute or so whilst REG sat at the head of the table, but we soon all relaxed and got chatting.

The one thing which was nice about the whole thing was that he was interested in us. He went round the table asking us where we came from in turn and questioned each and every one of us about our jobs. REG stayed with us for 2 hours, he even swapped seats so that everyone could get to talk to him.

REG has the most amazing presence about him which I will never forget, he talked to each and every one of us, he had time for us all, he listened to us and what we had to say and was interested in what we had to say.

He signed everything we asked and we had tons of photographs taken, whilst the rest of the people inside the restaurant just watched the events with intrigue. The restaurant was called ‘The Criterion’ which is a French restaurant owned by top chef Marco Pierre, located in Piccadilly Circus. The food is served on the plates as if they were an artist board, all pretty and delicate looking.

Before he left he gave us all hugs and kisses (apart from Neil of course) and then left.

When he had gone, we all sat there a bit stunned by the whole thing and then the emotions suddenly hit me that this was the event which I had been building up for, for weeks and it suddenly hit me that it was now all over and suddenly the tears flowed (not just myself I might add).

Once outside we parted ways with this wonderful group of people whom we had only just met but had grown to love so quickly, we stood outside the restaurant, hugging each other and kissing (we had all shared a wonderful experience and had bonded). As I went around hugging everyone I could not stop crying as I said goodbye, I will never forget that day as long as I live. I felt like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz as I went around saying goodbye to everyone, hugging and kissing everyone, I really cannot explain how emotional I felt.

As we disappeared towards the underground Neil’s parting words in a loud voice across the square was “GET IN THE BACK OF THE VAN” and that concluded what had to be possibly the best 2 days of my life.

I wanted to share this experience with everyone and although I said it last night I will say it again, it was a pleasure to meet such great people who all got together thanks to this website, I will never forget this event for as long as I live.

Carolyn, REG and Neil

Carol and Paul McGann

Husband Neil’s fabulous ceramic carrots

The bunch of carrots in their natural habitat

The auction was a great success and raised a huge amount for the charity. The prices fetched were much more than Richard expected. Christies produced a wonderful catalogue and ran the event in an entertaining and professional manner.

Lot 1. – An original clapperboard for Withnail and I
Lot 2. – A video release display standee
Lot 3. – Withnail promotional material
Lot 4. – An Italian Poster brought by Danny Baker for £8000.
Lot 5. – Withnail promotional material including recent photos
Lot 6. – Bruce Robinson’s Withnail T-shirt
Lot 7. – An original call sheet, Withnail and I call sheet #1
Lot 8. – 19 unpublished polaroids from the film, bought for £510 by the REGiment (Richard’s unofficial fan club)
Lot 9. – Crow Crag Farm sign
Lot 10 – Withnail’s kit bag
Lot 11 – 18 unpublished B&W photos taken by Ralph Steadman
Lot 12 – Ralph Steadman’s original artwork for the Withnail for Waterford appeal poster
Lot 13 – Richard E. Grant’s presentation hip flask
Lot 14 – Bruce Robinson’s collection of 32 B&W stills
Lot 15 – Richard’s original shooting script complete with notes and doodles
Lot 16 – Bruce Robinson’s original manuscript for Withnail and I , bought by Richard Curtis for £9000
Lot 17 – Withnail’s Coat, bought by Chris Evans for £5000

There was a plethora of other items auctioned on the night, not listed in the catalogue, as well as other items donated by Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Twiggy, Lulu, Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart, Naomi Campbell, Ben Elton etc, etc but I don’t have a list of them here. I’m also hoping to get a final list of prices to put here as well.

Thank you to everyone who donated items or who bid in the auction. It was a huge success and great fun.

BBC News Online – Tuesday 8th February, 2000

LEFT: David Beckham and Posh Spice at the charity show

Posh Spice Victoria Beckham and her husband David Beckham mingled with the stars of the cult movie Withnail and I at a charity screening in London’s West End.

The couple – dressed in matching brown outfits – were at the event organised by the film’s star Richard E Grant to raise funds for his former school in Africa. Paul McGann and Richard E Grant in Withnail and I

Victoria, who got to know the actor when they worked on the Spiceworld movie, was showing off her new burgundy and blonde highlights at the star-studded event.

She described the actor as a “really good friend”, whilst fellow Spice Girl Emma Bunton said: “He’s really sweet and he’s just a lovely man.”

Grant himself declared the event a huge success, particularly as it was the first time the low budget film about two out-of-work actors had received a premiere.

“It’s the first time that the cast has all been together in one place. It’s a premiere like I’ve never seen before – because it did not happen 14 years ago when the film was released,” he said.

Also present were Grant’s co-stars in the film, Paul McGann and Richard Griffiths.

Broadcaster Chris Evans, singer Lulu and fashion designer Stella McCartney were also among the audience.

Another guest, TV funnyman Paul Merton said he remembered little of the film from the first time around.

“I can’t remember any of it because I was stoned when I saw it,” he joked.

The sold-out screening was followed by an auction of memorabilia from Withnail and I.

Money raised at the event will go to fund bursaries to the Waterford School in Swaziland.

7th February, 2000

LEFT: REG makes a grand entrance at W4W.

Well at least 13 of us spotted REG in the flesh, for the first time at the wonderful Withnail for Waterford event. You can read our various accounts of the event in the REGiment section.

Here are some other “spotteds” though, seeing as how this is the “sightings” section. Along with REG, we spotted (and snogged) Paul McGann, Joe McGann, Ralph Brown, Richard Griffiths, Bruce Robinson, Daragh O’Malley, Michael Wardle, Una Brandon-Jones, Eddie Tagoe, Anthony “get-in-the-back-of-the-van” Wise, Chris Evans, Danny Baker, Posh & David Beckham, Baby Spice, The Wannadies, Stella McCartney, Richard Curtis, Alex from Blur, Lulu, Martin and Gary Kemp, Phyllis Logan, Diana Weston, Caroline Quentin, Ben Elton, Neil Hannon, Gryff Rhys Jones, Mel Smith, Paul Merton, Joan Washington and a whole bunch of others.

These photosare all copyrighted to the various people who took ’em, so don’t nick ’em without asking.