'After 36 years I finally picked up a celebrity'

Taxi driver Steve Potts was concerned he would retire without picking up a famous passenger

A taxi driver who has spent 36 years ferrying passengers around Lincolnshire says he is thrilled to have picked up his first celebrity fare.

Steve Potts, 62, who operates Streetwise Taxis in Woodhall Spa, was called to the town's Petwood Hotel to take a couple to Newark train station.

The cabbie was surprised when he was greeted by actors and married couple James Bolam and Susan Jameson.

Mr Potts said: "It was the first time I've turned up and it was someone famous. I was also thrilled it wasn't a celebrity I didn't like – there's a few of those!"

He added: "I've watched his TV programmes before, Likely Lads, New Tricks – he was brilliant in both. And his wife was in that, too.

"He's a good actor, very versatile. I told him I'd always admired him and he seemed really chuffed with that."

James Bolam (left) has starred in numerous TV series and films including the BBC drama New Tricks

Mr Potts, a father of four and grandad of one, said his lack of famous fares had become a running joke with wife Liz, and he feared he would retire having never experienced it.

He said: "Taxi drivers all over the country must pick up thousands of passengers every day. Even in Lincolnshire.

"I'd been moaning it was only five years until I retired and I still hadn't had one. Hopefully it might happen again."

As well as being married, James Bolam and Susan Jameson have also appeared alongside each other on screen

Discussing the journey, he said he enjoyed "chit chat" with the actors during the hour-long car ride, and he was happy that the actors took an interest in him, too.

Bolam, 89, and Jameson, 83, had attended a private screening at Kinema in the Woods in Woodhall Spa of a short film called A Memory Owed.

The film, which is centred around RAF Bomber Command during World War Two, features footage of Avro Lancaster PA474 which is housed at RAF Coningsby.

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