Charlie Hardwick and Christmas Lights

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I have mentioned it in the other thread before, Charlie Hardwick was in Stockton-on-Tees yesterday to switch the Christmas lights on.

I met her and have to say she is fabulous!

Will tell you more later as I don't have much time now. Just wanted to drop this little note first because I love her character Val and now that I have met Charlie in person I am absolutely impressed with her and her lovely and warm personality.

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To complete my initial post about me meeting Charlie Hardwick on Sunday in Stockton-on-Tees where she switched the Christmas lights on: The organisers had planned an autograph session of half an hour for her, which started at 15:00.

It was a few minutes after 15:00 already when I made my way into the town centre. Arriving at the shopping centre I saw a huge number of people already queuing up to see her. I was fed up already although I knew I could have arrived earlier anyway.

I just tried to get a quick look to at least be able to say I had seen her. Then I decided to quickly do my shopping; maybe the queue would be shorter later. I returned to the corner where she was giving autographs and saw people talking to a security guy and then leaving. I went over to him and he told me that there were only 10 minutes left – the session had already taken longer than the intended 30 minutes – but I could still queue up even though it was not certain I was going to meet her at all.

A young couple joined the queue behind me and then the security guy sent everybody away. He told another guy that there were 10 more people waiting. The closer I got to the desk where Charlie was sitting the more nervous I got. She was joking that people could sell her autographs for 20 pence on ebay.

A mother with 5 kids was in front of me and once they all had their autographs it finally was my turn. I went over to her, smiled and said “Hi”. She said “Oh, hello darling”. I then said “I’m Alex” as she had asked everybody for their names to write them on the autographs. She looked at me and said “You are very stylish, Alex”. I was completely surprised and said “Am I?” and she said “Yes, you are”. I thanked her for the compliment and she asked me where I was from. I told her that I was originally from Germany and she then said “And you live in Stockton?”. I told her that I live and work in the area now and she smiled at me saying “Well, thank you for bringing your skills to this country”.

I was absolutely impressed with Charlie. I wished her a merry Christmas and then I had to leave unfortunately. It was a brief but very lovely and warm encounter. I mean I had met Ben Freeman and James Hooton before at a football match and they were canny guys but Charlie was absolutely fabulous. She signed her autographs without complaining. She is just a down to earth person.

My autograph says “To Alex, Love, Charlie Hardwick”.

Whoever is going to go on this Emmerdale weekend in January please tell her that I absolutely loved her. Who knows, maybe she’s still got a very vague idea as to whom I am considering the millions of people she will be meeting each day. I have always loved her character Val but now I know that the actress behind the role is lovely too.