Production: Robert Daws - Plumber to the Celebrities
Dates: no dates available

Celebs:
Gyles Brandreth
Peter Sallis
Christopher Matthew
Peter Egan

Description: 'Plumber to the Stars and Star among Plumbers’
My back story.
It all began with my dad. Dad, as I used to call him.

Forty two years and two months ago to this very day, he was putting in a new master bathroom, plus power shower and bidet for Sir Sean Connery, or plain Sean as he was back then. Still is to some of us.

Not that Dad knew who the client was until he was a week into the job.

He had just finished installing a low-level toilet suite with two-speed flush and was giving it a trial sit before tightening flanges when the door flew open and there, standing looking at him, was none other than James Bond, 007.

‘Who the hell are you?’ enquires Sean in that inimitable Highland burr of his.

‘The name’s Breezer,’ says Dad quick as a flash. ‘Brian Breezer. Bathroom installation operative.’

‘Licensed to drill I see,’ says Sean, indicating Dad’s Black and Decker. Then seeing Dad’s had a bit of a shock, he says, ‘Are you feeling okay?’

‘Shaken,’ says Dad, ‘but not stirred.’

They had a good laugh about that. Leastways Dad did.

To cut a long one short, that was his first celebrity engagement. The beginning of a purple patch for him. The word spread and suddenly he was flavour of the month.

Peter Sellers, Yoko Ono, Cecil Beaton, Twiggy, Rolf and Anita Harris - they all availed themselves of his unique brand of installation work.

He could have gone right to the top, only he went and blotted his copybook while fitting a double basin and vanitory unit for Henry - later Sir Henry - Cooper.

He never spoke about it, so I couldn’t rightly say what occurred. Suffice to say, the chain was broken and suddenly Dad was out of the loop.

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bloke, but, as he used to say, that’s show business for you.

Point is, it’s all matter of who you know in this game. One thing leads to another. It’s wheels within wheels, as Dad used to say, and how right he was.

Case in point. Few years back, I did an emergency boiler job for Michael Fish, the famous BBC weather man. King of the isobars, as he was known in those days.

Week later I get a call from Cilla Black. THE Cilla Black!

Seems she and Fishy were in the BBC canteen talking pipework when whose name should come up the frame but your truly’s? Next thing I know, she’s got me refurbishing her entire untility room. Poggenpohl washing machine, twin action tubs, top of the range tumble drier, plus all the attendant singing and dancing.

The rest is history.

I have picked up Dad’s baton where he dropped it and carried it through A-list kitchens, bathrooms and toilets that he could only have dreamed of.

Far be it from me to go shouting the names of my customers from the rooftops: suffice to say that Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare, Kylie Minogue, Kevin Spacey and His Majesty ex-King Constantine of the Hellenes are just a handful of those who have benefitted from my expertise in recent years and who I am proud to call my friends.

Wheels within wheels. Thank you, Dad.