PERSON 1: I was a hotel receptionist and Lenny Grade, the film producer, came rushing in one night to say he had a very important meeting in the morning. He was quite worked up about it and kept stressing how vital it was that he had an 8 o'clock alarm call. At the time I remember finding him quite patronising, because he felt he must keep repeating his request as if I was an idiot. I was doing an overnight shift and, to cut a long story short, I was having coffee before heading home when there was a commotion by the lift and he came sprinting past swearing. I looked at my watch and it was 9.15 – it had totally slipped my mind to wake him up.

PERSON 2: I used to be a chauffeur ferrying around various stars to events. My most tense experience was the time I took Stan Lane to the première of his film. The tension began when the company gave me an address but I ended up on the other side of London, 15 minutes before I was due to pick him up. It was a complete catastrophe. I finally fetched him, then I ended up going through red lights and speeding, while he was panicking about being late and asking to be let out so he could get the tube. He went right over the top actually, as if it was the end of the world, even though I kept telling him we'd make it on time.

PERSON 3: I served the tennis player Tina Sherwood with lots of fruit and vegetables in a shop in Wimbledon during the tennis tournament one year. The players used to come in and buy huge amounts of stuff to keep them going. She bought so much she was paying by credit card. I suppose she thought she didn't have to sign the slip because she was so famous, but I made her do it. She looked quite taken aback at the time, but after that, whenever I saw her in the street, she'd stop me to ask how I was. I could be wrong but I reckon she realised that, no matter how famous you are, there are still rules that apply to everyone.

PERSON 4: I was the manager of a nightclub and one night this enormous car drew up outside the club with an extremely famous rock star in the back. His two bodyguards came up to the door and asked if they could come in and look around. I let them in, they checked out the club and reported back to him in the car. Then he came over and said that he would like to come in and could I arrange to have a special area cleared for him? As if... I mean, what made him think he could go to a crowded place like that and be kept apart from everyone else?

PERSON 5: I served champagne and dinner at the film star Lena Leonard's flat once. It was a party for close family and friends and she came to the door wearing no make-up, then disappeared for two hours while we got things ready and came back into the kitchen looking a million dollars. I wandered around her flat pouring champagne for her and her guests. She gave me a very generous tip afterwards, which came as a bit of a shock because every other time I'd waited on stars they'd turned out to be rather mean. She was quite ordinary – for such a mega-star – and she didn't seem to feel she had to put on an act or anything, she was just being herself, I guess.