The sweetness of Peter Andre
We constantly read about celebrities behaving badly, issuing diva-like demands and having mega strops when things don’t suit them. So it was refreshing to read a piece by Jeremy Vine (currently strutting his stuff on Strictly) that revealed the sweet nature of his fellow contestant Peter Andre.
I’m probably the only person in the land who has never watched Strictly (I’m an X Factor girl myself) and I have to admit that the only things I know about Peter Andre are that he once had a hit called Mysterious Girl, that he met Katie Price on I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here and that he’s now married to a young doctor. But after reading Jeremy Vine’s column in Waitrose Weekend I’m tempted to switch channels and watch Strictly instead.
In his piece Jeremy Vine describes how he was sitting in his “rather Spartan dressing room” when he overheard a conversation between a young BBC runner and Peter Andre.
“Hi Peter,” said the runner. “All well? How are you doing? Happy with everything?”
Instead of being snotty, Peter Andre apparently replied: ‘No, you tell me if you are happy. Because the main thing today is that you enjoy it, not me.”
As Jeremy Vine remarked, “the real test of a person is how they treat the people they don’t have to be nice to.”
I completely agree. I remember my shock when I was looking for a primary school in north Yorkshire for my son. The head of a particular school was chatty, charming and took endless time to show me round. At the end of the visit we sat in his office and one of the kitchen staff brought us a pot of tea. To my astonishment the head watched the man put the tea and cups down without uttering a word, let alone thanking him. His behaviour spoke volumes, I thought. He was all smiles when it came to showing parents round but couldn’t be bothered to be civil to his staff.
Needless to say, I didn’t send my son to his school.