Clive Anderson visits Pavilions of Harrogate
From ‘Whose Line is it Anyway’ to THAT Bee Gee’s interview in the 1990’s, Clive Anderson has a great national profile as a comedy writer, chat show host and radio presenter.
So to see him take up the gauntlet as guest speaker at the thrice a year Harrogate Business Lunch Club was both a pleasure and a privilege.
The organisers always secure a terrific high profile guests speaker and tickets sell out in no time: in this case they were snapped up in just 48 hours. The fan base is growing and there’s a lot of support for this fantastic event which this time drew in over 550 guests.
The team at Pavilions of Harrogate always look forward to hosting such a prestigious event and Mr Anderson didn’t disappoint. Within minutes of taking to the stage, he had the audience roaring with laughter. Self-deprecating quips about his career mixed with some silliness made it a fun after dinner speech. Personal favourite silly bit: “I do a bit of charity work: we adopted a rhino who’s nearly 18 now so we worry how we’ll break it to him that we’re not his real parents.”
We now know that Mikhail Gorbachev was one of his favourite interviewees and that there was a debate over whether to air that pre-recorded interview with the Bee Gee’s when they walked out of their interview for Clive Anderson Talks Back.
He handled audience questions with great wit and humour and it was great that he hung back at the end to chat to guests.
Now it’s time to look forward to the next Harrogate Business Lunch in February and ponder on who the next big name speaker will be.
The Harrogate Business Lunch is in its 20th year, holding its events three times year, in February, May and October at Pavilions of Harrogate after being re-established in 1997 by accountancy firm Howard Matthews and Lloyds Bank.
The event organisers are a voluntary, non-profit making organisation, with all proceeds invested in speakers for future events.
Previous high profile speakers include four-time Olympic gold medal winning rower Sir Matthew Pinsent CBE, Kriss Akabusi, Alexander Armstrong, Brian Blessed and Lord Jeffrey Archer.
The very first event was attended by 130 people and as the numbers grew it moved to us here at the Pavilions of Harrogate where it’s been held since 2005.
Not only is it a fantastic networking event, it brings the business community together from across Yorkshire and is now an important fixture on the corporate calendar. We’re looking forward to the next one already!
