Parenting in Sussex: Meeting TV's Stephen Mulhern on a day off from the kids

Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com 
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
Visit Shots! now
This is the latest weekly One Thing or a Mother column from Katherine Hollisey-McLean.

Bang slap into the middle of January and life has returned to regular scheduled programming.

There’s school, there’s work, there are clubs, there’s homework, there’s washing and cleaning… it’s almost like Christmas never happened. I’d barely believe it had was it not for my expanded waistline and the never-ending mountain of treats we’re STILL consuming in my house (see last week’s column for more of that).

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But among the mundanity of getting back into the rhythm of family life a little treat was had.

Katherine met family favourite Stephen Mulhern during a day off from parentingKatherine met family favourite Stephen Mulhern during a day off from parenting
Katherine met family favourite Stephen Mulhern during a day off from parenting

My mum had kindly said she’d take my sister and me to the ballet at the Royal Opera House, and it was booked in for last week. While it was absolutely freezing on the day we visited, having something special booked in right after Christmas is a great way to deal with the January blues. And even better, the cold weather coupled with the post-Christmas slump meant London was as dead as I’d ever seen it.

Taking the tube was almost civilised and it felt like we had Covent Garden practically to ourselves – a very sharp contrast to my visit there a month earlier, when I’d politely describe it as festive mayhem!

After a stroll around the shops and some lunch, we got to the opera house early to have a look around. And it was there that I spotted a familiar face.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Sat in the café was TV presenter Stephen Mulhern. He’s an absolute favourite in our household – my husband, children and I love his shows, my daughter has his Max Magic books and we even saw him live on stage when we were invited to visit Butlin’s a couple of years ago.

It presented me with a bit of a dilemma. Dare I interrupt him to tell him what big fans my family are? Is it okay to do that to a celebrity? I really wasn’t sure I was brave enough to get over my embarrassment to do it or whether it was ok to gatecrash his day. After weighing it up I decided my children would be terribly disappointed if I didn’t.

The (sadly horrible of me) picture you see here is the result of me taking a chance and going up to say hi. Thankfully, Stephen was very nice as I wittered on about what big fans we were. And it was worth it for the WhatsApp chat with my husband afterwards in which he and my children were completely taken by surprise by the unexpected picture.

A few minutes later my mum also spotted Álvaro Morte, star of Money Heist and West End play Barcelona, so we were in very good company that day.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The ballet was incredible, too, so all-in-all a lovely day out.

By contrast, the weekend was pretty run-of-the-mill. A playdate, shopping for school trousers and general house admin were worked around catching up on The Traitors (arguably one of the best shows on TV) and playing some games with the kids.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

This time of the year is generally not the most popular. And lord knows I’ve gone on about how much I love summer enough to prove I’m not a fan of cold weather. But there’s something about the slower pace of life that’s quite appealing after the full-on nature of Christmas.

So if you need me this month, you’ll mostly find me on the sofa hoovering up those bloomin’ festive leftovers. After Eight, anyone?!

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.

Follow us
©National World Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.Cookie SettingsTerms and ConditionsPrivacy notice