TV presenter and actor Jamie Theakston got the bird when filming in Chiswick for a new BBC1 sitcom Feathers flew during location work on Mad About Alice, a six-part-comedy which co-stars Amanda Holden and John Gordon-Sinclair. "Someone had the bright idea of basing one of the episodes around a parrot," explains ex-Top of the Pops host Jamie. "The parrot obviously decided that Chiswick was a lot more pleasant than Guatemala, or wherever he'd come from, and decided to disappear for about an hour. It must have been a bit of a shock for people to see this huge, colourful parrot flying around on the Chiswick High Road." For a tense 60 minutes the rest of the cast thought they'd have to wing it. Then, avoiding local attractions like The Birdcage, the parrot remembered the claws in his contract and took flight to rejoin the rest of the TV team. "I think he realised it was a bit too cold for him and he came back after about an hour and decided to carry on filming. I think he was a bit showbizzy - a bit of a luvvie!" Former Live and Kicking and The Priory host Jamie, 32, who trained as an actor, plays a doctor called Doug in the comedy, which starts later this month. He made his West End stage debut in Art and followed that with an acclaimed performance in Home And Beauty. Last year Jamie appeared with the late Adam Faith in the TV drama series Murder In Mind. A familiar face in west London, he also stars this month in Drive, one of five new dramas in a BBC1 Afternoon Plays season. January 10, 2004 Sign
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