Quote · Parenting Hell with Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe
S12 EP48: Stop me if you've heard this one before
Where this was said
The Secret Business Class Story
At 48:30 · chapter starts 44:20
Rob tells what is quietly one of his finest anecdotes. Booked as a last-minute middle act on a comedy tour to South Africa, he negotiated a business class upgrade by arguing he needed rest either side of the trip. The other acts flew premium economy. On the way out, he hid in the lounge and arrived unseen. In Cape Town and Johannesburg for three days, he avoided mentioning it. On the way home, he slipped away from the group at the airport under the pretence of buying presents for his kids, headed to the business class lounge, and encountered former footballer Tim Sherwood, who was there for Premier League commentary duties. Rob timed his boarding by waiting for Sherwood to leave, hoping the larger celebrity presence would absorb any attention. He waited until the gate was clear, boarded last, made it all the way to his back-of-business-class seat — turned around — and found Simon Evans, Marlon Davies, and the entire promotion team sitting in the front row of premium economy, directly behind the curtain, staring at him. The steward closed the curtain. Rob treated it, from that moment on, like the Berlin Wall.
Rob Beckett negotiated a last-minute business class upgrade on a South Africa comedy tour without telling his fellow acts. He hid in the airport lounge, waited until Tim Sherwood boarded to time his own entrance, and made it all the way to his seat — only to turn around and find Simon Evans and the entire promotion team in the front row of premium economy, staring straight at him. The steward closed the curtain. He never looked back.
Rob Beckett secretly upgraded himself to business class on a comedy tour flight to South Africa while the other acts flew premium economy, and was caught the moment the curtain closed.
Rob Beckett encountered Tim Sherwood in the business class lounge in South Africa, where Sherwood was doing Premier League football commentary, adding an unexpected celebrity cameo to Rob's clandestine upgrade story.
