As well as making an entire town proud with his unveiling of a locomotive marked with a Huddersfield Town plaque, Sir Patrick Stewart made a couple’s day too.
When he and his wife Sunny visited Amanda Brook and James Flavell’s cafe/delicatessen in his home town of Mirfield on Thursday afternoon he got a little surprise.
Amanda, 37, had just given birth to their second child Martha, who was born prematurely on July 2.
Sir Patrick, who was given the full high tea treatment, was delighted to have the little one placed in his arms.
He said: “I’m a sucker for babies and got to hold her. I understand she was three weeks premature.”
Amanda said: “Everyone had a lovely afternoon by all accounts. I wasn’t there, disappointingly, but I did meet him once before when I graduated from Huddersfield University in 2004.”
And she joked: “I just hope some of his stardom has rubbed off on Martha!”
James, 45, said: “It was great. I think we had been recommended to him by friends. Since we put the pictures of him and Martha on Facebook we have had 35,000 hits from all over the world, including New Zealand and Texas.
“There was a lady sat at another table who went to acting school and she showed him a photograph. He remembered all their names.”
Sir Patrick said he had been anxious to show his jazz singer wife who he married last year around his childhood home.
He said: “Sunny had shown me around Nevada so I wanted to show her where I grew up, the places that mean something to me, the parish church where I sang in the choir. I’d promised her I would show her something of my childhood. The three schools I attended, although one of them has gone. She enjoyed it but found it quite an emotional day.”
WATCH: Sir Patrick Stewart leads University of Huddersfield graduation procession through town
LOOK: Huddersfield Town train unveiled by Sir Patrick Stewart
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