I'm a smoker, get me out of here!

I’m pleased to report that the next guest in Forest’s virtual Smoking Room will be TV chef and restaurateur Antony Worrall Thompson.

Antony has been a patron of Forest for 20 years but I can’t remember how he first came to our attention as a suitable candidate.

When I joined Forest we had a ‘Supporters’ Council’ made up of several liberal-leaning academics.

The most renowned was 'hard-living Glaswegian historian' Norman Stone but, call me shallow, I felt we needed someone who was better known to the general public.

Antony was a familiar presence on TV, having appeared on programmes like Food and Drink (BBC2) and Ready, Steady Cook (BBC1).

At the time he also owned a restaurant called Notting Grill off Holland Park Road in (where else?) Notting Hill. And that was where we first met him.

Notting Grill was on two floors. The ground floor was designated ‘no smoking’ with smokers sent upstairs to an equally spacious room where there was also a small terrace.

If I remember, Antony gave staff the option of working upstairs or downstairs but it didn't seem to be an issue.

He also told us that the upstairs ‘smoking’ room made more money than the ‘no smoking’ area because customers who smoked tended to stay longer and drink more.

Also, in those days, if a group of people booked a table there was always one smoker at least in the party so they tended to book upstairs.

If I remember, our first visit to Notting Grill was to present Antony with a box of cigars in recognition of the fact that we had awarded him the title ‘Smokers’ Rights Champion of the Year’.

He agreed to became patron of Forest and to mark the announcement we booked the upper floor and terrace for a drinks party.

Thereafter Antony was as active as we could have wished for, frequently making himself available for TV and radio interviews on the issue of smoking.

Sometimes he didn’t even have to be asked. On one occasion, listening to Five Live while driving home late at night, he pulled in to the side of the road and asked to be put on air to respond to an item about smoking.

Now that’s dedication.

I remember too waiting to do an interview for BBC World Service at Bush House in London and listening to Antony having a wonderful argument on air with, I think, Deborah Arnott of ASH.

Prior to the smoking ban Antony also hosted two very successful Forest events at the Groucho Club in Soho where he was a member.

Six days before the introduction of the ban in England on July 1, 2007, we organised our biggest and most ambitious event, a gala dinner for 400 people at the Savoy Hotel in London, and Antony was one of three guest speakers.

The others were Claire Fox (Academy of Ideas) and broadcaster Andrew Neil but Antony had a significant disadvantage because I only told him he was speaking when the plates were being cleared away following the starter course.

To this day I remember him making notes on his napkin while everyone else on our table was eating. Even the notoriously hard-to-please Rod Liddle was impressed, writing in the Sunday Times:

Spent a wonderful valedictory evening chain-smoking at a bash organised by Forest on Monday night ... There were some fine speeches – pugnacious and rabble-rousing from Anthony Worrall-Thompson; politically-loaded and sharp from Andrew Neil; counter-intuitive from the excellent Claire Fox.

In 2009 Antony helped launch the Save Our Pubs & Clubs campaign at a pub in Westminster, and later lent his name to a petition to amend the smoking ban to allow separate smoking rooms in pubs and clubs.

With fewer appearances on network TV, Antony has spent much of the past decade running The Greyhound, a beautiful gastro pub near Henley-on-Thames.

It’s a bit far from London for a Forest event but if you have a car I'd recommend a visit. Have a look at the website - there's a lovely garden for al fresco drinking and dining.

A true friend of the smoker, Antony’s anguished demand for cigarettes as he broke out of camp is one of the all-time highlights of I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! so do join us next Wednesday, April 7, from 6.00-7.00pm.

To register click here.

Below: AWT on the first floor terrace at Notting Grill during a Forest drinks party. If I remember, he was speaking to a journalist from the London Evening Standard.