George Best asleep on the sofa in your front room at the height of his hell-raising fame would surely make the home-owner raise an eyebrow at the very least...
But not Daily Mirror legend Ted Macauley. The reason is that football star Best crashed out there frequently.
And, as Ted recalls now, Bestie having a kip on the couch was quite mundane compared to some of the celebrity encounters in the journalist’s sprawling and respected career.
Best, Bobby Charlton and Barry Sheene were his close pals and regular drinking buddies in his snug bar at his home in Prestwich near Manchester.
Then there are the stories about Paul Newman, Lee Marvin, Michael Caine, Jayne Mansfield and Ringo Starr.
Richard Attenborough even got Ted a role as an extra in A Bridge Too Far.
But a life marked with fun and triumph has also been marred by tragedy with the early deaths of his best mate, motorcycle racer Mike Hailwood in 1981 aged 40, and dear friend, England footballer Ray Wilkins in 2018 aged 61.
For decades Ted, now 88, travelled the globe for the Mirror, and in the 1960s and 70s was a well-known name, emblazoned on posters at motorsport circuits.
Now he has written a book – Raring To Go! – with some amazing anecdotes from his career as a high-flying news reporter, columnist and sports journalist.
They include for the first time a private chat revealing what Charlton thought about Man United team-mate Best.
Smiling when recalling the conversation with Charlton in the 1960s, Ted says: "Bobby told me, 'It's like an old man to a young boy. In fact, now I’m over 30 I suppose I’m like a veteran to him.
'He's only just beginning, in his early-20s on a long and exciting career, which I expect will be highly successful.
'George is usually first out the dressing room for training, and he’s a devoted trainer – so keen. He would take penalties and free kicks all day if you let him.
'On top of that he is blessed with heroic courage. Heartless and hard-case defenders don’t back off whatever your fame and reputation.
'This is the greatest test and demonstration of all-out courage in our game.
'This is what makes George one of the very, very best. A certainty to go down for ever in the annals of our great game.
'There I go rambling on like the proudest of fathers talking about his son. But I mean every word'."
Ted’s friendship with Best and two-time world motorcycle racing champion Sheene were the reason he decided to finally write a book about his career.
He said: "My coverage of global sport overlapped principally between football and Grand Prix racing on two and four wheels.
"That brought me into the closest of contexts with these two thoroughly rascally but likeable characters. They remained close friends and allies, right until their premature and personally heart-breaking deaths.
"Best, a unique world-class footballer, and Sheene, a stirring example of sheer bravery and excitement in the enormously risky profession of Grand Prix motorcycle racing.
"They departed this life too soon." Sheene died of cancer in 2003 aged 52, followed by Best in 2005 at 59.
Talking about the pair's lifestyles, Ted says: "Booze aplenty, strings of glamorous women... And in Barry’s case, too much drug-taking and chain-smoking.
"I lost count of the number of nights George spent sleeping on the front room sofa in my village farmhouse 10 miles from Old Trafford.
"There was never a dull moment with George. I recall being on an assignment in Majorca when I got a call from [Man United manager] Frank O’Farrell.
"George had gone missing and failed to turn up for training. [Frank] asked if I could help. I guessed he’d gone to Marbella so I turned up at his favoured hotel. ‘Bloody hell – it’s Ted’, he laughed... ‘What are you doing here?’."
"I said ‘I’ve come to take you home’. And he countered, ‘OK, but not just yet. You can say you can’t find me and we can have a couple more days relaxing’.
"I agreed and we went home a couple of days later."
Dad-of-two Ted, who lives with wife Dee, 69, in Cobham, Surrey, and who has four grandchildren, spent 40 years working on the Mirror.
He chuckled as he recalled a time when Sheene disappeared. Ted said: "He and [his other half] Stephanie [McLean] ran away together to a secret rendezvous and nobody except me could guess where their hideaway was.
"I ventured to a hotel I knew was one of Barry’s favourites, the Zistelalm on Mount Gaisberg in Austria.
"And I was right. They were absolutely staggered when I pitched up at the hotel as they lunched overlooking the fabulous mountain views.
"But Barry welcomed me with a firm handshake and a hug, and they happily posed with me for a world exclusive photo, which was then published in the Daily Mirror." It wasn’t just sport stars who became friends. One of Ted’s most spectacular assignments was going on a six-week tour with The Beatles in their early days.
"I grew to know Ringo more than his bandmates," says Ted. "I don’t know why, but we hit it off.
"He told me ‘We just love your show pages in the paper. Thank you very much. They are very well appreciated by all four of us’. We sat together in the Isle of Man’s posh Palace casino." And then there was his foray into films in the 1970s.
Ted says: "I have an ever so chuffed memory of a high point – my shaven-headed appearance as an unpaid extra charging with scores of other soldiers across a deafening bomb- and bullet-strewn Dutch battlefield.
"[I was] persuaded to take part by director Richard Attenborough alongside Sean Connery, Gene Hackman, Tony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine and Ryan O’Neal in A Bridge Too Far."
He had met Caine the year before on the set of 1976 movie The Eagle Has Landed. Ted was given a cameo role in the war film starring Caine. Then when Ted turned up for A Bridge Too Far, he was immediately recognised by Caine.
Ted says: "When I strode on set, he shouted ‘Oh no, not you again’.
"We paired up again in Dublin on [1983 film] Educating Rita and we spent a good few hours over a drink or two venturing down memory lane."
Such memories are just a snapshot of Ted’s stories from his long career – and they tell us as much about the famous faces as they do the journalist himself.
He says: "As so many have opened up for me, it made the book not so much an autobiography as a visit to the inner sanctums of those exceptional people."
Ted on Jayne Mansfield
Not all of Ted’s encounters went smoothly, particularly a run-in with film star Jayne Mansfield and her strongman husband.
Ted recalls: "I survived a right hook from an angry husband, Mickey Hargitay, the 1955 Mr Universe, in a one-sided punch-up in a Blackpool hotel.
"It happened when Jayne [switched] on the illuminations in 1959. After she completed the ceremony, she stirred a deafening roar of approval.
"The Hargitay arm outstretched, one-handedly hoisted his bewildered, disturbed and weeping son into the glare of the flashlights. I couldn’t believe it.
"When I got back to the hotel, I phoned the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children to complain.
"Within an hour NSPCC inspectors were on the scene, interviewing Jayne and her husband. Jayne asked to see me. Hargitay roared something and swung his right hook at me.
"Jayne stepped between us with a tearful apology.
"She vowed nothing like it would happen again."
Ted on Lee Marvin
Oscar-winning war veteran Lee was known for hardman roles.
Ted says: "When we shook hands, Marvin swapped a can of Carlsberg special, the extra strong lager, from his right to his left hand for his greeting.
"Later we met at the Royal Hibernian Hotel [Dublin] after filming. We sat down with yet another bottle of booze as he recalled his role as a tipsy tough guy in the 1965 mega-hit western musical Cat Ballou.
He confided with a deafening guffaw that was heard by all the crew: "I didn’t PLAY drunk. I WAS drunk!"
Ted on Nigel Mansell
Ted once joined Nigel Mansell, Greg Norman and Paul Newman for dinner at a restaurant in Arizona. But despite his legendary status, Paul was in awe of Nigel.
Ted recalls: "He said to Nigel, ‘You know I would willingly give up any one of the movie awards or any one of the Oscar nominations bestowed on me just to boast I had been first in just one of the Formula One races you have won’.
"Later, Newman vainly tried to persuade teetotaller Mansell to take a celebratory sip of claret.
"Mansell proclaimed: ‘At my age I have to take all the care I can to keep fit enough to take on all these truly great racers’.
“Dinner only broke up when Nigel announced it had reached his bedtime. It was 9pm!"
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