Alan Davies and the man left stuck in a lift

Sebastian Shakespeare for the Daily Mail

Published:
23:50 GMT, 23 October 2014

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Updated:
08:03 GMT, 24 October 2014

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Alan Davies and his wife Katie Maskell raised the alarm after hearing the distressed cries of a man stuck in a lift in Soho

As consultant magician Jonathan Creek, Alan Davies solved mysteries through his gift for logical deduction and understanding of illusions, but these skills were of little help in real life when he found a man trapped in a lift.

The 48-year-old actor was in London’s Soho last week with his wife, writer Katie Maskell, when she heard a Chinese man’s distressed cries from the lift on the ground floor of a multi-storey car park.

The couple went over and pressed the emergency button, but there was no response. Another passer-by joined them, but was nonplussed by Davies’s attitude.

‘The Chinese man was shouting “Help! Help! Let me out!”,’ the passer-by tells me. ‘As soon as I arrived, they looked at their watches and realised they were late for the theatre, so asked me if I would take over.’

After the QI panellist left for the Donmar Warehouse Theatre, where he had tickets for a 7.30pm performance of Henry IV, the increasingly desperate Chinese man had better luck.

‘I asked him if he was OK and tried but failed to prise the doors open,’ says the passer-by, who did not want to be named. ‘I waited. He just kept saying: “I’m stuck, I’m stuck in lift. You help me, please!”’

The police eventually arrived but they couldn’t prise open the doors either and had to call in the Fire Brigade to help.

‘A man was stuck in a lift at the car park,’ confirms a London Fire Brigade spokesman. ‘I don’t have any details about his health.’

Perhaps the man should count his blessings. The last time Davies hit the headlines after encountering a stranger in Soho, there was blood on the pavement.

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The comedian apologised in 2007 after biting a homeless man’s ear outside the Groucho Club. He admitted he had ‘lost it a bit’ when he made the drink-fuelled attack before friends dragged him away.

Davies’s spokesman insists the comedian left the car park to seek help for the trapped man.

‘Because they had tickets to the theatre, they went outside and found two policemen,’ he says. ‘They didn’t leave anyone to their own devices stuck in the lift.’

The spokesman adds: ‘Alan said the play was fantastic.’ That’s all right then.

Look out Pippa, here’s Kitty

The Duchess of Cambridge’s younger sister won many admirers after she showcased her posterior in a white bridesmaid dress at the Royal Wedding, but it looks like Pippa Middleton has competition.

Lady Kitty Spencer, a 23-year-old cousin of Princes William and Harry, was spotted bringing up the rear in a figure-hugging red dress (left) as she arrived at a charity gala on Wednesday evening.

Lady Kitty Spencer, a 23-year-old cousin of Princes William and Harry arrives at a charity gala on Wednesday evening with her mother, Victoria Lockwood — first wife of Earl Spencer

She was accompanied by her mother, Victoria Lockwood — first wife of Earl Spencer — who was sporting a cast after injuring her leg.

Lady Kitty has embraced the spotlight after taking a role with Give Us Time, a charity that helps service families adjust to life after combat, but if she is hoping to follow in Pippa’s footsteps perhaps she should take heed.

Earlier this year, Pippa said in a speech: ‘As I have found out, recognition has its upside, its downside and — you may say — its backside.’

Socialite Amanda Eliasch, who put her predominately pink Chelsea mansion on the market for £8.2 million earlier this year, faces a predicament all her own.

‘Hate to say, but few houses for sale with good addresses under £10 million in London,’ she wails.

Amanda, 54, bought her Grade II-listed house in Cheyne Walk from Earl Cadogan in 2010 after she received a chunk of her former husband Johan Eliasch’s £400 million fortune in her divorce settlement.

She split up with sports firm tycoon and Tory donor Eliasch after her 11-year affair with a plastic surgeon.

Fiona Bruce was a guest at Buckingham Palace

Bruce dines at very top table

Fiona Bruce surprised viewers by joining the Queen and Prince Philip for a spot of bargain-hunting on the Antiques Roadshow in the summer.

This week, the BBC newsreader (left) was once again in royal company — as a guest at the State Banquet for the President of Singapore at Buckingham Palace.

According to a source at the Palace, Bruce, 50, was invited to the grand dinner ‘because she was born in Singapore and has had connections with that country’.

Let’s hope it provided her with a chance to become better acquainted with Philip, who famously gave her a frosty interview on the eve of his 90th birthday.

It transpired he had hoped to be interviewed by his friend Selina Scott.

U.S. Ambassador Matthew Barzun will never live down his undiplomatic comments about British cuisine after complaining he had been served ‘lamb and potatoes 180 times since I’ve been here. There are limits and I have reached them.’

Even his embassy staff won’t allow him to forget his gaffe and yesterday presented him with a ‘lamb’ birthday cake (above). ‘How sweet,’ said Barzun posting the picture on social media. ‘You remembered.’

U.S. Ambassador Matthew Barzun was given this lamb birthday cake by his embassy staff after claiming he had been served ‘lamb and potatoes 180 times’ since being in the UK

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, a Canadian, has upset Marylebone Cricket Club (custodians of the laws of cricket) with his decision to scrap the bank’s annual staff match — on the grounds that, he said, cricket was too elitist.

The latest issue of MCC’s magazine delivers a magisterial rebuke to Carney, who ordered his underlings to play rounders instead.

‘The nation,’ says MCC, ‘must pray that Governor Carney shows better judgment when it comes to interest-rate policy.’