Newbury shop Pageant Party features in season finale of hit reality show Celebrity Hunted
A Newbury store had a starring role in the season finale of Celebrity Hunted last night (Sunday).
It was an ordinary business day in 2023 for Amanda Sylvia at her Cheap Street fancy dress shop, Pageant Party.
Then two stars from the hit Channel 4 reality TV show suddenly turned up unannounced.
They were soap actress and Loose Women panellist Denise Welch and her painter husband Lincoln Townley – two of 12 famous faces on the run from an elite team of hunters.
But Miss Sylvia said she received no warning they were coming and didn’t realise they were celebrities at first.
“I was carrying on my day as normal and then two people dressed in black appeared,” she told newburytoday. “I thought they were filming for their media studies or whatever.
“I actually didn’t realise they were celebrities until my colleague said, ‘you do realise who’s in the shop, right?’”
The couple tried on different costumes and disguises and plotted their escape at the back of the shop.
Miss Sylvia had her partner poised outside ready to drive the couple to their next destination, when some black cars pulled up.
It was then game over for the celebrity couple, who were caught hiding in a storage cupboard by the hunters.
“The catch was genuine. It was crazy,” Miss Sylvia added.
“I didn’t get any work done the rest of the day. They were very nice and they bought their costumes.”
She added she hasn’t been brave enough to watch her debut just yet.
But this is not the first time that fictional fugitives have been pursued in our market town.
Newbury couple Ella Tomkins and her partner Jessica Warr, who met as pupils at St Bart’s School, narrowly missed out on a share of the £100,000 prize money when they featured in the series in 2020.
But Ben Arrowsmith, a Pangbourne plumber and former The Downs School pupil, had better luck when him and his best friend made it to the extraction point and scooped £25,000 each.
The question is: When will the hunters be back next?
