DRINKERS at a pub near York could be forgiven for thinking they had had one too many – when they saw Hollywood star Robert Redford walk in.

The legendary actor, producer and director, star of Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, called in for a drink at the Ferry Boat Inn at Thorganby, during a visit to Britain to announce plans to launch his Sundance Festival in London next spring.

Customers from the local allotment society who were having a night out at the pub broke off from their vegetable discussions to approach him, check it really was Robert Redford and ask for his autograph, which the Oscar-winner happily agreed to give.

Landlady Olive Rogers, who has been the licensee at the pub since 1948, said Redford, star of classic films like All The President’s Men, Out Of Africa and The Sting, had been taken there by some friends of his in the village, who he was visiting.

But Olive pointed out she had not given the actor any special VIP treatment during his visit to her pub.

“I treated him like any other customer,” she said, adding that he had said he would like to come back there again one day. “He was very nice,” she said.

If the actor wanted to know what the very best of British pubs have to offer, he could hardly have picked a better one, as the Ferry Boat was named the best pub in Yorkshire last year by the Campaign For Real Ale, having previously won the best outdoor area title in The Press Pub Awards 2009/10. The family-run free house stands on the banks of the River Derwent with a vast beer garden that slopes down to the waterfront.

Redford, who played Sundance in the western Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, has revealed that a four-day festival, based on the Sundance Film Festival which he runs in the United States, will be staged at the O2 in London next April.


North Yorkshire films Robert Redford might have starred in

• A Selby Swing Bridge Too Far
• The Great Haxby
• The Last Castle Howard
• The White Horse Whisperer
• A River (Derwent) Runs Through It
• All The Chief Constable’s Men