David Hasselhoff with the HoffArmy
All good things have to come to an end, and this weekend Hollywood star David Hasselhoff took to the Opera House stage for his final performances as Captain Hoff the Hook in Peter Pan after two months of entertaining the masses.
But The Diary couldn’t let The Hoff leave Manchester without finding out all his favourite moments in the city, and when he’ll next be coming back…
ON MANCHESTER
“It has been an amazing time, I love Manchester, it’s like a condensed New York or London.
“I love that you can get about the place so easily, I’ve been biking around a lot.”
FAVOURITE RESTAURANT
“It’s difficult to say one, what I’ve worked out is the best pub is the Oast House, the best restaurants there are several, I like Pesto for tapas, Bem Brasil because of all the meat they bring to the table, Wings for the best asian food, and Restaurant Bar & Grill is just the classiest restaurant.”
BEST NIGHT OUT
“Revolucion De Cuba bar where I spent New Year’s Eve with my girlfriend Hayley.”
FUNNIEST PANTO MOMENT
“When I was on stage and said the line: “swear and oath” but before I said swear, one of the pirates said: “poo knickers, farting”, and then the entire band of pirates kept on with the swearing and it brought down the house. It took us about five minutes to recover! That’s what’s fun about panto, the ad lib stuff.”
CRAZIEST FAN MOMENT
“The Hoff Army came over from Austria – there was 30 of them who turned up and delivered a cake that was just incredible – it was a cake of me as Hoff the Hook and the crocodile!
They all blanketed the front row, all wearing their Hoff Army shirts saying “we love the Hoff” some of these kids have been following me for 10-15 years, they’ve been following me ever since. It’s just great.”
FAVOURITE OUTFIT
“The best in the audience was a woman dressed as a pirate with a big shirt saying “I love the Hoff”.”
BEST PRESENT
“The best gift honestly was seeing the smiling faces of my fans, there was one young handicapped boy who came to see the show in particular, it was probably the most amazing moment meeting him.”
FAVOURITE NEWSPAPER
“The Mancheser Evening News because you put my girlfriend Hayley on your front cover! That’s the first cover she ever had, she’s very shy but it’s increased her confidence 100 times and I bought 20 copies.”
BLUE OR RED?
“I already know when I’m coming back to Manchester because I’m coming back in February especially to watch a Man United game.
I went to the Man City game and it was incredible, all the guys knew me! The footballers all from so many different countries but they either knew me from Baywatch or Knight Rider. Yaya Toure is from the Ivory Coast but he knew me, Dzeko is from the Czech Republic but he knew me – they were such nice people!
But I know if I don’t come back and watch a United game I’ll get killed by all my United fan friends.”
WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE HOFF?
“After I finish panto I’m jumping on an airplane and I’ll wake up on Necker Island with Richard Branson and Ronnie Wood. Richard invited me over there to join him with a group of friends, I do a lot of diving so it will be great and I’m a major fan of the Rolling Stones so it will be great to see Ronnie.”
