Elvis gets to meet Winston Churchill as former Spandau Ballet star Martin Kemp picks his 10 fantasy dinner guests

MARTIN KEMP was a child actor growing up in London before finding fame alongside his brother Gary in Spandau Ballet in the early ’80s.

He returned to acting in the ’90s, starring in The Krays, moving to Hollywood and later playing Steve Owen in EastEnders.

The dad-of-two, who’s been married to Shirlie Holliman for nearly 30 years, has also overcome two brain tumours.

Martin stars as famous Sun Studio music producer Sam Phillips in stage musical, Million Dollar Quartet, which looks at the early days of Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.

Ahead of dates in Inverness and Edinburgh this month, 55-year-old Martin gave iN10 his guest list for people he would invite to dinner.

Elvis Presley

Elvis is someone I first fell in love with when I was a kid but I wasn’t quite sure what it was I fell in love with.

It wasn’t as much his music as his charisma – and I don’t think I really understood charisma until I saw him.

I remember one Christmas as a kid I watched Jailhouse Rock and I couldn’t take my eyes off him. He was so charismatic that even in the scenes where he was in the background, it was him I paid attention to.

For me, he was the one who always set the pace, so I would want him at my party. You could have great karaoke as well!

David Bowie

I have to include Bowie.

When I was a kid, he showed everyone in a band that the key to longevity is change and we definitely took that on in Spandau.

This idea that to keep the success going you had to constantly change look and sounds was something we worked on.

I met Bowie a couple of times. The second occasion was at the wedding of Paula Yates and Bob Geldof and he was a really nice man.

But the first time was when I was about 18 and we were both at a party in Tony Visconti’s studio in Soho. I plucked up the courage to approach him but by the time I got there I was so drunk I couldn’t string two words together.

I don’t remember what I said but I do remember falling over – I don’t think he was very impressed.

Gloria Swanson

My favourite film of all time is Sunset Boulevard.

Gloria made that difficult transition from silent films to talkies and she was just perfect for this film.

The plot looks at the darker side of Hollywood and I saw a little bit of the Sunset Strip’s darkness while I lived out there for three years.

I love the glamour of ’20s Hollywood and sometimes I would be invited to the producers’ houses for an audition or meeting. I loved that because I was able to have a look around houses that still retained that decade’s glamour.

Every time I watch Sunset Boulevard it takes me back to my time out there, which I really enjoyed.

Winston Churchill

I’m fascinated by the Second World War.

For me, when people talk about the war and how bad it was, it’s like they’re talking about another planet. I can’t quite take in the enormity of it.

I can’t imagine sending my kids off to the country without seeing them for years in order to keep them safe, or to have bombs dropped on the place I lived.

I would love to talk to Churchill about his memories and some of the decisions he had to make.

Say what you like about him as a person, but making decisions affecting so many people’s lives couldn’t weigh easy.

Every decision made in his position results in wasting lives, but it was a case of do you waste a few to keep a lot safe, and that’s a heavy burden on anyone.

Bruce Lee

When I was a kid I was obsessed with Bruce Lee.

Gary and I used to share a bedroom and on his side he had posters of bands such as Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Bowie, while my side was filled with footballers and Bruce Lee.

Bruce was another who was so charismatic that you couldn’t take your eyes off him. I loved everything about him.

He inspired a whole generation and was my hero. I used to jump off walls pretending to be him and I remember making a pair of nunchucks out of rubber, slinging them around and hitting my head!

He was so young when he died and I don’t think he fulfilled his potential.

I look back and think if he had another 10 years he could have done so much more, so I would love to sit down and talk to him about what he saw himself doing over that next decade.

Marilyn Monroe

It’s a bit corny but I have to include her because every person grew up loving her.

I don’t actually think I fancied her but I was told to. People convinced me she was beautiful and sexy and I remember watching Some Like It Hot and trying to work out why.

If I put myself in the ’50s and looked at her, I would absolutely see what it was about her.

But when I was a kid I couldn’t quite work it out, because I though Suzi Quatro was so much more sexy!

She was beautiful for the time but I would want her at my dinner table in order to make up my own mind.

Charlie Chaplin

I love groundbreakers and he led the way in a new style of comedy.

Sometimes if you’re the first to walk through a door, you don’t always get the greatest amount of gains compared to the second or third person, but he did.

He had a terrible ride, like the McCarthy Communist witch hunt that drove him out of town, so his experiences are something I’d love to talk to him about.

I did an episode of Miss Marple a little while ago and his daughter, Geraldine, was also on the show.

She was the spitting image of Charlie, except she had two little freckles under her eyes that looked like the old image of a clown crying. It was an amazing thing to see.

Marlon Brando

He set a standard in acting to which everyone aspired. I’d like to speak to him about the skills of acting because he’s the best on-camera actor I’ve ever seen.

It was that Stanislavski-style, finding the real thing inside and relating to that, sinking yourself into a part rather than using a superficial style.

The best acting is when you take the scab off a really old wound, bring out a memory and use it, no matter how painful it is. We all try to use that these days but before Brando we didn’t.

A Streetcar Named Desire is my favourite film of his and it’s a play I’ll do one day. I just need to find someone who’ll let me!

Martin Scorsese

One of the best directors of all time. It must be a joy working with him and any actor worth their salt would drop everything and work for free if he came along.

One of my favourites of his is Goodfellas. Probably for every gangster role I’ve ever done I’ve gone back to that film and re-watched it to see how he did it. I’ve also used it as an example in films I’ve directed over the years, using certain camera shots.

Throughout his career he’s made everything – even the darkest situations – so commercial, putting a gloss on it all, and I really love that.

Sam Phillips

Sam is the character I play in Million Dollar Quartet, so I would love to sit down and pick his brains.

For me he’s an important character of that period. He’s the equivalent of Malcolm McLaren, who was at the sharp end of the stick when punk came together. Punk grew out of pub rock in a way in the ’70s, and what he did was bring all the ends together and make it punk.

That’s what Sam Phillips did in the ’50s, all those strands of rock ‘n’ roll – the old blues style, electric guitars – he pushed it one stage further into the rock mould we know now.

Million Dollar Quartet, Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, Oct 16-21, Edinburgh Playhouse, Oct 24-28.