by Danny Boyle

dboyle@thekmgroup.co.uk

It was a game of Strictly Come Crunching when two TV stars descended on Rochester.

Match of the Day host and former England striker Gary Lineker filmed his latest Walkers crisps advert in the High Street on Friday evening.

The 49-year-old was joined by Strictly Come Dancing judge Bruno Tonioli , who helped choreograph the commercial.

More than 50 passers-by gathered to watch Lineker shoot a scene for a new ad campaign to be launched in early September.

Sitting on a bench outside Barnardo’s charity shop, he starts munching a pack of ready salted crisps while contentedly looking at a map.

His mood changes when he looks up to the sky as it starts to rain – fake rain, that is, created by the production crew.

About half a dozen police officers were drafted in to control the crowd when Lineker arrived at about 5.30pm.

Earlier, Tonioli had helped Lineker’s stuntman master jumping up from the bench and over a flower-filled water trough.

The 54-year-old Italian choreographer, usually dressed in sharp suits for TV, wore baggy combat trousers and a sleeveless bomber jacket. He barely rose a smile as he stood with the commercial’s director.

The body double wore the same clothes as Lineker – jeans, grey jumper and trainers.

Make-up artists even sprayed grey into the young man’s hair to make him look like the former footballer.

Locals were delighted by the appearance of two celebrities.
Among those who posed for a photo with Lineker was Janet Bayswater, of St Margaret’s Street, Rochester.

The 56-year-old said: “I’ve always really fancied Gary Lineker so when I heard he was in the High Street I just rushed down. This is like a dream come true for me.”

Lineker spent last Wednesday and Thursday filming in what members of the production crew described as “fields near Rochester”.

The former footballer, who has starred in Walkers commercials since 1994, also joined music legend Lionel Richie in Hendon, north London, last Tuesday for another shoot.

• This isn't Gary's first foray into Kent for the Walker's ads - he filmed in Sandwich in March this year.