Don’t look now, but isn’t that Robert Redford at the Thorganby allotment society meeting?

The star of Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid called in at the Ferry Boat Inn at Thorganby, York, during a visit to Britain to announce plans to launch his Sundance Film Festival in London next spring.

Members of the local allotment society, on a night out at the pub, broke off from their discussions to and ask for autographs.

Landlady Olive Rogers, who has been the licensee at the pub since 1948, said Redford, star and producer of 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.

“I treated him like any other customer,” she said. “He was very nice.”

The Ferry Boat was named the best pub in Yorkshire last year by the Campaign For Real Ale. 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 has revealed that a four-day festival, based on the American Sundance Film Festival, will be staged at the O2 Arena in London next April.