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BUTLER Sydney gracefully dispenses eight-year-old Scotch, 'distilled, blended and bottled, especially for the Al-Fayeds.' As Mohamed says: 'I am the first to recognise that Harrods is a national institution. It has a character of its own and a reputation for quality which, as you can see, I admire most of all.'
Mohamed also brought excellence to Britain's film industry.
'I put my money up for Chariots of Fire when no one else wanted to. The story had already been hawked around for two years.'
It was at his insistence that everybody in the film, every piece of cloth or set, was British.
The producer's Oscar given to his son, Dodi, now 28, stands proudly in his private apartment at Manhattan's Pierre Hotel.
Dodi was the child of his first marriage which ended many years ago, and he now has a Finnish wife and two children, a five-year-old daughter and an 18-month-old son. But Mohamed tells me quickly that his brother Ali is married to an English girl and his children have British passports.
Yet he loves to joke about being a 'bloody Egyptian', and with impeccable timing he saves his best story for last.
When he bought Sir Charles Ross's castle, he also inherited the Laird's kilt with it: 'When I tried it on it looked like a mini skirt,' he recalled. 'So I had another one made -- for propriety's sake.' A huge laugh. You could have heard it across Hyde Park to Harrods.
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