OFF AIR

÷ISN’T there a nice symmetry to Diana Rigg being cast in Victoria? Diana was already well known as Emma Peel from the Avengers when she got the gig as a Bond girl for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and not any old Bond girl – she became Mrs Bond before tragically being shot dead. Back to Victoria, and Diana is beautifully acerbic as the Duchess of Buccleuch, the queen’s new Mistress of the Robes who remembers the Palace from her younger days when it was ‘only a house but at least it was clean.’ Now we know that age prohibits Diana from playing the young queen but what of an older Victoria in the future? We Are Not Amused. Helen Mirren and Judi Dench have that sewn up. ÷TALKING of robes, comedian Katherine Lynch was out searching for glamorous dresses for a Côte D’Azur photo shoot in the first of the fashion series Frock Finders. I dare say as a host Katherine should hold this all up but as a funnywoman her material’s a bit thin. ÷IT was probably the most difficult job in television, coming after Bruce Forsyth on Strictly. But there’s nothing like getting somebody in who is really funny... and that’s what Claudia Winkleman is: nothing like really funny. The show’s bosses have missed a trick. Anton du Beke is right under their noses.