Ephraim Hardcastle

PRINCE Harry’s disclosure – in a podcast called Mad World – that he suffered two years of ‘total chaos’ over his mother’s death might seem selfindulgent to some readers, and cynics will say it provides cover for some of his ‘clown prince’ high jinks. But it boosts Heads Together, the mental health charity he launched with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. It’s the official beneficiary of Sunday’s London Marathon, which the royal trio are expected to attend. MAD World is fronted by perky Telegraph journalist Bryony Gordon, 36, who says her Harry interview might have improved the Royal Family’s standing, telling the BBC: ‘I’ve had people telling me they’re no longer Republicans.’ Have any become Republicans as a result, I wonder? NORTH Korea’s Kim Jong-un, a keen Manchester United supporter, will be tickled by their 2-0 victory over Chelsea. Until recently, Chelsea were sponsored by Samsung of South Korea. Given North Korea’s frighteningly fraught relationship with the West, shouldn’t United manager, Jose ‘The Special One’ Mourinho, pictured, parachute into Pyongyang for a Special One-to-Un peace mission with Dear Leader Kim? NOVELIST Julian Barnes, 71, reviles Brexiteers in the London Review of Books. No surprise there. His late parents were Francophiles. His brother lives there. In January, he was awarded France’s Legion d’Honneur as a recognition of his ‘immense talent and contribution to raising the profile of French culture abroad, as well as your love of France’. And ‘Monsieur’ Barnes’s 2011 novel, The Sense of an Ending, is now a film backed by EU funding. RORY Bremner, 56, confesses to suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, in a BBC2 documentary to be shown on April 25. After taking the drug methylphenidate (Ritalin) for the first time, he performs amusing impressions of President Donald Trump and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, wittily describing the latter as ‘the unlikely love child of Angela Merkel and Trump’. His verdict on the drug? ‘I feel quite clearheaded. It’s like somebody has switched my brain from Radio One to Classic FM.’ A ROYAL visit to Whipsnade Zoo last week was described thus in the Court Circular: ‘The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh viewed the feeding of an elephant and fed an elephant.’ Who writes this deathless prose? It’s the responsibility of the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Christopher Geidt, 55 (King’s College, London and Trinity Hall, Cambridge). WATCHING on TV North Korea’s goosestepping soldiery and astonishing parade of missiles, a military source says (tonguein-cheek) that he hopes Kim Jong-un will tune in for Trooping the Colour in June. ‘Watching a few hundred men in scarlet tunics with black bearskins on their heads marching up and down followed by the Household Cavalry trotting past in armour and then the King’s Troop with their First World War field guns might strike terror into his heart.’