A degree ruins actors, says Olivia, MA (Cantab)

WhILE Eton continues to churn out some of Britain’s most indemand actors, from Damian Lewis to Dominic West, the sixth sense star Olivia Williams claims her own world-class education was actually a ‘handicap’.

the 49-year- old Londoner, who studied drama at Bristol Old Vic after gaining a degree at Cambridge University, says: ‘I was given a hard time about it and I was resentful of that. “You come here with your Oxbridge ways” was the underlying tone.

‘But the truth is that I did go there with my Oxbridge ways, and when I started acting professionally and watching other actors act, I finally realised that a critical approach to the text is a massive handicap.’

THE Queen’s former chef Darren McGrady revealed she detests potatoes and profligacy. Now I can disclose more dislikes. ‘The Queen doesn’t like concerts to be longer than 90 minutes and she doesn’t like intervals,’ says Judith Arnold, who managed the late conductor Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, former Master of the Queen’s Music. ‘Nobody wanted to incur the Queen’s displeasure.’