Ephraim Hardcastle

FOR the past week the Duke of York has been in China lobbying for UK trade and drumming up support for his business enterprise scheme, Pitch At Palace. The Chinese version kicks off today. As always, Andrew met President Xi. Although the prince dropped the ‘special representative’ trade envoy title, might Theresa May consider reinstating it? As we move towards Brexit, he’s proving more useful than his brother, Charles. SPEAKER John Bercow’s self-proclaimed retirement date (June 22) prompts a BBC source to suggest that his combination of ‘verbal dexterity and verbal diarrhoea’ delivered with ‘orotund bombast’ would make him a natural fit for Radio 4’s longrunning panel show Just A Minute. However, he might not take too kindly to being interrupted by fellow panellists when he hesitates, deviates or repeats, nor submitting to the judgments of host Nicholas Parsons. As for his small stature, a booster seat is available. ASKED by Total Film how she felt about Helena Bonham Carter, 52, pictured, replacing her as an older Princess Margaret in Netflix drama The Crown, Vanessa Kirby, 30, gushes: ‘I just love her. She’s been amazing about it. She’s been so sensitive, actually – and gracious and kind. She’s really thoughtful. I love her, anyway. She’s already become a great friend.’ Oh get off the fence, Vanessa... HUGH Grant has political film-maker Michael Cockerell to thank for his eerily accurate TV recreation of Jeremy Thorpe. When Grant complained he couldn’t find suitable TV footage that captured the raffish Liberal leader, Cockerell sent him copies of Thorpe profiles he had made for the BBC in the 1970s. He says: ‘Hugh got all his mannerisms and his peculiar walk and thanked me, saying my films gave him a complete sense of him.’ THE late political journalist Alan Watkins managed to avoid being sued while accusing Mr Justice Cantley, the judge in the Thorpe trial, of steering the jury away from a guilty verdict on charges of conspiracy to murder. Watkins, who had trained as a barrister, wrote: ‘In the hands of a less scrupulous judge than Mr Justice Cantley the power of summing up is one open to abuse.’ HAVING sparked outrage this week after describing rape as ‘not a spectacularly violent crime’ and ‘bad sex’, don’t expect Germaine Greer, 79, to be toning things down in the coming months. Her next book, titled On Rape, isn’t scheduled to be released until September 1. Still plenty of time for savvy Germaine to make salesfriendly headlines – or might publishers be tempted to bring forward the release to cash in on the current controversy? TV presenter Richard Madeley, 62, has long been compared with gaffe-prone fictional broadcaster Alan Partridge. While interviewing ex-President Bill Clinton after the Monica Lewinsky scandal, he told him: ‘I know what it’s like to be wronged by the Press. I was accused of shoplifting. Unlike you, though, I knew I was innocent.’