Ephraim Hardcastle
RESPECTED Irish writer and broadcaster Mary Kenny, 74, is mentioned in the fashionable BBC series Killing Eve. Fiona Shaw, playing an MI6 agent confessing intimacy with a KGB agent, says: ‘Vlad and I had one or two Ugandan discussions,’ explaining: ‘A journalist called Mary Kenny was found entangled in the arms of a former minister in the Ugandan cabinet. Private Eye printed it [in 1973] using the phrase Ugandan discussions.’ Miss Kenny tells me: ‘I’ve had a tsunami of tedious emails about this. I regard this as ancient history – malicious misogyny about a harmless snog.’
JEREMY Clarkson and fellow presenter James May imitated Theresa May’s Abba dance in a short film, pictured, to amuse their Twitter fans. Clarkson said: ‘Even when we do it, it looks stupid.’ Mrs May will recall that Clarkson and David Cameron are members of the much-derided Chipping Norton Set. While he was PM, Cameron regretted the sacking of Clarkson for punching a Top Gear producer, saying he was ‘a huge talent’.
WITH Zoe Ball succeeding Chris Evans for £1.2million on Radio 2’s breakfast programme, it’s worth mentioning the late R2 star Sir Terry Wogan. Noting the 1990s breakfast show battle between Evans (then at Virgin) and Ball (then on Radio 1) he wrote in a memoir: ‘Amid the muck and bullets of the Chris Evans / Zoe Ball rivalry, the Old Geezer on Radio 2 [as he described himself] had by far the biggest audience.’
PRINCE Harry and Meghan’s well-publicised visit to the Brighton Pavilion, which recently re-opened its expensively renovated centrepiece, the 1823 Room, pleased bigwigs. Prince Charles declined, pleading a busy diary. Was this an alibi? He might have been compared to the extravagant king-to-be who created the Pavilion – the Prince Regent, who became George IV late in life and built the Pavilion as a magical venue for trysts with his paramour, Maria Fitzherbert. The taxpayer paid £4.5million towards refurbishment costs at Clarence House with Charles contributing an extra £1.5million. Charles has also taken a close interest in the £369million renovation of Buckingham Palace. ‘They don’t want him demanding another expensive redecoration after he succeeds,’ suggests a source.
THE Queen might tease Mrs May during their Wednesday audience over her choice of Abba’s Dancing Queen for her big conference entrance. Her Majesty apparently once told DJ Chris Evans that she’s an Abba fan and Dancing Queen is her favourite. As for dancing, a cousin of the Queen, party planner Lady Elizabeth Anson, claimed that the monarch responds enthusiastically to Highland reels, Swedish pop or music hall ballads.
WHAT would Margaret Thatcher think of Mrs May’s dancing efforts? In the 1980s, Mrs T was asked to ‘jump in the air’ along with fellow guests on a Swedish TV chat show, to reveal ‘another side to people’. She declined, explaining: ‘I do not wish to lose the respect of people whose respect I’ve kept for years.’