Ephraim Hardcastle
THE forced closure of Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and other royal residences could cost the Queen £64million this year. Some staff – her annual wage bill tops £23million – are already kicking their heels at the lockdowned turnstiles and tills. Salary costs come from the Sovereign Grant and bean counters are keen that next year’s accounts show HM made every effort to keep costs down in a crisis. No one is immune from Covid-19 side-effects.
JEREMY Corbyn’s successor, named tomorrow, won’t be getting the conventional private audience with the Queen. Both David Cameron and Ed Miliband popped in for a cup of tea (Corbyn pointedly declined). The new Leader of HM’s Opposition will have to make do with a phone call.
HM’s cousin, party planner Lady Elizabeth Anson, has been honoured with the Queen’s personal gong, the Royal Victorian Order. But she’s been deprived of the usual private audience to be given her medal in person. Elizabeth is due to receive her Commander insignia in a box dispatched to her home.
WIMBLEDON patron the Duchess of Cambridge, pictured enjoying last year’s action, isn’t the only one disappointed by the tennis tournament’s cancellation. Hundreds of MPs, sports agents and TV producers – 393 last year – won’t be receiving free VIP tickets from the BBC.
VIRUS stricken Prince Charles is to be commended for the Covid-19 resistant milk vending machine on his Highgrove estate. For £1.20 locals swipe a card and fill their bottles with a litre of creamy, organic milk from Charlie’s pedigree Ayrshires.
AT last an explanation for Dame Judi Dench’s pitch perfect Irish accent in the BBC’s 1978 film of Aidan Higgins’s Langrishe, Go Down. ‘My mother was from Dublin,’ she says. ‘I have relatives in the west of Ireland, in Dublin and in the north. I cannot help thinking that I have my Irish heritage to thank at least in part for getting me this far.’
BEATLES biographer Hunter Davies is entitled to a sharp intake of breath at the £150,000 price tag on Sir Paul McCartney’s scribbled lyrics Hey Jude, which are due for auction. Hunter picked up handwritten discarded drafts of Strawberry Fields Forever, In My Life and other songs when the Fab Four recorded at Abbey Road. He donated them all to the British Library in lieu of tax. How much is his treasure worth?
IN Los Angeles self-isolation John Cleese tweets: ‘I have joined [website] Cameo, so if you want me to record a personalised threat or insult or taunt, here is the link.’ A bargain, surely at £166. John’s PS pledge to donate the loot to fight the virus must have fallen off the end.