Ephraim Hardcastle
FOLLOWING today’s state opening of Parliament the Queen could pose a problem for the Government when she travels to Edinburgh in July to open the Scottish Parliament. While HM delivers Whitehall’s legislative programme rotelike in Westminster, she writes her own words for Edinburgh. Her speech to Nicola Sturgeon is bound to be analysed for any divergence from official policy. As evidenced in her masterly response to Harry and Meghan’s Oprah outburst – ‘recollections may vary’ – she has a gift for carefully crafted nuance. Boris beware!
THE Queen confirmed her diary-writing habit to former Tory minister Kenneth Baker when showing him a sample of Queen Victoria’s journal in Windsor’s Royal Library in 1991. Baker asked: ‘Is it in your own hand?’ After a long pause she replied: ‘Oh yes. I can’t write any other way.’
CALL the Midwife creator Heidi Thomas, pictured, casts envious eyes on the Hollywoodlike budget of Netflix’s The Crown. ‘I do remember watching a very early episode where an aeroplane takes off on a runway in Africa and emus [sic] run underneath it,’ she says. ‘On Call the Midwife if we need a dog, [the] show people bring their own pets. I felt like a poor relation at that moment.’
AFTER watching Emily Mortimer’s BBC adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love, Sir Nicholas Soames sneers: ‘Simply dismal. Truly dreadful, such a pity. So badly done.’ According to Joan Hardwick, biographer of Soames’ grandmother Clementine, she was secretly fathered by the Mitford sisters’ grandfather Bertie Mitford, Lord Redesdale, rather than Sir Henry Hozier. Deep waters.
BORIS declines the British Museum’s invitation to its Emperor Nero exhibition 13 years after attempting a speech in Latin at the opening of its Emperor Hadrian spectacular. Classicists catalogued his schoolboy mistakes. What’s the Latin for ‘Nero fiddled while Rome burned’?
QUEEN Victoria’s husband never lived to see the Royal Albert Hall named in his honour but, to celebrate its 150th anniversary, a Te Deum written by Albert in just three days in 1843 will be performed on July 11. It will be sung by the Really Big Chorus, the largest choir in the world.
WHAT’S going on between Van Morrison and Piers Morgan? The Irish warbler, attending the GQ Awards, complains: ‘Piers Morgan was glaring at me all night. And then he wrote that I was glaring at him. As we all know, he’s an advocate for freedom of speech – but he’s obviously not very accepting of mine. I certainly wasn’t scared of him.’ Seconds out! Round two!
FORMER BBC reporter Michael Cole, welcoming a memorial to pioneering female cricketer Rachael Heyhoe Flint, recalls asking her if it was true that she wore a box while playing. She replied: ‘Oh, yes. I called it my man-hole cover.’