Ephraim Hardcastle
BUCKINGHAM Palace has limited options to punish the BBC for last night’s The Princes and the Press documentary. After Martin Bashir’s interview with Diana, the BBC lost its exclusive rights to make the Queen’s annual Christmas message. But having produced the festive broadcast for the past two years, the Beeb is not scheduled to do it again until 2025. It still has the rights to the Platinum Jubilee concert in the Mall. Cancelling that and awarding it to Sky or ITV would be a draconian display of the Queen’s displeasure.
FORMER BBC director-general Greg Dyke has personal experience of the effects of offending the Queen. He haughtily declined to broadcast the Queen Mother’s equine celebrations marking her centenary in 2000 because it would clash with Neighbours. A knighthood was then customary for departing DGs. Greg remains ungonged.
WHAT did Barbara Taylor Bradford make of Harry and Meghan’s Winfrey confessional? ‘It was the worst Oprah interview I’ve ever seen,’ she says. ‘So there sat Meghan like the queen of the show in that black dress with the white flowers down the side… I happen to have a similar dress, but I don’t wear it any more because it reminds me of Meghan.’ Get off the fence Babs!
AMBER Rudd’s daughter Flora Gill, pictured, rejoices in being saved from drowning on an undisclosed foreign beach after being swept out to sea. ‘Unluckily, I was naked so everyone watched as they dragged me on to the sand like a titted beached whale,’ she says, adding: ‘It was a nude beach and was literally the first time I’d gone naked. It feels like nature’s way of telling me to keep my kit on.’
EIGHTY-FOUR-YEAR-OLD Jilly Cooper’s determination to replace her beloved rescue greyhound Bluebell comes as no surprise to friends of the dog-loving author. When the late Sir Peter O’Sullevan’s pekinese Topo died of old age, Jilly immediately offered to find a new four-legged friend for the esteemed racing correspondent. Sir Peter, approaching his ninetieth birthday, gracefully declined, saying: ‘I don’t want my pet to outlive me.’
MEANWHILE Jilly, feverishly tip-tapping on her typewriter, Monica, completing her football novel Tackle, has joined Cristiano Ronaldo’s fan club. ‘I love him,’ she says. ‘He is so beautiful but I don’t fancy him. He is a complete narcissist.’ What are the odds on her calling her new dog Ronaldo ‘on ze head’ Cooper?
MICHAEL Fawcett’s long association with Prince Charles hasn’t resulted in him learning the proper etiquette for addressing VIPs, emailing the British envoy to Spain as ‘Dear Ambassador’ rather than ‘Your Excellency’. Writing to Dame Lynne Brindley, former Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, he cheerily starts ‘Good morning Dame Lynne’ when ‘My Lady’ is the required form of address. Does he refer to the Prince of Wales as a proper Charlie?
Email: john.mcentee@dailymail.co.uk