Ephraim Hardcastle
BBC Sport commentator Alex Scott can be forgiven for not showing too much distress at former minister Lord Digby Jones’s observation last year that she needed elocution lessons. For the former Arsenal footballer has been suffering far worse jibes, not to mention death threats. Alex, who is covering next month’s women’s Euro 22 tournament for the BBC, says: ‘I’ve had so many tweets saying I should be at home ironing or cooking. I don’t care about those, but sometimes people threaten my life and those have to be taken seriously.’ She praises Barbara Slater, director of sport at the BBC, telling Radio Times: ‘She had my back. I said to her that I didn’t want to be taken off air because then who wins? It’s my responsibility to change perceptions by sitting in that chair and talking about football.’
WHEN Keir Starmer stood for the Labour leadership he boasted of defending striking miners as a lawyer. This fails to impress former National Union of Mineworkers leader Arthur Scargill, 84, basking in autumnal public attention as he joined the RMT picket at Wakefield. ‘I’ve nothing but contempt for the man as far as I’m concerned,’ he says, sweetly. ‘I haven’t heard him offer a word of support to the RMT at all. He also stood up in Parliament and told people not to join a picket line – an utterly appalling thing do.’
PAUL McCartney’s triumphant Glastonbury duet with Bruce Springsteen, pictured, was a repeat of an on-stage link-up in Bruce’s New Jersey homeland when Paul seemed baffled that the 50,000-strong crowd seemed to boo this historic pop moment. Only later did he recover his poise when he realised the ecstatic audience was calling out ‘Bruuuuuuuuuuuce’ in adoration of The Boss.
POTTY-mouthed Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary might be polishing some choice expletives after discovering that his two eldest sons have developed a passion for the unHibernian game of cricket. And to his ‘utter and undying shame’, they have become ‘huge supporters’ of England. ‘But hey,’ he adds, ‘if they want to support the English cricket team… well, there’s not much point supporting the Irish cricket team.’
A NEW BBC2 documentary to mark 60 years of the Rolling Stones reveals that Sir Mick Jagger once wanted to stage a bizarre flower presentation. Speaking in the four-parter My Life As A Rolling Stone beginning on July 2, band creative director Patrick Woodroffe says: ‘Mick wanted to have an elephant come out at the end of the performance and present him with a rose from the end of its trunk. What was he thinking?’ Keith Richards persuaded Mick to abandon the plan. Considering his penchant for stimulating substances, Jumbo’s entry might have persuaded Keef he was hallucinating again.
DAME Judi Dench, recalling the late Edward Woodward’s appearance in Rattle Of A Simple Man at the Garrick Theatre, said some of the marquee lights failed one night and displayed only part of his name, adding: ‘He was known as E Wa Woo Wa.’