Ephraim Hardcastle
tHE Prime Minister’s decision to splash £10million on kitting out an rAF Voyager plane for his use will interest the Queen. David Cameron’s argument that the frequency of overseas travel means it’s cheaper than chartering aircraft is one the royal Household has used to acquire its own jet. (they’ll be offered the use of ‘Cam Fly With Me’, the PM’s spruced-up Airbus A330.) Cameron will soon have to discuss with the Queen the ageing royal train, which conveyed HM and Prince Philip to Birmingham yesterday. tony Blair says he regrets abolishing the royal Yacht. Might Cameron have to regret letting the royal train go? TWENTY years after the sensational Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, which effectively ended her unhappy marriage to Prince Charles, whither the surviving players? The programme itself is now far less important than it was. Its then editor, Steve Hewlett, 57, presents a minority-interest radio show and writes for The Guardian; Diana’s interviewer, Martin Bashir, 52, who quit MSNBC TV in America two years ago after insulting Sarah Palin, is now a leading light at the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York. ‘How the mighty have fallen,’ as it says in the Bible. PrOMOtinG a concert of songs in new York from his failed Broadway musical, the last ship, multimillionaire crooner sting, 64, pictured, tells a heart-tugging tale from his north East boyhood. Aged ‘nine or ten, in my sunday best, which i hated’, the Queen Mother waved to him from her rolls-royce. He says: ‘i was infected with an idea: that i didn’t actually belong in this street, i didn’t belong in this house, and i didn’t want to end up in the shipyard. i wanted to be in that f****** car. i had grand dreams. i wanted to live in new York City. And here we are.’ if he’s thinking of turning this sob story into another musical, perhaps he’ll have to risk some of his £180million fortune this time. BURLY Lord Sugar, 68, boss of The Apprentice, fires ineffectual contestant Sam Curry from the BBC1 show and tweets: ‘Sam is an arts scholar, into Shakespeare and all that stuff. I asked if he’s “much ado about nothing”.’ Does ex-market trader Alan entertain artistic pretensions? WitH new Zealand’s World Cup-winning rugby captain richie McCaw having announced his retirement from the game aged 34 – after 148 international caps – today programme host Justin Webb can’t resist a sly dig at the great man. While the broadcaster acknowledged the player had been on the winning side 131 times for his country, he couldn’t resist highlighting claims that McCaw often successfully bent the rules on the field. Webb snidely added: ‘He was never cheating in any of them, either.’ How petty. DISMISSED from his Montgomeryshire seat by electors in 2010, ex-Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik, 50, says he now wants to perform as a stand-up comedian on the BBC2 show Live at the Apollo. He once appeared in the show’s audience while he was romancing Romanian-born, pop-singing Cheeky Girl Gabriela Irimia, 33. He was introduced by comedian Ed Byrne as ‘Lembit Opik PM – the PM stands for pussy magnet’. Byrne inquired: ‘How do you do it? And don’t give me that “women are attracted to power” bull**** – you’re a Lib Dem!’