Ephraim Hardcastle
WILL Alan Rickman’s soon-to-be-published diaries shed any light on his lucrative sideline when playing Professor Severus Snape in eight Harry Potter films? Rickman, who died in 2016, successfully pilfered items from the Pinewood and Shepperton studios despite stringent security. According to co-star dame Maggie Smith, Rickman sold his Potter memorabilia on eBay for ‘masses of money’. She says: ‘i so wanted to take things but they frisked you when you left the studio just in case you had a goblet up your jumper. i think they all adored Alan so much they would have let him take the whole set.’
WILL departing President Trump receive an honorary knighthood from the Queen? Three US presidents have been knighted, the last of them being George Bush Sr, who was also the last one-term president of the US. (The other two are Eisenhower and Reagan.) Tony Blair bestowed a K on Donald’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Donald might attempt to pardon himself but the one honour he apparently craves remains beyond his power.
BBC DJ Annie nightingale, awarded a CBE this year, complains that she has yet to receive the promised gong. is it perchance because she hasn’t returned her less prestigious MBE? ‘it quite amused me when you get the upgrade as you have got to give the original back,’ she says.
HOW fares Dame Judi Dench in lockdown? ‘It’s been curious,’ admits Judi, pictured, revealing that several horses regularly canter past her Surrey home. ‘I was kindly given two coconut shells so when I hear the horses go by I can rush out and do the sounds on my side as well,’ she said. Wasn’t it Ralph Richardson who once asked: ‘Is there a doctor in the house?’
PRINCE Charles has installed two female hedgehogs and one male at dumfries House to control the slug population. is this menage a trois wise? Which of the lady hedgehogs will be the first to bristle: ‘There are three of us in this Tiggy-Winkle relationship’?
COLUMNIST Julie Burchill takes issue with Covid guru Chris Whitty’s veto on granny hugging despite her paternal grandmother Eliza encouraging her to shoplift and fetch alcohol from the pub. ‘She was white haired and twinkly eyed, but there her resemblance to a storybook granny ended because, by nature, she was more of a big bad wolf,’ recalls Burchill, admitting Eliza had comic potential. ‘Obsessed with all-in wrestling, she would often topple face-first from her easy chair when especially excited, and we grandchildren would rush forward to winch her back up.’
NO danger of Shane Macgowan’s irish accent being mocked like those of Wild Mountain Thyme stars Emily Blunt and Jamie dornan. The Pogues warbler’s tones are so incoherently authentic that subtitles have been included in the new documentary Crock of gold.