Ephraim Hardcastle
THE death of Prince Philip, patron of the all-male Garrick Club, reinvigorates the campaign to admit women to full membership with the pro-female lobby plotting a surprise proposal to assist its cause. Philip, the oldest member of the 190-year-old club – he was proposed just before his marriage in 1947 – could be replaced by his son Charles. But there is a growing segment championing the Duchess of Cambridge as patron. ‘Kate would be a breath of fresh air,’ whispers one salmon and cucumber tie-wearing feminist. Philip was last at the Garrick for a black tie dinner in 2012. Previously, at the Derby, he waved from his limousine at drunken members Kingsley Amis and John Osborne brandishing a Garrick flag from an open-top bus.
WHEN Kathleen Turner appeared nude in The Graduate crowd-control barriers kept fans at bay at the Gielgud Theatre stage door. At the neighbouring Sondheim, Maggie Smith in Lady In The Van nightly departed unnoticed. ‘One day I got a note delivered to my dressing room from Maggie that said “May I borrow a barrier?”’ Kathleen tells a Royal Theatrical Fund event. ‘As I recall, she’d told the play’s writer Alan Bennett that she could rise from the van naked and that would sell more tickets.’ But why the barrier? Adds Dame Maggie, 86: ‘It was just for me to lean on because there was nobody there to hold back.’
WAITING to interview Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace, the late BBC broadcaster Jimmy Young winked at his producer Mike Hollingsworth when he spotted a framed photograph of a ‘beautiful young woman’ in the duke’s office. Recalls Mike: ‘Jim picked up the photo and did a “nudge, nudge” face when the duke appeared. “And what exactly are you doing with that picture of my daughter?” he said.’ It was a captivating picture of Princess Anne in her youth. Adds Mike: ‘It was a fairly frosty interview that followed.’
PROMISING Young Woman Bafta winner Emerald Fennell, 35, pictured, describes herself as a fan of director Alfred Hitchcock’s uncredited cameo appearances in his films, adding: ‘It’s delicious that on my IMDb entry, alongside “Director”, “Writer” and “Producer”, is “Host of B***job Lips Tutorial (uncredited)”! I feel like that’s the pinnacle of my achievement on this film.’
WAS the BBC’s two-channel blanket coverage of Prince Philip’s passing a reaction to the 2002 accusation of not being sufficiently deferential on the 101-year-old Queen Mother’s death? Newscaster Peter Sissons, who broke the news of the QM’s death wearing a burgundy tie, recalls a producer telling him as he went on air: ‘Don’t go overboard – she’s a very old woman who had to go some time.’
AFTER novelist Fay Weldon had received her third award in one night from Writers’ Guild guest of honour Prince Philip, he said: ‘I’ve run out of conversation. I’ll say “Rhubarb, rhubarb”, then you say “Rhubarb, rhubarb”.’ Fay explains: ‘That’s exactly what we did.’