Old-school charmers a cherished link to past

genius but he was a genie, who magicked us backwards. Ronnie Corbett did the same. They were the last of their breed.

Mary Berry is a world away from the ubiquitous celebrity chefs. She doesn’t show off. She just wants people to bake well and share her joy in doing it. Obviously she makes a better sponge than you or me (certainly than me). She is of the school of the late Marguerite Patten who taught the nation how to manage during rationing and the sainted Delia who has been such a help though unlike Delia, who hated being on television, Mary obviously loves it.

LOOK around public life, watch the passage of time remove us from our past. In politics one thinks of Kenneth Clarke, one of the last whose presence, style and oratory connects us with an age when there were many like him or Dennis Skinner, the truculent old socialist (David Cameron called him a dinosaur but Skinner’s still at it, Cameron ain’t).

Britain is blessed with someone who continues to link us with the nation’s past going back before almost any of us can remember. That of course is the Queen, for whom in many ways the 1950s never ended. She may be the only person in Britain who doesn’t need to go on Who Do You Think You Are? to find out who she thinks she is. Does she watch Strictly, one wonders, or the Great British Bake Off? Has she ever baked?

Mary was awarded a CBE in 2012. Isn’t it time Her Majesty did something for Len?

JOHN INGHAM IS AWAY