Not for turning
SINCE turning his back on politics for a more lucrative TV career, Michael Portillo has essayed himself into a man of the people. He spent a week pretending to be as poor as a single mother, working in Asda and coping with four children on just £126 a week — though the BBC paid him a fee of £15,000. And between appearances on Andrew Neil’s show This Week, he made a film about Trafalgar for BBC 1. But one offer, I can disclose, was a proposal too far even for the self- regarding Portillo. He was asked to have his skin temporarily turned black for a documentary by distinguished programme maker Roger Bolton. I’m told he was initially keen on the idea. He told a friend: ‘I think they thought my big lips would help when they changed my colour.’
PS
But after further thought, he changed his mind. Now the project has been shelved. Bolton’s director of programmes, Barbara Altounyan, tells me: ‘It never got off the ground. We haven’t found someone else and we are not now doing it.’ As for Portillo, he says: ‘I’m not doing it and I have nothing to say on the subject.’
HE MAY have missed out on becoming the
new 007, but it wasn’t a lack of gallantry
that cost Colin Salmon the licence to kill. Salmon, who would have been the first black James Bond, went right to the wire for the part with brokennosed Daniel Craig. ‘Obviously I was disappointed not to get Bond, but I have sent Daniel a message conveying my very best wishes,’ Salmon tells me. ‘You’ve got to be magnanimous about these things. I haven’t heard back yet, but I understand he’s away filming.’ Colin is concentrating on his other talent — playing the trumpet. ‘ Last week, I played a full set at the Dorchester Hotel and had a brilliant time,’ he says. ‘ I want to perform at other events, maybe even concerts, but I’m going to have to practise a lot more.’