Ephraim Hardcastle
LAST night’s first anniversary of Andrew’s disastrous BBC Newsnight interview coincides with a growing demand in the Grenadier Guards for his formal removal as colonel. It is one of nine regimental titles suspended by the Queen after his engulfment in the Epstein scandal last November. Senior Guards officers ask how long the regiment is expected to continue with an absent colonel. ‘We had Prince Philip for 42 years and he never missed a formal occasion,’ says one. ‘Even if the Queen were to allow Andrew to resume his military roles, it’s unlikely anyone would still want to salute him.’
THE Crown costume designer Amy Roberts produced 252 outfits for the new fourth season, including the charity shoplike clothes worn by the character playing Buckingham Palace intruder Michael Fagan. ‘That was as important as Diana’s wedding dress to me,’ she says. ‘I spent hours doing that fitting. It was a courtesy to Fagan and that whole group of people living that way.’
WHEN Anna Neagle, playing Queen Victoria, was filmed on royal property while making a 1937 feature film, King George VI ordered that the Royal Standard should fly as if the real monarch were present. What would the Queen’s late father make of The Crown?
JOANNA Lumley, pictured, may have ornamented only one Bond Film – On Her Majesty’s Secret Service with George Lazenby – but boasts of kissing every 007 from Sean Connery to Daniel Craig: ‘I have kissed them all,’ she says. ‘Not in a horrible schmoozy way. When you are as old as I am you tend to do quite a lot of kissing.’ Joanna, do tell!
EX-Question Time presenter David Dimbleby waxes nostalgic about a sandwich thrown at guest Tony Blair. ‘With the BBC it was slightly stale bread and old ham,’ he says. ‘This person at the back threw this sandwich. It parted in mid air and it went three ways. The top layer went one way, the bottom the other and the ham landed at Blair’s feet. Mine and Blair’s. I don’t think I ate it.’
BEFORE the 1997 election, Blair was more worried about appearing on Des O’Connor’s ITV chat show than doing any of the big political interviews. After his reluctant appearance, he was inundated with congratulations by voters. He even wrote to his press guru Alastair Campbell apologising for doubting his advice.
IRISH film star Gabriel Byrne wrote the entire manuscript of his new memoir on his iPad. ‘With great satisfaction,’ he tells Radio 4, ‘I pushed the button and everything just wiped from the screen. The whole thing was erased and I had to start all over again.’
IN HIS second effort, published as Walking With Ghosts, Byrne recalls how, as a relatively unknown actor, he encountered his hero Lord Olivier on the set of Wagner and asked him the time. ‘Are they paying you on this thing?’ asked Larry, adding: ‘Then buy yourself a watch.’
Email: john.mcentee@dailymail.co.uk