MYRIE MASTERMINDS HIS GROWING FORTUNE

V&A Museum chairman Nicholas Coleridge has made such a startling recovery from his battle with Covid-19 that he’s going to do 30 sit-ups a day for the next 30 days in aid of the Sick Children’s Trust. ‘I have been doing them every day,’ he tells me. ‘Since I’ve been unable to go to a restaurant, I have slimmed down. Now one or two older pairs of trousers have come back into the repertoire.’

HE’S one of the BBC’s biggest stars, who’s just been handed the role of hosting Mastermind.

But now Clive Myrie will also be topping up his huge salary with a job for a commercial rival.

The newsreader, who was paid more than £ 215,000 a year even before he hosted Mastermind (worth possibly an additional £100,000), has been allowed to present a ‘ landmark’ ten- part series for Jazz FM, owned by German giant Bauer Media Group.

Myrie, 56, has been a jazz fan since his teens in Lancashire, and says: ‘ Being a part of this amazing project is a dream come true.’

Does Myrie hope a Mastermind contender will choose jazz as their _specialist subject? ‘I think they would probably know more than me,’ he tells me, modestly.