Ephraim Hardcastle
THE Duke of Edinburgh escaped ambush by This Is Your Life’s Eamonn Andrews after his uncle Lord Mountbatten co-operated with TV executives to catch Philip unawares. After his 1977 appearance, Mountbatten eulogised the show to fellow royals. ‘He was keen that Philip should follow his example and had outline discussions with Prince Charles and Princess Anne about it,’ says a TIYL source. But his murder by the IRA in 1979 scuppered the plan. When Andrews surprised Mountbatten with the red book, he famously replied: ‘What do you mean?’ He’d never heard of the show.
WHETHER Philip would have been as compliant with Eamonn as his egotistical uncle we shall never know. Not only did Lord Louis relish spouting interminably during the 12-part 1969 series Mountbatten, he also presented pianist Bobby Crush with his winner’s award on the ITV talent show Opportunity Knocks. Hughie Green’s clapometer must have clinched it for Louis.
COULD Camilla inherit one of Prince Philip’s most prestigious titles, Grand Master of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire? Created in 1917, there have been just three grand masters – the future Edward VIII, Queen Mary and Philip on her death in 1953. As consort-in-waiting, Camilla appears an ideal fit. The Queen honouring her, thus acknowledging her as Philip’s successor as consort, would help Charles fulfil his wish to have his wife anointed as queen consort.
FISH finger bhortas at half mast! Nigella Lawson is quitting London for Venice. The Domestic Goddess, creator of the fish finger delight, hopes to rent an apartment in Venice, living and working there alone for a year post pandemic. Says Nigella, pictured: ‘I long to be in Venice just for that wonderful wandering about and having a different feeling. The market in Venice is so wonderful.’ Nigella’s passion for ‘La Serenissima’ is long lived. She and first husband John Diamond married there in 1992.
EX-defence minister Johnny Mercer fails to impress waspish political diarist Alan Duncan, who remarks: ‘Mercer has only one speech: I was born in a council house, joined the Army, became an MP to do something for veterans, not airy-fairy policy stuff.’ Duncan adds that Johnny ‘slagged off’ Boris’s predecessor Theresa May in 2018, noting: ‘If he were still in a regiment, he’d be taken behind the officers’ mess and roughed up.’ Being sacked by text will have to suffice.
REGARDING her unnamed sweetheart, Amber Rudd’s daughter Flora Gill announces: ‘The boyfriend just told me that Promising Young Woman was written by Camilla Parker Bowles. He was so sure. I was laughing so hard.’ Noting the script was by Emerald Fennell, she mockingly adds: ‘His face was so disappointed when I explained it was the actress that played her in The Crown, not the actual duchess.’