Hardcastle
ABBA, promoting their first new music in 40 years, may have missed a trick by not sending the songs to the Queen. HM enjoys their music, according to DJ Chris Evans who broke protocol by revealing to his radio listeners that she even took to the disco floor at Windsor to dance to an Abba classic. Was she tempted, after Boris, Carrie and baby Wilfred departed Balmoral at the weekend, to kick off her shoes and shake a leg to Dancing Queen?
MIGHT Boris mark the centenary of Chequers as a country retreat for PMs by opening the Buckinghamshire mansion and estate to the public? Boasting a notable art collection and one of the largest collections of memorabilia relating to Oliver Cromwell, it would be a magnet for paying visitors. Whitehall boffins claim that the revenue could be put towards a special fund to pay for future Downing Street refurbishments. Wouldn’t it save Boris and his successors from future Lord Brownlow/interior designer Lulu Lytle embarrassments?
RUPERT Murdoch’s granddaughter Charlotte Murdoch Freud – who as a child would shout ‘grandad’ triumphantly at the TV when the logo of his former company 20th Century Fox appeared – harbours suspicion that the HBO series Succession is based on the media tycoon. She tells Tatler: ‘They say it is not based on us – but there are certain bits that I feel have been plucked from my childhood memories.’ She adds: ‘My last name has always been something I can’t avoid. It’s always been a point of interest.’ Charlotte, pictured above, is now about to launch her pop singing career under a new name – Tiarlie. Que? It’s the moniker of her dad Matthew Freud’s long dead cat.
FORMER deputy Labour leader, Harriet Harman, hasn’t forgiven then-PM Gordon Brown for how he treated her at the G20 Summit in 2009. ‘Obama, Angela Merkel, everybody was there,’ she recalls. ‘My civil servants said to me, “You’ve got an invitation to Downing Street for the G20 dinner... It’s not great, you’ve been invited to the wives’ dinner.’ Harriet adds: ‘What do I say? For Christ’s sake, I’m not the spouse here! I’m a cabinet minister!’ Hetty spent the nosebag talking diets with the wife of the Canadian PM.
EX-ENGLAND cricketer Ebony Rainford-Brent, who was recently made a freeman of london, hopes to exercise her right to drive sheep across london Bridge. Former England captain Sir Alastair Cook, a sheep farmer, has offered to lend her the beasts. Might it not be easier to utilise another perk? Freemen are exempt from arrest if found drunk and disorderly on the City’s streets.
AFTER accidentally incinerating the family home with a firework, comedian Bob Mortimer recalls having to live in emergency accommodation. ‘I was on telly during Big Night Out,’ he says. ‘And I got a request from Loyd Grossman’s mob to do Through the Keyhole. I was in a homeless hostel!’