Ephraim Hardcastle
FORMER Australian Labour PM Paul keating, 78, undiplomatically discusses a 1993 meeting with the Queen concerning his country’s referendum on becoming a republic. He writes to a Murdoch-owned newspaper Down Under: ‘There was no pushback against the thread of my presentation to her. But nor was there any allusion by the Queen as to her possessing some divine right of governance or carrying some theological primacy. Her emphasis was on her family, and only her family, and the willingness of each of them to serve. The plaintive nature of her response as to the role of her family – the purely hereditary nature of her position and her remoteness from any contemporary mandate – struck me in that moment as banal, sad even…’ Australians voted against becoming a republic – ‘saddling Queen Elizabeth and her family members with a further 25 years of their lives indentured to Australia,’ as keating puts it.
TV PRESENTER Kirstie Allsopp, pictured, comments on the BBC’s interview with tennis champion Novak Djokovic, musing: ‘Is everyone going nuts because we hate to be reminded that being fit and healthy makes Covid less dangerous?’ More comment-worthy surely was the BBC’s fan-like infatuation, broadcasting the fawning, far-too-long interview as if it were the most important news of the day.
SIR Ian Mckellen recalls the tricky back-to-front filming schedule in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy: ‘On my second day I was doing the last scene of the third movie. I had to say goodbye to the Hobbits and I didn’t know who they were. I’d never met them before. I said to [director] Peter Jackson, “Do I know these people well? Do I like them?” He said, “Oh yes, you’ve been through a lot together!”’ Amazon has announced a $1billion ‘prequel’ but I can’t think it’ll be up to much without droll Sir Ian.
WILL Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick snag a perch on the Lords red benches as consolation? Five of the last six commissioners have been sent there. (The other, Sir Paul Stephenson, resigned after his judgment was questioned.) Theresa May as PM promised not to hand out peerages for establishment figures but caved in, ennobling Dick’s comical predecessor Bernard Hogan-Howe. Creating Baroness Dick would annoy London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who forced her from office without consulting Home Secretary Priti Patel. Khan has no right of veto on who gets ermine.
RECALLING his first night of canoodling with future wife Pamela Stephenson in Brighton, Sir Billy Connolly says: ‘We were back in the hotel and I had about 20 brandies all lined up. Pamela said, “I’m going to bed,” and I said, “Please yourself!”’ Later she phoned to inform him: ‘I’m in your room. I’m in bed. It’s time you came up.’ Sir Billy fondly concludes: ‘And that was the beginning of it!’ So romantic!
CHEEKY chappie broadcaster Danny Baker, watching Russian military manoeuvres on TV, comments sagely: ‘By the look of what is coming out of the exhausts on these tanks Russia will never invade London. Under our low emissions charge that’d be £12.50 per tank per day. Then there’s the congestion charge. Putin would be skint before they made Waterloo Bridge.’