Ephraim Hardcastle
PRINCE Charles will be appearing alongside another ‘royal’ in EastEnders tomorrow night. Actor Danny Dyer, who plays pub landlord Mick Carter, found that when appearing in an episode of the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? he’s descended from Edward III (1312-1377). He teased Charles: ‘Just wanted to let you know we’re related. King Edward III is my grandfather – but I won’t go into it. No, he is, on my life.’
APROPOS the princely publicity stunt in Albert Square, Charles didn’t have to learn any lines, I understand. ‘He just plays himself – which is pretty much what he always does,’ says my source, adding: ‘And why not? Bill Nighy has made a career of playing all his roles in the character of Bill Nighy without anyone seeming to notice.’
PUGNACIOUS Tory MP David Davis, 73, asked on Andrew Neil’s podcast The Backstory if his ministerial career is over – he quit mysteriously as Brexit Secretary four years ago – says: ‘Depends who’s in power… if we suddenly had a change of government and a new leader said, “We need a chancellor”, or “we need a home secretary”, or “we need a foreign secretary,” I could probably do those.’ Modest to a fault!
MAZZ Murray, pictured, 47, threeoctave star of the West End blockbuster Mamma Mia! and part of the Platinum Jubilee Pageant on Sunday (and who performed at the last jubilee), tells The Jewish Chronicle: ‘I remember being in the garden at the back of Buckingham Palace with all the superstars – Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Tom Jones, Eric Clapton, Elton John. I was laughing my face off because Barry Humphries as Dame Edna was using the lady’s loo.’
DUE to be one of the ‘Dames in Jags’ who’ll motor down The Mall as part of the Platinum Jubilee Pageant, ex-Play School star Baroness Floella Benjamin recalls harder times as a member of the Windrush generation arriving in Britain in 1960. Trinidad-born Dame Floella, one of six children, tells Lenny Henry’s Caribbean Britain, which airs on June 22: ‘Well, we got to Chiswick and my mum said, “This is your new home”. We walked up the stairs, my mum opened another door and it was one room for eight people!’ Floella, 72, put bad times behind her as a children’s TV presenter and actress from the mid-1970s, and was awarded a damehood in 2020.
THE ITV1 documentary marking 25 years of police drama Midsomer Murders failed to mention the 2011 row when producer Brian True-May said he didn’t feature ethnic minority characters because Midsomer ‘wouldn’t be an English village with them… suddenly we might be in Slough.’ After overseeing the making of nearly 90 episodes featuring more than 200 murders, True-May stepped down.