Ephraim Hardcastle
MISSING from yet another Honours list: Mark Thompson, 64, directorgeneral of the BBC from 2004-2012, widely regarded as one of the more successful in the corporation’s 100-year history. Every previous DG has been honoured, except three who were fired. Thompson moved to another success as chief executive officer of the New York Times, the first Brit in that post. Perhaps he can ask his former BBC Worldwide colleague Rupert Gavin for an explanation? The 67-year-old is the long-time chairman of the arts and media honours committee.
PREPARING for Royal Ascot, TV’s ex-culture queen Joan Bakewell, pictured, protests: ‘The dress code is too severe! They decree that women must have full-length sleeves… full-length! Will my Jasper Conran cut the mustard I wonder?’ Maybe not – but a discount from Jasper could be on the cards.
THE 1969 documentary Royal Family, last seen in 1977 as part of the BBC’s Silver Jubilee coverage, is still banned by the monarch. HM came to share the opinion of David Attenborough, the BBC2 controller at the time the documentary was being made. He told Royal Family’s producer: ‘You’re killing the monarchy with this film you’re making. The whole institution depends on mystique and the tribal chief in his hut. If any member of the tribe ever sees inside the hut then the whole system of tribal chiefdom is damaged and the tribe eventually disintegrates.’ Sir David joined the BBC in 1952 and became a friend of the Queen. Small wonder he has TWO knighthoods.
BORIS Johnson’s interview with Mumsnet chief executive Justine Roberts has been described as a bruising affair. She asked the PM: ‘Why should we believe anything you say when it’s been proved you’re a habitual liar?’ He replied: ‘I don’t agree with the conclusion, with the question asked or the premise of the question.’ Interestingly they lived three doors from each other in Furlong Road, London N7. Miss Roberts and her Left-wing husband, Channel 4’s chief content officer’ – and former Guardian deputy editor – Ian Katz, ‘used to be entertained watching Johnson stranded on the pavement when his then wife, Marina, changed the locks after yet another of his indiscretions’, says another neighbour.
IMPUDENTLY describing the Queen as his ‘surrogate mother’ ex-footman Paul Burrell enthuses on ITV: ‘And she encouraged me to get married.’ Was it tasteful to bring this up? He married fellow royal employee, Maria Cosgrove, shortly after being linked to a ‘gay scandal’ on the Royal Yacht Britannia in 1981. After they divorced in 2016, he married lawyer Graham Cooper.
NANCY Sinatra, 81, speaks fondly of her 1950s Ford Thunderbird in an interview with Uncut magazine: ‘I’d pull up to a light next to a car like a Porsche. They’d rev their engine, and I’d just sit there very innocently. Then I’d floor it – and they were dust.’ Her famous boots were not only made for walking!