Ephraim Hardcastle
FOR William and Kate’s Caribbean odyssey in March they were accompanied by three staff. Compare and contrast with Charles and Camilla, whose entourage in Rwanda numbers nine – including three private secretaries, two communications staff, director of community engagement Eva Omaghomi and medic Professor Charles Deakin. At least the number is down on the 13 who accompanied the couple to Australia in 2018. Then Charles had a travelling yeoman to look after his decorations, prompting one Aussie politician to wonder if he was a member of a band like the Traveling Wilburys.
THE Queen should have every finger crossed that York Central MP Rachael Maskell will fail in her bid to introduce a bill aimed at stripping Andrew of his dukedom. Only Parliament can remove a peerage and if there is a groundswell of public opinion then it would be hard for the Commons not to make time for the bill to proceed. As it directly affects the royal prerogative the Queen will have the right to veto the bill, something that really would cause a constitutional hoo-ha.
APROPOS ex-tennis star John Lloyd’s recollections of playing with celebrities, he remembers games with Dustin Hoffman, pictured, when the star of The Graduate insisted he could beat Grand Slam victor Steffi Graf. ‘I would tell him, “you wouldn’t get a single game off Steffi,”’ recalls John. ‘He wouldn’t have it. In his head, he would beat her every day and twice on Sundays. Truly mind-boggling what a fame-fuelled ego can do to a person.’
CURMUDGEONLY ex-Rolling Stone Bill Wyman has been airbrushed out of a BBC Two documentary marking the band’s 60th anniversary. ‘I am not part of the 60th anniversary,’ declared Wyman, who quit the band in the mid-1990s. Could this be Mick’s revenge for band archivist Bill declining to help fill in the gaps in Jagger’s recollections for a memoir that subsequently had to be scrapped?
LADY Antonia Fraser reveals an unlikely friendship between husband Harold Pinter and jockey Lester Piggott when they enjoyed a series of dinners while staying at the same holiday hotel in Mauritius. ‘I asked Harold, “Well, what did you think of Lester?”’ she tells The Oldie. ‘Great man. If only he played cricket,’ he replied. But Antonia did confirm Lester’s notorious reputation for parsimony, adding: ‘Harold always paid the bill for dinner.’
POLYMATH Gyles Brandreth recalls attending a Californian birthday party for a very drunken lady when singing telegrams were in vogue. A ‘boy arrived with the telegram and she goes, “Sing me the telegram”. And the boy said, “I don’t want to sing the telegram”. And she said, “You will sing me that telegram, it’s my birthday sonny”. He opened the telegram and he sang, “Tra, la, la, la, la, la, your sister Rose is dead”.’