Ephraim Hardcastle
AFTER the Lionesses got to the 2015 World Cup semis, David Cameron planned a swift awarding of OBEs and MBEs in case they lifted the trophy. Alas, they came third and the idea was ditched. If they triumph against Germany on Sunday will Boris sweeten his already contentious honours lists with a mass gonging of the victorious women’s team?
WILL Prince William bring Charlotte, seven, to Sunday’s Lionesses final? Visiting them in June, he said: ‘Charlotte wanted me to tell you she’s really good in goal.’
FIRED by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, Sam Tarry was already living on borrowed time. Angela Rayner’s arm candy was aware that his constituency party in Ilford South had already decided to hold a full re-selection vote. As a diehard Corbynite, he was unlikely to have been re-elected. Surely Captain Crasheroonie Snoozefest knew that?
MORAL Maze ringmaster for 32 years, Michael Buerk, pictured, hears talk of the BBC considering putting production out to tender. Coupled with the imminent retirement of Radio 4’s Beyond Belief presenter Ernie Rea, 77, this year, Michael, who’ll be 77 in February, must fear his collar being felt by the age police. Still, he has the consolation of his lucrative sideline selling gold sovereigns on the telly.
AFTER Stanley Johnson’s 1982 novel The Marburg Virus was reissued during Covid lockdown because of its resemblance to the pandemic, has he done it again? His later tome Kompromat has a Putin figure invading Ukraine. Now can Mystic Stan tell us what’s going to happen to his son?
ACTOR Bernard Cribbins, who has died aged 93, craved replacing Jon Pertwee as Doctor Who. Auditioning for producer Barry Letts, he boasted that he had been a paratrooper and was a good swimmer, adding: ‘I can fight.’ ‘Oh no, no fighting,’ replied Letts. ‘The Doctor is never seen fighting at all!’ Bernard added: ‘So Tom Baker became the next Doctor, and one of the first things I remember him doing was knocking somebody out!’
DOUBLE-brained James Lovelock, who has died at 103, enjoyed a House of Lords lunch in 2016 with Viscount Ridley and Lord Lawson. ‘We smuggled Prince Philip in,’ Viscount Ridley recalled. ‘The conversation between these two pioneering environmentalists was funny, feisty, fast and furious. The topics ranged from radiation physics to barbecue design.’ No mention of carriage driving?
FIFTY years before yesterday’s introduction of cameras to Old Bailey cases, Granada filmed juries ruling on fictitious crimes in its series Crown Court. Late Irish actor TP McKenna, playing a defence barrister, took exception when his client was found guilty, entering the jury box to remonstrate with the foreman. ‘He is innocent,’ insisted the passionate Cavan man.