Daily Mail

Ephraim Hardcastle

- Email: john.mcentee@dailymail.co.uk

SHOULD Cabinet Secretary Simon Case be forced to fall on his WhatsApp sword, his insider recollecti­ons would have publishers clamouring at his door. Of particular interest would be his memories after July 2018 when he was unexpected­ly appointed Prince William’s private secretary following the Harry and Meghan wedding. He had a ringside seat as the Sussexes fell out of love with the rest of the royals. He was also front of house when bullying allegation­s were levelled by and against Meghan. Has taking indiscreet pen to paper crossed Simon’s mind?

THE next time Sir Keir Starmer nominates one of his favourites to the House of Lords will he miss an open goal by ignoring Gary Lineker? The sports pundit would be in good broadcasti­ng company on the red benches with BBC stalwarts Melvyn Bragg and Joan Bakewell. Lineker has been waiting 31 years for an upgrade to his 1992 OBE, and his selection would certainly be an improvemen­t on Sir Keir’s stubborn championin­g of Tom Watson, who entered the Lords last year.

DOES Lulu remain chums with Jennifer Saunders? It’s worth enquiring after Jennifer’s admission that she inflicted an accidental injury on the Scottish warbler when she appeared in a Pulp Fictionthe­med French and Saunders sketch. Recalls Jennifer, pictured: ‘The plan was that we’d shoot Lulu with a machine gun for singing too loudly. Unfortunat­ely, she suffered a wound to her arm the size of a £2 coin and twice as deep. She had to have minor plastic surgery to fix it.’ Did Lulu Shout?

RETIRED Channel 4 presenter Jon Snow was sent down from Liverpool University in 1968 after telling its chancellor, Lord Salisbury, that he wasn’t a suitable person for the job. ‘Because I spoke posh I was sent to Lime Street station to tell him we didn’t particular­ly want him coming on to the campus,’ he tells The Big Issue. ‘His Lordship boarded the next train to London declaring, “I shall never come again”.’ He didn’t. Is Jon the Grandfathe­r of Woke?

PLAYING a needle-wielding nurse in the 1981 BBC drama Going Gently, Judi Dench accidental­ly injured co-star Norman Wisdom. ‘I had to give him an injection,’ she tells a BBC tribute to director Stephen Frears. ‘The pad that protected him from the needle slipped and I stuck it into his bum!’ Those who never acquired a taste for the irritating pratfall supremo – he died aged 95 in 2010 – might feel Dame Judi should have finished him off.

FORMER royal chef Graham Newbould, who has died aged 66, created a dish for the late Queen that consisted of small pieces of pan-fried haddock in breadcrumb­s, with chips and bearnaise sauce. ‘It was called Haddock St Germain,’ he remarked. ‘But it was really her version of fish and chips.’

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