Londoner's Diary
THERE was a suitably glitzy crowd for the opening night of Opening Night, the new musical starring Sheridan Smith. Actors Emily Beecham, Ruth Wilson and James Norton took to the red carpet outside the Gielgud Theatre, as well as thesp couple Jeremy Irons and Sinéad Cusack, Zoë Wanamaker, Scott Neal and comedian Alan Carr. Renegade Nell co-stars Joely Richardson and Adrian Lester were at the world premiere of their new Disney+ series, as well as presenter Laura Whitmore. Down the road, stars of the small screen packed into the Grosvenor House Hotel for the Royal Television Society Awards. Jodie Whittaker, Hannah Waddingham, Sabrina Washington, Lliana Bird and Noel Fielding were there. In Mayfair, Kingsley Ben-Adir was at the HvH Arts McCrory Award Exhibition at the Alon Zakaim Fine Art Gallery.
TORY campaign headquarters (CCHQ) seem undeterred by criticism of their latest series of attack ads about “life under Labour”. The first featured an ominous American voiceover claiming Sadiq Khan had “seized” power in London to make it “crime capital of the world” while showing black-and-white footage of New York (since deleted). It was panned across the board, with the editor of the Tory-leaning Spectator magazine calling it “one of the worst videos CCHQ has ever produced”. Now they have turned their attention to the country’s second city of Birmingham, in what they describe as “a tale equally chilling”. The same narrator blames the city’s Labour-run council for its woes. Conveniently, they leave out any mention that Khan’s opposite number in Birmingham is a Conservative: Mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street. Funny that.