Ephraim Hardcastle
KING Felipe of Spain’s state visit next March has wrong-footed a number of royal courtiers. The Queen is unable to reciprocate because of the delicate matter of Gibraltar. Any official trip to Madrid without visiting the disputed territory would require an explanation to Gibraltar’s chief minister, Fabian Picardo, who has been lobbying for HM to visit since he took office in 2011. Now he promises a visit to the Rock by the Princess Royal next year. ‘If it’s confirmed, Felipe could cancel his state visit,’ says my source. Caramba! WITH David Cameron in Poland tomorrow, Chancellor George Osborne will take PMQs. Her Majesty’s Opposition will be represented by Labour’s Angela Eagle, who is not to be underestimated. As shadow leader of the house she frequently outflanked her then Tory opposite number, William Hague. ‘Acid Angela has a whisky sour voice and a cannibal grin,’ observed my colleague Quentin Letts.
PARIS-based for 30 years, actress Charlotte Rampling, 69 – who is touted for an Oscar for her role in low-budget British movie 45 Years – has written a memoir in French, Qui Je Suis. But, surprisingly, it doesn’t appear to have found a publisher here. Ms Rampling, pictured in her prime, has had an extraordinary love life, among other things. And she isn’t afraid of causing offence, even to the French. She says: ‘The problem with the French is that they want to be loved. The English don’t give a **** about being loved.’
DAD’S Army writer Jimmy Perry, 92, says that former BBC1 Controller Paul Fox, 90, admitted that he misjudged the point of the Home Guard comedy when it was first transmitted in 1968. Fox, an Arnhem veteran, thought the show mocked the war effort and would damage the BBC’s reputation. Instead it remains a mainstay of the BBC schedule. ‘Paul was man enough to say he was wrong,’ says Jimmy.
ROYAL cameraman Peter Wilkinson reveals a rather poignant conversation with the Queen at Balmoral for a Christmas Day ITV documentary: ‘I said, “Your kitchen garden looks spectacular.” She said, “I can’t understand. I planted some sweet peas and my gardener planted some sweet peas, and his are taller than mine and I can’t understand why.” I said, “That can’t be right ma’am, can it?” And she just laughed at me.’
FORMER athlete Sebastian Coe, in his 1970s student days, occasionally worked at the cutlery firm where his father Peter was a director. A colleague recalls: ‘Seb did mundane jobs but was allowed in the office to have lunch with us. This consisted of a huge triple-decker BLT for his father and two Ryvitas for Seb, who was in training. One day when his father was out Seb wolfed the BLT but Peter returned as he was finishing it. There was a manic chase throughout the building, a raging father trying to catch a speeding Seb. Must have helped his training!’
THE Queen made one of her now-rare appearances at an investiture, to dub comedian Sir Lenworth Henry as a Knight of the Realm. Sir Lenworth? As PG Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster once said: ‘There’s some raw work done at the font.’
E-mail: ephraim.hardcastle@dailymail.co.uk