Scottish Daily Mail

Hardcastle Ephraim

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HAVING repaired to Windsor for an extended Easter break on March 23, the Queen has left a backlog of ambassador­s, judges, bishops and military bigwigs waiting to present their credential­s, receive approval and pay homage. They’re taken to the palace in horse-drawn carriages, accompanie­d by the Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, resplenden­t in ostrich-feathered hat. HM could easily delegate such tasks but isn’t prepared to do so yet. So the great and the good will, literally, have to wait on Her Majesty’s pleasure. SIR Cliff Richard, 75, delighted in not being recognised as he strolled in New York, which he’s visiting with his companion John McElynn, a former priest. He has said: ‘I’m one of the only singers to have sold close to 300million records. That’s as much, if not more, than any other recording artists. Yet I’m not known in America...’ HAS Jeremy Paxman, 65, pictured, demeaned himself by agreeing to appear – as himself – in a new film version of the BBC comedy Absolutely Fabulous? Surely not – it’s only a bit of fun. But I suggest a meatier role: Spearheadi­ng Brexit, which I suspect he supports. MY mention this week of still-perky ex newsreader Angela Rippon, 71, reminds a local source of her days at Westward TV in Plymouth. ‘She would appear with a hand puppet called Gus Honeybun, with younger viewers writing in to ask him (ie, her) to wiggle his ears or turn off the studio lights. Many of us envied Honeybun.’ SIR David Attenborou­gh, 90, tells BBC Focus magazine his worst-ever experience was being stranded overnight in torrential rain, huddling with six others in a two-man tent, on Mount Roraima in the Venezuelan rainforest, filming The Private Life of Plants. Inevitably, the sequence filmed ended up on the cutting-room floor. RE French politician Michel Sapin, accused of pulling at a female journalist’s knicker elastic: My source says there would have been no complaints if it had been his department­al junior, economy minister Emmanuel Macron, pictured, adding: ‘He tops a poll asking, “Which politician would you most like to sleep with?”’ RINGO Starr, 75, and Bond girl wife Barbara Bach, 68, celebrated their 35th wedding anniversar­y this week. They’ve been sober for 28 years, having both entered rehab in 1988. The former Beatle used to knock back 16 bottles of wine a day. Surely a knighthood to match Sir Paul McCartney’s is due. OILMAN Algy Cluff recalls in The Spectator a 1994 visit to his Scottish estate by Robert Mugabe, for whom he provided a special greeting by a Gordon Highlander­s bagpiper. Zimbabwe’s president said to Cluff: ‘Unless I am mistaken, this gentleman has an ostrich feather on his head. Under his arm he is squeezing the gut of a dead animal. And he is wearing a skirt. And they call us primitive!’

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