Ephraim Hardcastle

DAVID Cameron’s Honours List devaluation prompts Whitehall discussion of a unique Team GB list to be published in the autumn. But so many medals has given the honours unit a headache. After London 2012, 28 out of 29 gold medallists shared out everything from MBEs to Knighthoods. Many Rio gold medallists are doing so for the second or more times. Mo Farah, 33, CBE is in line for his K and rower Katherine Grainger, 40, CBE for a damehood. Andy Murray, two golds and two Wimbledon titles, currently a humble OBE, should arise as Sir Andrew. And an outcry is predicted if Jessica Ennis-Hill CBE who ‘only’ managed silver this time round doesn’t become Dame Jess. AND while gongs will rain down on Rio, Paula Radcliffe, 42, remains a meagre MBE after winning the 2002 London Marathon. No further honours despite her winning it on two further occasions plus New York three times, Chicago once, winning the BBC Sports Personality and being the current marathon world record holder. It’s surely not because she resides in Monaco? Living in Somerset Maugham’s sunny place for shady people never stood in the way of a gong for Philip ‘Sir Shifty’ Green. FRESH from overseeing the departure of EastEnders stalwart Samantha ‘Ronnie Mitchell’ Womak, 43, pictured, newly anointed Executive Producer Sean O’Connor, 48, has put noses out of joint by banning free bottles of water on location at Elstree. But the well-nourished product of the Christian Brothers in Birkenhead – he also sexed up the Archers during his editorship of the longrunning radio soap – has made amends by presiding over a jumbo Summer Party this weekend for cast, crew and their families. Says one Walford stalwart: ‘We’ve all been asked for a £10 contribution which will go nowhere near covering the massive bill to the BBC for drink and catering.’ GEOFFREY Boycott, 75, who – as I reported yesterday – yearns for the Lords, complained when David Cameron hailed Tory colleague William Hague the ‘greatest living Yorkshireman’ in 2014. Boycott barked: ‘I have to disagree. What about Parky, [businessman] Paul Sykes, Alan Bennett and me!?’ Boycott then ungallantly revealed that Cameron had sent him a creeping letter of apology. VISITORS to Southern Italy who spot a small, gnome-like balding figure in Armani pyjamas clutching an iPhone should hail BBC panjandrum Alan Yentob, 69, on his summer vacation where he’ll be spouting Camus and Sartre from his holiday reading of Sarah Bakewell’s At the Existentialist Café. And his favourite holiday companion? He tells the FT: ‘It’s a toss-up between my family and my iPhone. If obliged to choose right now, post-Brexit, The Donald and Isis, no contest! Google wins.’ Pretentious? Moi? LISTENING to the Archers, hard-of-hearing entertainer Roy Hudd, 80, spotted his wife Debbie talking to a neighbour a hundred yards down the street. ‘I called out of the window that she was missing the programme. “No I’m not,” she said. “I can hear every word. Turn the volume down. You’re frightening the wildlife!” ’