Ephraim Hardcastle
ALL the Shakespearean torment of the BoGo relationship has been turned into a drama for Radio 4 by playwright David Morley. His opus, broadcast on November 9, stars former Dr Finlay actor David Rintoul, 67, as Michael Gove (they went to the same school, as it happens). Impressionist Alistair McGowan, 51, didn’t go to Eton but has captured Boris Johnson’s eclectic speaking style. It’s title? Michael And Boris: The Two Brexiteers. DAD’S ARMY and Hi-de-Hi! writer Jimmy Perry, who has died at 93, was frustrated when BBC executives gave the thumbsdown to later scripts. ‘I’ve written 350 half-hour programmes for TV and won 19 awards, but recently I had two pilot programmes rejected by the head of comedy,’ he complained in 2007, adding: ‘Rather disgruntled, I sat down to watch television, only to see constant repeats of all the series I’ve already made!’ LADY Heseltine, 81, interviewed in the Guardian about her magnificent Northamptonshire garden warned that non-gardening questions were forbidden. Recalling a previous visitor who had tried to ask her husband Michael about politics, she warned: ‘I forget her name, but she is married to… Alan… oh God, the little man who’s slightly in disgrace now...’ No Christmas card this year from Alan Yentob, I fear. ITV political editor Robert Peston, 56, sporting cuts and bruises after falling off his bike, ended his Sunday show by saying: ‘I was perfectly sober when I fell off my drunk.’ Realising his gaffe, a flustered Peston clarified: ‘I was perfectly sober when I fell off my bike!’ Thank goodness there aren’t many people watching. THE early departure of Naga Munchetty, 41, pictured, from Strictly wasn’t the BBC newsreader’s first setback on the dance floor. Before her wedding to James Haggar she took dancing lessons. She tells Woman & Home magazine: ‘We danced to Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You by Andy Williams – and despite the lessons, when it got to the fast bit, I fell on my bum in my big puffy wedding dress!’ Nil Points! TORY MP Sir Nicholas Soames – grandson of Sir Winston Churchill – cheerily reflects on Twitter: ‘Rather jolly thought that both Churchill and Bob Dylan awarded Nobel Prize for Literature.’ Dylan, 75, has ruffled feathers by declining to confirm whether he’ll accept the award in person in Stockholm in December. Incidentally, Churchill didn’t go to the ceremony in 1953 – the award was instead accepted on his behalf in Sweden by his wife Clementine. Who might stand in for Bob? ACTRESS Jane Fonda’s second husband Tom Hayden, dead at 76, didn’t approve of the her lavish lifestyle. After marrying the Left-wing activist in 1973, it’s said Fonda was even barred from having a washing machine, thanks to his disapproval of ‘bourgeois’ possessions. Her taste in men had raised eyebrows before. First husband Roger Vadim expected her to take part in distasteful sexual practices.