Ephraim Hardcastle
IS Prince Harry, in Africa with girlfriend Meghan Markle – supposedly to celebrate her 36th birthday – following in the secrecy-at-all-costs footsteps of his brother? In 2010, William flew his then girlfriend Kate Middleton to Kenya to propose to her. Some courtiers think Harry might announce their engagement during his September 23 Invictus Games in Toronto. US-born actress Ms Markle has an apartment there and Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, is a pal of Harry’s. As for their honeymoon, Antigua’s PM Gaston Browne has told them: ‘Antigua and Barbuda want to welcome you.’ But that might not be considered suitable – Meghan’s first marriage, to Los Angeles businessman Trevor Engelson in 2011, was held on the beach at Ocho Rios, Jamaica.
CHANNEL 4’s Diana: In Her Own Words documentary with her voice coach Peter Settelen is considered unlikely to win a Bafta award in the Best Documentary category. This means the president of Bafta, Prince William, won’t have to endure the embarrassment of appearing on stage with its producers.
TORY MP and novelist Nadine Dorries, pictured, boasts that she’s making £13,000 a month from her fiction and received a publishing advance ‘in the high six figures’ for her first three books – useful additions to her MP’s salary of £74,000 plus expenses. And one in the eye for snooty critics. Her 2014 debut, The Four Streets, set in 1950s Liverpool, was described unequivocably by bearded aesthete Christopher Howse as ‘the worst novel I’ve read in ten years’, but broadcaster Cristina Odone claimed: ‘I could not put it down.’
THE Speaker, John Bercow, who is spoilt rotten with free tickets by Wimbledon and Queen’s Club tennis bigwigs, enjoyed (apparently for the first time) corporate hospitality at a test match over the weekend. My source at Old Trafford says: ‘Interestingly, he wore a suit and tie – something he no longer requires of male MPs in the chamber.’ Bercow was also accorded the accolade of being interviewed (on the BBC’s Test Match Special) by cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew. However, he has yet to achieve a greater broadcasting pinnacle – as a guest of Kirsty Young on Radio 4’s 75-year-old Desert Island Discs.
MUNGO Jerry frontman Ray Dorset says a production company working for publicity-prone London mayor Sadiq Khan has sought permission to use the band’s 1970 hit song In The Summertime – the fourth biggest-selling single of all time – in a film promoting the London is Open campaign. He’s turned them down, explaining: ‘Their suggested lyrics were a bit weird.’
RADIO 2 disc jockey Johnnie Walker, 72, tells Radio Times he’ll decide when he has to leave the BBC, explaining: ‘I’ve seen people leave the BBC at the end of their careers unwillingly, like Jimmy Young and Brian Matthew. I always say to my wife, Tiggy, “When I start talking nonsense, you tell me when it’s time to go and I’ll go.”’