Hardcastle
WHY were the Cambridges and Sussexes seated at opposite ends of the Royal Box at Saturday’s Festival of Remembrance? Seating them together, creating an image of harmony, might have been more subtle than William and Kate being advised to cancel last Christmas with the Middletons – thus they were at Sandringham to show unity walking to church with Harry and Meghan. no repeat this year. Harry and Meghan, about to set off for California, will be back for a Sandringham Christmas while William and Kate will be with the Middletons. granny Carole, who last year festively decorated the grandchildren’s rooms, will have better luck this Yule.
OH TO be a fly on the wall when The Crown’s historical adviser, Robert Lacey, was shown the script hinting at a fling between the Queen and Lord Porchester. What did Lacey – distinguished biographer of HM and second husband of the Queen’s Coronation maid-of-honour Lady Jane Rayne – advise?
MARIAH Carey, pictured, having lovingly restored the vintage Porsche left to her by her late father Alfred, is asked by a fashion magazine: ‘When did you last take it for a spin?’ She admits: ‘I can’t drive it because it’s a stick and shift and I’m not that co-ordinated.’
WHERE was man of the moment Nigel Farage yesterday afternoon in the midst of political turmoil? Imbibing Chateau Labadie 2014 at the 30th birthday party of pal Ranald Macdonald’s Boisdale restaurants in Belgravia. But he had a narrow escape. Starsky and Hutch star and Trump hater David Soul uttered expletives and brandished his walking stick in the direction of Donald’s pal. Tucking in to Highland red deer pie, Farage observed serenely: ‘You can’t please everyone.’ nIgEL’S self-proclaimed rejection of a peerage means that the pro-Remain Lords lack a Brexit leader. There have been several Ukip peers, all defectors. now there are none. The last was Lord Pearson who gave up on Ukip last month and became an independent.
HALBERDS erect for Historic Royal Palaces chairman Rupert Gavin. His just-published annual review celebrates a record five million-plus visitors to the palaces, including the Tower of London, where the Beefeaters should be raising their traditional halberds (a combined spear and battleaxe) to salute the Old Etonian and chairman of the Arts and Media Honours Committee.
FAWLTY Towers creator John Cleese seeks financial backing for a comedy film spoof of Downton Abbey, saying: ‘I’ve got quite a lot worked out already in my head.’ Will it be a case of ‘not now Carson’ being replaced with ‘not now Manuel’ as Cleese hits his Spanish butler with a frying pan?