Ephraim Hardcastle
BROADCASTERS clamour to mark the 25th anniversary of Princess Diana’s Panorama interview in November. ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 plan major retrospectives on the bombshell confessional where Diana referred to Camilla: ‘There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.’ But what of the BBC? Says an insider: ‘We are unlikely to mount a major retrospective. It caused a huge upheaval between the BBC and the Palace.’
PRINCE Charles’s slimmed down working royals, leaving an overstretched inner team of William, Kate and Anne, prompts some outside-the-box thinking from royal advisers. One idea mooted is that Harry takes some of the strain next year, returning on a part-time basis for a block of engagements over a few weeks three times annually. ‘This would keep open the royal link, help his father and brother and, importantly, please the Queen,’ says one courtier.
PARlIAmENT breaking up saves outgoing BBC director-general Tony Hall from a select committee grilling on his last annual report and accounts. Tony will no doubt offer a consoling Covid-19 elbow bump to successor Tim Davie now faced with explaining to mPs the over-75 licence fee and bloated celebrity salaries.
THANKING the NHS, actress Maxine Peake, pictured, recalls an emergency appendix procedure when a doctor asked if both he and a female medical student could put their fingers up her bottom. Afterwards, she remembers: ‘He smiled widely again and said, “By the way, I meant to say, I loved you in Dinnerladies!”’
FINANCIER and arch-Brexiteer Stuart Wheeler, who died yesterday, from cancer spent his final months wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the message: ‘I haven’t got long left so get to the point.’
JOHNNY Depp’s henchmen partially blind and cripple a beautiful woman. No, not the latest from the High Court but Johnny’s forthcoming role in brutal drama Waiting For The Barbarians in which he plays psychopath Colonel Joll. Observed poet Anthony Liccione: ‘There is never a perfect time for anything.’
HIS failure to replace michael Praed as Robin of Sherwood in the ITV series still rankles with men Behaving Badly’s Neil morrissey. ‘I didn’t get it apparently because my dad was called larry morrissey,’ he explains, adding, bitterly: ‘And the bloke who got it, Jason, his dad was called... Sean Connery!’
TODAY’S 40th anniversary of Peter Sellers’ death brings to mind widow Lynne Frederick seeking his post-mortem approval of her marriage to David Frost. When she consulted psychic Doris Collins, Lynne apparently got Peter’s thumbs up, enthusing: ‘He certainly hasn’t lost any of his sense of humour.’ Now that all are dead is Sellers still chuckling? Lynne and Frostie were divorced the following year.