Ephraim Hardcastle
WHErE did nicola Sturgeon get the idea of addressing Scottish children as aunt nicky, declaring: ‘Santa is a key worker and he’s got lots of magic powers that make him safe to do that’? Back in april when new Zealand’s children were similarly anxious, Prime Minister Jacinda ardern reassured them: ‘You’ll be pleased to know that we do consider both the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny to be essential workers.’ at least it’s not as blatant as Joe Biden’s notorious plagiarising of neil Kinnock, but it does have a ring of Kiwi familiarity, doesn’t it?
PRUE Leith tells BBC Radio 4 that she only joined the Tories last year as a temporary member in order to vote in the leadership election. As her son Danny Kruger was Boris’s political secretary before becoming Tory MP for Devizes, did she vote for BoJo? ‘That’s between me and the ballot box,’ she answers sweetly.
PacKInG his election pyjamas for BBc coverage of the Trump/Biden poll, andrew neil views Sacha Baron cohen’s new film, saying: ‘against my better judgment I’ve just watched this latest Borat film. Bigger load of embarrassing b******* I’ve not seen in a long time.’ Get off the fence andrew!
LUCY Worsley, pictured, raids the dressing- up cupboard again to portray George IV in BBC4’s Royal History’s Biggest Fibs. But surely Lucy’s biggest porkie is playing the corpulent monarch as slimline. Where’s his jumbo tum, Lucy?
DaVID Lammy, on the verge of tears, tells Jay rayner’s Out To Lunch podcast about the good luck text he received from party leader Keir Starmer before his appearance on the andrew Marr Show: ‘I’m getting emotional. I think we’ve all had bosses who couldn’t give a flying monkey, if you see what I mean, so that’s quite sweet, and that’s the kind of guy he is.’ apple polishing or what?
WILL Selina Scott be lamenting the passing of her BBC Breakfast Time fellow pioneer Frank Bough? At the end of their partnership, their sofa smiles masked a South Pole-like froideur. Says one veteran studio technician: ‘By the time Selina left, they were hardly on speakies.’
BILLIOnaIrE Prince azim of Brunei, co-producer of rupert Everett’s The Happy Prince, who has died aged 38, had no problem attracting Hollywood a-listers to his lavish parties. no wonder. Party bags at one contained a £20,000 safari holiday in Kenya, a mobile phone, a satellite navigation system, an original oil painting and a full dental makeover with a private dentist.
SAM Neill mourns Hugo Weaving. ‘He died on the job,’ says the Jurassic Park actor. ‘He was mounted, fell backwards and never got up again. Killed by romance.’ Neill hastens to add that it wasn’t Lord of the Rings star Weaving who expired – but his favourite ram. He died of exhaustion after servicing 80 ewes in a day.