(Very) modern manners

HOW many times a day do you brush your teeth? Once, twice, or three times if you’re feeling particularly diligent. Well, that’s not good enough for Strictly Come Dancing host Tess Daly, who should be awarded the Glitterball trophy for cleanliness. She’s revealed that she maintains her beaming smile by taking the lid off her Colgate about half a dozen times — even during lockdown. ‘I clean my teeth at least five times a day, maybe more,’ the former model chirrups. ‘I clean them in between meals, and after meals, and then constantly. Every time I go in the bathroom, my toothbrush is there winking at me and I just clean for the sake of it.’

BORIS JOhNSON’s former lover, Petronella Wyatt, has accused the Prime Minister of ‘killing’ her mother through restrictions on visits to nursing homes.

‘My mother is in a care home,’ she says of Verushka, widow of former Labour MP turned Margaret Thatcher confidant Lord (Woodrow) Wyatt. ‘I have not seen her for nearly a year. She is literally dying of misery. She has been vaccinated. Why can she not see me? I cannot believe this government ban is even legal.’

The journalist adds: ‘I know Boris, and if he had to endure lockdown as the public have to endure it, especially those of us who live alone, it would have ended in a week. he would have cracked like a egg.’

SCREEN legend Susan George is celebrating Valentine’s Day by launching an online charity shop.

The Straw Dogs actress has invited many of her famous friends to contribute personal items and memorabilia, with all profits going to Lasting Life, the charity set up in memory of her husband, the Casualty star Simon MacCorkindale.

‘This crisis has brought out the caring side of so many people,’ she tells me from the Somerset farm where she breeds horses.

Sale items include a signed photograph of David Bowie by celebrated photographer Brian Aris.