Ephraim Hardcastle
WAS William and Kate’s BBC snub, switching their Westminster Abbey carol service to ITV, sufficient punishment for the Amol Rajan documentaries? The Beeb has already recorded a similar service at the abbey hosted by Katherine Jenkins to be transmitted days before the ITV event. And the company bean counters have been consoled with ITV paying BBC Studios for producing their event. Next time the tower for DG Tim Davie!
CHANNEL Five claims Lord Mountbatten’s wife Edwina was a sexual athlete. A documentary tomorrow rakes over her well-known affairs with Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and West Indian cabaret performer Leslie Hutchinson saying of Edwina, who died in 1960 aged 58: ‘She seemed to be sexobsessed and engaged in at least 18 extramarital flings over her lifetime.’ Struggling for a fig leaf of decorum, C5 adds: ‘While they [the Mountbattens] may have been doomed never to find happiness in each other’s company, they achieved great power and influence in British life.’
THE notorious Duchess of Argyll – to be portrayed by Claire Foy, pictured, in a BBC festive drama – had the hots for Richard Nixon. So claims exObserver editor Donald Trelford who recalls sitting next to her at a Hyde Park hotel dinner for the US president in 1979, telling The Oldie: ‘“I love the man, I love him,” she said. “He’s awfully good, isn’t he? Kiss, kiss,” she cried.’ Maybe she was trying to say Kissinger?
FICTIONAL Lynda Snell of The Archers goes to Windsor Castle for her MBE with BBC producers disappointed that a real royal couldn’t be persuaded to bestow the honour in a cameo appearance. Why wasn’t superfan Camilla, who did appear in 2011, approached? ‘She doesn’t do investitures,’ wails an Archers mole.
ANDREW Neil sadly tweets: ‘Bad news. Ms Molly the Dog, the one and only star of BBC 1’s much missed This Week is seriously ill. She is, of course, getting the best possible care and we hope she’ll pull through. We will keep her many fans posted.’ He added: ‘We take her back to the vet tomorrow. Tonight she’s decided to forego her several comfortable beds and lie on the floor. So my wife [Susan Nilsson] has placed a pillow on the floor and is now lying beside her. Whatever Molly’s problems she will not lack for love.’
FOLLOWING news of Boris and Carrie’s baby daughter, former home secretary Amber Rudd’s journalist daughter Flora Gill cheekily quips: ‘Please tell me they’re naming the baby Allegra. Would be such a power move.’
ELVIS Costello, enrolling his late father Ross McManus in Brinsworth House, the retirement home for showbiz folk, recalls: ‘The rooms are all named after people who’ve made donations. If my dad had to spend his last days in a room named after Bernard Manning, he would never have forgiven me.’