Hardcastle
PRINCE Harry told his Invictus Games: ‘It’s not going to be easy but I will never, ever, ever rest until I have as a parent at least tried to make the world a better place for them.’ The words of a great philosopher or a lyric from Les Miserables: ‘I will never rest/ Till then/ This I swear’?
DRAGGED into ex-Good Morning Britain colleague Piers Morgan’s publicity campaign for his TalkTV show – he announced she was yet to wish him luck – Susanna Reid tweets contritely: ‘Huge good luck – and a couple of eye-rolls for old time’s sake.’
MOVIE star Tilda Swinton, pictured, has just spent three months in Colombia, notorious for its drug cartels, remarking: ‘I actually really enjoy being immersed in a new place, especially somewhere I don’t speak the language very well.’ Like the Doric dialect spoken at her Scottish base, Nairn, Moray, perhaps.
OUR Right Honourables are revolting. A decision by the Clerk of the Council to limit the number of Privy Counsellors who can attend the Accession Council to confirm the start of Charles’s reign means 500 won’t be invited. Their number has ballooned from the 150 at the Queen’s Accession Council in 1952 to almost 800 now.
MOURNING the death of his wife, the former actress Elizabeth Harris, ex-Tory MP Jonathan Aitken says she was immensely proud of her sons by actor Richard Harris – Damian, Jared and Jamie. She was alarmed when Jared ‘hanged’ himself in the TV series Mad Men. ‘Elizabeth insisted on calling him in Hollywood to ensure he was OK,’ says Aitken, who, in accordance with her last wish, presided as chaplain over the Easter service at Pentonville Prison.
RETIRING from his parish in Finedon, Northamptonshire, after more than a decade, the Reverend Richard Coles admits showbiz sometimes got in the way of religious duty. He recalls: ‘I was once called in the middle of the night to attend a parishioner’s deathbed and I couldn’t because I was in Glasgow doing Celebrity Antiques Road Trip. I found someone to cover, but it should have been me.’ Indeed. An antiques show in Glasgow is surely a gig too far.
CHARLES put his own twist on Royal Maundy last week by breaking two of the Queen’s golden rules. HM never shook hands as she gave out the Maundy money or indulged in conversation. Only eye contact and a smile. Keen-to-please Charles indulged in a short chat with each recipient, holding their hands as he did so.
REFLECTING on the latest Westminster controversy, oddball Tory backbencher Michael Fabricant announces: ‘Fifty-six MPs face sexual misconduct claims.’ Bewigged Michael, who identifies as ‘probably bisexual’, clarifies: ‘I’m not one of them... before anyone asks.’ Indeed not. His ‘life partner’ is West Midlands mayor Andy Street. They share a property and ‘depend on each other’ while living ‘separate but busy lives’.