MISSING LINKS
How two figures in the news are joined by a series of unexpected connections…
DAN SNOW
The historian is appearing on the Christmas edition of Strictly tomorrow. The son of BBC host Peter Snow is married to Lady Edwina Grosvenor, daughter of the late Duke of Westminster, who inherited just £20,000 of his £8.3billion fortune on his death in 2016 – but receives an income from the family trust, which avoids inheritance tax. Snow rowed three times in the Boat Race for Oxford – an event…
HUGH LAURIE
…also competed in, earning his Blue for Cambridge in 1980. While at university he was also in the Footlights comedy club at the same time as Stephen Fry – who delivers Channel 4’s Alternative Christmas message tomorrow – Emma Thompson and…
SANDI TOKSVIG
…who once admitted to a lifelong fear of Basil Brush, saying the puppet fox ‘creeped me out’. The QI host lives with her wife Debbie on a houseboat on the Thames in London. Similarly…
TOM HANKS
…spent his late teens on a houseboat near San Francisco. The actor, pictured, also collects typewriters, owning hundreds and often sending them out as unexpected gifts – no wonder he has a nice-guy reputation. He even bought the White House press corps an espresso machine in 2004 after seeing the reporters had no coffeemaker, and has replaced it several times. Hanks is distantly related to Abraham Lincoln – a third cousin, four times removed – as is…
GEORGE CLOONEY
…the assassinated President’s first cousin, five times removed. The actor once gathered his 14 closest friends at dinner and gave them each a suitcase containing $1million in cash for helping him through life. Clooney was an early fan of animated comedy South Park and asked to be in it, so the creators cast him as a gay dog – with no lines, just barking. He was a guest at Harry and Meghan’s 2018 wedding, as was…
DAN SNOW
…as all the Grosvenors are family friends. Dan’s brotherin-law, the 7th Duke of Westminster, ties the knot next year, but Harry won’t be going to avoid any awkwardness with brother William.