EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: King Charles plans Queen Camilla’s 80th birthday party in 2027 with a national service of thanksgiving

With his Coronation out of the way, the King is planning Camilla’s 80th birthday in 2027. As with the late Queen, Prince Philip and the Queen Mother, who celebrated their 80ths in style, he wants her big day to be acknowledged with a national service of thanksgiving. At least Camilla won’t be as curmudgeonly as Philip, her predecessor as consort. His 95th fell on the same day as the national service at St Paul’s for the Queen’s 90th and he rebuffed suggestions that it should be a joint celebration. And at a garden party which happened to fall on his birthday, he declined a gift from a well-wisher, grumbling that he didn’t want to ‘lug it round the garden’.

With his Coronation out of the way, the King is planning Camilla’s 80th birthday in 2027 (File Photo)

Angela Rippon, declared Oldie of the Year at a National Liberal Club lunch, was enthused by Hot Gossip founder Arlene Phillips‘s idea of an OAP dance troupe. ‘A senior Hot Gossip or Pan’s People,’ suggested Arlene, referring to the Top Of The Pops hoofers. ‘Who else can we enrol?’ she added, staring around at potential candidates Amanda Barrie, Sheila Hancock and Maureen Lipman. Not to be left out, Dame Joan Bakewell squeaked: ‘I was brilliant at the fox trot in my youth!’

Recalling meeting the King after playing Mrs Beaver in the 2005 film The Chronicles Of Narnia, Dawn French says Charles remembered seeing her in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the theatre. ‘He said to me, ‘Well, the last time I saw you, I saw your Bottom. I thought, ‘Right, we’re off.’ And I said, ‘Tonight, Sir, you will see my Beaver!’ And then I did lots of over-laughing. And he very quickly moved on.’

Recalling meeting the King after playing Mrs Beaver in the 2005 film The Chronicles Of Narnia, Dawn French says Charles remembered seeing her in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the theatre

King Charles meets Dawn French, Ray Winstone and other cast members at the Royal Film Performance and World Premiere of The Chronicles Of Narnia at the Royal Albert Hall on December 7, 2005 in London

Has Jason Isaacs, playing Cary Grant in ITVX’s forthcoming series, taken his forensic research too far? Investigating a tale that the Hollywood star became enraged when his wife Dyan Cannon ate one of his beloved Cadbury‘s Flakes which had been imported from England, he said: ‘Well I’ve spoken to Dyan, and she was in the bedroom, and she ate a Picnic bar!’

BBC Africa editor Mary Harper’s acceptance of payment for being an expert witness for Yaqub Ahmed, 34, a rapist from Somalia, who is fighting deportation – whose case has cost taxpayers more than £1million – infuriates former royal correspondent Michael Cole. He recalls declining money which was offered when he appeared as an expert witness in an insurance claim when he was a BBC reporter in war-torn Beirut. ‘I charged not one penny in contrast to Mary Harper,’ he says. ‘Is it any wonder that the BBC has lost the respect of many right-thinking British people – the ones who also pay for the BBC, on top of their taxes needed to deport people who have no place in this country.’

Faced with an empty fridge, Kensington Palace-based Princess Beatrice and husband Jack Brooksbank ordered a takeaway curry from Deliveroo. But instead of waiting at the door, the couple changed into their pyjamas and drove to the gates to meet Mr Deliveroo. She told the Table Manners podcast: ‘We could walk but I don’t want to be in my pyjamas outside.’

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