EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Will Kate accompany William to Earthshot Prize?

EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Will Princess Kate accompany Prince William to the Earthshot Prize in Singapore? The school run may now be more important

Why didn’t the Princess of Wales accompany William on his trip to New York? Kate, a reluctant overseas traveller, has been out of the country on official business just twice this year – a quick trip to watch England play Argentina in Marseille and to attend the wedding of the Crown Prince of Jordan. 

There had been high hopes at the FCO that Kate would not only make more overseas visits but would also bring the children. George has been to Australia and New Zealand and was joined by Charlotte in Canada, Poland and Germany, but it seems that school and routine are now more important than helping the FCO with some ‘panda diplomacy’. 

William travels to another Earthshot Prize jaunt in Singapore in November. Will Kate accompany him?

Princess Kate, a reluctant overseas traveller, has been out of the country on official business just twice this year

William travels to another Earthshot Prize jaunt in Singapore in November. Will Kate accompany him? Pictured: Prince William in New York 

BBC Radio 4 Today’s Justin Webb recalls being mesmerised as a 16-year-old watching Angela Rippon dance on The Morecambe and Wise Show and then tuning in a year later and seeing the father he’d never met doing exactly the same. 

‘The BBC newsreaders were dressed as sailors and singing, There Is Nothing Like A Dame,’ Justin tells Radio Times. ‘

And then a moment forever etched on my consciousness. From the back of the stage, singing in a deep basso profondo, was the last of them and the most serious, gloomiest TV presence: Peter Woods.’ 

How did his mother react? She murmured, ‘He had shoes the size of the Queen Mary.’

Cringe alert for Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid when soap star Debbie Arnold, debating whether Joan Collins, 90, is a sex symbol, blurted out yesterday: ‘If you had sex with Joan, she’d fall to pieces.’ 

‘This conversation has gone off the rails,’ protested Susanna, before awkwardly adding: ‘I’m hearing Joan Collins is on the show tomorrow!’

Cringe alert for Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid (pictured) when soap star Debbie Arnold, debating whether Joan Collins, 90, is a sex symbol, blurted out yesterday: ‘If you had sex with Joan, she’d fall to pieces.’

With rumours that the BBC is planning major cutbacks of Alan Yentob’s arts slot Imagine, would the Armani-clad polymath fancy taking over Melvyn Bragg’s recently mothballed Sky Arts’ The South Bank Show? ‘I don’t know what Alan’s future’s going to be,’ says Bragg, who spoke to Yentob at the recent launch of his David Hockney documentary. Would Alan like the gig? ‘Yeah,’ grins Melv. ‘Well, he lives in hope.’

Timothy Spall recalls the worst role he ever played – a ‘dodgy’ character who gave sweets to children in a film for schools called Say No To Strangers. ‘Shortly after I filmed it, I went to pick up my eldest daughter from school and they’d just shown it that afternoon,’ says the actor. ‘It didn’t do my reputation much good; obviously all the kids were quite young and they’d been quite affected by it. Everyone was terrified of me.’

Told by his parents that as a non-Catholic he couldn’t be elected Pope, Gyles Brandreth as a boy opted instead to be the Archbishop of Canterbury. ‘I used my mother’s eiderdown as my cloak, and a tea cosy as my mitre, he recalls. ‘I conducted weddings. I married my Sooty to my Sweep – the first gay wedding in the Church Of England.’

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