EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: King Charles irks the BBC by choosing Amazon Prime for his green documentary
The King irks the BBC by choosing Amazon Prime for his green documentary.
My source whispers that the Beeb offered HM a virtually free hand, but Charles preferred Amazon's promise of final editorial control. No surprise there.
Getting personal messages across, most notably his intimate interview with Jonathan Dimbleby, Charles has usually opted for ITV rather than the BBC.
He has repeatedly turned down Radio 4's Today's Christmas guest editorship.
Not because he didn't wish to be associated with Today, but because he wouldn't be in London at a time of year when he was shooting at Sandringham.
The King has irked the BBC by choosing Amazon Prime for his green documentary
The King has repeatedly turned down Radio 4's Today's Christmas guest editorship (pictured Dumfries House)
Dame Joanna Lumley's announcement she's 'actually a communist' raises eyebrows in royal circles.
Made a Dame three years ago, she's a long-time friend of both the King and Queen, and was among guests at their 2005 wedding.
The Dame is along-time friend of both the King and Queen, and was among guests at their 2005 wedding
Enthusing about Charles, she says: 'He hasn't put a foot wrong, and I'm so pleased it's all going well for him.' Isn't Joanna more Groucho than Karl?
When Kay Burley first cleared her throat at Sky in 1989, a pint of her favourite Boddington's ale was 99p.
When Kay Burley first cleared her throat at Sky in 1989, a pint of her favourite Boddington's ale was 99p
Invariably described here as a 'glamour puss', Kay once got in touch to declare 'Chief glamour puss' is actually what it says on my business card'.
May it be decades before an ear trumpet replaces your microphone, Kay.
In last night's BBC comedy Amandaland, Lucy Punch's controlling mum Felicity is played by the afore-mentioned Joanna Lumley.
Is art imitating life? Lucy's real mother Johanna, aghast when her daughter's TV work dried up in 2009, urged a career change.
Lucy Punch's (pictured) mother Johanna, aghast when her daughter's TV work dried up in 2009, urged a career chang
'She suggested I retrain as a chiropodist', says Lucy.
Thankfully Lucy didn't toe the line, landing a major film role in Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.
The death of the Aga Khan, Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, prompts my colleague Glenys Roberts' recollection of her encounter in a Swiss cable car when she bet him lunch in Gstaad's go- to Eagle Club if she could beat him on the slope.
Prince Karim al-Hussaini Breakfast meeting at No 10 Downing St before the International Afghanistan Conference in London (pictured in 2010)
'I gave him a head start, claiming I was so fast,' she remembers. 'In fact, I could hardly ski. As soon as he was out of sight, I took the cable car back down. Karim, chivalrous as well as handsome, bought me that lunch.'
The Aga Khan was immortalised in Peter Sarstedt's 1969 song Where Do You Go To (My Lovely). 'You know the Aga Khan/ He sent you a racehorse for Christmas/ and you keep it just for fun/ for a laugh, aha-ha-ha.'
Mr Aga wasn't chuckling when his most famous stallion disappeared, no doubt wondering: 'Where did you go to my Shergar'?
Snoop Dogg leaves Bill Belichick and 24-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson shocked with brutal swipe
