Christian Fraser, a BBC journalist, tweets: “I wish longtime BBC folk (who have long stood up for the values of the organisation inside the building) would avoid doing it damage once they leave.”
This comes after Emily Maitlis criticised her former BBC employers for giving in to government complaints about her Dominic Cummings monologue.
At least Cummings didn’t take it personally when Emily angrily attacked him for violating the lockdown guidelines. He texted me to express his support, Emily says.
Old Broadcasting House staff are amused by Emily’s claims that a Conservative “agent”—a.k.a. Tory ex-spinner Sir Robbie Gibb—is hiding within the BBC. One person comments, “Gibb merely sits on a board.”
Emily has forgotten about the time under Blair when Greg Dyke, a Labour “agent,” oversaw everything. Like a politburo more! After being named director-general of the BBC, Dyke legally left the party, but not before giving a hefty £50,000 to Labour funds.
When Harold Pinter asked his favourite bowler Shomit Dutta to play a game of cricket at their Holland Park house, Antonia Fraser, who turns 90 tomorrow and is seen in her prime, recalls the collision of her late husband’s dual interests in bridge and cricket.
Only once, according to Dutta, did Harold lose his cool and suggest that they have a discussion “outside.”
“Antonia quickly calmed the situation down.”
Lady, happy birthday!
In his Oldie review of Robert Harris’s book Act of Oblivion, Earl Spencer argues that Harris should not have created transatlantic time zones two centuries earlier and objects to Harris’s portrayal of Charles I as “handsome,” noting that “He was notoriously everything but.” Not as flawless as the Earl’s Killers Of The King: The Men Who Dared To Execute Charles I?
Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, who starred in the 2019 film Two Popes, have not commented on Netflix’s decision to destroy the £4 million Sistine Chapel replica they helped fund.
However, ArtWatch UK director Michael Daley claims that because it was based on the contentious restoration of Michelangelo’s masterpiece, it was not an accurate representation.
“The changed state has itself become a crime against art,” writes Daley in his conclusion.
Fern Britton recalls the Queen asking Ant and Dec, “Are you behind the scenes?” when they saw her at London’s Guildhall for ITV’s 50th anniversary.