05-08-2025
Mother of God! Adrian's praying that Ted survives in Line Of Duty: EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE
Rumours that William and Kate want to 'upsize' to Fort Belvedere in Windsor Great Park are wide of the mark. Upsizing could make life difficult for William. He is in the midst of a campaign to 'eradicate homelessness ' – a vision sometimes stymied by his own surplus bedrooms. Apart from his relatively humble four-bedroom Adelaide Cottage at Windsor, he has Anmer Hall in Norfolk and a 20-room apartment at Kensington Palace. He will inherit a lot more. As well as being in line for the keys to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, the future king also gains Clarence House, Balmoral, Birkhall, Sandringham and, via The King's Foundation charity, Dumfries House, the Castle of Mey and property in Romania. That's a lot of bedrooms for a family of five.
Far-fetched claims that the Queen Mother 's heroic alcohol consumption gave Princess Margaret foetal alcohol syndrome focuses attention on the thirsty royal's daily booze intake. HM commenced with a noon cocktail, a potent mix of two parts of the fortified wine Dubonnet to one part of gin. This was followed by red wine and port for lunch. At 6pm, she would ask equerry Major Colin Burgess: 'Colin, are we at the magic hour?', kickstarting the evening with three Martinis followed by champagne during dinner. 'She had a fondness for red wine, particularly heavy clarets, which she loved,' recalled Burgess. 'We drank a bottle and a half at my first meeting with her.'
Adrian Dunbar, pictured, admits to apprehension about receiving Jed Mercurio 's script for the seventh series of the BBC 's Line Of Duty, telling Radio Times: 'We're desperately keen to hear what the story is. God knows what's going to happen to any of us. If this is to be the last of it, then you suspect that something dramatic is coming. One of the shocking things that I realised after series two was that the writer can just do away with you.' Will Adrian be praying for survival to Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the wee donkey?
Following his friend Sir Bob Geldof 's Sky TV rant over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Jools Holland, host of the BBC's Later... With, announces his determination not to replicate Gary Lineker and to keep his opinions to himself. 'I support Bob,' he says. 'But I have to be careful because if I say something, it's, 'Oh, this guy from the BBC says this,' and they blame the BBC. Also, I'm a deputy lieutenant in Kent and you're really not supposed to express your personal political views, so I don't.'
Among notable absentees from Lord Tebbit's funeral last week was Sir John Major, who incurred his wrath when he had an affair with Edwina Currie, prompting Tebbit to conclude: 'Nobody terribly bright could be dragged into bed by that awful bloody woman.' They also shared a bath, with Major demonstrating his gentlemanly credentials by taking the plughole end!
