EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: King Charles will not have to attend this year’s Royal Variety Performance thanks to his visit to Dubai
A visit to Dubai at the end of this month has an advantage for the king: he does not have to attend the Royal Variety Performance.
He hoped his final stint in 2016 (the Chuckle Brothers, Lady Gaga and Sting) would leave William and Kate alternating royal boxes with Harry and Meghan. Ultimately, the Sussexes only appeared once, in 2018 (Take That and the cast of Hamilton).
But instead of putting himself back on the list, the king delegated the pantomime-like chore to Edward and Sophie. Oh yes, he did!
And think for a moment about the late Queen. She went through 39 RVPs and saw Arthur Askey, Dickie Henderson and the Cabana Accordion Six in 1946.
She delisted herself as a diamond anniversary gift to herself, with her last appearance in 2012.
A visit to Dubai at the end of this month has an advantage for the king: he does not have to attend the Royal Variety Performance
Charles hoped he had done his final stint in 2016 (the Chuckle Brothers, Lady Gaga and Sting), which would leave William and Kate alternating the royal boxes with Harry and Meghan
King Charles is pictured with the Chuckle Brothers at the 2016 Royal Variety Performance
Charles will receive South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol this month. Will he sing for the king? Earlier this year he surprised Joe Biden at the White House with a rendition of American Pie.
Perhaps it is a coincidence that Prince Philip will not be present. When glamorous French singer Carla Bruni accompanied her husband Nicolas Sarkozy on his state visit in 2008, Philip suggested she “take a turn” after the banquet. But the queen insisted on traditional bagpipes.
Why the pressure on the king to fully apologize for Britain’s colonial past? Charles might think that Tony Blair has already issued an appropriate mea culpa when he was cornered by Ghanaian President Kufuor during his state visit to London in 2007.
“I said we’re sorry and I’ll say it again,” he said. ‘[It is important] to remember what happened in the past, to condemn it…’ Sorry may be the hardest word, but it is spoken.
Dame Judi Dench mischievously recalls the protest days of Dame Vanessa Redgrave, pictured in her prime, and describes attending a ‘Ban the Bomb’ protest with her in Trafalgar Square in 1961 when the police arrived. “A couple of officers grabbed Vanessa and tried to throw her in the back of a van,” Judi recalls. “She said, ‘You can’t arrest me, I have a matinee.’ So they let her go!’
Westminster Arms publican Gerry Dolan has retired from pulling pints at the MPs’ watering hole without seeing the legendary Victorian ghost. “I’ve had clients say they saw a lady downstairs walking into the wall,” says Gerry, who is looking for a publisher for his colorful memoir. ‘To be honest, most of them had had a few drinks at the time. I think it’s easier to see ghosts when you’re 75 percent to the wind.”
Sky’s queen bee Kay Burley announces: ‘Happy birthday to me! Today marks 35 years at Sky News.’ My abacus calculates that when the evergreen Kay first cleared her throat at London’s Osterley studios in 1988, her favorite Boddingtons beer cost just 88p a pint.
My abacus calculates that when the evergreen Kay Burley first cleared her throat at London’s Osterley studios in 1988, her favorite Boddingtons beer cost just 88p a pint.