EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Is Prince Andrew planning a return to public life? Never doubt his fervent belief that he can do it

Since giving his “car crash” interview to Emily Maitlis in 2019, he has suffered a series of humiliations as institutions that once boasted of his patronage rushed to consign their collaborations with him to the dustbin of history. But never doubt Prince Andrew’s fervent belief that he can – and will – one day resume a purposeful role in public life.

Proof of this, where it was needed, has now emerged in public – courtesy of Pitch@Palace, the Duke of York’s Dragons’ Den-esque scheme, which introduced young entrepreneurs to people with money and connections.

Although it dropped the duke’s name from its website almost four years ago – and moved out of Buckingham Palace – Pitch@Palace shows no signs of disappearing into the proverbial sunset. Indeed, I can reveal that accounts published this week show the company has almost £500,000 in shareholder funds and an office in Pall Mall, just a stone’s throw from St James’s Palace – and a slightly longer office from Buckingham Palace.

Although Andrew is not a director, he is listed by Companies House as having ‘significant control’ of the company. An accompanying note explains that its “strategic direction remains under review.”

There’s no doubt that Andrew, 63, sees himself shaping that strategy – perhaps not immediately, but certainly soon. “The Duke believes it would be a big mistake to give up Pitch@Palace,” says one of his friends. ‘The project has done a fantastic job and generated millions of pounds in sales and it would be a huge waste to throw it away. It’s exactly the kind of project Britain needs to get some momentum back into the economy.’

Andrew could hardly have said it better himself. “We’re all cogs in a huge, bloody machine, yes? Some of us have the advantage of being able to activate more cogs than other people. That’s it,” he reflected in an interview – a year before his friend Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in New York custody awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Strictly’s Angela kicks Birt!

Angela Rippon, who turns 80 next year, stunned Strictly Come Dancing viewers with her breathtaking high kick.

Yet the former newsreader says her time in the spotlight was over when she was turned 50 by then BBC director general John Birt.

“He managed to be a misogynist and an ageist in one statement,” she said at the Television and Radio Industries Club Christmas lunch at the Londoner hotel, where she received a Lifetime Achievement Award.

‘To John Birt, when I was fifty, you said I had had my day. I’m 79 now – and I’m not done yet.”

Smiths star Morrissey announced a special guest at his concert Down Under this week. “She was born and raised in Melbourne and changed everyone’s lives,” the singer said. “Do you know who she is?” Someone shouted, “Kylie.” But the concertgoer was not Miss Minogue.

“Germaine Greer,” Morrissey said, adding: “She has now been ostracized by English academia for being too intelligent and common sense.”

Last year I reported that the author of The Female Eunuch, 84, had moved into a care home after returning to Australia.

Family drama behind Davina’s French romance

Davina McCall once admitted that her troubled relationship with her mother, Florence Kock, led to them using drugs together twice.

Now the 56-year-old is trying to come to terms with her past by applying to become French, just like her late mother.

“Yesterday was a big day,” she declares online next to this selfie of her under the Tricolore and EU flag. “I went to the French embassy to start the procedure to obtain my French passport.”

When the Long Lost Family host was three, Florence moved back to France, leaving Davina in the care of her grandparents.

“It was very emotional,” she says. ‘I’ve always felt a great affinity with France, but I had a complicated relationship with my French mother, and I can’t explain why, but this feels very healing. As if I acknowledge that I am half of her. And it feels good.’

Spandau Ballet stars Martin and Gary Kemp poke fun at Prince Harry in their new BBC Two ‘mockumentary’, The Kemps: All Gold.

The 1980s pop stars play warring brothers in the satirical comedy, shown over Christmas, which sees Martin publish a ‘whinge memoir’, titled Afterthought, in a desperate bid to get back into the spotlight. And just like in Harry’s memoir, Spare, there is a dramatic kitchen altercation involving a dog bowl.

“We can do and say things together that people who aren’t brothers would probably worry about,” says Gary at a screening at the BFI Southbank in London.

How Hockney put Hanks into orbit

Hollywood legend Tom Hanks credits a chance meeting with David Hockney for inspiring him to launch his new immersive exhibition, The Moonwalkers, in London.

The show in the Lightroom gallery in King’s Cross chronicles NASA’s Apollo space missions. “I walked into this space not knowing what I was going to see and experience,” Hanks says of Hockney’s exhibition Bigger & Closer (Not Smaller & Further Away), in which his works were projected on screens around visitors. ‘I came across a painting by David Hockney while he was painting. It was a mind-blowing experience.”

Hockney was among guests including Succession star Brian Cox and Spice Girl Geri Horner at the launch.