SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE: Lord Brocket accuses BBC of ‘nicking his idea’

Lord Brocket likes a good scrap. The peer failed to win back his ancestral Hertfordshire seat, Brocket Hall, from the clutches of the colourful German businessman Dieter Klostermann after a long-running battle.

Now he has launched a ferocious broadside against the BBC.

‘I think the BBC should be shut down, it has had its day, it is full of Commies and full of bias,’ says the former I’m A Celebrity star.

‘I’ve done a lot of telly work, but have no plans to work with them because they are not honourable.’

Brocket claims that he pitched an idea to the BBC for a documentary about Bletchley Park, once the top-secret home of the World War II codebreakers and a personal passion of the former King’s Hussars officer.

He says the Corporation then went ahead and made the programme, but never gave him any credit. ‘I had a bad experience over a documentary idea I gave them about Bletchley Park.

‘At first they didn’t seem interested but then they changed their minds, there were numerous meetings and emails exchanged and eventually I found out the programme was shown on BBC Wales and of course it was not how I envisaged — they left so much out. 

‘They didn’t tell the whole story, and I didn’t get a mention.’

‘This isn’t about money, this was an absolute passion, those heroes at Bletchley saved our country. So I wrote to the BBC saying they had used my idea and not done it properly and I couldn’t believe it when they wrote back saying: “Who are you?”’

‘Why did the BBC do this, essentially nick my idea, and then to actually insult me saying they didn’t know what I was talking about?’

‘I’m ex-Army and I care about this country and its future — I really feel it was dishonourable. There is no doubt in my mind the days of paying a licence fee should be over sooner rather than later.’

Lord Brocket knows all about dishonour after burying four sports cars at his stately pile and claiming £4.5million for the fake theft. He is pictured leaving prison after serving two and-a-half years of his sentence 

Convicted fraudster Brocket knows all about dishonour. In 1991, he buried four sports cars at his stately pile and claimed £4.5 million for their fake theft.

A BBC spokesman said: ‘Code Breakers: Bletchley Park’s Lost Heroes is an important account of an untold story. 

‘The programme was developed and produced by the team that pitched it.”

Will Attenborough make a splash with Blue Planet 3?

The world may be on the brink of disaster, but Sir David Attenborough goes on for ever.

Could there be another Blue Planet in the offing ?

The question arose at the Ocean Talks conference at the Royal Geographical Society, where BBC producer James Honeyborne, who conceived Blue Planet 2 in 2013, took an optimistic view of the future. 

The world may be on the brink of disaster, but Sir David Attenborough goes on for ever

‘There are no current plans for making Blue Planet 3,’ says Honeyborne. ‘I said that if it happens, perhaps Blue Planet 3 would be about the wonderful recovery of the world’s oceans.

‘We have to be optimistic. We have the knowledge to turn things around.’

Chairing the event, Sacha Bonsor — editor-in-chief of Boat International — said a bin lorry of plastic was being tipped into the ocean every minute with devastating effects on marine life.

Private Secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and to Prince Harry for eight years, Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton reveals that he’s now embarking on a career as a crime novelist after resigning from his full-time post in 2013.

‘I’m writing a thriller called Shingle Street, which I hope will come out next year,’ the 58-year-old tells me at the Beck At Brown’s restaurant launch in Mayfair. ‘It’s about a real-life mystery and I’m building a love story around it.

‘I’ve always had this story, but I’ve been so busy working for the Princes or in the Army that I have never had the chance to do it.’

Lowther-Pinkerton has only one reservation about publishing under his own moniker. ‘They’ll just think, “What a stupid name that is,” ’ he says.

Lady Kitty and Co spice up Mexican show

Occasion: Launch of the Frida Kahlo: Making Herself Up exhibition

Venue: Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

Guests: Lady Kitty Spencer and Viscountess Weymouth and singer Annie Lennox.

Colourful: Lady Amelia Windsor

Left: Annie Lennox and Salma Hayek at the opening of “Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up” Exhibition at the V&A Museum, London. Right: Left to right, Lady Kitty Spencer and Viscountess Weymouth

Talking point: Normally shy Lady Amelia Windsor performing a street dance flamboyantly dressed up as Mexican artist Kahlo.

Star attraction: Hollywood actress Salma Hayek, who starred in biopic Frida: ‘What made me fall in love with her was her unique style but nobody took her seriously’.

Beauty trend: Former Neighbours star Holly Candy hopes Kahlo’s uni-brow and moustache look will catch on. ‘If it means less time in the morning plucking everything, then yes,’ she said.

 Tamzin’s New Trick with her parakeet pals  

Tamzin Outhwaite this week appeared completely at ease when several green parakeets landed on her arms and head 

TV star Tamzin Outhwaite was very chirpy when she visited Hyde Park with her 26-year-old boyfriend, actor Tom Child, this week appearing completely at ease when several green parakeets landed on her arms and head.

‘Full blown Hitchcockian vibe,’ the 47-year-old New Tricks actress wrote online. Her outing with Tom comes two months after he moved into her North London home.

It is her second relationship after her divorce from Miranda star Tom Ellis, 39, in 2014 following his affair with Lost actress Emilie de Ravin.

Hugh Grant’s decision to retire from romcoms because he’s ‘older and uglier’ is welcomed by his Four Weddings And A Funeral co-star, Dame Kristin Scott Thomas.

‘I’m so glad that he’s moving away from that and being taken seriously as an actor,’ she tells me at the Hope And Homes charity gala.

‘It’s taken him to get to maturity as a human being to be old enough to play these parts.’

Just 57 years then . . .

 No Taupe at Blenheim, sniffs Lady Henrietta

Interior designer Kelly Hoppen counts the Beckhams and the Duchess of Cambridge among her fans, but the so-called ‘Queen of Taupe’ has been given short shrift by her blue-blooded rival, Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill.

‘We’re getting away from beige and the grey colours,’ she tells me at a party in Mayfair. ‘I don’t really know Kelly Hoppen, but taupe is not my thing. I hate it.

‘It’s just so boring. It doesn’t enhance pictures, it doesn’t enhance furniture, and I just don’t like it.’

Lady Henrietta, sister of the Duke of Marlborough, founded Woodstock Designs in 1981 and is also continuously involved with restoration projects at her family home, Blenheim Palace.

‘To be honest,’ she adds, ‘I have great respect for what Kelly’s achieved, but it’s just that my style is very different to hers.’

Hoppen declines to comment. Is she hoisting the white, or rather taupe, flag?

A king’s ransom? Charles’s £5,600 rocking horses

Although the Duke of York describes himself as ‘an ideas factory’, his entrepreneurial instincts are eclipsed by those of his older brother.

The Prince of Wales’s latest wheeze is to sell rocking horses on his Highgrove website for a regal £5,600 apiece. 

Each also comes with a hand-stitched bridle and saddle, embellished with the Prince’s racing colours and the Highgrove crest

Childhood portrait of Princess Elizabeth (right) and Princess Margaret (1930-2002) riding on a toy rocking horse

Inspired by Charles’s own childhood toy — enjoyed by generations of royals including Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret each hand-carved horse is named Winston after George VI’s favourite nag.

Each also comes with a hand-stitched bridle and saddle, embellished with the Prince’s racing colours and the Highgrove crest.

Profits will go to the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation.

I am told that ‘Winston’ is even strong enough for adults. Perhaps the Duke of York can fit in extra practice before next year’s Trooping the Colour.