Alan Titchmarsh has a rival for the Queen’s affections. Her Majesty, it seems, has a soft spot for brawny TV chef James Martin, even requesting a private hour-long tete-a-tete with him when she invited him to lunch.
‘I was invited to Buckingham Palace,’ recalls the 45-year-old Yorkshireman. ‘I presumed it was a 300-seater reception job but when I got there, it was just six for lunch in the dining room — the Queen, Prince Philip, me and three others.
‘What on earth was a farmer’s boy from the moors doing having lunch with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh? Then things got even stranger.
‘One of Her Majesty’s staff whispered to me that the Queen felt she hadn’t had the chance to have a proper conversation with me, so I was invited to another room after lunch for a chat. It was just me and the Queen — one to one — for about an hour. It was the most surreal moment of my life.’
Her Majesty, it seems, has a soft spot for brawny TV chef James Martin, even requesting a private hour-long tete-a-tete with him when she invited him to lunch
‘I was invited to Buckingham Palace,’ recalls the 45-year-old Yorkshireman. ‘I presumed it was a 300-seater reception job but when I got there, it was just six for lunch in the dining room — the Queen, Prince Philip, me and three others’
So what did the pair chat about? ‘The countryside, animals, dogs, life, just general stuff. She’s a wonderful woman and it was a bit like talking to my gran. I’ll never forget it.’
Can a knighthood be far off? It might be further than Martin thinks as it is considered bad form to divulge any conversation one has with a member of the Royal Family.
Other guests at the lunch included retired cricket commentator Henry Blofeld and rhubarb grower Janet Oldroyd Hulme.
It’s not just Tory MP Zac Goldsmith who gets mistaken for former Labour MP Tristram Hunt. ‘I get confused with Zac all the time,’ says Hunt at the launch of Georgia Coleridge’s book The Chakra Project at Boden. ‘Jemima Goldsmith approached me from behind at a party and ruffled my hair thinking I was her brother.’
I’m stuck on you, says Idris Elba’s fiancee
Luther actor Idris Elba looks like the cat that got the cream while on a trip to Kuala Lumpur with his Canadian fiancee Sabrina Dhowre.
Elba, 45, proposed to the 29-year-old in February, getting down on one knee at a London screening of his movie Yardie.
The besotted couple can’t seem to keep their hands off each other, as he patted her derriere and she pressed her palm to his chest. ‘Did you swallow magnets babe? Because you’re really attractive,’ former Miss Vancouver Sabrina joked.
Let’s hope third time’s a charm: father-of-two Idris’s last two marriages ended in divorce.
Idris Elba’s Canadian fiancee Sabrina Dhowre joked: ‘Did you swallow magnets babe? Because you’re really attractive’
Usually mild-mannered, Calendar Girls star Celia Imrie gets worked up when talking about baby pacifiers.
‘I’d ban dummies,’ says the 65-year-old, who has one grown-up son, Angus. ‘When I spot a gorgeous baby with a great big dummy, I can’t believe it’s good for them to be so reliant on them for comfort. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of a cry.’
Imrie adds: ‘I also think any child over the age of five should get out of their buggy and walk.’
Ewan’s girl flogs her undies online
Second-hand undergarments might sound unappealing, but film star Ewan McGregor’s daughter, Clara, is hoping someone will buy her cast-offs.
Instead of throwing out her old clothes, the 21-year-old model hopes to make £3,000 by selling 124 items of clothing through the online marketplace, Depop.
She models some of the garments and in one shot she poses in a velvet black body suit that she is flogging for £12.
Having graduated from New York’s Tisch School of the Arts, Clara’s first modelling job saw her posing in bed with supermodel Helena Christensen.
Film star Ewan McGregor’s daughter, Clara (pictured together left), hopes to make £3,000 by selling 124 items of clothing through the online marketplace, Depop. She models some of the garments and in one shot she poses in a velvet black body suit that she is flogging for £12 (right)