EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Shouldn't Prince William follow the late Queen's example and avoid kidnap by mandarin?

After William's surprise intervention in the Israel-Hamas conflict, there are fears he has been used as a Foreign Office mouthpiece. 

His outgoing top dog, Jean-Christophe Gray, who was once David Cameron's spokesman, is now off to the Cabinet Office. 

His new man, Ian Patrick, is a Foreign Office veteran. 

The late Queen always appointed her private secretaries only after they had served her in another capacity and gained a deep knowledge of protocol. 

Shouldn't her grandson follow her example and avoid kidnap by mandarin?

After Prince William's surprise intervention in the Israel-Hamas conflict, there are fears he has been used as a Foreign Office mouthpiece

His outgoing top dog, Jean-Christophe Gray (pictured), who was once David Cameron 's spokesman, is now off to the Cabinet Office

Coincidence that BBC newscaster Clive Myrie and ex-colleague Jon Sopel have been put up for membership of the Garrick Club. 

Neither should suffer the fate of former BBC man Jeremy Paxman, blackballed in 1993 over his anti-Establishment book Friends In High Places. 

But has Sopel, joined at the professional hip to podcast partner Emily Maitlis, got her approval to join the men-only salmon and cucumber rest home?

Geri Halliwell-Horner, cheered that husband Formula One boss Christian has been absolved of all misconduct allegations, takes up the cause of Henry VIII's beheaded wife Anne Boleyn. 

'The more I learnt, I thought: 'God, this is awful,' says the former Spice Girl, promoting her Tudor children's book. 

'It was horrible what he did... I was like: 'Let's celebrate her and give her some redemption.' 

Better late than never, Geri!

Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell pictured with her Red Bull team principal husband Christian Horner

Explaining her loathing of the 'rude and horrible' sex scenes in films where women have to strip naked, Joanna Lumley urges a ban. 

'The second you take your clothes off, the audience looks at you, the actor, and your attributes – what your breasts and genitals are like,' she rages in Radio Times. 

'There's a playground element to it – pull your pants down and let's see what you've got.' 

Fingers crossed Joanna isn't inadvertently reviving interest in the seedy 1971 movie Games That Lovers Play in which she appeared topless.

Explaining her loathing of the 'rude and horrible' sex scenes in films where women have to strip naked, Joanna Lumley (pictured) urges a ban

Dame Margaret Drabble has been taken to task in the Times Literary Supplement for claiming that writer Bryan Johnson took a fatal overdose in his Islington home in 1973. 

Not so, states his friend Inspector Morse writer Peter Buckman. 'In fact, he slit his wrists in a warm bath – Roman style,' writes Peter in the TLS. 

'He left a glass of brandy on the edge of the bath for whoever found him and wrote 'These Are My Last Words' in his own blood on the tiles. I thought this was evidence of his sense of humour.'

Isn't Buckman suffering from a dose of TMI (Too Much Information)?

Mourning the death of her puss Magnificat, Prue Leith confides that she wishes to be buried in her garden alongside the cherished pet. 

'I wonder if it will be legal for me to go in there too one day?' she wails. 

'I think you have to be 6ft deep and 50m from a water course.' 

Coming to TV soon: Prue's Great British Dig Up?