This is an honor that would have made Margo Leadbetter, the snobbish social climber she played on the classic sitcom The Good Life, proud: Dame Penelope Keith played King Charles at the funeral of one of her favorite entertainers, Kit Hesketh-Harvey, yesterday . .
The 82-year-old lady, who also played upper-class Audrey fforbes-Hamilton in To The Manor Born, led mourners at the actors’ church, St Paul’s in Covent Garden, London.
Hesketh-Harvey, who died suddenly last month at the age of 65, was a cabaret star, lyricist and bad pantomime. She used to perform for King Charles and yesterday her son, Rollo, read part of a letter the family had received from the monarch since his father’s death.
Rollo said: ‘King Charles tells of a true scholar, much loved and admired, and whose wonderful humor and comic genius contributed so much to our general welfare. It is a tragedy that it was taken from us too soon.
Rollo and her sister Augusta were joined in the front pew by their mother, Kate Rabett, 62, a Bond girl, a Hot Gossip dancer and ex-girlfriend of Prince Andrew. She parted ways with Hesketh-Harvey during the pandemic after she became close to old Eton financier Ian Harrison.
EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Dame Penelope Keith played King Charles at the funeral of one of her favorite artists
Hesketh-Harvey, who died suddenly last month at the age of 65, was a cabaret star, lyricist and bad pantomime.
Rabett and her husband shared a three-story Georgian rectory in a Norfolk village for 35 years. Kit moved into the church vestry on her property across the street from her marital home. Yesterday, the family gathered in a packed church with up to 500 friends, including best-selling author Lord (Jeffrey) Archer and Oscar winner Sir Tim Rice.
The 78-year-old lyricist arrived accompanied by his former lover Elaine Paige, the singer and actress. Princess Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, was among the society figures, including TV personality Jodie Kidd, 44. Her older sister, model and make-up artist Jemma, Marquise de Douro, 48, was accompanied by her boyfriend, financier Arpad ‘Arki’ Busson. , 60.
Poignantly, one of the pallbearers was Kit’s nephew, Henry Sands. Her father, celebrity actor Julian Sands, has been missing since January after going missing on a solo hiking trip in California. Henry’s mother is Sarah Sands, former editor of Radio 4’s Today program and the London Evening Standard.
She recalled: “As Vanessa Redgrave once said, ‘Grief is a strange and unfamiliar landscape. We will all travel there.” ‘
The model and makeup artist Jemma, Marquise del Duero, 48, was accompanied by her boyfriend, the financier Arpad ‘Arki’ Busson, 60
Paying Tribute: Sir Tim Rice and Elaine Paige
Who will be named Mr Bond?
This will put the cat among the doves: Movie star Taron Egerton claims James Bond producers have identified Daniel Craig’s successor.
“They already have someone, and it’s not me,” says the 33-year-old Kingsman star Egerton, who had been announced as a 007 candidate.
‘I have never been part of the conversations. I have never met [the producers]. They have never asked about me. I just don’t think she’s the right person for that.
Barbara Broccoli, who co-produces the films with Michael G. Wilson, insisted in January: ‘First we have to figure out what we’re going to do story-wise and all that. So the casting will be a long way off.
“We’re certainly not casting at the moment and don’t have plans to for some time.”
Idris: I’m aiming for the stars with the Luther franchise
He has downplayed suggestions that he could be the next James Bond, but Idris Elba is determined to turn crime thriller Luther into a series of big-budget movies.
At the world premiere of the new Netflix movie Luther: The Fallen Sun, he tells me, “My hope is that Luther can become its own franchise now and that we double down on it and do more stories and make it a little bigger.”
The Hackney-born star, 50, also used the premiere at the BFI IMAX in Waterloo to apologize to his model wife Sabrina (right) for playing troubled detective John Luther. “I know I turn into a complete jerk when I play John, but she still loves me.”
The Hackney-born star, 50, also used the premiere at the BFI IMAX in Waterloo to apologize to his model wife Sabrina (right) for playing troubled detective John Luther.
By accepting the Outstanding Contribution honor at the Royal Television Society’s Journalism Awards, Jeremy Paxman revealed the secret to his success as a Grand Inquisitor.
“You, of course, don’t know much about anything,” he says. But most of the time you are up against people who know even less.
How to remove the containers…
When Melvyn Bragg finally married his younger lover, he looked forward to living out his days in domestic bliss in Hampstead, North London. However, the distinguished 83-year-old broadcaster has discovered that his wife, Gabriel, 67, is not afraid of making a scene.
“Gabriel is the activist,” muses Lord Bragg. “He decided to lie down in the middle of the street one morning to protest how the garbage men were treating our bins.” Clearly, his radical approach had the desired result. ‘It was very effective,’ says the presenter of Radio 4’s In Our Time. Now they show respect.
So-called ‘color blind casting’ is reaching new heights. I heard that Princess Diana will be played in the West End by mixed-race actress Emma Jay Thomas.
Thomas, 50, will play the mother of Princes William and Harry in Tony! (The Tony Blair Rock Opera) when it opens at the Leicester Square Theater next month.
The musical, co-written by Harry Hill, sees Diana declaring, “There were three of us in that marriage, or seven if you count all the guys I got along with.”