EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Princess Diana interview is still out there 

BBC director-general Tim Davie, pledging to banish Diana’s Panorama interview to the equivalent of Room 101, seems to have left the door ajar. 

Sunday night’s Diana biography, The Princess, on Sky Documentaries, included footage of the Bashir encounter. 

Ahead of the 25th anniversary of her death, Foxtel in Australia transmits Diana: The Ultimate Truth. A segment focuses on the notorious interview. 

The BBC insists it will not let any part of the Panorama interview be screened. 

Prince William, who warned that it ‘holds no legitimacy and should never be aired again’, can only powerlessly throw his toys out of the pram.

Gordon Brown has outed Vladimir Putin as a thief, revealing that at a Moscow trade conference he witnessed him stealing a ring from the head of the New England Patriots football team. ‘Putin was shaking hands with him. ‘That ring, it looks really good,’ [Putin said] – and the guy sort of takes it off to show it to him,’ says the former PM, ‘and Putin puts it in his pocket and walks away. That’s why we call it a kleptocracy!’

For Simon Mayo, whose popular BBC show was sabotaged when he had to share with Jo Whiley, revenge comes not cold but hot off the presses. He tells Radio Times: ‘If you look at the people who get killed in Coventry Cathedral at the end of my last novel, Knife Edge, there is… a superficial similarity between them and Radio 2 management.’

Helen Skelton, pictured, is joining the Strictly Come Dancing line-up. BBC bosses will be hoping that the 39-year-old’s blonde tresses, comely form and long legs will boost the viewing figures, something that may perplex Skelton. In 2016 she was told to cover up by the BBC when anchoring coverage of the Rio Olympics. Apparently, she was titillating the nation too much.

Recalling being approached about appearing on Strictly Come Dancing, retired talent agent Michael Whitehall, curmudgeonly father of comedy star Jack Whitehall, explains why he turned them down. Married to second wife Hilary since 1986, Whitehall senior, 82, claims on his latest podcast: ‘The more I talked about it, the more I thought this isn’t a good idea… because of the Curse of Strictly.’ Chance would be a fine thing, Whitehall!

Bookshop matriarch Christina Foyle’s nephew Christopher, who has died, scrapped her famous Grosvenor House literary lunches attended by the likes of Charles de Gaulle, HG Wells and Evelyn Waugh. When asked if it was true his aunt had asked Adolf Hitler to attend to talk about Mein Kampf, he replied: ‘No. She merely asked him not to burn books, but to send them to her to sell.’

Jilly Cooper wasn’t off her oats yesterday when she cantered home to win the 2.30 at Lingfield. The esteemed novelist’s equine namesake, a three-year-old filly trained by her chum Mark Johnston, outpaced her rivals, leading inside the final furlong and winning at 6/1. Why the long faces, bookies?