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

Following William’s surprise intervention in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, there are fears he has been used as a mouthpiece for the Foreign Office.

His outgoing top dog, Jean-Christophe Gray, once David Cameron’s spokesman, is now on his way to Cabinet.

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

The late Queen always appointed her private secretaries only after they had served her in some other capacity and had acquired a thorough knowledge of protocol.

Shouldn’t her grandson follow her example and avoid kidnapping by Mandarin?

His outgoing top dog, Jean-Christophe Gray (pictured), once David Cameron’s spokesman, is now on his way to Cabinet

Coincidentally, BBC newsreader Clive Myrie and former colleague Jon Sopel have been put forward for membership of the Garrick Club.

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

But has Sopel, affiliated with podcast partner Emily Maitlis’ Professional Hip, got her approval to join the Salmon and Cucumber retirement home for men?

Geri Halliwell-Horner, who cheered that Formula One boss husband Christian has been cleared of all charges of wrongdoing, takes up the case of Henry VIII’s beheaded wife Anne Boleyn.

“The more I learned, I thought, ‘God, this is terrible,’” says the former Spice Girl, who is promoting her Tudor children’s book.

“It was horrible what he did… I thought, ‘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 boss Christian Horner

Joanna Lumley explains her disgust at the ‘rude and awful’ sex scenes in films that require women to undress and calls for a ban.

“As soon as you take off your clothes, the audience looks at you, the actor and your features – what your breasts and genitals are like,” she rages in Radio Times.

“There’s a playground element to it: pull down your pants and let’s see what you’ve got.”

Fingers crossed that Joanna doesn’t inadvertently revive interest in the seedy 1971 film Games That Lovers Play, in which she appeared topless.

Joanna Lumley (pictured) explains her disgust at the ‘rude and awful’ sex scenes in films that require women to undress and calls for a ban

Dame Margaret Drabble has been taken to task in the Times Literary Supplement for claiming that writer Bryan Johnson fatally overdosed at his Islington home in 1973.

That’s not the case, says his friend Inspector Morse writer Peter Buckman. “In fact, he slit his wrists in a hot bath – Roman style,” Peter writes in the TLS.

‘He left a glass of brandy on the edge of the bath for whoever found it and wrote in his own blood ‘These are my last words’ on the tiles. I thought this was a testament to his sense of humor.”

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

Prue Leith mourns the death of her cat Magnificat and confides in her that she wants to be buried next to the cherished pet in her garden.

“I wonder if it will be legal for me to ever go in there too?” she whines.

“I think you need to be six feet deep and 50 feet from any watercourse.”

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