This article was amended on May 6, 2016
Donald Trump wants to emulate Ronald Reagan, and not just in his march on the White House. Dame Joan Collins says that in the mid-1980s he tried to get a role in Dynasty. “You can’t, we have a cast,” the director said. “But I am Dynasty!” Trump proclaimed. Collins told Good Morning Britain that she based her character of Alexis on Trump. “It was his get up and go and his ruthlessness,” she said. That and all the work that went into the hairdo.
Jeremy Pound, deputy editor of BBC Music magazine, saw yesterday’s item about the new head of Glyndebourne’s obsession with bees. After consulting his staff’s hive mind, he suggests that next season’s programme might feature Britten’s Billy Buzz or perhaps Wagner’s Die Meisterstinger.
Bercow’s own goal
The nation’s delight at one of the more lowly football teams winning the Premier League should be tempered by how insufferably smug it has made Keith Vaz. The Leicester MP has not removed his blue scarf since his team won the title and he wore it to prime minister’s questions yesterday. This helped him to catch John Bercow’s eye. Having been given the floor, Vaz made a vacuous point about how the whole planet is rejoicing. A poor show by Bercow, not least as he studiously ignored Tim Farron a few months ago when the Lib Dem wanted to ask about flooding with much of his constituency under water. Perhaps Farron should have worn waders and armbands.
I mentioned Lincoln in my Americans series the other day. It reminded Robert Dyson of a meal he had in that fine city when he ordered a Chateaubriand for two. “That sounds nice,” an American at the next table said. “I’ll have a bottle of the same.”
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Kings of spin
A group of international cricketers are trying to spin today’s London election towards Zac Goldsmith. Led by Imran Khan, former Pakistan captain and Zac’s former brother-in-law, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen and Shane Warne have also publicly endorsed him and Team Zac posted a video of Clive Lloyd, the former West Indies captain, giving this half-hearted tribute: “I presume he’ll do the right thing.” It is no surprise to find cricketers backing a Tory. It’s said that cricket is one of the few industries where the trade union is well to the right of the employers.
There is no more deflating critic than a three-year-old child. Rishi Sunak, Conservative MP for Richmond in Yorkshire, was chuffed when his daughter told people at nursery that he works at Big Ben, he tells the Times Red Box team. He was less happy when he discovered that she thinks he fixes clocks for a living.
All eyes on new chief
Divided loyalties last night for Lindsay Mackie, wife of Alan Rusbridger. Her husband got a gong from the British Media Awards for his work in turning The Guardian into an online freesheet, but Mackie stayed in Oxford to see Kath Viner, the present editor, give a lecture for the Women of Achievement series. A show of sisterly support or, as a Guardianista suggests, a spy sent to make sure Viner stayed on message?
Correction: We incorrectly stated that Lindsay Mackie was at an event in Oxford while her husband Alan Rusbridger received an award at the British Media Awards (TMS, May 5). She did in fact attend the award ceremony.
