The Londoner: Parting shots from RA's Sir Charles

Sir Charles Saumarez Smith, outgoing chief executive of the Royal Academy, has painted a far from pretty picture of his experiences at another London institution.

Hosting his leaving party last week, he surmised what went on during his time as Director of the National Gallery, saying “at the RA you know when you are being stabbed in the back”.

In a Q & A session with Sir John Tusa, Sir Charles told how his troubles with the NG started before he had even begun the job. “It is still inscrutable to me as to why the hell I was appointed,” he recalled of his tenure at the gallery in the mid-Noughties.

Following a job interview, which he described as “forensic”, he found out he had landed the job by reading about it in the Daily Telegraph. He was also appalled when, after mentioning to his new employers that he had a wife, they did not wish to discuss private matters. “Oh, we are not used to that!” they responded.

Sir Charles was at the National Gallery for five years, with reports of a rift with chairman of the trustees Peter Scott. His leaving party in 2007 was referred to as a wake, and a report that same year stated that Sir Charles was angry with his funding being cut off by the New Labour government. He denied the claim.

“I had forgotten how many memories lurk not far below the surface, which John was unexpectedly successful in resurrecting,” Sir Charles wrote on his blog after the discussion, stating that he had been “uncorked after years of discretion”.

Last week The Londoner heard that one of the names in contention to succeed Sir Charles is Jonty Claypole, currently the BBC’s arts chief.

Strictly come ballet...Darcey’s en pointe at Sadler’s Wells

Not an ugly duckling in sight at Sadler’s Wells in Clerkenwell for the press night of Swan Lake. Comedian-turned-bestselling children’s author David Walliams, ballerina Darcey Bussell and diver Tom Daley made a glitzy trio at the show. Fun-loving Walliams recently revealed a more earnest side, telling Radio Times that if he were Prime Minister he’d “introduce new laws on children’s literacy. I’d want to improve access to reading and safeguard libraries”. Ballet’s status as a top Christmas attraction was cemented last week when images emerged of the Duchess of Cambridge taking Princess Charlotte on a secret trip to see a pre-show rehearsal of The Nutcracker.

Some may prefer the thrills of slush and snowboards over pirouettes, however... Alt-fashionistas Jodie Harsh and Jeremy Scott were in the Italian Alps for the launch of a Ciroc vodka.

BBC loses world view

Earlier this year The Londoner heard that the BBC was phasing out the world map from the backgrounds of BBC World Service and BBC Worldwide employee passes, replacing it with one of the UK. Now, the corporation’s big names have been affected.

Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis posted an image of her new ID over the weekend.

“‘We’ve taken off the rest of the world now,’ the lady in the ID unit explains to me,” Maitlis tweeted.

Last time we asked the BBC about the design change to the passes, they said they don’t discuss security.

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An invitation lands on The Londoner’s desk... to William Sitwell’s Christmas party. Sitwell resigned as editor of Waitrose Food magazine last month after an anti-vegan joke was leaked. He has taken it all in good humour, though: the invitation comes with a request to “BYOV: Bring Your Own Vegan”.

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Canadian comic Katherine Ryan initially struggled to make it in Britain. “People were coming to my shows, yet the box office were having to refund them 30 minutes later,” Ryan told us at the Women in Film and Television Awards. “They thought they were going to see Catherine Tate and they were too polite to leave the show straight away.”

A child is born .... let’s cancel Christmas

Christmas with Nigella Lawson hasn’t always been turkey with all the trimmings. When the cook had her first daughter, Cosima, a few weeks before the 25th, she understandably couldn’t face whipping up a feast. “We had a toasted sandwich and a bag of crisps for Christmas and that was quite nice,” she says. “I was pretty exhausted, two weeks into being a new parent. That was rather nice. I did put a bit of cranberry in the toasted sandwich to make it feel a bit more Christmassy.”

SW1A

Parliament is “an exhausting rollercoaster”, says Putney MP Justine Greening, who adds: “It’s like you’ve come back from the front.” She copes by recording a voice memo each time she gets home, though denies she is making notes for a memoir. “I’ve tried to predict where things are going,” she tells Nick Robinson’s Political Thinking, “and then I see whether I was right. Earlier in the summer I predicted it would be gridlock for the reasons it has been. So far my logic’s held up.”

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Other MPs are struggling ahead of a big week in Westminister. After Jess Phillips MP told her son she wouldn’t be back until Friday evening, he replied: “I hate bloody Brexit.” Gavin Williamson shared a photo of his suitcase and ministerial red box on Instagram. “Now that’s a bonny red box to keep your sarnies in,” one of the Defence Secretary’s followers commented.