Yahoo News The Londoner: Writer's fears over Cummings return
Playwright James Graham, who wrote the part of Dominic Cummings played by Benedict Cumberbatch in Brexit: the Uncivil War, said he felt a responsibility to represent Cummings on screen — but that he “wouldn’t be able to sleep at night” if he thought his work had helped the adviser return to power.
In an interview with Alastair Campbell this week at the Edinburgh Television Festival, Graham defended the Brexit film — which aired in January — and the casting of heartthrob Cumberbatch, which has been accused of rehabilitating Cummings. “I don’t think for a second Boris Johnson watched a Channel 4 drama to decide his policy around that,” Graham said. “I still don’t... otherwise I won’t be able to sleep at night.” He added: “I never imagined for a second when I was writing it... he was someone who was completely on the fringes of mainstream political discourse. I’m as shocked as anybody that he’s at the heart of our national life.”
Graham also admitted that he was influenced by Cummings’ personal kindness to him when writing the screenplay, after meeting him and his wife at their London home. “I have a weakness, in that if people are nice to me I like them.” He said that his unrivalled access to Cummings influenced his decision to write the programme. “For whatever reason, Dominic Cummings has rejected a lot of scrutiny. He famously didn’t go into Parliament to testify to a committee... ever since after the campaign ended he has refused to do journalistic interviews. But for whatever reason he was happy to speak to a playwright... I felt the responsibility of that to go into his home and for him to tell me things he’s never told anyone.”
Graham added that his next project could be Trump. “I would force myself over a massive whisky to imagine the inner life of that fictional character in the White House.” But who’ll play him?
A spiralling debt
Boris Johnson stormed Paris yesterday but his own Eiffel Tower is struggling. The Art Newspaper reports that the ArcelorMittal Orbit tower, a 114.5-metre-high sculpture built in Stratford for the 2012 London Olympics, is £13 million in debt.
Boris pushed for the addition of the world’s longest slide in 2016 to boost ticket sales but visitor numbers barely reached 150,000 last year — meaning the original £9 million loan taken from steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal to build it has grown due to accrual of interest. About seven million people visit the Eiffel Tower annually — perhaps Macron could help?
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Comedian Olaf Falafel won best joke of the Fringe: “I keep randomly shouting out broccoli and cauliflower. I think I might have florets.” Writer Robin Flavell made it earlier, in 2012. Does he feel robbed? No, Flavell tells The Londoner. “About 99 per cent of all pun jokes have been made before and jokes about broccoli might go back as far as Chaucer.”
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Jacob Rees-Mogg often says he has no designs on the top job. In fact, his earliest ambition was “to be a farmer” — which “still appeals as a way of life” he wrote in a letter last week to author Dominic Shelmerdine for his new book My Original Ambition. The Londoner struggles to imagine Rees-Mogg behind the wheel of a tractor.
A Proms return for the royals’ favourite cellist
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the cellist who wowed the nation at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding last year, was back on stage at the Albert Hall with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra last night.
“I’d never actually been to a wedding before,” the 20-year-old told the Standard last year. “It was pretty cool. Kind of like I’d imagine a wedding to be. I actually really enjoyed it.”
On the Southbank, Game of Thrones star Nathalie Emmanuel attended the premiere of her new Netflix show Dark Crystal: the Age of Renaissance. She was joined by co-star Hannah John-Kamen and Shazad Latif.
Holloway girl Kaya Scodelario was back in town for the Frightfest convention. The actor, who made her name in teen drama Skins, will be seen next in Crawl, a horror film with huge reptiles, described by one critic as “Jaws for alligators”.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Katy Perry
Russell Brand insists he doesn’t look at his exes Katy Perry and Jemima Khan’s social-media accounts. “I don’t do the stalking thing on the internet because that’s not good for me,” he said in a short, contemplative video shared to his Instagram account yesterday. “I don’t think I could handle that at all. Once you are not in a relationship with people you should not go back. Take their number out of your phone. You need... to move forward. Live in your present reality… your ex is an illusion.”
SW1A
The BBC’s David Brindley tells The Londoner how he spotted Ed Balls’s presenting potential. “When I saw this political bruiser letting it all hang out on Strictly, doing Gangnam Style, I knew we’d found something special,” Brindley says. Not everyone agrees. Ed once called his wife, Yvette Cooper MP, while filming Travels in Trumpland in America “wearing nothing but a wrestling outfit”, Brindley says. “She told him: ‘Ed, we talked about the importance of lines. This is definitely crossing a line.’”
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How much would you pay to attend a drinks party with the former shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe? Aristocrat and reality TV star Francis Fulford is hosting one next month at his Great Fulford estate in Devon, with tickets costing £300 per person, or £500 for a couple. The Londoner suspects people would pay double that not to attend.
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Quote of the day: "20 mins skin-side down; 10 mins skin-side up; Maldon Salt and chives... Nothing more to it". Nigella Lawson shares the secret to fried chicken.
