The Servant

Dirk Bogarde and James Fox, The Servant, 1963.

There are so many niceties if you move in royal circles. The Duke of York has “stepped back”; Michael Fawcett has “stepped down”. It sounds as if they are Scottish dancing at Balmoral.

My guess is that the Prince of Wales’ former valet will be exonerated (again) but not his brother. I don’t know the ins and outs any more than I can strip the willow but it’s grand that The Servant will be re-released on Friday, fifty-five years after it was released. The two events have no causality, surely? The FTWeekend in an interview with James Fox says “Bogarde’s scheming Jeeves upended the domestic order”; rather unfair on Jeeves who upheld the domestic order without overturning the apple cart. The POWs servant may have started out as Jeeves; apparently he became Blackadder.

I heard someone say on the wireless today it was an insult to lollipop ladies, sometimes recipients of MBEs, if better gongs are handed out by the servant – something certainly not proven. I’d just like to mention my grandfather’s brother (5th Lord Bellew) was awarded an MBE. Controversially The Beatles ( a popular singing group, m’lud) were also given MBEs, in 1965. They should have been awarded one, elective, MBE.