Alexander Larman

Of all the people who might come forward to attack the memory of the late, lamented Queen Elizabeth II, Sir Ian McKellen – a CBE and Companion of Honour, no less – would not be high on the list. Yet in a candid interview that he has given to the Times, McKellen has labelled the late Queen both rude and borderline insane. Few would have expected one of Britain’s greatest actors to hold forth with such strong opinions about the monarchy, but apropos of little, McKellen asked his interviewer: 'Imagine being born into the royal family. I’ve been in public life a bit, but these people are in prison. They can’t do anything normal. Can you imagine having to be nice to everyone you talk to?

Given my unequivocal feelings about the Oasis reunion, I was, apparently, one of the few people in Britain who was not attempting to obtain tickets yesterday for one of their stadium gigs next year. As is usually the case these days when a much-hyped act returns for a series of mega-concerts, the wall-to-wall publicity that the concerts had attracted meant that it seemed almost obligatory for the average punter to extract their credit card, gulp, breathe a silent prayer and at least try and secure their place in Manchester, London, Dublin or any of the other venues that the Gallaghers will be gracing next year. Had they done so, they would have experienced a remarkable day of frustration and cynical manipulation.

Twenty years ago, I suffered through seeing Oasis perform at Glastonbury. It remains one of the worst, if not the worst, large-scale gigs of its kind that I have ever been to. Liam Gallagher had all the animation and charm of an Easter Island statue, standing stock-still in the centre of the stage and looking as if he’d like to fight every member of the audience. Noel, songwriter and supposed talent behind the band, played his guitar and occasionally sang with an expression of clenched pain on his face, as if he was suffering from unusually persistent haemorrhoids.  The set list was plodding and predictable, played indifferently by the Gallaghers and the hired help, and the overall impression was that of a group who could no longer be bothered.

After a relatively quiet few months for Prince Andrew, there have been two recent developments that will no doubt make this famously un-sweaty man feel a nervous chill. Firstly, following the mixed response that Scoop, the first account of his notorious interview with Emily Maitlis, received, the first pictures have been released of the Amazon TV version of the story, A Very Royal Scandal. The notoriously vain Duke of York will no doubt be disappointed to see that the ever-chameleonic Michael Sheen seems to be playing him with considerable padding round the waist, in what promises to be a uniquely unflattering look at the Newsnight saga. And secondly, after much rumour and scuttlebutt, it looks as if Andrew could finally be made homeless.

As Harry and Meghan prepare to head off on yet another quasi-regal tour, this time to Colombia, it is surely nothing more than a coincidence that their experienced chief of staff Josh Kettler – a so-called 'executive accelerator and strategist' – has left 'by mutual agreement' after a three-month trial period in the job. The only detail released was that he was not felt to be the right fit. The timing would be dismal by any standards, given that he was responsible for organising and executing the couple's trip; the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will now be travelling without Kettler. However, his departure now means that he is the eighteenth member of the Sussexes’ staff to have quit, or been fired, since they moved to Montecito a few years ago.

After the far-right rioting of last night failed to materialise, there is hope that we have now seen the worst of the public disorder that flared up following the Southport stabbings. This is certainly what the Prime Minister will be thinking today, but his new good friend the King could well have exactly the same perspective on the situation, too. The King initially commented on the stabbings, expressing his horror at the 'utterly horrific' atrocity: 'We send our most heartfelt condolences, prayers and deepest sympathies to the families and loved ones of those who have so tragically lost their lives, and to all those affected by this truly appalling attack'. But since then, as rioting has spread all over the country that he rules, he has been conspicuously silent.