EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Liz Truss’s Sturgeon comments could be a right royal blunder 

Liz Truss’s refusal to apologise to Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon for calling her an attention-seeker who should be ignored might have irritated the Queen, I am told. ‘HM treats Sturgeon as she treats her Commonwealth PMs and expects mutual respect between them,’ says my source. ‘They rub along together well enough. HM has a delicate balancing act to play in the independence debate. If the Union splits she will become Queen of Scots. Sturgeon seems fine with that. King Charles is another matter.’

The next series of The Crown will miss the script-enhancing skills of Jemima Goldsmith, who has backed out because the depiction of her friend, the late Princess of Wales, was not handled as ‘respectfully or compassionately’ as she had hoped. However historian Robert Lacey, who is married to Jemima’s aunt, Lady Jane Rayne, remains as a consultant. Must make for interesting family discussions!

How does the always-fashionable thespian Emma Thompson, pictured during her investiture, like to be addressed? ‘Just Dame will do,’ she says, adding about the honour: ‘It’s nice to be acknowledged in that way.’ Dames aren’t deplored like men who lust after peerages. Prior to his own ennoblement Viscount Northcliffe said: ‘When I want a peerage I’ll buy one like an honest man.

English actor Emma Thompson poses with her medal and insignia after she was appointed a Dame in November 2018

Ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is still on the Privy Council, so he’s a ‘Rt Hon’ and will make the cut to attend, in due course, the council proclaiming Charles king.

Tommy Corbyn – Jeremy’s son, who campaigns to legalise cannabis and founded the National Hemp Service – responds cheekily to Rishi Sunak’s promise to crack down on drug-takers: ‘Why not start by drug-testing MPs and let’s see how that goes…’ Might his father give him the names of some suspects?

As a schoolgirl in Melbourne, much-loved Olivia Newton-John, who has died at 73, had to obey strict rules, including a ban on wearing patent leather shoes in case boys saw the reflection up their dresses. ‘If only they’d known I would someday record a song called Let’s Get Physical,’ she said. Its lyrics include: ‘There’s nothing left to talk about unless it’s horizontally.’

Taking aim at young female journalist Kara Kennedy, writing her debut column (about Wales) in The Daily Telegraph, BBC newscaster Huw Edwards snipes on Twitter: ‘Tragically could only see the first para – but I thought even feeble Telegraph writers had moved beyond sheep and Richard Burton.’ A colleague of Kara’s snaps back: ‘Twenty-two-yearold graduate trainee writing her first piece for the paper – talk about punching down!’ Shouldn’t Huw get out more?

Apropos of my item about the BBC’s new disinformation and social media correspondent, Michael Cole tells me his last job there was arts and media correspondent, adding: ‘There were 14 people doing it.’