Londoner’s Diary: Maureen Lipman has a pop at jubilee gig line-up

Dame Maureen Lipman has criticised the Platinum Jubilee concert for having too much pop music and not enough from other arts such as ballet and poetry. “Matthew Bourne, Gilbert and Sullivan, Ted Hughes... where was all that?” the actress said as she hosted an evening at The Delaunay restaurant last night.

Describing the event as a series of singers “bending a lyric into 12 different syllables on one note”, she said only “25 per cent of the population” were pop fans, adding: “That’s fine if you like that but what about the rest of us?”

The Party at the Palace line-up included rockers Queen, Ed Sheeran, Alicia Keys and Diana Ross. Lipman also called for the Queen to win a Bafta, perhaps “best newcomer”, for her turn with Paddington Bear in a jubilee sketch.

Louis’s rap career on ice

Filmmaker Louis Theroux has gone viral around the world for TikTok rap “my money don’t jiggle jiggle, it folds”. Theroux says he has “mixed feelings” about the trend, worrying it is too “disposable” and “out of keeping with what I actually do in my work”. He tells fans: “I’m not trying to make it as a rapper” as “it would be a 20-second-long gig”. What a shame.

Carrie Johnson’s Ascot critic

ONE OF Carrie Johnson’s animal welfare allies, Dom Dyer, has criticised racegoers at Ascot over horse cruelty. Dyer said “I hope you enjoyed your day out, ladies,” but that horses were being “exploited and raced to death in a heat wave”. The PM’s wife, right, went to the races on Friday. Dyer last year claimed he and Carrie had influenced the Government to evacuate animals from Afghanistan.

West end fears

THEATRES in the West End are worried as shows in other parts of the UK are again being cancelled due to Covid. Productions of Sunshine on Leith in Edinburgh and Billy Elliot in Leicester have recently closed after cast members tested positive. The Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford has said it will continue doing socially distanced performances for concerned audiences.

Scrubbing up at the polo

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OSCAR-winning actor Eddie Redmayne, his wife Hannah Bagshawe, and fellow actor Mark Strong scrubbed up pretty well for the Royal Windsor Cup polo yesterday. Singers Mica Paris and Kele Le Roc and socialite Lady Victoria Hervey also attended, while designer Joshua Kane cuddled graphic designer Lottie Archer. The couple announced their engagement this month. Across the channel in Cannes, Vogue editor Edward Enninful and Paris Hilton opened a new Enninful-curated Vogue x Snapchat fashion exhibition called ‘Redefining the Body’.