Boris Johnson contradicts Lady Thatcher’s biographer Charles Moore over what was or wasn’t said at a Garrick Club dinner. 

It relates to when Johnson, then PM, was considering whether to exempt Tory MP Owen Paterson from a Commons disciplinary procedure over improper lobbying. Moore, a friend of Paterson, who subsequently resigned, insists he didn’t try to persuade Boris of Paterson’s innocence. 

‘No conversation on the matter took place,’ he said. 

Now Boris, in his biography, gainsays Lord Moore, who sat opposite him at the dinner. 

‘Charles had written fiercely in Owen’s defence,’ he writes. ‘Was I going to defend Owen Paterson?, he asked me. “You bet”, I said airily.’ 

Perhaps the old friends can settle the matter by quoting the late Queen: ‘Recollections may vary.’

With the BBC refusing to publish the internal inquiry into the Huw Edwards affair, several documentary makers are feverishly working on films about his rise and spectacular fall. 

‘Former colleagues are being asked to go on camera, and much research is going on, particularly into his digital imprint,’ playwright Jonathan Maitland tells The Spectator. 

‘His mobile, we were told, was “lost”. Much will depend on whether it can be found. And if not, whether the information therein can be retrieved.’ Deep waters.

Queen Camilla will hope to avoid encountering a koala bear when she arrives in Australia on Friday. 

Cuddling koalas is a rite of passage for visiting world leaders, but, says a mole, she didn’t enjoy the experience while on tour with Charles in 2012. 

Camilla seemed equally uneasy when presented with an infant kangaroo. Perhaps she should adopt Prince Philip’s more forthright approach. For him, koala cuddling was verboten. ‘Oh no! I might catch some ghastly disease!’ he protested.

Playing four roles in the new West End production of Dr Strangelove, Steve Coogan mimics King Charles in his portrayal of plummy-voiced Briton Group Captain Lionel Mandrake.

The Alan Partridge star, an outspoken anti-monarchist, used to impersonate Charles on Spitting Image. Charles’s chum Peter Sellers, who played Mandrake in Kubrick’s 1964 movie, would never have been so treacherous!

Posh property presenter Kirstie Allsopp offers a curious tribute to One Direction’s Liam Payne. 

‘Liam was a really generous lad. Bizarrely, he introduced my other half to truffle mustard, now a firm favourite, and has always been held in high regard in our family.’

Paying tribute to Dame Maggie Smith, Gyles Brandreth recalls her dressing room ambush of West End co-star Kenneth Williams after he upstaged her with an impersonation to deprive her of a laugh. 

‘I just couldn’t wait,’ explained the Carry On star. ‘Maggie suddenly leant over the sink and enquired, “Have you been peeing in here?,” recalls Gyles. ‘“Hmmm,” she said. “I suppose you couldn’t wait for that either.”’