London Notebook | 1 November 2012

What is a real woman? My difficult client, the Australian gigastar Dame Edna Everage, is seriously miffed at BBC’s cancellation of her forthcoming appearance on Have I Got News For You. She flew from Australia especially to record this show, installing herself, as usual, in the Oliver Messel suite at the Dorchester Hotel at her own expense, but the producer changed his mind yesterday and politely gave her the shove, claiming that the show only featured ‘real people’. The insult is all the more hurtful since she has, in the past, done Desert Island Discs and published a volume of autobiography which was always listed in the ‘non-fiction’ category. ‘Not a real woman!’ the Dame spluttered to me on the phone last night. ‘Tell that to Sir Howard Glove, my gynaecologist!’ The producers claimed the wags on the HIGNFY panel would be be overshadowed and discomfited by Edna’s heady and formidable personality.