The Prince of Wales is planning to work with someone to improve his speech-making, says Gillian Anderson, the star of The X-Files.
The Prince of Wales has been giving speeches for 40 years, but he is not too proud to ask for assistance in improving his technique.
Prince Charles met Gillian Anderson, the star of The X-Files, at a service of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey to mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens’s birth.
“His Royal Highness was saying how he was actually interested in reading and practising reading himself – reading out loud from Dickens and other literature that is,” says the actress. “So he was thinking about working with somebody to improve and be more confident with his public speaking with regards to literature.”
Speaking at the WilliamVintage pre-Baftas dinner at the St Pancras Renaissance hotel, Anderson insists that the “somebody” will not be her. “I don’t think he was asking me,” she says modestly.
Shooting starts on Monday on the third series of Downton Abbey and Elizabeth McGovern, who plays the Countess of Grantham, says some viewers do not understand that it is a work of fiction.
“People can get confused and think I’m a countess, which is not a bad thing,” the American actress tells Mandrake. “People are a little bit more respectful of me because of the character I play. I think they can’t believe I’m actually out buying groceries and that I’m on the Tube and cleaning up after my dog, and things like that.”
'Disreputable' Ed Balls chief
Ed Balls's hiring of Gary Follis, a hard-hitting former special adviser, as his chief of staff was seen as a threat to Ed Miliband, the Labour leader. The appointment by the shadow chancellor will certainly raise eyebrows in the London borough of Lambeth.
While Follis was a Labour councillor, he was censured for breaching the code of conduct. Following an investigation into his conduct by the borough’s ethical standards officer in 2005, Follis was criticised for dragging council officers into an election campaign.
The report, seen by Mandrake, said Follis’s conduct was “unacceptable” and that he had “brought his office and authority into disrepute”.
Balls’s future factotum acknowledged his mistake and no action was taken.