Lord of the dance offers new view of spinning

Jaws dropped on Breakfast on BBC One when Lord Mandelson lobbied furiously to be allowed to sashay his way on to Strictly Come Dancing. “I was cheering for John Sergeant on Saturday with, I have to say, a degree of . . . envy,” he said.

Would the peer submit to the BBC show’s judges? “It would be nice to be asked,” the Business Secretary said. However, he declined an offer to demonstrate his cha-cha-cha. “Not this morning, because it’s too serious, but another day invite me back and I will show you what I can do. I’m not backtracking. Have you ever seen me dance?”

We haven’t, so we ask Derek Draper, the peer’s former spin-doctor. “I saw Peter take the floor at the 1994 Young Labour disco,” he replies. “He set the dancefloor alight. It really was extraordinary.” Peter’s friends believe that he is open to a “Political Come Dancing” special for Children in Need. Vince Cable would surely join him for a foxtrot, but who would provide the Tory balance? His cruise chum George Osborne, perhaps?

Our brave heroes in the I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here! camp narrowly survived a series of deadly storms that lashed the East Coast of Australia. The bookies have made Joe Swash, a former EastEnders actor, early favourite to win after an exchange with Martina Navratilova, about her home country, the Czech Republic. “Is that near Prague?” he inquired. Jade Goody status awaits.

Sir Tom Courtenay is happy playing William Dorrit in the BBC’s latest Dickens adaptation after an unhappy return to Hollywood, for the blockbuster The Golden Compass. “I had a lovely part and they cut the s**t out of it, which I resented,” he tells Radio Times. “I think they wanted more of Daniel [Craig] going, ‘Bang, bang, bang’. I ended up as set dressing. I’m not cynical.”

Sir Tom, 71, sounds like the perfect interviewee. “Now it’s time for my kip,” he tells his interrogator. “I won’t read what you write, so make it up.”

History, of a sort, is made this week with the first licensed use of a Beatles song in a British advertising campaign. From Me to You, the 1963 hit, is the soundtrack for John Lewis’s Christmas campaign after the Fab Four’s people gave the thumbs up. The vocal, however, doesn’t sound entirely Beatle-esque. The track was rerecorded for contemporary ears. Matt Spinner, who works in the IT department at John Lewis head office, was given the heady task of imitating the famous Lennon and McCartney vocals.

“Four years ago, you could buy something for £50,000,” mused Damien Hirst. “If we went back to that, it’s not such a problem.” So it can’t be a coincidence that we received an e-mail from Hirst’s publishing company, offering the chance to purchase Transcendent Head – one of 50 skulls painted using Hirst’s famous “spin” technique. The piece represents “a kind of psychedelic memento mori”. The price? £50,000 plus VAT. We need to know the original owner of the skull before proceeding.

Postscript

Prince Harry has sent a good luck message to a long-forgotten 1980s band, which has reformed to make one last attempt at the Christmas charts. Harry dropped in on a gig by the oddly named Daniel Takes a Train in June. The band split up in 1988 after failing to secure a record deal. They were reunited by an Absolute Radio competition for failed bands that are seeking to take one last shot at the big time.

Prince (no relation) has been out canvassing for the Jehovah’s Witnesses. “Sometimes people act surprised, but mostly they’re totally cool about it,” the diminutive one told The New Yorker magazine.

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