Poking the Queen

WTF: Weekly Trivia File

• 'Offence is the collateral damage of freedom of speech' Ricky Gervais.

• Phillip Schofield has revealed how Victoria Wood once helped out with his wife's rent, when she was struggling for money as a young production assistant. Stephanie Lowe was working as a on Victoria Wood As Seen On TV when the comedian offered to step in and help. Speaking on This Morning, Schof said: 'At that time in her life Steph was very young and just starting out. They were all sat around discussing if Steph could afford her rent or whatever it was. Victoria said to her "No, I'll sort you out, it's fine". She lent her some money which Steph paid back – but she said "No no, it's absolutely fine, don't worry". So really such a sweet and kind, lovely lady.'

• And see how much love there was for her when she received the Chortle Award for outstanding achievement in 2011… In her acceptance speech, she recalled her 'absolutely dreadful' first TV show Wood And Waters in 1979: 'We had a terrible studio audience. They went round Manchester with a bus saying, "If you don't like fun, get on." Our warm-up man was Ted Robbins, and he didn't get that many laughs. In desperation he showed his bottom to the audience – which is something you can only do once. These were pensioners who had been through two world wars and the depression and Ted's bottom wasn't going to make them crack a smile.'

• In 1980, Wood was a guest at the prestigious Evening Standard Drama Awards, where she was picking up an accolade for most promising playwright. But any hopes of fame and glamour were quashed in the party afterwards as she proudly clutched her bowl-shaped award. Suddenly an arm stretched out and flicked some ash into the treasured prize. It was Princess Margaret, mistaking her for a minion holding an ashtray.

•Still with Princess Margaret, Humphrey Ker's grandfather used to boast that he 'poked' both the Queen and her sister on the same night. The comedian told the Pop Rocket podcast: 'My grandfather was friends with the Queen. In the Second World War was injured very badly and spent the last two years at Sandringham guarding the Queen. So his big joke for years afterward was that he poked the Queen and Princess Margaret in the same evening, but that was in a play.' The Royal sisters, who would have been teenagers at the time, famously staged plays in their youth. And Ker's maternal grandfather was Vice-Admiral Sir Dymock Watson, who was the Fourth Sea Lord and later commander-in-chief of the Navy's South Atlantic and South America Station. Ker based his 2011 Edinburgh Fringe show, Dymock Watson: Nazi Smasher!, on his antics. Ker also revealed that he had tea with the Queen when he was 17 – part of an Eton tradition called 'strawberry tea' when pupils would be invited to nearby Windsor Castle.

• A racehorse named Clem Fandango made her track debut yesterday, running in the Beverley Minster Fillies' Novice Auction Stakes. Owned by Middleham Park Racing LXXV and trained by Keith Dalgleish, the two-year-old filly named after Toast Of London's voiceover provocateur came in second at starting odds of 5/1.

• Seinfeld made it to the Australian Parliament this week, as Labor MP Tim Watts repeatedly cited the sitcom when speaking about Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's decision to call all 150 Members of the House of Representatives back to Parliament at great expense – them left them with nothing to debate. But when Watts launched into the theme song, it was too much for Deputy Speaker Bruce Scott, who called for 'order, order…'

• Andrew Lawrence's next show is to be called The Hate Speech Tour.

• Meanwhile Adam Kay says he's surprised that he was allowed to get away with calling his show 'Fingering A Minor On the Piano'.

• Prince was one of the few pop stars to say no to having Weird Al Yankovik spoof his work. The musical comic pitched alternative versions Kiss and 1999, among others, but was always knocked. back. 'The only person who's consistently said no has been Prince,' he said in a 2014 interview. 'He just wasn't into the parody.'