WITH a keenness bordering on the creepy, we look forward to Tony Blair's imminent appearance on Blue Peter — as revealed in yesterday’s leaked memo detailing his exit strategy.

Yet, according to the BBC, the PM’s appearance has been planned for more than six months. It will be filmed within the next few weeks and will consist of an interview and a children’s competition about the history of Downing Street.

The interview will be conducted by Konnie Huq, who has been a Blue Peter presenter since 1997 and is the sister of one Rupa Huq, who stood (quite coincidentally, no doubt) as a Labour candidate in the 2005 general election.

This will not be the first time a prime minister has appeared on the show. Blair previously made an appearance in 2000, and John Major did so in 1993, thrillingly discussing lightbubs with John Leslie. Margaret Thatcher used her moment of children’s television fame to say friendly things about the Khmer Rouge in 1988.

The pioneer, however, was Harold Wilson, who in 1967 had a small part in a long feature about a cat that enjoyed watching him on television. Honestly, he really did.

• Sting is having a fight over a fishing hut in the grounds of Great Durnford Manor, near Salisbury. Sting spends much of his time at his home half a mile away, in the alarmingly named Wilsford- cum-Lake. Apparently he can see the hut from his bedroom. “An objection has been made on the part of Mr Sumner,” a spokesman for Salisbury District Council confirms.
  
  
• “I clearly have a very privileged background,” says Jemima Khan, daughter of the late billionaire Sir James Goldsmith, ex-wife of the millionaire Imran Khan and girlfriend of the not- exactly-struggling Hugh Grant — to Easy Living magazine. “Is it the reason I do charity work? I would have to say yes, in part.” The hours are quite good, too.
  
  
• Back in 2004, you may recall, an Oxford engineering student called Matthew Richardson caused a stir when he was mistaken for a leading American economist, and accepted an invitation to deliver a series of lectures at a university in Beijing.

  “I thought it would be a great chance to see the world,” he said, at the time.

  Now, we are delighted to reveal, Mr Richardson is running to become a member of the executive of Conservative Future, the Tory youth organisation.

  We predict a glowing future for this young man. Possibly it may involve writing novels, and seeking to become the Mayor of London.
  
  

• At the launch of Rachel Johnson’s Notting Hell on Monday, her publisher compared her to “a very frisky golden retriever”, adding that Johnson had ignored her advice not to do a naked publicity photoshoot. Brother Boris also has a book out. Gulp.
  
  
• At the launch of A Slice O’Minelli at the Theatre Museum, the ever-twinkling Christopher Biggins spoke of his friendship with Liza, and the fun they shared in 1980s New York. “Shops would open for her in the middle of the night,” he recalled. “Once, she gave me a Cabbage Patch doll. Then someone told me it had been a gift to her from her brother.”

  Ps

  
  

• A useful contacts book found its way on to eBay, the internet auction site, recently. According to the New York Post, Marlon Brando’s son, Christian, has been attempting to sell his father’s Rolodex. Included in the sale, until a Brando sibling spotted it and made him take it down, were telephone numbers for Oprah Winfrey, Robert De Niro, Tom Hanks, Jack Nicholson, and scores of others who tend to opt out of Directory Enquiries.

  
  
• A curious argument from the Ministry of Defence as to why it should not release statistics given to ministers for parliamentary questions is reproduced on Martin Rosenbaum’s BBC Freedom of Information blog: “If officials knew that the statistics included in briefing folders were likely to be published, they would tend either to include many more statistics so as to camouflage those of particular interest, or to omit statistics altogether.” Now we know.
  
  

• Mel Gibson’s son Christian was arrested for drink-driving last year, according to Star magazine. It makes you wonder who taught the youngster to drive.
  
  people@thetimes.co.uk

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Olympic-size television coming to your town
• Mosley opens new front in battle for privacy
• Decorator fined for smoking in van