Londoner’s Diary: Audience heckles Michael Gove at last London night of Grenfell play

The Cabinet Office minister was appearing before a House of Lords Committee on Tuesday (Liam McBurney/PA)
PA Wire

MICHAEL GOVE was heckled with shouts of “shame on you” and “how dare you?” by audience members who spotted him at the last performance of Grenfell play Value Engineering on Saturday.

Gove, the new secretary of state for Housing, was leaving the Tabernacle theatre in West London when he was seen by a “noisy caucus at the back of the auditorium who shouted at him in an outburst… ‘it’s your government that’s to blame,’” a source said.

Value Engineering is a verbatim reconstruction of the inquiry into the Grenfell disaster that claimed 72 lives.

Director Nicholas Kent tells us “it’s a shame” that Gove was shouted at, adding it was “sad that he was not treated with more respect for having come down and see the play”. Kent explained many of the survivors’ groups had suggested to Gove that he saw the production.

A source close to Gove said “he felt it was important for him to see the play and he recognises that there is still some way to go to build trust with the community.”

Kent added that while the play has finished its run in London they are in the process of raising finance for a return in February.

Worst of times for columnists’ cars

The Launch Of The Ned, London
Dave Benett

WHAT is it with Times writers and cars? The Londoner bumped into columnist Giles Coren who said that after his electric Jag was stolen for the second time in July, he only got it back two weeks ago. And then: “I drove over a nail — it’s in the KwikFit”, he despaired. Today fellow columnist Daniel Finkelstein revealed a thief broke into his car, left an umbrella but made off with a jacket and a signed copy of Theresa May chief-of-staff Gavin Barwell’s book. Why would you leave that in the car? Asking for trouble.

Dench too tickled to help co-star

Judi Dench
Jeff Spicer/Getty Images

JUDI DENCH may not be the friend you want in a crisis. Her fellow theatrical dame Siân Phillips recalls having an unfortunate incident with a prop in a production of play The Gay Lord Quex during the Seventies. “A feather got stuck in my throat and I thought I was going to die on stage,” Phillips tells The Stage. Dench wasn’t much help. She “was in the scene with me, and she just laughed and laughed”, Phillips recalls. Dench — an actor truly unafraid of corpsing.

SW1A

Former health secretary Matt Hancock (Matt Dunham/PA)
PA Wire

THE WORLD of Matt Hancock moves fast. Over the weekend, as soon as reports that the ex Health Secretary would be writing a pandemic book appeared, the mooted publisher instantly denied it. And an advert to be Hancock’s new Comms Officer was only open to applications for 24 hours. Can anyone keep up with still Tigger-ish Matt?

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ED MILIBAND is a “glutton” for social interaction but even he can find his fame a bit much. On the train home from COP26, the Labour man came out of the loo to find a crowd of people wanting interviews and selfies. He tells his podcast: “I had to apologise to them and that maybe I wasn’t my normal chatty self”.

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