Putin's threat 'causing Prince William concern about children's safety

Vladimir Putin's sabre-rattling threat to unleash nuclear Armageddon is causing Prince William concern about the safety of his children George, Charlotte and Louis, whispers my source. 

Under Operation Candid, should Putin press the button, the King and Queen would be whisked away to a bunker alongside Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary. 

With limited space, William and Kate would be incarcerated with Sir Keir Starmer. What vexes William is the absence of provisions for saving his three heirs. 

If push came to shove, says my mole, Kate and William would almost certainly refuse to go anywhere without them. With the rules under constant review, what's the betting on William having some Whitehall mandarins jettisoned to make room for his children?

The King had to sit through Gladiator II at this month's Royal Film Performance, prompting recollection of the late Queen's irritation in 1954 when she attended the premiere of Beau Brummell starring Liz Taylor, pictured in her prime. 

HM complained to her PM Winston Churchill, and his private secretary wrote to the Board of Trade. 

'The Queen had told the Prime Minister what a bad film it was and he, on his own initiative, wanted to see what could be done about it for the future,' wrote the secretary. 

Changes were instantly made and a new way of selecting the film instituted. The following year the Queen was delighted to see Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief.

The selection of an official biographer of the late Queen has been delayed indefinitely by the sheer scale of her personal papers and diaries. 

They are currently being read and collated by her former page, Paul Whybrew. Known as 'Tall Paul', who featured in the Queen's London 2012 James Bond skit, he has to decide what should and shouldn't see the light of day. 

It will be up to him what material future biographers will have access to when they are placed in the Royal Archives. That work is ongoing. Thankfully, Whybrew is more methodical than Princess Margaret. 

Concerned that a lot of material relating to the King and Princess Diana in the Queen Mother's keeping might fall into the wrong hands, she gathered it together and burnt it.

A year after Shane MacGowan's death, fellow Irishman Sir Bob Geldof tells a Radio 4 documentary tomorrow that he wasn't initially impressed by Shane or his band The Pogues. 

'I actually thought that they were taking the p***. I thought it was more Paddywhackery.' 

Sir Bob later relented: 'But it was only really when I tuned into the attitude and the lyrics that I understood the otherness. The lyrics are so good and they sound to the core like you're Irish.'

Gary Lineker's agent Jon Holmes ordered radio silence when an email leaked about Gary leaving Match of the Day. 

He said: 'I messaged with clumsy fingers and the help of autocorrect. Let's keep shrimp,' followed by: 'Apologies. shtum.'