SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE: Sir Richard Branson's granddaughter is a little star in Virgin Galactic babysuit

By Sebastian Shakespeare for the Daily Mail

Published: 18:52 EST, 27 April 2015 | Updated: 01:50 EST, 28 April 2015

View
comments

When the Branson family embark on public relations manoeuvres, few areas — if any — are off limits.

Sir Richard’s son Sam posted a picture online yesterday of his two-month-old daughter Eva-Deia dressed in a specially designed infant babysuit sporting the Virgin Galactic logo.

Writes Sam: ‘A future Virgin Galactic astronaut testing out her first space suit!’ Despite Sir Richard’s repeated defence of his much-maligned space-flight programme, some industry experts remain sceptical as to whether it will ever take anyone into space.

Virgin Galactic has suffered a series of setbacks, culminating in last October’s test flight crash killing one of its pilots.

Old Beardie has already pledged to fly with his family on the inaugural flight.

Sir Richard’s son Sam posted a picture online yesterday of his two-month-old daughter Eva-Deia dressed in a specially designed infant babysuit sporting the Virgin Galactic logo

Home truths of BBC spoof

Is there more to the spoof BBC comedy series W1A than meets the eye? David Hickman, senior lecturer in film and television production at the University of York, has composed a thesis on last week’s opening episode.

‘It becomes clear that the security systems designed to keep the riff-raff out of the £1 billion New Broadcasting House inadvertently keep the chosen few in,’ he writes on academic website The Conversation. ‘It’s a neat metaphor for the middle-class exceptionalism that projects sometimes calamitously from the corridors of the real BBC.

‘As a portrayal of the vacuum seal surrounding the white, middle-class metros of the corporation, it nails a good deal of the private language and codes of a self-selecting caste.’

That’s you, Alan Yentob.

Look who thinks it's time to diet

Soprano Camilla Kerslake, who announced last month that she is ‘pre-engaged’ to England’s rugby captain Chris Robshaw, is now worried she is overweight.

‘With less than a month until red carpet appearances at the Monaco Grand Prix and Cannes Film Festival it’s time for me to get in serious shape,’ says Camilla, 26 (right).

‘I’ve spent the past few months recording my third album, and studio time is notoriously bad for piling on pounds.

In the studio you need to save your strength for that all important vocal take by limiting exercise and having lots of high-energy snacks.

‘My plan is to lose excess fat and build lean muscle by eating small but nutrient-filled meals and doing targeted cardiovascular and weights training.’

Former Chancellor Ken Clarke, now one of the grand old men of politics, went along to the Broxtowe seat in Nottinghamshire the other day to drum up support for his friend Anna Soubry, the Tory candidate.

Clarke, 74, did some of his campaigning, as is his wont, in a local pub. An 18-year-old came in and did an incredulous double-take before explaining: ‘I’m studying you in my A-level politics.’

Cue laughter from the entire bar, and a jovial crack from Clarke: ‘I’m history!’ Far from being history, the trouper is standing again for Parliament.

Nick Hurd insisted it was his decision when he left his post as Minister for Civil Society last year. However, the Tory MP’s father, former Cabinet minister Douglas Hurd, has a different take.

‘Nick got the sack,’ Lord Hurd tells me bluntly. ‘It upset him a lot but he’s back on form now. He did say to me at the time, “I can’t be bothered with this any more, I want to quit,” but don’t we all have moments like that?

'I told him to keep at it. Getting fired can do wonders for one’s strength of character.’