Was Prince William the right man to present Michael Phelps' Sports Personality award? EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE'S view after he royally fluffed his words

By Ephraim Hardcastle for the Daily Mail

Published: 00:24 GMT, 20 December 2016 | Updated: 09:29 GMT, 20 December 2016

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Prince William’s presentation of the lifetime achievement award to US swimmer Michael Phelps was far from smooth.

He said: ‘Your 23 gold medals, let alone all the other colours... um... pales into, um, sheer superhuman history..... It’ll be many years before, if ever, anyone stands here again and calls you the greatest, erm... athlete in history.’

It might have been better – for William and Phelps – if someone more familiar with the swimmer’s staggering achievements had made the award.

Prince William’s presentation of the lifetime achievement award to US swimmer Michael Phelps was far from smooth

Rabbi Lionel Blue, who has died aged 86, was ‘a terrible broadcaster,’ said Radio 4’s John Humphrys on the World At One, adding: ‘He was all over the place. He’d come in looking dishevelled... and then go off and do one of his terribly old jokes.’

Humphrys was ticked off by Radio 4 regular, Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, 53, who said Blue was ‘a fantastic, genius broadcaster’.

Humphrys conceded: ‘I should have said technically he was a terrible broadcaster... as a human being he was a wonderful broadcaster.’

Rabbi Lionel would have been amused.

Diane Abbott, 63, due to be appointed on to the Privy Council, plays down her anti-royal views from the past, insisting on Sky News: ‘I think you will find, if I did say that, it was 30 years ago.’

Not quite so long ago. Giving an interview for US television in 2010, she remarked about the Queen: ‘When she finally dies a debate will reopen in this country about “do we really need a royal family?”’

Our toy revolutionaries love having debates.

Strictly Come Dancing winner Ore Oduba

Will Strictly Come Dancing winner, BBC sports presenter Ore Oduba, 30, want to return to his day job?

London-born Oduba works at the BBC’s Salford HQ, for the relocated TV show BBC Breakfast and Radio 5 Live.

A colleague says: ‘Now he’s such a big star, he’s not expected to settle for rainy old Salford.’

Heiress Paris Hilton, 35, pictured, pays tribute to the late Zsa Zsa Gabor following her death aged 99, announcing: ‘My great-grandfather and her made such a beautiful couple.’

Clearly she has not studied their history. Her great-grandfather, thrice-wed hotel tycoon Conrad Hilton, described his marriage to second wife Zsa Zsa in 1942 as ‘the biggest mistake of my life.’

Miss Gabor said: ‘Would I have been interested in a man twice my age if he wasn’t rich? I don’t think so.’

The late Northern Ireland secretary Jim Prior, having invited warring politicians for talks in his Belfast office in 1981, complained afterwards: ‘It was unbelievable. They devoured my buffet, denounced me and then cleared off.’

His adviser David Gilliland said: ‘Secretary of state, you will come to realise that Ulster folk do nothing until they’ve had their tea.’

Outspoken Tory politician Sir Nicholas Soames, 68, who represents Mid Sussex, rages at his region’s BBC current affairs show: ‘Is there any TV duller than Sunday Politics South East’s balls-aching discussion on Christmas lights? So cutting edge, not! Choked on my Bloody Mary. Must improve or go.’

Providing regional versions of Andrew Neil’s incisive network show is like having Strictly Come Dancing, Down Your Way.