No Hope at the Coronation – I haven’t been invited, despite being a (fifth) cousin of the Queen

Members of the House of Lords are not the only ones disappointed that they missed out on an invitation to the Coronation. A subscription to Ancestry.co.uk has produced the surprising news that I am the fifth cousin of the Queen Consort through the Queen’s father Bruce Middleton Hope Shand.

But sadly there was no room for me in the Abbey pews next month when the invites were sent out. The Cabinet Office told me that my relationship did not qualify as a “Coronation claim”.

Perhaps it is no wonder, given that people have on average 17,300 fifth cousins, according to the International Society of Genetic Genealogy.

The Palace clearly thought the King did not need more Hopes at his Coronation. More’s the pity.

Waiting for BoJo’s honours

The Easter break has been and gone with no sign of Boris Johnson’s Resignation Honours list.

The word is that its publication has now been pushed back until June, after next month’s Coronation, which will generate its own list of people to be thanked by the King.

There is some unease about a proposed peerage for former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre because of a High Court action against the newspaper group. The wait goes on.

Et tu, Wragg?

There is a new All-Party Parliamentary Group to celebrate William Shakespeare. Tory MPs William Wragg and Gary Sambrook are the group’s new vice-chairmen. The MPs are well used to Shakespearean high drama, intrigue and backstabbing – as they both are also officers on the Tory party’s backbench 1922 Committee, which marks its centenary next week. Et tu, Wragg?

C’s woman problem

Good to see GCHQ appoint its first female director, Anne Keast-Butler. MI5 has already had two female directors general. Nothing yet at MI6.

No wonder Richard Moore, the current chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, promised to do something about it in a Twitter message nearly a fortnight ago: “I will help forge women’s equality by working to ensure I’m the last C selected from an all-male shortlist.”

Better get on with it, C!

Claire’s Hollywood hellraiser

Former Brookside actress Claire Sweeney forged a friendship with Hollywood hellraiser Richard Harris when he was starring in the Harry Potter films. The pair met in the Coal Hole pub next to the Savoy Hotel, where Harris stayed.

“My mother was obsessed with him. He was her crush. And I said to him ‘Let’s phone my Mum’,” she tells White Wine Question Time podcast.

“I phoned my Mum, and she said, ‘I’m watching The Bill, can you call back?’

“I said, ‘Mum, I’ve got Richard Harris on the phone’. She said, ‘Sod off! Your Dad is watching The Bill. If I hide behind the sofa, I’ll take the call’.”

The Queen’s corgis

The Duchess of York is helping the late Queen’s corgis – Muick and Sandy – over the loss of their mistress by continuing Her Majesty’s rituals. The dogs are allowed to watch the racing, although Muick “finds it very weird that he is not allowed on all the sofas”, Fergie says.

Fergie has continued the custom of snapping biscuits to summon the corgis. “That was their little ritual. And they were very gentle with her little hands. They didn’t snatch,” she said.

“I always think that when they bark at nothing, and there’s no squirrels in sight, I believe it’s because the Queen is passing by.”

Sally’s hot seat

Sally Magnusson, the daughter of the late Mastermind quizmaster Magnus Magnusson, has revealed the fate of the famous black chair that guests sat in to answer their questions.

She tells Saga Magazine she inherited it when her father died in 2007. “It takes pride of place in the hall of our farmhouse near Glasgow, where everyone asks if they can sit in it and take a selfie.”

Magnus’s famous catchphrase “I’ve started, so I’ll finish” followed her around as a teenager. “As soon as someone heard my name, they would say it.”

Peterborough, published every Friday at 7pm, is edited by Christopher Hope, the Telegraph's chief political correspondent and the author of the daily Chopper's Politics newsletter. You can reach him at peterborough@telegraph.co.uk