Holly Valance decides to take things lightly

Holly Valance is taking an insouciant attitude to working during the summer. "I'm being naughty and unemployed and not worrying too much about it," the 27-year-old Australian model, actress and singer confessed to Mandrake when our paths crossed at Windsor.

She has occasionally been invited to return to Neighbours to mark this or that anniversary, but she turned down a chance to appear on its 25th. "They're always going to have the anniversaries, so they'll probably call again for the 30th," she says.

Her relationship with the property developer Nick Candy – which I disclosed last year – is still going strong, but she says she's relaxed, too, about when – and if – they get around to going up the aisle.

Martin Shaw's life cycle

If Martin Shaw is sanguine about the knocks the critics have given him over the years, it may be because he has experienced a lot worse.

"I was knocked down in London once as I took a corner and a taxi driver didn't give me enough room," says the 65-year-old cyclist who is currently rehearsing for the West End revival of The Country Girl.

"Another time, I was beaten up by a bus driver who thought that he and his vehicle ruled the entire road, but, well, you just carry on."

Mindful, perhaps, of his mortality, theatre managements have been offering him drivers. "I can't be bothered," he says. "I'll keep pedalling as long as I'm spared."

He is, by the way, re-united with Jenny Seagrove, his Judge John Deed co-star, in his play which opens in London in October.

The Queen puts her faith in General Synod

The Queen is Supreme Governor of the Church of England and also happens to own a number of champion race horses. She takes both roles deadly seriously, but seldom, if ever, does she allow the two to converge on each other.

Until now. She has a two-year-old colt running today at Newbury called General Synod, the name of the notoriously heavy-going Anglican Parliament.

Waggish vicars are already joking that, like the debate over women bishops, it will never reach the finishing line.

She will not be amused.