Katherine Jenkins is in at the deep end

Katherine Jenkins has never been afraid to face up to predatory beasts. Indeed, last month, the classical singer made public how dismayed she was about the malicious internet rumours that she had been romantically involved with David Beckham.

Now, Katherine tells Mandrake that she has been swimming with sharks off Cape Town in South Africa. “I thought it would be an adventure, but it was so scary,” she says. “They’re great whites and they were coming up and biting the cage that I was in.”

More derring-do can be expected from the plucky 32 year-old. “For me it is a year of facing fears, and with what has happened, I don’t want to be scared of anything anymore,” she adds.

Raining on Parade

With the viewing figures for Parade’s End plummeting, its writer, Sir Tom Stoppard, cannot, alas, look to his son, Ed Stoppard, for support.

“I haven’t seen any of Parade’s End yet, actually,” Ed admits at the first night of Kissing Sid James at the Jermyn Street Theatre in London.

The 37-year-old star of Upstairs Downstairs insists the reason is that he has no television set at the moment and not because he was not offered a role in the series.

“I’d like to work with my father again, but it would need to be the right project and the right time,” he adds.

He will next be appearing in a drama called The Politician’s Husband on BBC Two in which he plays a villain.

Run into trouble

Mandrake disclosed on Wednesday that Dame Kelly Holmes was less than thrilled by a life-size statue of her that is due to be erected in her home town of Tonbridge, Kent.

Guy Portelli has been in touch to make clear that he was not the sculptor. The identity of the artist responsible remains a mystery.

Beware imitations

After the Queen co-starred with Daniel Craig in the Olympics opening ceremony, Equity, the actors’ union, cheekily invited her to join. Jeannette Charles, for one, is relieved that she chose not to.

“I may have found I was no longer wanted,” says Charles, who has been impersonating the Queen since 1971. “It is a very enjoyable job.”