People in the news

Published on Saturday 24 May 2008 20:17

DAME JUDI HONOUR

Actress Dame Judi Dench is to be honoured by one of the country's oldest universities.

The Oscar-winning actress of the stage and screen will be awarded an honorary degree at St Andrews University next month. She will be made a Doctor of Letters at the summer graduation ceremony.

LONG GONG, AMY

Amy Winehouse won a songwriting 'Oscar' – but arrived too late to pick up her gong.

The 24-year-old's father Mitch had to collect her Ivor Novello for Best Song Musically and Lyrically on his daughter's behalf.

Judges had put the singer's troubles aside to award her the title for 'Love Is A Losing Game'.

ROBINSON CRUSOE

A 13m TV series based on the story of Robinson Crusoe has been announced, with Sean Bean taking a starring role.

US actor Philip Winchester, who played Scott Tracy in the recent remake of Thunderbirds, has been cast as the English castaway. But the series will feature flashbacks to Crusoe's previous life, including his tragic childhood with his widower father James, played by Sharpe star Bean.

RADIO KEN

Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone has been given his own radio show. Livingstone, 62, who was ousted by Boris Johnson this month after eight years as London Mayor, will present a weekly phone-in show on London station LBC, starting later this summer. He will also host the live 1pm to 4pm daily phone-in show for a week in July when regular presenter Jeni Barnett is on holiday.

SINKING FEELING

A British yachtsman failed to sail into the record books last week, despite his epic voyage to circumnavigate the globe solo through the icebound Arctic.

Adrian Flanagan, 47, set out on October 28, 2005, in the quest to become the first yachtsman to sail a 30,000-mile vertical circumnavigation westwards via Cape Horn and the Russian Arctic.

But the father-of-two, from Buckinghamshire, has been told he will not go down in official record books because he had to stop twice and had to hitch a lift from a Russian icebreaker.