SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE: Joan Collins calls in the police as maskless men swarm her flat 

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Even the great and good are struggling during lockdown. I hear that Dame Joan Collins contacted the police yesterday after being confronted by the sight of scaffolders with no face coverings climbing all over her flat in London‘s Belgravia.

‘Woke up to find two workmen on my balcony not wearing masks and several of them maskless all over the building putting scaffolding up,’ declared the startled Dynasty star.

Their presence was particularly alarming because of the efforts she and her husband, producer Percy Gibson, had made to self-isolate during the present lockdown restrictions.

‘Being careful to quarantine and having no contact with people,’ she added. ‘Why should others invade my quarantine?’

Metropolitan Police officers wasted no time in heading over to the couple’s home. ‘They are talking to Joan outside now,’ said Percy as I spoke to him on the phone.

‘What is so annoying is that these works are unnecessary. Surely, they could have waited until lockdown is over. Are they really essential?

‘I can understand works taking place to repair gas mains or build houses, but not this, which is external redecoration to make a house pretty.’

The top three floors of their building have already been converted into a vast triplex apartment. Noisy building work next door drove Dame Joan and Percy out of their £3 million flat to a hotel in 2017, with the actress complaining that the work was making her life a misery.

The disruption followed the collapse of her living room ceiling, caused by a water leak also blamed on building work. 

‘Our quiet street resembles a building site,’ she said at the time. ‘The noise is absolutely incredible. 

‘We are surrounded by massive renovations to the buildings to our left, to our right, the four flats above us, and two directly opposite — all at the same time.

‘The work is non-stop with endless drilling, hammering and banging for months. We’ve had a flood, and our hot water, heating, electricity and internet have been cut off at various times.

‘I’ve been chased out of my own flat —the flat I have lived in for more than 20 years. I don’t begrudge the people who are moving in and making these homes their own — but not all of them are doing that.’

BBC North America editor Jon Sopel, singled out sarcastically by Donald Trump as ‘another beauty’ at a White House press conference, admits he’ll miss the volatile President, whose actions he berates nightly on our screens.

‘My new book, UnPresidented, is the third I’ve written since I came to Washington [in 2014]. 

‘If Hillary Clinton had won, I don’t think any publisher would have been interested in my musings.’ 

Will Joe Biden generate enough material for another tome? 

Anthea, always the snappy dresser… 

There’s something fishy going on at Anthea Turner’s London home during lockdown.

With restaurants closed, the television personality and her fiance, Mark Armstrong, are holding themed dinner nights together.

And this week’s theme was clearly seafood, judging by Anthea’s choice of headwear and the crustacean print on her shirt.

‘I obviously took it too far,’ admits Anthea, the former Blue Peter presenter, who is due to marry socialite Mark later this year.

Queen saddles a winner 

Her Majesty has a new accolade — Queen of the Turf — for it’s been established she’s one of the most successful horse owners and breeders of all time.

She has notched up an impressive 531 wins by approximately 3,280 runners, meaning she wins 16 per cent of her races.

In total, she’s won an estimated £7.5 million in prize money. Last year, she brought in around £294,000 in earnings, but 2019 was even more profitable with £572,000.

Typically, it costs £25,000 to £30,000 to keep a racehorse in training each year, and in 2020, the Queen had 54 horses, so she almost certainly spends more on their upkeep than she would ever win on them.

 Incredible hunk’s night at the opera

He shot to fame in the smash hit BBC drama Normal People, but Paul Mescal is determined to prove that he’s anything but average.

The 24-year-old actor showed off his muscly physique in a dark vest on a film set Down Under.

Mescal is in Australia shooting a big-screen adaptation of the opera Carmen. He plays the romantic lead, Aidan, while Mexican actress Melissa Barrera is Carmen in the film directed by Benjamin Millepied, husband of Hollywood star Natalie Portman.

Mescal is a keen runner who admits he’s struggled to stay healthy since quitting his Gaelic football career for acting.

‘When the sport stopped, I realised I could drink and smoke to my heart’s content,’ he said. ‘I want to try and stop.’

Quick to document every last detail of Prince Harry’s courtship of Meghan Markle in excruciating detail in his sycophantic biography, Finding Freedom, Omid Scobie is slow to file his accounts. 

I hear the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s cheerleader is ten months overdue with the documents for his publishing services business, Meyou Ltd.

 Failing to file accounts on time can lead to a heavy penalty plus interest. 

A friend of Scobie insists: ‘These have now been submitted.’

Follow mum’s footsteps? No way, says Anna’s girl 

Anna Friel returns in hit ITV detective drama Marcella next week, but her teenage daughter, Gracie, is unlikely to be following her into acting.

‘David and I have never pushed her — she’s had the opportunity of some great roles, but she’s just said no,’ says Friel, who was living with Harry Potter star David Thewlis when she had Gracie.

‘She says acting looks too repetitive and that it’s like you’re a child and you never gain the rank of an adult,’ adds Friel. 

‘She says everyone talks to actors like they’re 13-year-olds. I think she’s spent too much time on sets!’