Top to toe

The Daily Mail's young weekend diarist, Richard Eden, has been in conversation with Alan Yentob on pressing matters of the day.

‘I hate formal shoes,’ he tells Richard at the launch party for Simon Jenkins’s book, A Short History Of Europe.

‘When I go to the Cannes Film Festival, and I’m dressed immaculately with a bow-tie and everything, they look down and they see my black trainers and they don’t let me in. It’s ridiculous.’

Yentob, 71, who presents the Imagine arts series, adds: ‘I went to a London restaurant to have lunch with Mick Jagger and I looked down and he was wearing bright, colourful trainers. I said: “How the hell did you get in here with those on? It’s only because of who you are.” ’

In 2013, Alan said he didn't know how to tie a tie. We hope he's mastered laces. Or perhaps he has Velcro-Nike-Air-Maxes.