Channel 4 has not yet set a broadcast date for Hacks, its comedy about the phone-hacking scandal.

The harrowing testimony of witnesses such as the parents of Madeleine McCann and of Milly Dowler at the Leveson inquiry has put Channel 4 in an awkward position.

The broadcaster commissioned a comedy drama about the phone-hacking scandal, Hacks, but appears to be nervous about when it can be shown.

“I don’t know when it’s going to come out,” the comedian Russ Abbot tells Mandrake at the VIP launch event for 34, Richard Caring’s restaurant in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair. “I play a policeman.”

A Channel 4 spokesman insists that the drama, written by Guy Jenkin of Drop the Dead Donkey, “will be broadcast some time in the new year”.

Kathy Lette's louche middle age

Kathy Lette, who fought off a mugger trying to steal her handbag earlier this month, is now undergoing a medical struggle.

“I’m menopausal at the moment, so I am taking hormone replacement therapy,” says the Australian novelist at the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury racecourse. “It’s made from mare’s urine.”

The wife of Geoffrey Robertson QC is not, however, letting the treatment affect her lively social life. This weekend, she visited a louche Soho nightclub.

“Last night, I was out until 3am with Ruby Wax at the Box,” she says. “Can you imagine? Two middle aged women watching a male amputee strip off.”

Fantasy too far for Monty Python star Terry Jones

Having fathered a child at the age of 67 with his 28-year-old girlfriend, Anna Soderstrom, Terry Jones is fretting over what to tell his daughter about the festive season.

“I don’t know whether I want her to believe in Father Christmas,” the Monty Python star tells Mandrake at the launch of his book, Evil Machines, at the Adam Street club in the West End. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea.”