Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams quits education "I actually flew over earlier than I planned so I could see my friend who was ill, John Graham, the crossword setter" she tells Mandrake at English National Ballet's annual Christmas party at the St Martins Lane hotel. So I came over late November and saw him before he died which was very wonderful. Winkleman became close friends with the leading crossword setter, who went by the pseudonym Araucaria, when she got in touch with him over a puzzle. "He was my beloved friend because I wrote him a fan letter about 10 years ago about one of his crosswords," she says. We've been very dear friends ever since. Graham died on November 26 at the age of 92 after being diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus in 2012. He revealed the news of his diagnosis in the solutions to a puzzle for 1 Across, the crossword magazine. It included a set of instructions: "Araucaria," it said, "has 18 down of the 19." Those who solved the puzzle found the answer to 18 was cancer, and to 19 oesophagus. Cut above the rest After she was branded 'too ugly for television" by critics, Mary Beard promised she would never undergo a makeover or change to fit in. Still, the professor of classics at Cambridge University is finding it hard to keep to her words entirely. "I am absolutely determined to have something kooky done, like dye my hair pink," the Meet the Romans presenter tells Mandrake. "I think I am going to keep my hair long though, as if I cut it everyone would be like, 'She's cut her hair, she's given in to the critics."" Beard now has a dutiful audience judging her sartorial choices daily. "My students notice what I'm wearing now and they tweet about it," she says. "They say, 'Oh she's wearing her high tops today."" Mistaken identity As American Psycho opens in the West End this week it appears that the trend of adapting films for the theatre shows no sign of waning. David Baddiel tells me he is hoping to turn his film The Infidel into a musical in the new year. "I am adapting The Infidel into a musical," he says. It's in the early stages but it should be good. The original film stars the comedian Omid Djalili and tells the story of a British Muslim who goes through an identity crisis after discovering he was adopted as a child and born to a Jewish family. Other films adapted for the West End include From Here to Eternity and Dirty Dancing.