Anna Chancellor says depression is 'petty' Just desserts for Murdoch's man Nicholas Ferguson's policy of stocking up as many Brownie points as possible with James Murdoch has clearly paid off handsomely. Formerly the deputy chairman of BSkyB, Ferguson has now taken over from Rupert Murdoch's son as the top man at the satellite broadcaster. Last summer, I disclosed how Ferguson, along with Roland Rudd, the prominent public relations man, had put James up for membership of Brooks's, the gentleman's club in St James's, even after the phone-hacking scandal had begun to engulf the Murdoch empire. Humiliatingly, he didn't get in. Viscount Ashbrook, another member, told me at the time: "I certainly wouldn't sign in support of this man as I don't know him." The Duke of Abercorn, for his part, retorted: "It's not April 1, is it?" Letting off steam As distinguished as Timothy West's career has been, the 77-year-old Titanic star feels that he could have had more, if only he'd had the requisite parents. His were both actors, and, when he started in the business in the Fifties, that wasn't done at all. There was this feeling that, to be a really good actor, your father had to have been a docker or a miner, or someone completely outside of showbusiness. Without a regional accent, he couldn't get anywhere with the so-called Angry Young Men who dominated the stage at that time and he ended up doing a long tour with Brian Rix, the farceur. Still, he always had a second career in mind in case things didn't work out. "Engine driver," he says, and then adds: "Steam, of course."