So Andrew profits after all

4:06pm Wednesday 26th March 2008

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I am sorry to go on about this but it seems that Andrew Lloyd Webber is, after all, going to be coining it from the new production of Oliver! which the BBC is generously helping him to plug with the prime-time I'd Do Anything talent show. Though it's a Cameron Mackintosh show, it is being staged at the Lloyd Webber-owned Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. Richard Brooks, of the Sunday Times, said Oliver! would earn him at least £60,000 a week in rent and fees. So it's third time lucky for Lord Lloyd-Webber, after the BBC helped him to hit the jackpot with revivals of The Sound of Music and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Brooks revealed that the corporation's palliness with LW has "at last" been referred to the BBC Trust by the Liberal Democrats Culture spokesman Don Foster. Clearly the Sunday Times is unaware that the Trust has been complained to before about this matter - and ruled that there was absolutely no cause for concern.