COLIN FIRTH TO STAR IN MY FAIR LADY

Having won an Oscar for his portrayal of George VI’s attempts to overcome his speech impediment, Colin Firth is to teach a Cockney flower seller to “talk proper”.

Mandrake hears that the actor has told Sir Cameron Mackintosh and Duncan Kenworthy that he will play Professor Henry Higgins to Carey Mulligan’s Eliza Doolittle in their remake of My Fair Lady. “He is keen,” says an associate.

The script for the musical has been written by Emma Thompson. As with Firth’s role in The King’s Speech, his part was offered, but rejected, by Hugh Grant.

Kenworthy is coy. “It’s in the planning stages, so it’s not the time to talk about casting,” he tells me. Keira Knightley took singing lessons to play Eliza before Mulligan was cast.