. To welcome our new sovereign to the throne, this two-part profile is poring over yesteryear's yellowing cuttings to ask: how did Charles III come to be the person he is? You know the tune, so all together now: cold absentee parenting, the terrors of Gordonstoun, japes at Cambridge, the Investiture and the Royal Navy, Camilla, Diana, talking to plants and nobbling architects. With a plotline like that, who needs scriptwriters? Recruited to rake over the coals were a dozen or so biographers, correspondents, commentators, frowning pundits and grinning rent-a-gobs. The result was a reductio ad absurdum of chopped-up bite-size quotes. Most traded in careful suppositions ('I think… perhaps…'). Some reheated banalities. 'It was exciting, it was different, there was a big story behind it,' enthused Ayesha Hazarika of his mama's coronation. And the pope also has a balcony. Recalling the Prince before he married, Bonnie Greer gave it the fullest swing of the bat. 'It suddenly dawns on all of us that this is the most eligible bachelor in the world,' she gushed. 'He plays polo very well! This guy is going to be king! This guy is hot!' Dear oh dear. Who will have watched this? Few under 35 can raise an eyelid for the monarchy's skeletons. The rest of us, already knowing this gossip by rote, will have gleaned nothing new. As Polly Toynbee mournfully observed, 'We know him better than we know an awful lot of our friends' private lives.' The choicest nugget was supplied by the broadcaster Ian Skelly, the only one here who knows him for real. Charles once called him soon after a visit to the dentist. Skelly asked if it was anything serious. After a long pause the heir to the throne spoke. 'I was having a crown fitted.' Now that's fu){kind=link}
One can’t help but think that most of the talking heads consulted here don’t really know the monarch at all
Buckingham Palace has just won a small victory over a streaming service. Netflix now admits that, though inspired by real events, The Crown is fiction. So that’s one enemy winged. Here comes another in the shape of Charles: Our New King (Channel 4).
To welcome our new sovereign to the throne, this two-part profile is poring over yesteryear’s yellowing cuttings to ask: how did Charles III come to be the person he is? You know the tune, so all together now: cold absentee parenting, the terrors of Gordonstoun, japes at Cambridge, the Investiture and the Royal Navy, Camilla, Diana, talking to plants and nobbling architects. With a plotline like that, who needs scriptwriters?
Recruited to rake over the coals were a dozen or so biographers, correspondents, commentators, frowning pundits and grinning rent-a-gobs. The result was a reductio ad absurdum of chopped-up bite-size quotes. Most traded in careful suppositions (“I think… perhaps…”). Some reheated banalities. “It was exciting, it was different, there was a big story behind it,” enthused Ayesha Hazarika of his mama’s coronation. And the pope also has a balcony.
Recalling the Prince before he married, Bonnie Greer gave it the fullest swing of the bat. “It suddenly dawns on all of us that this is the most eligible bachelor in the world,” she gushed. “He plays polo very well! This guy is going to be king! This guy is hot!” Dear oh dear.