The Royals with Roya and Kate - It's coming home, to a refurbished Palace!

Episode Date: July 11, 2024

This week, Roya and Kate are both sports correspondents and property correspondents as England edge closer to Euros glory, Buckingham Palace gets a newly-spruced wing and and the Prince of Wales press...es on with his homelessness campaign. The King has already sent his best wishes to the team, but will William be in Berlin for the final? And Roya explains what it's really like behind the most famous net curtains in the country. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Roya, Kate, do you remember last week we were talking about how our job covers all sorts of aspects of life? We are royal correspondents, but we're also travel correspondents, entertainment correspondents. Yes, foreign correspondents, political correspondents. We are marvellous, aren't we? Well, yes, but that's not my point. I want to add another job to the list. What's that? Property correspondent. And the properties we report from deserve a grand royal fanfare.
Starting point is 00:00:43 Welcome back to The Royals with me, Roya, and you, Kate. So, Roya, you've been in another palace this week. I get around. Tell us all about it, because Buckingham Palace, East Wing, has finally opened its doors after a grand resurfacing, as they're calling it. Most normal people would say refurbishment. A refurb. A refurb.
Starting point is 00:01:09 The loft conversion upstairs in the East Wing. Some bifolds out the back of the kitchen um but you were there and you went round saw it all in its kind of majesty and kind of chintzy glory so what also known as george the fourth bling george the fourth chinese themed bling so what so tell us about it because they've offered up some... They're selling tickets for the first time, 75 quid a pop. Sound familiar? Does sound familiar. A bit cheaper than Balmoral. A little bit cheaper than Balmoral, which was £100 to look around. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:01:35 So this is all part of the king's opening up the palaces to the people, bringing the people into the palaces to make them feel they can connect with the institution. And the king is opening up the east wing for the first time which is the sort of corridor effectively a wing that kind of brought the side the quadrangle of the palace together when victoria and albert felt they needed more space for their ever ever ever expanding family and so they built the east wing and they funded it by selling george the fourth'savilion in Brighton, which was his seaside retreat, and filled it with a lot of George IV's acquisitions. And let's just say George IV had a more is more approach to art.
Starting point is 00:02:19 So the East Wing, yes, there are some really beautiful paintings by Gainsborough and, you know, traditional state portraits of, you know, George V and Queen Mary. But there's a lot of chinoiserie is how it's described to us by the curators. George IV had very blingy taste and he, you go around and the curators, it was a wonderful tour because you and I have been into the East Wing a lot. We've been into the centre room, that famous room that the balcony is off. And I think we get, as I was saying to someone, a colleague on Tuesday when we went round on the tour, I think we get quite blasé about walking along that corridor, the principal corridor. We don't really take in what we see. We just know we're in the Palace for a briefing or a media briefing before a tour.
Starting point is 00:03:02 What was wonderful was to walk round and actually see and understand from specialists what we were looking at and time and again we were explained that George IV would buy these things you know Japanese and Chinese art beautiful pieces and then he would upscale them he would enhance them he would basically bling them up and put them on sort of huge extra stands it It is extremely ornate. So what was the kind of best stroke worst thing in there? Oh, good question. My favourite piece in there was a very splendid Gainsborough portrait, a portrait by Gainsborough of a guy called Colonel John St. Ledger.
Starting point is 00:03:43 And Colonel John St. Ledger was a great mucker of George the False. He's a soldier. And it's a beautiful, huge portrait in the principal corridor of this very dashing officer languidly leaning against his horse. I'm afraid there's a horse in there. There is a neckwine theme to my love of this picture, but it is a stunning picture. And it's just not chinoiserie which everything else in the east wing is everything else is um and this the center room is quite magnificent
Starting point is 00:04:09 and there is a very quirky ornate that kind of lotus chandelier lotus chandelier which i think is an acquired taste kate they've taken the tv out haven't they so as the royal family go out onto the balcony they've got that tv in the corner where they normally get to see, you know, look out and see all the kind of BBC reports or whatever it is that's going on and see down the mile. I think people who come on this tour will love that they can get a glimpse of the famous net curtains that, you know, the Queen and the kids peek through for Trooping the Colour. But also I think people will be sort of intrigued to see that balcony through the windows because that balcony has become so, we're going to use a banned word here, iconic. It just has for so many huge national moments.
Starting point is 00:04:53 And I think it's, you know, if you're into the royal family, and I think you probably have to be to pay that much money to go around and see the East Wing in the state rooms. I think people will enjoy feeling that they are walking through a part of the palace that is still used by members of the royal family. The living history element of it. Yeah, and that was actually exactly that. To your point about living history, one of the things the curator said was they found in one of the rooms off the corridor, these were like
Starting point is 00:05:18 rooms that were used by Queen Victoria's young daughters as princesses and when they opened up some sort of drawers and went behind sealed up cupboards, they found drawings by daughters as princesses. And when they opened up some sort of, you know, drawers and went behind sealed up cupboards, they found drawings by the young princesses. That's fantastic. Presumably no one has seen since the Victorian era. Yeah, the Victorian kind of childhood desks and chairs
Starting point is 00:05:37 that are still locked away in Balmoral and things like that. Yeah, it was fascinating. And I think for me, as someone who's become, you and I are quite accustomed to going into Buckingham Palace, I think to understand more of what's in our, you know, in the Royal Collection Trust, which is held, our trust for the nation, what, you know, what belongs to us, what's in there, I think people will love that trip.
Starting point is 00:05:59 But there's also that kind of history element, like you say, to George IV. He has a bit of a checkered history i think in the history books a few weeks after his death the times gave the following assessment of him the truth is that there never was an individual less regretted by his fellow creatures than this deceased king and i like this quote particular he is rather too fond of wine and of women and the person who said that was george himself when he was a prince regent he had some cracking self-awareness going on there
Starting point is 00:06:31 he acknowledged three illegitimate sons there's rumors of lots of daughters that he didn't acknowledge and i commissioned lucy bannerman our brilliant writer at the times to go around and and look around the east wing as it opened and i think probably fair to say she wasn't a huge fan of it um talking about the kind of huge tapestries of asian caricatures that adorn the walls and saying that it was less versailles more the bournemouth hotel out of roald dahl's the witches but there is an element isn't there i think if you went around the british museum and some of this stuff is like you say it's been upscaled or they're kind of european imitations of asian arts and crafts and caricatures of you know chinese characters you know people and things like that
Starting point is 00:07:17 you know how appropriate is that do you think well lucy picked up on that in her piece didn't she what would the japanese emperor recently have thought? And I don't think he would have gone through the East Wing, actually. But if he had, what would he have thought of all that art in there? Some of which is, yeah, some of which maybe might be a bit overwhelming for him to see. I mean, none of it's sort of derogatory, but it's just, I suppose it just reflects very changing tastes and changing styles. Although you could argue that in Buckingham Palace,
Starting point is 00:07:52 it's sort of stayed the same forever because actually they've, as part of the resurfacing, they took everything out, conserved a lot of it, but they've put pretty much everything back in. Well, that's what I was going to say because I remember when they did it in 2018, called it decanting yeah they said we're decanting the east wing which is normally how you think of wine you know you pour it into the decanter you just pour it out and so they had over a thousand three thousand artifacts that they decanted out
Starting point is 00:08:18 of there smudged up did all the electrics did all the kind of modernizing that they needed to do and now it seems like they've crammed a lot of it back. And was that the right thing to do? I suppose if you hadn't put most of it back in the same place, you'd be completely redecorating, reconfiguring Buckingham Palace, which would probably be a much bigger, more costly exercise. The one thing that has changed was actually the surveyor of the King's works of art, Caroline de Guito, said the one thing she has changed was actually the surveyor of the King's works of art, Caroline De Gito,
Starting point is 00:08:48 said the one thing she has changed, she has put something else in there. She's put a new clock and a barometer in there that weren't there before. So that's the only thing that's changed. She felt that where they had been previously, gosh, now, had they been in Windsor, they weren't at Buckingham Palace, but she felt they never quite sat right where they
Starting point is 00:09:04 were. And so with the King's permission she asked him you know do you mind if I just slightly redecorate here and he said that's absolutely fine but I was actually surprised that the king hadn't put more of his own mark in terms of actually because he's he's got an eye he's got a real eye well that's the thing and you know at Balmoral we were told that he had changed the curtains and the sofa and the carpet from when the Queen was there. And he'd brought some of those Prince Albert things out to storage, hadn't he? He'd bought Prince Albert's, he'd bought a case, display case from upstairs where you couldn't, where only he could see it and the family. Downstairs so the public could see it as part of the opening up.
Starting point is 00:09:41 But he hasn't done that in this. And maybe that's, maybe that's the feeling that he wants to keep Bingham palace on touch what's the difference between the prices why is it 100 pounds to go to balmoral do you think and 75 quid to go to buckingham palace um that's a really good question and i don't know the answer to it because actually you could argue you get even more at buckingham palace because you do the east wing tour as part of the main tour where you can see the gardens the the state rooms opening up as part of the summer opening. So I don't, I don't, I genuinely don't know the answer to that question. And you get to see the new portrait of the King? So I did see that as I was leaving that, you know, we, you and I talked about this the other day. I had only seen
Starting point is 00:10:18 that portrait, the Jonathan Yeoh portrait in the gallery just after he had been Wallace and Gromitid. Jonathan Yeoh portrait in the gallery just after he had been Wallace and Gromitid. But it's moved, which of course you wrote about in The Times a while ago. It has moved to the Palace until September. It's hanging in the ballroom. You get that as part of your 75 quid. You do. And actually it looks, having seen it in the Philip Moll Gallery and now having seen it hanging in a state room, and you know, the scale of that portrait is huge and it is very red,
Starting point is 00:10:46 and so is the ballroom. And so it's a great setting for it. Oh, it is. I thought you were going to say the reverse. And it's been lit very well. But I think for me, the ongoing question for all of this, the opening up of the palaces and the royal residences, the private ones, the official ones, particularly with the Buckingham Palace,
Starting point is 00:11:04 is, you know, Buckingham palace and the royal household are always very keen to insist that buckingham palace remains monarchy hq the headquarters of the king and queen and you know the working working central heartbeat of the monarchy a residential palace and yet you know as i have written and others have too and it's something you know, the palace get quite touchy about, the king has not spent a night there. And I don't think the king is going to make that his permanent home. Well, if you think by the time it's finally finished in about five years time and, you know, Camilla's past 80, are they really going to want to up sticks from Clarence House? And it was described to me years ago that they were going to have it as a kind of flat above the shop affair that, you know,
Starting point is 00:11:47 because actually technically it will be a residence, but really their home is Clarence House when they're in London. And I can't see that changing. It won't change. And the current arrangement works very well, whereby the king,
Starting point is 00:11:57 his household is there, his private office is there, the workings of monarchy are there. He goes to Buckingham Palace when he's in London. He holds his audience with diplomats, with prime ministers. He hosts state banquets there. It is, you know, a functioning monarchy HQ.
Starting point is 00:12:17 But let's be honest, it's unlikely it's ever going to be his private London residence, despite the official line Buckingham Palace continued to hold on that. And I think actually the public would be fine with that if people were just honest about it because he is opening up more it is going to be open more to the public and I you know I've always been a bit bemused that that's still the official line because I don't think and you don't think and most people who do this job don't think that Charles is ever going to live there as his primary London residence anyway I think they're just kind of, oh, is that my phone ringing with Charles's press secretary? It's interesting that you talk about the public and it being more open to the public
Starting point is 00:12:52 because of course the public is essentially funding this. Yeah. It's paying for this 369 million resurfacing from the treasury of Buckingham Palace. A lot of it needed doing, you know, they needed to rip out the asbestos. They needed to reserve, you know. Rewire everything. Rewire everything. And it's a They needed to rip out the asbestos. They needed to rewire everything.
Starting point is 00:13:07 And it's a long time coming. And the late Queen obviously didn't want to start all that process. In fact, it did start under her reign. But it's going to last for quite some time. Well, we're halfway through a 10-year project, aren't we? Yeah, exactly. Replacing all the old boilers, installing new lifts. I remember going around with the Japanese journalists
Starting point is 00:13:24 when we went around during just the head of the state banquet. And I think a lot of them were quite underwhelmed as we went through the back passages with the scaffolding and the kind of peely up lino on the floor and sort of chip paint and stuff that you see in those kind of back doors. There's still an awful lot to be done. Yeah. But is it going to be value for money? I suppose that's the question, isn't it? Well, the feeling was when it got that funding five years ago or before, that is Buckingham Palace belongs to the nation.
Starting point is 00:13:53 And it's important that, and it was in a state of total disrepair as the Public Accounts Committee sort of found, and they were actually quite cross that it hadn't been resurfaced and refurbished earlier. It's less about being a royal home. I think Buckingham Palace is more about being a monument for i think buckingham palace it's more about being a monument for the nation a sort of symbol for the nation and and now somewhere that increasingly the public can go and see much more of more and more and i think that's a good move very good
Starting point is 00:14:14 move by the king but i think he should come clean and fess up and just say i'm it's unlikely i'm ever going to live here maybe i will stand corrected in five years time kate let's do another podcast when he moves in with his pyjamas and spends a night there. Well, I think by five years' time they won't want to do that. And I can't see William wanting to kind of move in, will they? No way, never. So it's probably time for a break after all that peeking behind net curtains, snooping around the iconic palaces of the UK.
Starting point is 00:14:39 I think it is time for a break. And after our net curtain chat, shall we chat about footy? Yes, absolutely. Welcome back to the Royals. So what are the beats that we've been covering this week, Kate? Well, I think everyone in the country has been something of a sports correspondent,
Starting point is 00:14:55 haven't they lately? As England make it into the finals of the Euro tournament. What a night. I expect you went as wild as Prince William, did you last night watching that? I went quite wild. But I expect you went as wild as Prince William, did you, last night watching that? I went quite wild. But I tell you, talking about being a sports correspondent,
Starting point is 00:15:10 I tell you who else has been a sports correspondent this week, and that's the king. The king. Because the message that dropped on our little inboxes last night when that Ollie Watkins had just scored that last minute... Barely was the ball out of play. And we got this dropping on our phones. This is what the King said, listeners.
Starting point is 00:15:31 Which I think would be fair to say took a few of us by surprise because it was what I can only describe as royal bants. So this is what the King said last night, straight after that extraordinary England win. My wife and I join all our family in wishing you the warmest congratulations on reaching the final of the UEFA European Championship and in sending our very best wishes for Sunday's match. If I may encourage you to secure victory
Starting point is 00:15:56 before the need for any last-minute wonder goals or another penalties drama, I'm sure the stresses on the nation's collective heart rate and blood pressure would be greatly alleviated. Good luck, England. Charles R. Never mind God save the king. God save the country's blood pressure. That's a royal team talk. I had to read it twice and I thought, was it just a bit of fun? And then I thought, no, that's the official statement.
Starting point is 00:16:20 And that was, yeah, 10.01pm. So that was hardly any time had passed between that dropped. Now, the timing of that. Did you think anything of the timing of that and the timing of the Prince of the FA he's the one who has been to the matches met the team the football bands he's the football bounce man and then here it was the king coming straight in quite quickly his majesty will be going first yes can you imagine I thought good on you Charles because it was funny it was to the point it's what we're all thinking yeah and we've said before he's not such a massive football fan but now he's mates with david beckham maybe that's changed maybe they're just sitting there having a beer together watching it you reckon though what's happening sure he doesn't the king doesn't have a mobile phone so he probably is unless he's doing on his ipad on the ipad yeah and he'd be doing it like one thing index finger at a time wouldn't he maybe not maybe he's just
Starting point is 00:17:21 dictating it to anyway i thought i thought thought it was a great message from the King. And then we had the Aston Villa fan, the president of the FA, Prince William, super excited that a Villa player had scored that extraordinary goal with his... Ollie Watkins. What a beauty, he called it. What a beauty, Ollie. And I think it's fair to say most of us assume his Royal Highness will be in Berlin on Sunday, cheering on England. He is not going to miss that for the world, is he?
Starting point is 00:17:48 Maybe a little baby Wales in tow. A little Prince George would be good, wouldn't it? Great to see Charlotte at the football one day, wouldn't it? She plays football, doesn't she? They said that before. She does play football and she's into lots of different sports. So that would be good. It would be good.
Starting point is 00:18:01 He will surely be there. Anyway, sticking to sport, Queen Camilla turned up at Wimbledon this week, didn't she, with her sister? In a rather fetching giraffe dress. Where did you... We saw that. I think she wore that in Kenya. Oh, that would make sense. The Anna Valentine number. Yes. She looked like she was having a great time. They were doing a Mexican wave.
Starting point is 00:18:19 And it's the first time a Queen's been to Wimbledon since 2010, because the late Queen wasn't such a huge fan. You could probably count on one hand how many times she'd been to Wimbledon since 2010 because the late Queen wasn't such a huge fan. You could probably count on one hand how many times she'd been to Wimbledon. But Camilla's been there quite a few times before anyway, for fun. Yes. So it's quite good that she was there. But of course, we're all thinking about Princess of Wales. Who, of course, is patron of the All England Club and Wimbledon. And we're all waiting to hear whether or not she will be there this weekend
Starting point is 00:18:45 i'm hopeful she will be kate i i think it would be nice of course the tradition is that she normally presents the trophies doesn't she to the winners we've got the final ladies final on saturday men's final on sunday i think i i think all if she feels up to it in the same way as duping it'd be nice to think she could try and do one day. You were right last time, so I'm hoping you're right this time. There's another royal Catherine that I always think of with Wimbledon, which I think is a shame because people don't really talk about. Duchess of Kent. Yeah, it's Catherine Kent, Duchess of Kent, who for years from 69 to 2001 awarded the trophies and you look back at those pictures in
Starting point is 00:19:26 the 80s she's so glamorous and so wonderful and the Duke of Kent of course the retired president of the All England Club they did they were such a glamorous couple and I think lest we forget because she really put in a shift and she's such a brilliant member of the family I remember the thing I most remember about the Duchess of Kent and Wimbledon is that lovely clip when Jana Novotna was runner-up at the Wimbledon final and she lost
Starting point is 00:19:50 and she was very emotional and she came to get her runners-up trophy from the Duchess of Kent and she started crying. And the royal family is, you know, back then,
Starting point is 00:19:58 I mean, I think this would have been in the 90s, back then, you know, the royal family wasn't as touchy-feely as some members are now
Starting point is 00:20:04 and Jana Novotna just started crying on centre court and the Duchess of Kent just instinctively back then you know the royal family wasn't as touchy-feely as some members are now and Yonah Novotna just started crying on centre court and the Duchess of Kent just instinctively hugged her and whispered in her ear
Starting point is 00:20:12 and in the press conference afterwards when Yonah Novotna was asked what the Duchess of Kent said she said you know you played brilliantly
Starting point is 00:20:19 I know that you'll be back and I know that you will win and she was right and Yonah Novotna did come back and win and I always think you're right Duchess of Kent right. And Yonah Novotna did come back and win. And I always think, you're right, Duchess of Kent is so glamorous and we don't see her so much anymore.
Starting point is 00:20:28 She has a much more quiet, private life. But she was incredibly empathetic too in that role because you are dealing with winners and losers every year when you're going and giving the trophies. So Wimbledon, you're right, it's sort of synonymous with the royal family and the champions every year so well let's just see let's see if this weekend we see the princess of Wales it'd be lovely to
Starting point is 00:20:51 see her but her health comes first and we've got to respect that absolutely the other thing and the other the other issue that William's been focusing on this week as well as football I suspect football has been very high on his priority list this week is homelessness and it's been one year since he launched Homewards his initiative to try and tackle homelessness in six key locations across the UK and it's been a real focus for him that the teams that he's assembled in all those locations and working from the Royal Foundation have been convening and getting people together it It's been the focus of the first year, getting people together. And today he was down in Brixton at an event there, meeting some of the people who have been working with him in the Royal Foundation and some of the people who experienced homelessness over the years,
Starting point is 00:21:39 who've turned their lives around and who've got involved in the Homewards Project. I was down there and sort of met a few of them. And there are some extraordinary life stories there, actually, and some hopeful stories. And I think one of the things that William is always very keen to focus on, and we've heard this from Earthshot, haven't we, is being an optimist and being hopeful. He acknowledges that it's a huge, very difficult issue that's faced by too many people and we went you and i went to a briefing on monday where you know one of the people he's working with um from crisis said it had you know absolutely the figures are getting worse so this challenge is going in the wrong direction they are
Starting point is 00:22:14 going in the wrong direction it's getting harder but what was interesting to hear from william today and he gave a speech at brixton this event was the focus for him is as much as sort of tackling the numbers in these six locations and getting you know partnerships from organizations together who've never spoken to each other before is this idea of changing the narrative and he said in his speech that I created Homewards because I wanted us to look at the issue of homelessness through a different lens. And that came up last weekend because we got the news that he is going to be involved in launching a new exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London over the summer, which will feature works from famous artists like the photographer Rankin, but also much less famous artists and people, a lot of people won't have heard of,
Starting point is 00:23:04 but also much less famous artists and people, a lot of people wouldn't have heard of, who will create artworks that will go in this exhibition that will be about their lived experience of homelessness. And one of those is Dave Martin, who is the big issue vendor that William has gone out on the streets with and sold the big issue with twice. So for The Prince, and he's going to take part in this new ITV documentary in the autumn, and he's going to take part in this new ITV documentary in the autumn. I think we get this feeling from his work that changing people's preconceptions about homelessness, focusing on unseen homelessness, is as important to him as actually getting the numbers down too. Yeah, absolutely.
Starting point is 00:23:38 He's talking about changing the narrative, isn't he? Yeah. This documentary, I think, will be interesting in the autumn. So this is the two-part, 60-minute, two 60-minute minute episodes for itv it's got a bold title hasn't it what's the title william we can solve homelessness oh yeah a lot to live up to well it's a big old big old bold but as he said today i truly believe we can end homelessness and i think what's interesting that they're doing with this with all the royal foundation stuff is this preventative element because how depressing to be a member of the royal family to go around seal you know all these problems in society to try to solve them or to try
Starting point is 00:24:14 to get charitable funding to solve all these problems of society when you must always be thinking well can we just stop it happening in the first place which is exactly what he wants to do with homewards and at first i was pretty cynical because, you know, how can a bloke with so many palaces really kind of lecture us on, you know, homelessness today and what is he doing about it when he has all these homes, helicopters in between. But you look at the convenient power of the events today, people are like, he's got Ikea, he's got Homebase,
Starting point is 00:24:42 he's got Freshfields, the law firm, he's got Night Frank, he's got Freshfields, the law firm. He's got Night Frank. He's got all these huge names now together. And, you know, everybody wants to meet Prince William. But then he's also kind of meeting, bringing people with this lived experience of homelessness, like this amazing Dr. Sabrina Cohen-Hatton that we want to get on the podcast. I was speaking to her on Times Radio. She's unbelievably inspirational. She lived on the streets as a teenager and somehow managed to get not just a degree, a PhD,
Starting point is 00:25:10 rose through the ranks of the fire service after joining as a firefighter at 18 and is now kind of inspiring kind of national policy on how people fight fires. She's just incredible. But so many people like that who are advocates for his for his scheme i think it's it is going to be a success we heard today as well after that event in brixton that i mean that there was a there was a announcement earlier this year i wrote a story in february that he was building social housing on duchy of cornwall land in yes that was a good story that was a good story because i got got him to say that in the interview last year when i said you've got all these but you said
Starting point is 00:25:48 so what are you doing about it which is a great question and there was a sort of pause and i was like so there's gonna be no affordable housing on your land then and he sort of shifted uncomfortably in his seat and went well no but i'm gonna do some social housing and then the press secretary shifted even more uncomfortably in his seat but then he did it and in february you know they started building in cornwall and Lancelot. And today they've said that he's involved in a lot more plans on Dutch Cornwall. So there will be more social housing,
Starting point is 00:26:12 more housing, social housing built for people at risk of homelessness on his land. And that can only be a good thing. Because of course, he said last year, I know people are going to say to me, who are you to talk about homelessness with exactly, as you've said, all these houses and palaces, but either you do nothing or you try and do something. And also, I think that this element with the kind of Royal Foundation as well, this idea of they're preventing it.
Starting point is 00:26:34 But I said to them on Monday at the briefing, why is it a five year programme? What you really think you're going to, you know, job done and walk away in five years but the answer to that was really interesting which was like no we want to put those sort of trial areas those six trial areas put the processes in place so that they can then manage it it's the kind of this sustainable pattern because i think that's what they saw with the king when he was prince of wales that he had squillions of charities that he set up and then we know obviously had a long time until he got to the throne it was all fine until he was nearing the throne yeah and thinking what am i going to do with all these charities they're going to have to start standing on their own feet whereas william now is perhaps being more realistic perhaps because the situation that he's in with you know 75 year old father on the throne knowing that he's the heir. This has to be work that can be sustainable,
Starting point is 00:27:27 that you can start a project, put all the framework in place, but then people run it themselves. And I think that is a smart idea. That's a really clever idea. And to end today, Kate, we're going to pay tribute to someone who embodied the attention to detail that the royal family are famous for. Yes, of course, you're talking about Eddie Spence, the king of royal icing. Eddie had a 71-year career and decorated cakes for some of the grandest of grand royal occasions, Kate. And as a 14-year-old apprentice at J.W. Mackey's Bakery in Prince's Street, aptly named, he spent an entire day once hand-beating eggs for the royal icing
Starting point is 00:28:05 for Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip's wedding in 1947. And I didn't realise until I looked it up that actually royal icing does include egg white, which I didn't know. Wow, I never knew. Then he went on to decorate the cake for Princess Margaret's wedding to Anthony Armstrong Jones in 1960, then Prince Charles and Diana Spence's
Starting point is 00:28:25 wedding in 1981. And here's a little snippet from the Times obituary for Eddie Spence. A royal icer should never discriminate, Spence insisted, when asked if he'd like to ice a cake for the future King Charles. Someone once said to me, oh Eddie, I've got a cake to do, but it's only for next door's little boy. It doesn't matter who it's for. You've got to look at it and say, You're proud of your cakes. I'm terrible with cakes. I'm not a baker, Kate. No. I like to cook.
Starting point is 00:28:57 I like to eat. I like to cook. I love to eat. But I'm not a baker. It's a fascinating story. And on Tuesday, you can hear the full obituary, read by Roya, no less, on another Times podcast called Your History.
Starting point is 00:29:11 Each week, Your History explores two remarkable lives from the obits pages of the Times. Do check it out wherever you get your podcasts. There's plenty to keep your ears charmed until you hear from us next week. Wonderful stuff. Do you know what we really wanted william to say today which he just staunchly refused to it's coming homewards
Starting point is 00:29:30 it's coming homewards gosh he missed a trick didn't he there but he did say his voice was hoarse from all the uh shouting cheering england on didn't he deal and skinner should do to do an anthem for his homelessness project it's coming homewards come on come on it's happening king harry kane king harry kane

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.