Tuesday 5 January 2016

6 things we learned about the royals from #Trustat40

Prince Charles is a giggle, Harry pinches Kate's dinner and George is driving a tractor through Kensington Palace - just a few thing we learned from the special programme about the 40th anniversary of the Prince's Trust shown on ITV1 last night.


A screen grab of ITV1's When Ant and Dec met the Prince: Prince's Trust at 40

Ant and Dec followed Prince Charles around for a year while he worked with the Prince's Trust and, once they'd got their nerves out of the way, provided an insight into royalty that brought it right into the 21st century. Here are 6 things we learned about the royals from #Trustat40.


1. Charles is actually hilarious

We've seen moments of Charles having fun on plenty of engagements but seeing him at work over the course of a year and seeing him build a relationship with Ant and Dec proved just how hilarious this Prince of Wales is.



It would have been easy for the prince to get stuffy and only talk about his work or ignore the giggling from his hosts but he loved every second of it. From laughing over where he bought his underpants to telling them off for eating everything, Charles clearly had a whale of a time with these two and showed us all that he is a right good laugh into the bargain.


2.  Harry gets hungry

Everyone was waiting for the moment that William and Harry turned up to talk about their dad and they didn't disappoint. We're used to seeing this pair of princes relaxed in one another's company but just a few moments of the programme showed how close they still are with both revealing how they loved to spend time with one another at Kensington Palace.


She might not be smiling quite so much next time she finds Harry has emptied the fridge
(By Ricky Wilson [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons)

But there's one thing William wasn't overly enamoured with. It turns out his little brother, like a lot of men who live alone, doesn't necessarily keep the fridge well stocked and is over pinching food whenever he can. Fridge raider Harry showed no embarrassment at the revelation and was clearly planning his next trip to borrow a cup of sugar or a plate of chicken or a packet of biscuits...whatever Wills and Kate have handy, really.

3. Charles was an embarrassing dad

We all wanted a bit of an Ant and Dec touch to the interviews in this show and we got them. They were straight in with one question we'd all love to ask - was Charles an embarrassing dad? The answer, of course, was yes but did they have a giggle explaining why.



Charles, it turns out, finds silly things funny and the chances are that no one else will be laughing. That, explained William and Harry, isn't going to put their dad off laughing at it. Over and over and over again. Both told stories of school plays performed to a Prince of Wales who chuckled all the way through at things no one else found funny. Yep, he is an embarrassing dad.

4.  Prince George loves toy tractors

We've had hints before that Prince George loves playing with his toy tractors but his dad and uncle said it out loud for us during the show, revealing that the historic corridors of Kensington Palace currently resonate to the sound of squeaky wheels as the third in line to the throne pedals his way around them.

George wants to know when he can stop posing for photos and go and churn up another royal residence with his toy tractor
(photo Duchess of Cambridge/ Kensington Palace)

As William and Harry looked out on the space where they had grown up together, the Duke of Cambridge admitted that George and Charlotte had the palace as a playground and the princes reminisced about the happy times they had spent there.


5.  Charles loves being a granddad

Before the show was broadcast we heard how Charles admitted in it that there was no nappy changing by this royal grandpapa but that he was delighted to have a granddaughter and hoped she would keep an eye on him as he 'tottered' about with age.



The full show also revealed how much he values the role of grandfather as he talked to Ant and Dec about his own maternal granddad, George VI, and how he missed growing up without him being just 3 and a half when the king died. 'A very important role' is how Charles summed up being a grandfather and you could tell he meant every word of that.


6. Harry isn't a big fan of one royal tradition

As Ant and Dec were shown into Kensington Palace for a chat with William and Harry they passed a table containing official photos of the two princes. Harry began talking about the tradition at the end of royal tours of handing over a framed picture as a thank you gift and made it pretty clear that he found the whole thing bizarre.


Prince Harry leaves Australia after his visit in 2015 - it seems he was left red faced about the gift he had to offer his hosts
(photo Eva Rinaldi via Flickr)

In fact, Harry went on a bit of a rant about it, going on about how odd it was to hand over a photo of himself as he left his guests. His big brother walked on ahead with Ant and Dec while Harry stayed on his soap box as they made their way up a set of stairs - it's a pretty good guess that he might well be lobbying for a change to the rules behind the scenes.

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