Prince Philip like we’ve never seen him

HEY, the Duke of Edinburgh was even more of a wag than we supposed.

Among his favourite tricks was to get one of his grandchildren to hold in both hands a tube of mustard from which the lid had been removed. The Duke would then squish both hands together so that the mustard would squirt on to the ceiling.

Her Majesty the Queen would not be amused (much as her great-greatgrandmother Victoria often was not amused).

“He used to get in a lot of trouble from my grandmother,” Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, recalls, in a BBC documentary to be aired today.

Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers features all four of the queen and Prince Philip’s children, along with their adult grandchildren and members of the duke’s long-serving staff.

“He enjoyed those jokes, he enjoyed messing around the children and being a grandfather,” says Prince William, who remembers the duke – who died in April aged 99 – as “the heart of the family”.

The light-hearted revelation is one of a number of poignant and amusing insights in the documentary, originally conceived as a personal portrait to mark Prince Philip’s 100th birthday – with much of the footage shot before his death.

“He made time for all of us, he supported all of us – and he kept control of most of us,” laughs grandchild Peter Phillips, who also recalls the duke’s frustration as he got to grips with a new gadget, often denouncing the offending machine as “bloody stupid” in loud tones, overheard from the breakfast room.

“I have memories of him getting a new laptop or a new printer – and hearing him shouting at it,” says Phillips. “He loved technology... but it was always quite entertaining to see him trying to figure them out!”

The documentary-makers were given special access to the queen’s private cine-film collection, which shows the royal family enjoying ordinary family events, such as barbecuing in Balmoral and riding bikes around their garden.

“Every barbecue that I have ever been on, the Duke of Edinburgh has been there cooking,” says Prince William, over footage of a family picnic.

“He adored barbecuing,” says Prince Charles, adding, with a smile: “He turned that into an interesting art form…”

Statue swop

AFTER a statue of Robert E Lee was removed from Richmond, Virginia, former president Donald Trump offered to buy the monument for his bedroom at Mar-a-Lago, according to the New Yorker.

“It’s a beautiful statue of a beautiful man, and, quite frankly, there’s no one I’d rather wake up to every morning,” he said.

Saying the removal of the statue “should never have been allowed to happen in this country,” Trump said he had offered Virginia a statue of himself in return.

“I can’t think of a better person to take Robert E Lee’s place than Trump,” he said. “I’ll even throw in free shipping.”

Asked why he had decided to place the Civil War statue in his bedroom, Trump said his wife, Melania, had asked him to put it some place where she wouldn’t see it.

Yes, this is satirist Andy Borowitz being even naughtier than usual.

Tailpiece

THERE are not many instances where British royalty get into verbal altercations. But if they did they’d have to duke it out somewhere.

Last word

I THINK on-stage nudity is disgusting, shameful and damaging to all things American. But if I were 22 with a great body, it would be artistic, tasteful, patriotic and a progressive religious experience. | SHELLEY WINTER