PALACE MOLE
From geek to pin-up for Crown’s prince...
EXCLUSIVE HERE’S an entry for Adrian Mole’s secret diary... he is about to play Britain’s next king.
The awkward, geeky schoolboy always wanted to go up in the world and now he will when he plays a teenaged Prince William in The Crown.
The transformation for actor Rufus Kampa, 16, could hardly be greater.
In the stage version of The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾, Rufus played the goofy, bespectacled hero, a million miles away from a young Wills in a top hat and tails at Eton College.
Wills was fancied by girls all over the world. Adrian could only stare agog at an illicit copy of Big & Bouncy magazine.
A source said: “Rufus can’t wait to play Prince William and he’ll be playing him at an age when he was a pin-up for schoolgirls around the world, so it will be a very different role from what he’s used to.
Fantastic
“The school where he studied in a small village outside Aylesbury is also very different to the one where William went. “Rufus attended a small state school with a real mix of pupils from all different backgrounds.
“He’s playing the young William from his school days and another actor will play the uni years when he met Kate Middleton. They are both fantastic new actors.” Rufus, of Buckinghamshire who left school in the summer, does have one thing in common with the real William. Despite spending a lot of his school days fulfilling his passion of appearing in plays and musicals, he is also a straight-a student.
The source said: “He’s one of those people who is good at everything. “He got cast in The Crown, then the same summer got the best grades in his year in his GCSE exams.” The Prince of Wales got 12 GCSES and went on to get As in his A-levels before studying at University of St Andrews in Fife, where he met his future wife. Newcomers Ed Mcvey and Meg Bellamy, both 21, will play the couple in their university years. The Crown has been a huge success since its first series, which attracted 17.6 million viewers. The fifth season, which is available to stream from November 9, will cover the 1990s.
It features a new cast of big names, including Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth, Dominic West as Prince Charles, and Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana.
Rufus will join the show for season six which is believed to focus on the late 90s and early 00s, including William’s later school years, gap year and university education. janine.yaqoob@people.co.uk