[imagesource: PA]
Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, passed away earlier this year at the age of 99.
A good innings by any measurement, that.
Prince Harry famously called him a “legend of banter, and cheeky right ’til the end” in his tribute, and Philip’s fondness of a laugh has been well documented over the years.
As has his extensive list of what can kindly be called ‘gaffes’.
You can’t say anything too nasty about what Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, has labelled one of his grandfather’s favourite pranks.
Philip thoroughly enjoyed getting his grandkids to squirt mustard all over the ceiling.
The BBC reports:
“He used to take the lid off [the tube] and put it in your hands… and then he’d squish your hands together to fire the mustard onto the ceiling.”
Her Majesty was not amused.
“He used to get in a lot of trouble from my grandmother,” Prince William recalls, in a forthcoming BBC One documentary to be aired on Wednesday.
The mustard antics were also recalled by Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips, children of the Princess Royal:
“He gets you to hold it in your hands and I can’t remember exactly what he says – but he ends up slamming your hands together… it goes all over the ceiling,” says Ms Tindall.
“I actually think the marks are still there,” her brother adds.
I dunno, I think the help would have taken care of the mustard stains.
The British Royal Family can be difficult to relate to at times, but at least the older generations share a common struggle with modern technology:
Mr Phillips 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 Mr Phillips. “He loved technology… but it was always quite entertaining to see him trying to figure them out!”
There’s a 99% chance he was one of those people who leant in far too close to the camera on Zoom calls.
“Hello, can you hear me? Hello?!”
The documentary, Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers, also paints the Duke as a man who loved a good barbecue, with Charles saying he “turned that into an interesting art form”.
Featuring footage from the Queen’s private collection, the doccie includes interviews with all four of his children, their adult grandchildren, and long-serving members of his staff.
Prince William spoke about what made Philip and the Queen different from other family members. Sky News below:
“My grandfather loved things when they go wrong. Both my grandparents love that because you can imagine, they’ve lived a life where everything has to go right the whole time and so when things go wrong, they both chuckle an awful lot. Everyone else gets mortally embarrassed. They love it.”
Harry, who was filmed separately, echoes William’s thoughts, saying: “The two of them are going ‘Well I wonder if something’s gonna go wrong this year? How exciting’.”
Some of the interviews were filmed before Philip’s death, in anticipation of his 100th birthday (which would have been on June 10 this year), while others were filmed after his passing.
The doccie airs tomorrow night on BBC One at 9PM UK time, with a limited trailer rolled out ahead of the release:
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