royalty

The Crown: Who was Princess Alice and did an interview with the media really change public perceptions of her?

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

Princess Alice

With the return of Netflix’s hit royal drama series The Crown, attention has turned to a lesser-known member of the monarchy: Princess Alice.

The show has been known to tread a fine between fact and fantasy and “Bubbikins” – the fourth episode of season three – raises many questions about the real life of this enigmatic woman.

Princess Alice’s turbulent life saw her serving as military nurse during World War I, becoming a nun, living in exile twice and struggling with her mental health.

Prince Philip’s semi-estranged mother was born congenitally deaf in Windsor Castle in 1885 and raised as an English princess.[ . . . ]

Continue at: The Crown: Who was Princess Alice and did an interview with the media really change public perceptions of her? | The Independent

It’s just not Woking: Prince Andrew has already ruined The Crown 

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

The thought of having to wait a decade for the Netflix take on the most staggering spectacle of our time – Prince Andrew’s interview – is torture

Does anyone else wish The Crown would get a bloody move on? Because, sure, despite the new intake of actors, the third season of The Crown is exactly the same as the previous two. It’s slow and staid and sumptuous, and largely about a very rich woman who basically has a very nice time without any sort of incident most of the time. It’s good and impressive and all, but there isn’t exactly a lot of high drama.

I can’t speak for everyone but the reason I keep watching is because The Crown is, to all intents and purposes, Better Call Saul With Corgis. The drama isn’t in what we see onscreen, but what we all know will definitely happen later. There will be death. Divorce. Windsor Castle will burn down. Prince Charles will get married to Princess Diana, but declare his wish that he was another woman’s tampon. Prince Harry will dress up like a Nazi. And Prince Andrew will deny having sex with a minor at the behest of the world’s most notorious billionaire paedophile shortly after having a pizza in Woking.

This last one has prompted the biggest crisis the monarchy has had to face for over two decades, and there’s a real sense that the whole thing will end in total disaster if it isn’t handled with extreme care. Everything is going wrong, and we still cannot rule out the possibility that The Crown will end with Queen Elizabeth undertaking the royal equivalent of opening a Cinnabon in Nebraska. That’s dramatic tension, not countless scenes of Prince Philip demonstrating an appropriate level of excitement about the moon landing. Continue reading →

Sir Michael Palin ‘will probably be only knighted Python’ 

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

Michael Palin has predicted he will be the only Monty Python member to become a sir after being dubbed a knight by Prince William at Buckingham Palace.

“I’ll probably be the only one,” he said, adding that fellow Python John Cleese had turned down the chance.It is not known if Cleese rejected a knighthood, but he did refuse a CBE in 1996 and a peerage in 1999.Sir Michael also said he had managed to suppress a joke while speaking to the Duke of Cambridge on Wednesday.

“He talked about where I was going next, any parts of the world I really wanted to go that I hadn’t already,” revealed the broadcaster.

The 76-year-old said he normally answered “Middlesbrough” when asked the question but on this occasion opted for Kazakhstan.

Sir Michael did in fact visit Middlesbrough, for the first time, in 2015.Speaking after the investiture ceremony, the Pole to Pole presenter also spoke about the BBC’s decision to scrap free TV licences for all over-75s.

He said the BBC had done “a pretty bad deal” in agreeing to take on the cost of free licences in 2015.”I hoped somehow that would somehow go away and it hasn’t gone away,” he continued.”I just wish it wasn’t at the expense of the people who now have to fork out for their licence.

“Sir Michael was knighted in the New Year Honours for services to travel, culture and geography.Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle and Terry Jones are the other surviving members of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Graham Chapman, the sixth member, died in 1989.

Source: Sir Michael Palin ‘will probably be only knighted Python’ – BBC News