the enigma
white shift, she “looked so
vulnerable” having “to make
these terrible vows”.
The uplifting The Reunion:
Silver Jubilee (BBC Sounds)
brought together several of
the team behind the 1977
national celebrations credited
with recalibrating the Crown’s
standing with the public at a
time of tumult. They included
the organiser Sir Michael
Parker, Penelope Keith, the
historian Hugo Vickers and
the veteran royal spokesman
Dickie Arbiter, but the show’s
refreshing discovery was the
superfan Anita Atkinson,
royal collector extraordinaire
from Co Durham.WORLD LEADERS
For The Documentary: The
Royal Diplomat (BBC World
Service, yesterday), Emma
Barnett visited Windsor
Castle’s archives to traceReid’s artwork for the Sex
Pistols’ 1977 single God Save
the Queen. On Tuesday, on
Radio 4, in A Laureate for
Elizabeth, William Sieghart
surveys the Queen’s seven
poet laureates, from
the Edwardian John Masefield
to the incumbent, Radio
6-friendly Simon Armitage.ROYAL WATCHER
If you want less reverence,
more breathless detail of
tantrums and tiaras, try
Tina Brown narrating her
recent audiobook The Palace
Papers. Chapter four, Mother
of the Nation, gives a bleak
assessment of the Queen’s
parenting of Charles.REGAL ANCESTORS
How many of us still expect to
be working at 96? The Rest Is
History podcast (episode 189
is released tomorrow) offers a
colourful history of jubilees.
Introduced by George III,
they remain the preserve of
sovereigns with longevity (it
seems unlikely Prince Charles,
73, will mark many) and, says
Dominic Sandbrook, offer the
chance of a stocktaking, “the
enmeshing of the personality
of the monarch with the
narrative of Britain and its
place in the world”.THE QUEEN HERSELF
Of course we do not know
what the Queen really thinks
about her record-breaking
reign. Her devoted friends’
admiration often seems
tempered with pity. “In
doing that job you have to
squash the self out of you,”
Margaret Rhodes says on
Desert Island Discs. On The
India Hicks Podcast Lady
Pamela recalls looking at
the Queen’s frail figure
during her 1953 anointment
and wondering: “How will
she survive this? Every
young girl must think what
must it like to be queen.
Queen for a day, yes. But
queen for every day, that is a
more alarming thought.” c| INTERVIEW
First member of the royal
family I met
In 1989 I was the entertainer
at a party for William and
Harry at Kensington Palace.
It was a private event to
celebrate their seventh and
fifth birthdays. Princess
Diana was friendly, made me
a lovely cup of tea and took a
lot of photos. Harry and I get
on because we are gingers.First book I loved
Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald
Dahl. I wanted to be in the
movie, but they animated it
and got George Clooney to
do the voice, which was
disappointing. They could’ve
had me, a homegrown fox.First single I bought
Cum on Feel the Noize by
Slade. Nobody was louder
than Noddy Holder, other
than me when I said my
catchphrase: “Boom boom.”First TV show I never
missed
The Morecambe and Wise
Christmas specials. It’s
classic humour that doesn’t
date because they are not
political. They are just
wonderful sketches.First film I saw at the
cinema
Jaws. I thought with
my two big teeth it
would be good for
me to see because it
was about dentistry.
I was wrong. It was
about a huge rubber
fish. It was so scary.
Most people,
like me, didn’t
have a bath for
a fortnight.MY CULTURAL FIRSTS
BASIL BRUSH
Next week Basil Brush will be on stage
for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee as part
of the People’s Pageant. He tells Jake
Helm about the culture that made him
First puppet I looked up to
I’m just 18in tall, so I look up
to most puppets, but if I had
to pick one it would be Rod
Hull’s Emu, who was
everything I wasn’t. He was
chaotic. I was sophisticated.First fox I loved
Edward Fox was the first fox
I admired. He is a great actor.
Then there’s Samantha Fox,
the singer. She was the first
lady fox I remember loving.First time I used my
catchphrase, ‘Boom boom’
On The Basil Brush Show, the
guy holding the boom mike
dropped it and shouted
“Boom, boom” so I decided
to use it. If people have
heard my jokes before, it’s
because I’m recycling them
and saving the planet. cBasil Brush will perform at
the Platinum Pageant on Jun
5, broadcast live on BBC1seven decades of the Queen
exercising soft power through
royal visits, Commonwealth
summits and quiet words in
leaders’ ears. Best moments
include recollections of the
Queen’s 1961 dance with the
Ghanaian president Kwame
Nkrumah and her once-
unimaginable 2011 state visit
to Ireland. Hard to see her son
or grandson managing it all so
smoothly. I enjoyed the detail
that Nelson Mandela insisted
on calling her “Elizabeth”.POET LAUREATES
In The Rest Is History
podcast The New Elizabethan
Age the historians Dominic
Sandbrook and Tom Holland
entertainingly assess the
Queen as icon through
artefacts assembled for a
Sotheby’s exhibition,
including an Andy Warhol
pop art portrait and Jamie