The Duke of Edinburgh made his first appearance in the Times Diary in June 1966, one month after the column started, in a story about a campaign to save Britain’s coastline. He popped up from time to time, though in those more deferential days, Diary editors decided his utterances were not all to be shared with readers.
Covering an event in 1973, the Diary noted that he “made some quite good jokes” about Watergate. Sadly, we didn’t say what they were.
Over time, though, the duke’s views became known to readers, if second-hand. In 1985, we covered him meeting elite athletes in Cambridge on a day when the papers had reported that Prince Philip had adopted a new “limp” handshake because of the agony of shaking millions of hands.
“Expecting something flappy and wimpish,” the Diary reported, “the men got royal bone-crushers. ‘I almost turned blue with agony’, said Olympic oarsman John Pritchard.”
A couple of years later the duke was given a tour of Yorkshire Television’s studios where an executive mentioned the competition it was under from Channel 4. Philip asked what sort of programmes Channel 4 made and was told that Michael Grade, its chief executive, had just been dubbed “pornographer in chief”.
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At this the duke took interest. “Really?” he said. “And can we get it at Sandringham?”
Over many public engagements (in 1970, we noted he had made 807 in that year), he developed the common touch. Though when one woman asked if he might design a range of tea towels for the royal household, he replied: “Madam, I don’t have anything to do with the washing up.”
Political commentary was an occasional pastime. In 2017, we quoted George Osborne recalling a state dinner for the president of Indonesia where Philip helpfully explained what a chancellor of the exchequer was. “He’s the man in charge of all the money,” the duke said, adding: “Except we haven’t got any money left.”
Literary criticism was an interest. When AN Wilson told him that his next work was to be on one of Philip’s predecessors, Prince Albert, Philip offered four words of advice: “Short life. Short book.”
Readers were often keen to tell the Diary of encounters with him. The duke and the Queen attended a concert at a school, which ended with At The Hunt, a polka by Johann Strauss II that features two pistol shots. Afterwards, the duke approached the student in charge of the pistol. “You missed the wife,” he said. “Twice.”
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He could, of course, be acerbic. We reported his response to a person who remarked that his wife’s Christmas message could be more entertaining. The duke suggested “hiring a line of chorus girls and calling it ‘The Queen Show’ ”. Philip had a thing about chorus girls. He once gave the fact that toffs have married them as proof that Britain lacks a class system. “Some dukes,” he sniffed, “have even married Americans.” And that was before the latest one. Some members of the public gave as good as they got. On an Australian tour the duke met a woman with with 14 children. “Good God!” the duke spluttered. “Where’s your husband? I’ll have to get the Queen to give him a knighthood.” The Aussie laughed. “That wouldn’t do any good,” she said. “He’ll never wear one.”
During production of The Crown in 2016, we revealed that Matt Smith, who was playing Philip, sought advice from Donald Douglas, who played him in the 1993 TV film Diana: Her True Story. “I watched lots of newsreels,” Douglas said, “but all the director kept saying was, ‘Be more grumpy’.”