| Hugh Scully wrote and presented the BBC 1 programme 'A Prince for our Time', | ||
| a film biography of Prince Charles. | ||
| During the Prince of Wales's recent visit to Australia the journalists following the tour were | ||
| stranded in Tasmania by an airline strike. However, one Fleet Street man did manage to get out in | ||
| time. He was Arthur Edwards, royal-snapper for The Sun". During a walkabout in Adelaide the | ||
| Prince spotted the familiar figure festooned with cameras. | ||
| 5 | HRH: Good Morning, Mr Edwards. Where are all your colleagues? | |
| Edwards: They're stranded in Tasmania, sir. | ||
| HRH: Oh dear. How long are they likely to be stranded for? | ||
| Edwards: How long would you like me to arrange, sir? | ||
| The royal gamekeeper and the Heet Street poacher understood each other perfectly. The Prince | ||
| 10 | wanted to know what had happened to his press coverage, but at the same time relished the | |
| freedom its absence gave him. The story says much about the love-hate relationship between the | ||
| Prince and the Press. | ||
| In South Australia, he was free of them, but not for long. The reporters hired a plane to fly | ||
| them back to the mainland. They need hardly have bothered. It was a charter from Tasmania to | ||
| 15 | tedium, for the Prince's progress was, by common consent, a monotonous business. As one nonevent | |
| followed another the journalists became desperate for a decent story and so, in the bar of a | ||
| Sydney hotel, a plot was hatched. HRH was to be 'set up'. The Fleet Street men knew that the one | ||
| picture their newspapers would always print was of the Prince with a pretty girl. They also knew | ||
| that HRH would almost certainly take an early-morning swim at Bondi Beach. A good-looking | ||
| 20 | Australian model was to get close enough to the royal bather to make a good picture. A kiss on | |
| the royal cheek would be a real bonus. Alas, before she could get within snapping distance, the | ||
| detectives spotted what she was up to and hustled HRH away to his car. | ||
| The Buckingham Palace press secretaries are quite shocked by all this. Nothing in their | ||
| background has prepared them to cope with journalists, and nothing in their training helps them | ||
| 25 | to learn. Indeed, all the reporters I talked to about it believed that the Queen and Prince Charles | |
| have a far greater understanding of the media than any of the people who are employed to advise | ||
| them on the matter. The 'set-up' like the one at Bondi would rarely occur if the relationship | ||
| between the Palace and the press had not broken down. Arranging pictures is part of the job of an | ||
| efficient press office. Things have come to a pretty pass when the journalists have to do it themselves. | ||
| 30 | During the making of A Prince for Our Time we were deafened by the sound of doors slamming | |
| in our faces. Even people who initially wanted to help withdrew after consulting the Palace. The | ||
| answer was always the same. 'Sorry, I would like to help you but I can't.' Had we been digging | ||
| for scandal or seeking sensation we could have understood their reluctance, but all we were after | ||
| were harmless stories to put a little flesh on the bones of a film biography. | ||
| 35 | A Prince for Our Time was seen by at least 500 million people around the world, yet I don't | |
| suppose any project like it has ever been undertaken with so little official co-operation, But | ||
| perhaps the Palace's attitude will have changed, the next time it is attempted. | ||
| The Listener, July 30, 1981 |