- I like them, but they don't like me.
'Cause I say like, you know, sexually aggressive things
about Prince Harry.
Like, I'll call him The Duke of I just Came-Bridge,
even though I know that's not historically accurate.
(Kate laughs)
That's not his title, but.
(beeping)
(orchestra background music)
Hello, I'm Katherine Ryan,
and today I'm taking your questions about "The Crown"
on Netflix and taking them to the delightful,
Professor Kate Williams, author, historian, genius.
She's got all the answers.
(upbeat music)
(typing sounds)
- I wanna know about Margaret.
It's not a particularly spicy name.
You wouldn't here, "Oh, Margaret,
you wouldn't believe what she got up to!"
- [Kate] So Margaret's tour of the US
was absolutely a bombshell.
I love the way the episode is called "Margaret-ology"
because the US fell in love with her.
So she went to Hollywood, met Hitchcock,
met Judy Garland, and then she goes to New York.
And then she goes to Washington.
And that's where she meets the President,
Lyndon Johnson and Mrs. Johnson.
- Margaret was telling rude limericks?
I get up to that.
I'm telling rude limericks in the pub, now and then,
(Kate laughs)
but not to the President.
- They found her vagina in North Carolina.
- And her asshole in Buckingham Palace.
(laughter)
- Lyndon Johnson was completely captivated by Margaret.
They danced till 1:40 in the morning.
Now, we don't know exactly,
whether or not she was doing those naughty lyrics
about what ended up in Arizona or Buckingham Palace.
But it is very like Margaret.
She was very risque.
- Did she bang him?
- (laughs)
Well, it was his wedding anniversary,
his 32nd wedding anniversary - So yes?
- With Mrs. Johnson, so.
- Do you think she kissed him?
- [Kate] They did obviously kiss on the cheek.
I don't know whether they went in for a full blown
- Shag?
- No, expression of, you know, transatlantic relations
in that way.
- I hope not, because right now I think Obama's the only one
who's never cheated on his wife.
So, do you think she was like the Prince Harry of then,
the fun one?
- The fun one?
She was the party animal of the royal family.
- The Mariah Carey of the Royal Family.
- [Kate] The Mariah Carey of the Royal Family,
- [Katherine] Chill out.
- the diva, going too far.
When everyone is saying let's tighten our belts,
here's Margaret with her
- Untightening belts.
- [Kate] Untightening belt, yes.
- I hope,
- [Kate] Yeah.
- I secretly hope
she was getting some.
(upbeat music)
(typing sounds)
- Blunt was a Cambridge educated man,
a distant, really distant relative of the Royal Family.
And during the war,
he was really one of the biggest Russian spies.
He passed over a huge amount of information to the Russians.
He passed over so much that the Russians,
they thought he was actually a triple agent
because he was passing over too much stuff.
- [Katherine] Oh, it's just crazy to me that they'd
rather save face than prosecute someone
who gave important information to the Russians.
- [Kate] Such important information.
He was actually talking, in World War Two,
about the enigma machine that the code-breakers
of Bletchley Park, they made the war two years shorter
than it was, because of their operations.
They're heroes.
And here was someone at the heart
of the British Establishment, undermining enigma.
- So, did he hate Britain?
- No, but
- He was just a trouble-maker?
- He believed in the Communist Cause.
I mean, we haven't really got him, exactly, saying why.
I mean, he said he regretted it later, but
- He regretted getting caught.
- You see, Kate, they all regret getting caught.
- It does amaze me, because you think about Lord Haw-haw,
who put out these really
- You do think about him.
- Silly, silly, silly, it was only silly broadcasts
of you know, pro-German stuff.
No one believed it,
and he was executed as a traitor.
But Blunt, he just lives a great life
in the heart of The Establishment.
(upbeat music)
(typing sounds)
- They start talking about a pay rise,
and, there is a feeling in the public,
that it's not acceptable
that, already people are struggling,
that there's not enough money.
They're seen as rather expensive,
and they're also seen as out of touch.
- So, it's the wrong time to ask for a pay rise.
- It is.
Their solution is a documentary called The Royal Family,
but the minute it was on, you start to see
a lot of concern in The Establishment.
They think, "We've opened the doors."
"We've opened the doors to the Royal Family."
Prince Phillip doing sausages,
and Charles chatting over the breakfast table,
it was too much.
- Well, how wrong they were
because The Queen could be Kim Kardashian, now.
She could have perfumes.
She could have a line of shape-wear, lip kits, multi
- [Kate] Endorsements.
- Endorsements, video games...
Why did it go away?
- It's now locked in the archives.
You can't get it.
You and I would have to break in to the film archives
to get to watch it.
- I'm their boss,
because I pay a tax.
So, if I wanna watch The Queen's reality show,
then I should be able to.
It's like if people want pictures of me on the tube.
I'm like, grateful, that they want it,
so even though I'm in a track suit, might be hungover,
I'm like
But yeah, I'm on board with the Royal Family
being mysterious.
That mystique does enhance their value.
- [Kate] The hilarious thing is how smart they all are.
Prince Phillip's doing the barbecue,
but they're all just so smart,
and The Queen's got the pearls.
It's very funny.
- [Katherine] Oh, like, smartly dressed.
- [Kate] Yes, yes.
- I was like,
(laughs)
Prince Phillip, sure.
(orchestra music)
(typing sounds)
- But, The Queen did like Wilson a lot,
despite the fact that she was apprehensive.
But, she and Wilson had this marvelous relationship.
She really saw him as very down-to-earth,
and someone who'd explain to her,
what the average man was doing in the street.
She let him
smoke his pipe.
- [Katherine] Whoa.
- In her presence.
- Oh, wow.
- He was allowed to smoke his pipe
during the prime ministerial meetings.
- I think The Queen probably smokes.
- [Kate] And you know, he kept a photo of the two of them
in his wallet.
He absolutely adored her.
He thought she was marvelous.
And Wilson said, actually, that having a conversation
with The Queen was the only serious conversation
he could have with someone who wasn't, one,
trying to leak it, or two, trying to take his job.
She was really very sad when he resigned.
So, although The Queen is politically neutral,
of course, she does have preferences.
And Wilson really was a great favorite of hers.
(orchestra music)
(typing sounds)
- I know Welsh people generally don't like English visitors.
I get that vibe.
When I do comedy around there, they tell me
that the relationship is sometimes a tenuous one.
- [Kate] This is a really rising time of Welsh Nationalism,
and the vision that Wales should be a separate country.
One way in which the Royal Family think,
and the government think, they're going to stop this,
is by giving them Prince Charles.
And of course, you have to remember,
during the first half of the 20th Century,
that children weren't allowed to speak Welsh
in the playgrounds.
Welsh language, really, they tried to stamp it out.
So, in these points, the 50s, 60s, 70s,
you see Wales fighting back and saying
they want independence.
(Katherine sighs)
- Do you feel like, they maybe read the room wrong,
because it seems like
"Oh, I know how we'll settle the Welsh,
give them Prince Charles."
Something they definitely didn't want?
(Kate laughs)
- Exactly, and you know,
when you watch the footage of it,
Prince Charles is very, he's terrified.
- [Katherine] Yeah.
- He's terrified of bombings,
and it's a huge weight to put on the shoulders
of this very young man.
Come and save The Union.
Do you know that his Royal Protection Officers
were with him, and he had to stay in normal accommodations,
student accommodations.
The Royal Protection Officers were disguised
as mature students.
(Katherine laughs)
- Like in all 90s TV shows.
Everyone in 90210 and Dawson's Creek was like, 35.
(upbeat music)
(typing noises)
- Charles was desperately in love with Camilla.
- Yeah.
- She had been in love with Andrew Parker Bowles,
and then, they split up.
And he, age 31, started going out
with a 20 year old Princess Anne.
Some time later, Camilla starts going out with Charles.
But, do you know what her chat-up line was?
- I'm not wearing any pants?
(Kate laughs)
It usually works.
- It was, "My great-grandmother
was your great-great-grandfather's mistress,
how 'bout it?"
- Weird,
but saucy.
Wait a minute, didn't they have saucy texts leaked,
or saucy letters at one point?
Much later.
- [Kate] A phone conversation.
- Yes.
- [Kate] A phone conversation was leaked.
- So, these two were freaks.
- He goes away in '73 on,
he goes away on Naval Duty.
And then, she gets married.
- To who, now?
- To Andrew.
- Oh.
- So, the Royal Family didn't see Camilla as suitable.
- I bet they called her Milli.
I bet they were like, "Oh, Milli Shand.
You know what Milli gets up to on the weekends."
See, this is what happens when you overlook Milli Shand.
You go across the pond, and all of a sudden,
She's Camilla Parker Bowles, bitch.
All right, I will compare this to a family from my life.
Black China, do you know her?
- Yes.
- She had a baby with Tyga, King Cairo,
and then Tyga left her for Kylie Jenner.
And Black China, like a genius, was like,
"We'll see."
And then, she had a baby with Kylie's brother,
Rob Kardashian.
And speaking of heirs and like, titles,
of all the Kardashian children,
Black China's daughter, Dream,
is the only one whose surname is Kardashian.
- Dream?
- Dream Kardashian.
- Oh, they will have stayed friends.
- Mm-hmm.
- They all stayed friends.
- Why are they all friends?
- They're all friends, because
- They're all related, and they're all friends.
There's no ghosting with The Royals.
Because you're like, "Oh, I hope I never see my ex again.
Wait, it's also my cousin.
Oh, and she's dating my brother now,
because there's no one else we're allowed to date."
- Would you marry a Royal?
- Uh, no.
Do you think a Royal would have me?
- Yes.
- I'm very Milli Shand. - Definitely.
- What? - [Kate] No.
- With my trash mouth and slutty history?
(jazz music)
(typing sounds)
- Princess Margaret has an affair, starts an affair,
with Roddy Llewellyn, who is this young,
aristocratic, landscape gardener.
- [Katherine] Why would an aristocrat
be a landscape gardener?
- So, he's a creative sort of guy,
he wants to do something different.
- Good for him.
So, he's almost rebelling against his rich family
by being like, "I'll show you,
I'm gonna be a gardener."
- And he's young, he's finding his feet,
doing various things,
doing landscape gardening. - I think he just wants to
find himself off his feet,
if I can be honest,
because where do you find rich and powerful older women?
By being a gardener.
- She was very unhappy in her marriage because
Lord Snowden, her husband, had a lot of affairs.
And Lord Snowden got a lot of support,
and Margaret really felt as if The Family,
she said he was very oily with the family, very oily.
So she felt excluded, and when Roddy pops up,
well, it's really-
- He's a different oily.
(Kate laughs)
- Different oily.
There's a lot of criticism of Margaret.
The public opinion, and also the politicians,
they called her a Royal Parasite.
They said, "We're all tightening our belts,
and she's off with a toy boy."
And, you can imagine, the prejudice there was
about an older woman and a younger man.
- Yeah.
And if I had known that Margaret was that cool
before she died,
I probably would have made a bigger deal of her death.
Every February, I'm gonna have Princess Margaret Day.
- Okay.
- And it's gonna be February 14th,
because that's Valentine's Day,
and that's just like a commercial holiday,
that we should better spend it,
thinking about Princess Margaret.
- [Kate] Can I come?
- Yeah!
- Great!
- It's gonna be on a Caribbean Island,
and it will be immaculately landscaped.
We can have all our bushes trimmed,
(Kate laughs)
snog some Presidents, smoke it up.
I don't smoke, but I'll learn.
(orchestra music)
Thank you, Kate, for joining me
In my lavish library. - Thank you.
- You've answered so many questions and enlightened me
about the Royal Family.
I hope you've been enlightened as well.
They're pretty cool, especially Margaret.
- But I think we should definitely do our Margaret Day.
- February 14th!
(orchestra music)