QUEEN'S LIFE ON MIRTH
Queen jokes about President Trump and blasts health & safety in frank chat with Sir David Attenborough
THE Queen cracks jokes, blasts health and safety madness and even talks of her own death in an extraordinary TV chat with Sir David Attenborough.
Her Majesty shows her fellow 91-year-old round her garden at Buckingham Palace for an ITV documentary.
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She points out a sapling that’s bent over and says, giggling: “That one we won’t look at. Somebody sat on it, I think at a garden party . . . ”
In a conversation on conkers, she pulls a face when she says health and safety have tried to ban children playing conkers.
The Queen and Sir David Attenborough have an extraordinary meeting for ITV documentary The Queen's Green Planet
Sir David replies: “You would think that, that people would stop people breathing.”
Laughing, the monarch says: “Well, it seems to me quite a harmless sort of battle thing.”
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She laughs when she reveals: “I’ve been quite difficult to give presents to,” so she receives a lot of plants, trees and roses named after her.
But for the first time, the Queen publicly refers to her own death.
Sir David says: “I suppose actually the trees with which you will be presented are going to change as our climate changes and that the, there will be all kinds of different trees growing here in another 50 years maybe.
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“It might easily be, yes . . .” the Queen replies and then pauses, looking slightly wistful, before stating very matter-of-factly: “I won’t be here though.”
Hearing a helicopter overhead, drowning out their chat, she says dryly: “Sounds like President Trump . . . or President Obama.”
Her Majesty also reveals she has planted oak trees in her garden for each of her four children — Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward.
In one funny and endearing scene, Sir David gets confused over which tree is for Andrew and which is for Edward.
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He later revealed he could not find his glasses, and the Queen ticks him off for getting the wrong tree. But there’s a sticky moment when the Queen proudly points out a sundial, and Sir David says it has been planted in the shade.
The Queen turns to her head gardener and chuckles: “Had we thought of that? . . . That it was planted in the shade, it wasn’t in the shade originally, I’m sure? But erm . . . maybe we could move it?”
The sundial was moved.
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The programme, called The Queen’s Green Planet, gives a rare behind-the-scenes look at our monarch. It reveals how she eats honey from her own bees’ hives, decorates her Christmas tree, gives out presents to staff and jokes about the weather with foreign dignitaries.
The documentary follows the progress of the project known as the Queen's Commonwealth Canopy (QCC).
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Hollywood star Angelina Jolie, 42, and her six children also feature in the hour-long programme. She praises Her Majesty for supporting the project — which aims to create a network of protected forests in all 53 Commonwealth countries in the hope of reversing the impact of climate change.
It is thought to be the first time the Queen has publicly acknowledged climate change. Her plans for the QCC leave no one in doubt of her views.
“It might change the climate again,” she tells Sir David, who says the plan would be “a wonderful legacy”.
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The two national treasures — born a few weeks apart — stroll through her 40-acre back garden, with the Queen pointing out trees that were planted by her — and complaining about crows’ nests.
Looking at two London plane trees, planted by Queen Victoria and Albert, near her bedroom, she says: “We get crows’ nests up here, we have to get people to remove them.”
Pulling a face, she adds: “It's not nice to have them outside your window .”
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Prince Harry jokes The Royals 'travel the world, planting trees' whilst promoting the QCC project in St Lucia
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Prince William, wife Kate and Prince Harry are also seen promoting the QCC project.
On his Caribbean tour in 2016, Harry, 32, gives a speech in St Lucia. Laughing, he says: “It’s what our family do, we travel the world, planting trees.
“I think I’m closing in on my half century of trees planted, but I reckon the Queen is in the thousands.”
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The film also reveals the monarch gets her grandchildren and great-children to decorate her Christmas tree. As she is filmed last December at Windsor Castle, handing out gifts to her staff in front of a giant tree, she reveals her great-grandchildren, George and Charlotte, like knocking off the baubles.
“They enjoy themselves,” she adds with a twinkle. “The great thing is to make them decorate it and they’re a bit more careful.”
- THE Queen’s Green Planet will be screened on ITV next Monday at 9pm.
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