YOUR ROYAL QUESTIONS ANSWERED #royal #history #nostalgia

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:01]You know, one of the stories that I shared with you recently was, of course, of the royal, well, you might call him superstar assistant Backstair Billy. I mean, he became so so famous simply because of his unwavering service and the fact that, as many of you know who watch the show on a regular basis, he didn't in fact write a book. And as I told you, there was a real reason behind that. But my belief, you know, Chums was that he would never have written a book.

[00:00:26]I don't think that was his game really.

[00:00:29]I my thoughts were, you know, when you make the video and you look and you think, "Oh, yeah, I remembered that now." And the thing is he I think he always thought uh that he may get invited back. I genuinely did think that that was the case. I think he thought, you know, once it died down I because I don't think he understood a life away from royalty. I think that was part of the problem. What was interesting though was as he told the story and again you listen and think well a lot of people were saying he wouldn't have got you know been treated so badly on the very final outing for the queen mother's birthday and the thing about that was of course we all remember that he brought out Princess Margaret and she hadn't been seen for a while and so consequently you know there she was in the dark glasses and in a wheelchair and the story went that senior members of the royal family like his royal highness Prince Philillip Queen Elizabeth, they didn't like this idea. And when I looked back at the notes, you know, that I'd said to him, well, you know, what about that? And he it was kind of interesting, in fact, because you have to remember, I know I often say this chums, but it's a different time. And the different time basically means that you know what we live in now where you see a newspaper pushing a camera phone in somebody's face or demanding an answer. You know, it was very difficult as it was then for those people who were working in service for the monarchy. You see, they didn't really answer back because that wasn't the era. It's a totally different setup now. Totally different setup in so many ways. Billy basically said that, you know, he received instruction and he's not quite sure he said who suggested it and I don't think he was being evasive, but you know, well, are we bringing Margarus out now? You've got to remember that he was in a very high position, right? So there were not many people that he would have been able to speak to other than say her majesty the queen or indeed for instance say somebody like the princess royal or the juke of Edinburgh. But how can you do that on a busy birthday? He could have gone and asked the queen mother, but apparently she was really busy with everybody else and he didn't see there was anything wrong. Apparently, Princess Margaret insisted that she wanted to be part of the celebrations. Now, we don't know what medication she was on or all that sort of stuff and he said it was a simple error. I mean, so there it is.

[00:02:49]You know, that was his version of events. I know many of you asked me about that in the comments below. Many of you asked me also about the Royal Rotor and how does that work? Now, the Royal Rotor used to be totally different and many of you said, "Neil, were you on the Royal Rotor?" I was for a time and between you and I it was very nice but I did it and you know it was what it was.

[00:03:09]Now you will see this a lot in a lot of these programs that you know are made online and you'll have these reporters who basically say oh ex you spent the day with the king this week or you were with Katherine the princess of Wales. No they're not right. The royal wrote to exists like this. Basically, it's a pool of reporters that has agreed in advance with certain broadcasters and this is very much a dying emblem now, right? So, you would have them from say Sky News, ITV, BBC, Channel 5. And you will notice recently, for instance, that lots and lots of mainstream media channels went over to the United States of America to discover uh to, you know, to cover uh the King Charles visit alongside the president of the United States. Very nice, etc. The problem is this is a very costly exercise, right? Incredibly costly because you've got the flights, you've got the accommodation, the food, the clothes, the sending it back. It costs that broadcaster a lot of money.

[00:04:07]So what they're looking at and this is the problem where the Royal Rotor will in fact sort of I think make its own demise is that well what are you bringing back that we couldn't just take from a pool camera and a pool camera is basically a feed from that area that a voiceover in London or a reporter in London could just comment on. You got them all standing outside the White House and that's very nice lovely trick for that individual. It's like somebody recently said on one of the the channels and I thought you really are kissing off your own demise. Oh, I haven't actually been to Italy for a long time. This is the forthcoming visit, of course, of Catherine and the Princess of Wales. And you think, yeah, well, it's not about you. But that's the thing. So, the royal road, does it exist? Yes. No. It's not particularly that, you know, vital now.

[00:04:54]And you have to remember that the royals do not interact with you. You are behind a press pen. So, when you think this, oh, I'm a Buckingham Palace garden party. Yes, behind the press pen. If they very in a rare occasion came over to have a chat say if it's on a trip like South Africa or something like that. Yes. And there may be a small interaction if you are on the plane where the senior royals might come down and thank you for turning up and all of that but it's very much sort of you and them right not knocking it just saying this is the fact. So that's really how the royal rotor works. So when they sort of talk about um oh you know the really connected you're just there to report for your channel but as I said I think that's a diminishing thing that really will sadly I think go away as the costs escalate and I think Williams done the right thing really by taking control of his own media and doing things online and social media. I think that's going to be the future. One thing that is we have to thank this particular man for in many respects. Cast your minds back, chumps, to July 1982 and the infamous breakin at Buckingham Palace. Michael Fagan, remember him? I remember, you know, gosh, I remember being at school at this point and it was like a big thing. How on earth did this man not only get in Buckingham Palace, but inside the queen's bedroom? I mean, we just thought fascinating story. Here's where this is interesting, though, because whatever you've read, you know, you look at the documents, and I'm lucky enough to see these documents now. the story that the papers stretched out about the queen and waiting around and stuff like that. No, she very much got help quite quickly, you know. So, I think that was a lot of tabloid speculation at that point as to what did he say, what did he do, all of that sort of stuff. The one thing though that we have to be grateful for this man for, good or bad, right, is the fact that when you think about it, if it was not for him, palace security would never have been relooked at. I mean, imagine this. In 1982, there was no internet.

[00:06:56]There was no scanning. So, staff came and went very quickly. And if those people on the doors, you know, the security, oh, right, it's you. You could have left, but they might not know. It was very much that lax. It was all really thanks to that breaking and the sort of big thing that happened behind the scenes that basically they relooked at it and thought actually we can't have this happening again. you know, the Metropolitan Police and the Royal Police and everything looked completely ridiculous. And not only that, even when he got to court, if you remember, Michael Fagan played it for all it was worth. Even appearing on a single, I think God Save the Queen the following year, he became an infamous celebrity around it. But truly, without him, I don't think we'd have such a tight security that we have today. And as he pointed out, and I met him briefly once and he said, "Oh, I was able to wander everywhere. It just proved how lax that whole system was way back in the early 80s. Totally different now, of course.

[00:07:52]Or is it? Neil Sha in the very heart of the United Kingdom.