Birthday-boy Charles revels in his age of enlightenment
Last updated 08:58, Saturday, 15 November 2008
Marking Prince Charles’s 60th birthday with unhindered celebrations would probably be inappropriate. At a time of life when most men are thinking of happy retirement, he still hasn’t got the job he was meant for.
But judging by Charles At 60: The Passionate Prince (BBC1), that may not necessarily be such a bad thing.
Though the Prince was never likely to allow cameras to catch him in a strop, throwing a tantrum over his mother’s refusal to hand him the throne or grumbling at the valet who squeezed the wrong toothpaste onto his brush, Charles gave surprisingly good account of a life driven by conviction to achieve as much as possible for what he regards as the greater good.
It may well be that he has had to find or even create conviction to fill the void of his king in waiting status. But even if that were true, the convictions – and the energy with which he feeds them – are pretty impressive. They are people-centred convictions – and how can they be bad?
This birthday film followed him over the course of a year as he conducted the business of working to support and inspire troubled young people through The Prince’s Trust, coerce and coax big business into greener operations – without plastic bags – lobby for farmers and for sustainable communities and organically farm and produce for his Duchy Original brand of foods.
That’s more than the average proper job. But it still earns Prince Charles the label of meddler – a criticism hurled his way by those who reckon a Royal who can employ a toothpaste squeezer ought to keep his nose out of real life issues.
To his credit he won’t, can’t, has-no-intention-of even trying. He meddles and sends memos, stirs up controversies and hassles politicians. He gets bossy with businessmen and giggly with former heroin addicts, shows pride in his sons and love for his gardens. How remarkable that all that should emerge from frustration.
He’s nothing like the guy next door but all in all the Prince of Wales is not a bad sort at all really – the kind it would seem who, by default, has found a role and has grown to know he was born to run with it.
Could a king do as much? Possibly not. Though the mess of his first marriage will probably hang over him like a cloud for the rest of his days – maybe even define his place in history – Prince Charles has become a man who at last seems to have earned the right to call himself a grown-up.
Pride of his life is his Dorset village of Poundbury. It has been under construction since the 1990s and embodies the Prince's zeal for a return to the use of traditional designs. Large houses sit cheek by jowl with small ones. Eco-friendly units, services and shops make the mixed community virtually self-sufficient and sustainable.
It is his Utopian vision of rural life, with period-style housing made of local stone, mixed with hi-tech factory sites. He regularly takes visitors to see it.
“I defy you to tell me in which houses the low-incomed live,” he said, waving an arm towards the picturesque Trumpton-like vista. Communities Secretary Hazel Blears hates it – but it beats the stuffing out of her favoured sink estates. This film wasn’t so much sensationally revealing as quietly enlightening. The Prince was seen walking around his Highgrove gardens, naming his plants – loving them all – and rummaging in his old jacket to find one of his to-do lists.
“If I don't write it down, I've had it. So I've got these in every single jacket. As long as I write it down, I'll do it,” he said.
Ah yes – that’ll be the 60th, then. They say it comes to everyone.
Happy birthday, sir. Enjoy!
