In part two of this special celebration, we continue our exploration of the remarkable parallel lives of Queen Elizabeth II and Sir David Attenborough—two figures born just weeks apart in 1926 who went on to shape how we see the modern world.

From wartime childhoods to global influence, we trace how both became defining voices of the 20th and 21st centuries: one through monarchy, the other through the lens of a camera. Along the way, we uncover surprising connections—shared beginnings in 1952, a mutual passion for the natural world, and a quiet but powerful influence on generations of royals, from Prince Philip to King Charles III and beyond.

There are stories of early wildlife filmmaking, royal expeditions, and the radical beginnings of conservation—long before it was fashionable. Plus, a glimpse of the man behind the legend: Attenborough the colleague, the traveller, the reluctant celebrity who chose economy class over first.

By the end, what emerges is something more than coincidence: two lives moving in parallel across a century of change, united by curiosity, duty, and an enduring belief that small actions can shape a much bigger world.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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More than you might imagine.

In this third episode, celebrating the Centenary of Queen Elizabeth, we explore the remarkable parallel lives of two icons born just weeks apart in 1926 — figures who would go on to shape not just Britain, but the very way we see the world. One inherited a throne; the other helped invent television as we know it.

So, it’s a big happy centenary birthday to Sir David, who’s still going strong, and a remembrance of how those 100 years shaped and were shaped by two extraordinary people.

From wartime broadcasts to the birth of colour TV, from Buckingham Palace to the farthest corners of the natural world, their stories intertwine in surprising ways. Along the journey, we uncover Attenborough’s unlikely rise (his family never owned a TV set), his clashes with royal thinking, and his quiet influence behind the scenes — including his role in shaping how the monarchy presented itself on screen.

A witty, insightful look at two national treasures.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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In this special centenary episode, we look back at some of the happiest moments in the life of Queen Elizabeth II — the flashes of humour, the unexpected freedoms, and the small, human pleasures behind the crown.

Rather than the grand set-pieces of state, we focus on something more elusive: what actually made her smile. From dancing anonymously into the crowds on VE Day, to the rare, almost ordinary happiness of life in Malta as a young naval wife, these are the moments when the future queen stepped briefly outside the constraints of her role.

We revisit the Balmoral barbecues, where guests found themselves quietly astonished to see the monarch doing the washing up — and the curious aftermath of a gifted pair of yellow rubber gloves. We explore her lifelong love of animals, the joy she took in horses and racing, and the particular satisfaction of seeing her daughter succeed in the saddle.

There are glimpses, too, of her connection to a wider world: wartime memories that stayed with her for life, encounters that carried emotional weight long after the cameras had gone, and the enduring appeal of simple routines — driving, walking, small domestic rituals — that offered a sense of normality within an extraordinary existence.

Along the way, we ask a deceptively simple question: in a life so defined by duty, where did happiness really reside?

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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Journalist and historian Robert Hardman opens up to Professor Kate Williams about his research and private recollections as a royal reporter, in celebration of her 100th anniversary. From the Queen’s unshowy political skill to her stoic sense of duty, this episode paints a vivid picture of a monarch who kept working to the very end. Along the way, there are striking glimpses of royal life that feel by turns funny, startling and deeply moving: the alarming account of Prince Andrew (as he then was) and his altercation with a senior member of the royal household; Donald Trump fussing over exactly where to hang a portrait of the Queen at Mar-a-Lago; and the extraordinary image of Elizabeth II still dealing with state papers and official business in the last days of her life.

The conversation also ranges across her wartime years, her relationships with prime ministers, her ability to deflate overblown personalities with a single look, and the immense pressures she absorbed during the final years of her reign during the Harry & Megan debarkle. The result is a portrait not just of a symbol, but of a working sovereign: pragmatic, disciplined, funny, devout, and, in Robert’s telling, much more politically astute than she was ever given credit for.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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In this final episode of our trilogy on Elizabeth I, we step into the most personal — and most politically dangerous — question of her reign: marriage. From the moment she becomes queen, Elizabeth is treated as a prize. Kings, princes and emperors line up to claim her, each proposal promising alliance and stability.

At the centre of it all stands Robert Dudley: not a king, nor even a prince, but the man Elizabeth trusts most. Their closeness is undeniable. Yet when Dudley’s wife is found dead at the bottom of a staircase, everything changes. Suspicion, scandal and political fear close the door on the one match that might have been possible.

From there, the suitors keep coming. Philip of Spain lingers in the background. Eric of Sweden writes devoted letters. Archduke Charles offers power and heirs. And finally, the Duke of Anjou arrives in person — young, charming, and bearing gifts, including the famous frog-shaped earrings that delight the queen. For a moment, it seems Elizabeth might finally choose.

But every option carries risk. Marriage could mean losing control of her kingdom. A husband might claim authority. A child might replace her. Around her, advisors push, Parliament demands, and the shadow of Mary, Queen of Scots looms ever larger.

As the years pass, the question shifts. It is no longer who Elizabeth will marry — but whether she ever intended to marry at all.

And as we follow her story to its final days — her long decline, her refusal even to lie down, and the quiet gesture that signals her successor — we see the ultimate consequence of that decision.

No husband. No heir. Just a legacy powerful enough to outlast them all.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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In this episode of our trilogy on Elizabeth I, we reach the moment everyone associates with England’s most famous queen: the looming threat of the Spanish Armada. But the great showdown of 1588 did not arrive out of nowhere. It was the result of years of political intrigue, espionage, religious tension — and a dangerous rivalry with Philip II of Spain.

Along the way we meet the other woman whose shadow hung over Elizabeth’s reign: Mary, Queen of Scots. Was she a genuine threat to the English throne, or a prisoner whose existence fuelled a web of plots and paranoia? From the murky world of spies and codebreakers to the dramatic fallout of the Babington Plot, Elizabeth’s government was constantly balancing mercy, survival and ruthless political calculation.

Then comes the crisis that would define the age. As Spain’s vast armada sails towards England, Elizabeth faces the greatest challenge of her reign — and delivers the famous rallying cry at Tilbury, declaring that though she has the body of a “weak and feeble woman”, she has the heart and stomach of a king.

The defeat of the Armada would become one of the most powerful myths in English history. Yet as we discover, the reality was far messier — with further armadas, failed invasions, and an emerging English maritime power that would shape the world in ways both triumphant and troubling.

Next time: the Virgin Queen’s most personal battlefield — her love life, her suitors, and the political game of marriage that defined the rest of her reign.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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In this episode, we go back to the beginning of Elizabeth I: a child of extraordinary promise, born into splendour, then cast into uncertainty by the fall of her mother, Anne Boleyn. Courtly favour turned to suspicion. Affection turned to danger. And survival became a skill learned early.

From the shadow of Henry VIII’s volatile court to the careful education that shaped her formidable intellect, this is the story of a girl navigating power long before she wore a crown. Stepmothers rose and fell. Brothers and sisters shifted in rank and religion. Every alliance mattered. Every silence mattered more.

This is the first of three deep dives into the Virgin Queen, beginning with the precarious childhood that forged one of history’s most enduring rulers.

Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams explore the instability, calculation, and emotional discipline that defined Elizabeth’s early years and ask how a child declared illegitimate grew into a monarch who would outlast them all.

Was her resilience instinct? Training? Or the necessary armour of a Tudor princess who learned, very young, that survival was everything?

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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In this episode of Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams are joined by historian Alice Loxton to explore the extraordinary new film Hamnet — the Oscar-tipped adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling novel.

Set in late 16th-century Stratford-upon-Avon and plague-stricken London, the film imagines the private world of William Shakespeare, his wife Anne Hathaway — here called Agnes — and their three children. When their son Hamnet dies in 1596, the story asks a haunting question: did that loss shape the creation of the play Hamlet?

We explore Tudor childbirth, superstition and healing, the realities of plague in Elizabethan England, and the fragile line between history and imagination. Who was Anne Hathaway really? A healer? A neglected wife? A woman left to manage home and grief while her husband built a theatrical empire?

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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In this final episode of our Kennedy trilogy, we ask what happened after Camelot fell. With John F. Kennedy gone and Robert Kennedy gunned down just five years later, the dynasty’s hopes shifted once more — to the younger generation. Could the flame stay lit? Or was tragedy now woven into the Kennedy name itself?

From Ted Kennedy and the shadow of Chappaquiddick, to Jackie’s controversial marriage to Aristotle Onassis, and the rise — and devastating fall — of John F. Kennedy Jr., this is the story of heirs burdened by expectation, fame, and a family legacy unlike any other. Plane crashes. Scandals. Political ambition. And one final, haunting echo of a mother’s warning: never fly your own plane.

Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams explore the weight carried by the next generation — the pressure to redeem the past, the struggle to escape it, and the events that cemented the idea of a “Kennedy curse” in the public imagination.

Is it fate? Is it recklessness? Or is it simply the peril of living so visibly, so ambitiously, and so publicly for over a century?

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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In this second of three special episodes, we move from ambition to power, and from power to catastrophe. With John F. Kennedy now President, the Kennedys became global royalty: glamorous state visits, televised debates, Jackie dazzling Europe, and a youthful administration promising civil rights, a man on the moon, and a new American frontier.

But beneath the polish lies mounting pressures — Cold War brinkmanship, CIA miscalculations, the Bay of Pigs disaster, civil rights battles that split the South, and a president pushed to prove his strength. At home, private grief shadows public triumph, as personal loss and political peril collide.

Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams chart the heady rise of “Camelot” — and the moment it shattered.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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In this first of three special episodes, we go back to the beginning — to the making of a dynasty, forged in ambition and driven by a patriarch who expected greatness and tolerated nothing less. In the Kennedy household, sons were groomed for the presidency, daughters for perfection, and failure was not merely disappointing… it was unthinkable.

Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams unravel the astonishing rise of this Irish-American family from immigrant roots to global prominence, exploring the wealth, political muscle, wartime heroics and ruthless determination that built the Kennedy legend — and the immense personal pressure that came with it.

Before the building of a modern Camelot, before Dallas, there was a family determined to conquer America - but at what cost?

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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Robert Hardman and Prof Kate Williams delve into the whispered love story of Edward II and his dazzling courtier, Piers Gaveston — a friendship (or something more) so intense it detonates the English court. Why did the barons loathe Gaveston so much? Who gets the stuffed-crust portion of medieval “pizza” of land, titles, and power, and who’s left starving?

And then comes the infamous comeuppance: the notorious ending Christopher Marlowe gives Edward II —death by red-hot poker. True? Find out.

Royal love. A battle for lands. And a legend that refuses to die.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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In this episode of Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams head east to Transylvania to unravel one of the strangest threads in modern royal history. King Charles III’s long-standing fascination with Romania turns out to involve more than rural preservation and beautiful churches — it also leads back, genealogically, to Vlad III, the ruler whose brutality helped inspire the Dracula legend.

But Vlad is not the region’s only blood-soaked aristocrat uncovered. Their conversation also takes in the infamous Countess Elizabeth Báthory, accused of torturing and killing young women in neighbouring Hungary — and asks whether her reputation reflects historical reality, political convenience, or deep-seated fears about power, inheritance, and women who ruled alone.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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Robert and Kate conclude their deep dive into Britain and America’s long and complicated partnership. Joined once again by historian, broadcaster, and Gilded Age expert Julie Montagu, Countess of Sandwich, they trace how glamour, war, royalty, and politics combined to create the modern Anglo-American world.

From Edward VII’s fascination with wealthy, irreverent Americans, through the cultural explosion of Hollywood and jazz, to the shockwaves caused by Wallis Simpson, the episode explores how America became both Britain’s obsession and its future. As two world wars redraw the balance of power, monarchs and presidents begin meeting face to face, propaganda goes viral before the word exists, and American soldiers — and culture — flood into Britain at its darkest hour.

The story culminates with the Second World War, the rise of American global dominance, the humiliation of Suez, and Queen Elizabeth II’s pivotal visits to the United States. A final chapter in a long political divorce: no longer bitter, never quite clean, but undeniably special.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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Robert and Kate return to the American War of Independence as the story moves beyond declarations and slogans, and into the long, uncertain struggle of what independence actually meant. Joined by a special guest, historian, broadcaster, and Gilded Age expert Julie Montagu, Countess of Sandwich, they explore the years after 1776, when the war dragged on, loyalties fractured, and victory was anything but assured.

From Yorktown and the uneasy end of the war, to the daunting task of inventing a new nation from scratch, the episode examines how America decided not to become what it had just escaped. Should George Washington be a king? What should a president look like? And how does a former colony meet its former monarch again — as an equal?

The story stretches forward through fragile reconciliation, the burning of Washington in the War of 1812, and the long shadow of the Civil War, before arriving at the Gilded Age — a moment when old aristocracy and new American wealth collide, and the modern “special relationship” begins to take shape. A tale of ambition, miscalculation, reinvention, and the strange intimacy of a political divorce that never quite became a clean break.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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Robert and Kate kick off a three-part deep dive into one of history’s significant break-ups: how George III went from being “King of America” to the monarch who lost an entire continent. From the earliest English colonies - Jamestown’s swampy gamble, and the Puritans braving the Mayflower crossing - to the booming, self-confident 13 colonies of the 18th century, the stage is set for a spectacular falling-out.

Taxes, tea, troops in your living room, the Boston Massacre, the Sons of Liberty, Washington’s early defeats, and that electrifying moment in 1776 when the Declaration of Independence rewrote the world. Robert and Kate unpack the misunderstandings, blunders, loyalties, and sheer distances that pushed a loyal colony into open rebellion and forced a young George III to face the greatest divorce in royal history.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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This week, Kate is joined by historian and broadcaster Alice Loxton, whose new book follows a wonderfully bonkers idea: walking 200 miles in December to retrace the funeral route of Eleanor of Castile, England’s “lost queen.”

Eleanor was no mild medieval consort. She introduced carpets and forks, built dazzling Castilian-style gardens, amassed a property empire, travelled endlessly while almost constantly pregnant, and inspired her grief-stricken husband Edward I to build a string of spectacular monuments across the country. Alice and Kate plunge into Eleanor’s world of crusades, court politics, Arthurian myth, medieval plumbing, purgatory, poisoned daggers, and the unexpected origins of Charing Cross as a London landmark.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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In this sparkling, story-packed episode of Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams pull back the velvet curtain on the royals’ surprisingly long, and often hilarious, love affair with pantomime.

From Henry VIII discovering Anne Boleyn through a masked performance, to the Restoration actresses who scandalised a queen, to Queen Victoria’s sentimental family tableaux, the stage has always been a royal playground. But nothing compares to the Second World War pantomimes at Windsor Castle, where a teenage Princess Elizabeth donned tights as Aladdin, Princess Margaret stole scenes as Cinderella, and a young naval officer named Philip watched from the audience.

History, romance, and panto all in one room… oh yes it was.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special edition of Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams unwrap the surprisingly rich, and frequently eccentric, festive legacy of the monarchy. From a 10th-century duke reinvented as a Victorian Christmas hero, to Henry VIII moonlighting as a carol writer, to the Tudor court’s rather questionable idea of “seasonal cheer,” it turns out the royals have been shaping our holidays for over a millennium.

We travel from medieval Bohemia to Cromwell’s anti-Christmas crackdown, before settling by the fire with Victoria and Albert, the couple who practically invented the modern festive season. Along the way, we explore SEDITION in much-loved carols, rogue wassailers, musical monarchs, and a surprising link between the Windsors and “Good King Wenceslas.”

This episode asks the big question: what have the royals ever given us for Christmas?

Quite a lot, as it turns out.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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In the second part of our deep dive into the Wars of the Roses, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams pick up the story at England’s bloodiest moment: the Battle of Towton.

From boy kings and warrior queens to vanishing princes and spectacular betrayals, this is the era when the crown changed hands with alarming regularity.

We follow Edward IV’s meteoric rise, Warwick the Kingmaker’s dramatic change of sides, the astonishing comeback of Henry VI, and Margaret of Anjou’s final, desperate bid to win a throne for her son. And when the dust seems to settle, trouble brews again with the arrival of one very determined Tudor.

It’s a tale of power, politics, omens in the sky, and a kingdom exhausted by decades of feuding. Join us as the saga accelerates toward its thunderous finale at Bosworth Field.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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But long before fantasy claimed it, this struggle was one of the pivotal turning points in British history.

In the first of a two-parter, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams trace the origins of a conflict that splintered a dynasty and set two branches of the same royal family on a collision course. What begins with a boy-king, a warrior queen, and a realm weakened by loss soon becomes a landscape defined by blood feuds, personal vendettas, and battles in which neighbours and brothers met across the field as enemies.

This is England at its most combustible: a nation undone by ambition, and ultimately reshaped by the dynasties fighting for its crown.

Join us as we return to the moment the red rose and the white first entered the national imagination, a struggle of extraordinary brutality, brilliance, and consequence.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode looks at how and why the execution of Henry VIII’s second wife became one of the most iconic, mesmerising moments in British history.

Professor Kate dives straight into the charged final minutes of the execution, peeling back the myths, the melodrama, and the emotions of that fatal walk to the scaffold.

Anne hoped, right up to the last, that the King might intervene. She rehearsed her courage. She made jokes. She forgave people she absolutely did not need to forgive. And as she stepped onto that scaffold, there were rumours that she harboured a tiny ember of belief that Henry might still call it all off.

And then there’s the Frenchman: the swordsman from Calais, specially imported because he had a reputation for doing the dreadful job swiftly, silently… and with a trick. A trick that meant Anne Boleyn may not even have known the exact second her life ended. A trick that changed the choreography of English executions forever.

Kate and Robert break down the politics, the theatre, the psychological games, and the shocking tenderness of those last moments. 

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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In our final episode on the Princess of Wales’s life, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams pick up the story at the turning point: the Royal separation that launched the most consequential chapter of her life, her emergence as a global humanitarian supernova.

Diana shakes hands with patients in AIDS wards, embraces children with leprosy, confronts the landmine crisis in a bulletproof vest, and rewrites the royal rulebook with empathy and emotional intelligence. We follow the divorce negotiations, the media frenzy, the complicated final summer with Dodi Fayed, and the midnight chase that became one of the darkest moments in modern royal history.

Robert shares what it was actually like on those last Royal tours with Diana, while Kate uncovers how Diana bent royal protocol, political convention, and 20th-century misogyny to her will. 

And, then, of course, there was her funeral, a day unlike anything the nation had ever seen.

Brave, chaotic, glamorous, bruised, and brilliant, Princess Diana’s legacy still shapes the monarchy today, for the better.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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In the second part of our Diana deep dive, Kate Williams and Robert Hardman pick up the story just after that balcony kiss, and follow the new Princess of Wales through the most dazzling and difficult years of her royal life.

From the Riviera honeymoon aboard Britannia to the birth of Prince William, from the Australian tour that electrified a nation to the famous dance with John Travolta at the White House, this episode charts the meteoric rise of a young woman becoming the most photographed person on the planet. But behind the smiles, pressure is building: morning sickness that lasts for months, the demands of instant royal life, the relentless press pack, post-natal depression, and the first unmistakable cracks in the marriage.

This week, we follow Diana and Charles from the “love boat” towards the year the Queen would later call her annus horribilis. The glamour, the joy, the strain, the scrutiny: the contradictions that made Diana a global phenomenon are all here.

A rollercoaster chapter in the story of a princess who changed the monarchy forever.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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It begins as the greatest love story of the age: a shy nursery assistant, a lonely prince, and a glittering wedding watched by nearly a billion people. But before the heartbreak, the revenge dresses and the headlines, there was the young Lady Diana Spencer - awkward, funny, occasionally lost, and totally unprepared for what came next.

In this episode, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams trace her rise from the fringes of Sandringham to the steps of St Paul’s. They uncover the aristocratic family that produced her, the fractured childhood that shaped her, and the courtship that captivated the world. There are guinea-pig prizes, polo parties, awkward proposals and that famous “Whatever love is” interview. All the moments that built the myth before it broke.

Part royal history, part social snapshot, this is Britain on the brink of the 1980s. Unemployment high, spirits low, and suddenly a fairytale to believe in. The first act of Diana’s story is pure spectacle: puff sleeves, flashbulbs, and a nation in love.

Join us as Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things begins its most revealing journey yet.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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Joining Kate and Robert is Lee, a champion pedigree Welsh corgi descended directly from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s own beloved dogs, alongside her breeder, Mary Davies, who once met the Queen herself to arrange an aristocratic “blind date” between their corgis.

Yes, we’re going barking mad in the best possible way, as we talk royals and their pets. From Queen Victoria’s pampered spaniel Dash to Edward VII’s terrier Caesar, from a Pekinese looted in the Opium Wars to the late Queen’s famously mischievous pack of corgis and dorgis, it’s a conversation that bounds happily through two centuries of canine companionship, full of devotion, diplomacy, and the infamous “Corgi war” at Windsor.

*(that’s our Royal version)

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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You might think so — but buckle up, because history is littered with spares who partied harder, plotted darker and pushed the Crown to breaking point.

Welcome to Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things, where royal biographers Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams take you inside the palace doors to meet the heirs… and the headaches. Every monarchy needs a backup but what happens when the backup goes rogue? From regency playboys who bankrupt the nation, to sword-swinging dukes suspected of murder, to princesses who perfected the art of rebellion, we reveal the royals who made even today’s headlines look tame.

Join us for the royal stories the courtiers hoped you’d never hear.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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In this week’s episode, Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams dig into centuries of royal runners-up — from Elizabeth I to George V — the siblings who weren’t meant to rule, yet somehow stole the show.

From party-loving princes to quietly competent sisters, being “the spare” has always been a tricky business. Some plotted their way to the throne, some partied their way out of it, and others just got on with the job — usually in glorious frustration.

And as for Harry, is history repeating itself, or breaking the royal mould entirely? Who thrived in the shadow of the crown? Who went gloriously rogue? And could Harry himself one day surprise us all?

Tune in for a rollicking history of royal back-ups, brides recycled and brothers upstaged — only on Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things. LISTEN NOW

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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Find out in this week’s royally revealing episode of Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things! 

Robert Hardman is joined by royal biographer Andrew Morton — yes, the man behind Diana: Her True Story — to spill the palace secrets behind Queen Elizabeth II’s fifteen Prime Ministers, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss.

From Churchill bursting into tears during audiences to Thatcher trudging through the Balmoral mud in high heels, from John Major quietly becoming the boys’ guardian after Diana’s death to Edward Heath’s icy froideur over Europe, it’s a whistle-stop tour through seventy years of royal-political drama.

Who made her laugh? Who bored her senseless? And which PM nodded off next to her at dinner?

With anecdotes of horse talk, coronation nerves, backstairs gossip, and power struggles behind palace doors, this episode lifts the velvet curtain on one of history’s most enduring double acts — the monarch who never flinched, and the politicians who tried to keep up.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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In their second episode of Spies & The Crown, Kate Williams and Robert Hardman go full cloak-and-dagger as they unmask Anthony Blunt — the Queen’s own art adviser turned KGB spy — and dig into the bizarre world of undercover royals.

From Princess Elizabeth sneaking into the VE Day crowds, to Prince Harry insisting he was just “Bob” in a nightclub, history proves the Windsors have never been short on disguises.And then there’s the bombshell: how close did treachery really get to the heart of Buckingham Palace? And could it happen again?

Listen now to Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things — where the palace walls whisper, and the spies are sometimes already inside.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s monarchs get discreet MI5 briefings — but back in Elizabeth I’s day, her spymaster Francis Walsingham was inventing the modern secret service with beer-barrel dead drops, forged letters, and a plot that sent Mary Queen of Scots to the block.

This episode of Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things dives into the wildest tales of royal espionage: Christopher Marlowe, the playwright who may have been a double agent; John Dee, the Queen’s astrologer signing his reports “007”; and Queen Victoria’s Indian confidant Abdul Karim, hounded as a foreign spy by jealous courtiers. Fast forward to World War II and you’ll find Hitler’s agents scheming to kidnap Edward VIII and put him back on the throne as a Nazi puppet.

Plots, paranoia, and velvet cushions hiding sharpened daggers — when royalty meets espionage, the truth is stranger than any Bond film.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today’s episode of Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things, Kate Williams and Robert Hardman dig into the murky history of royal captivity — where velvet cushions meet iron bars, and sovereign immunity doesn’t always save the day.

We’ve got Charles I, the would-be master of disguise who chopped off his beard, called himself “Harry,” and still managed to end up wedged in a castle window like Winnie the Pooh after too much honey. We’ve got Mary Queen of Scots, forever scheming her way out of tower rooms and washer-woman costumes, until Elizabeth I finally lost patience. And we’ve got Marie Antoinette, who began her confinement with upholstered chairs and charity visits, but ended it humiliated, stripped of dignity, and walking towards the guillotine while the crowd jeered.

Not all prison stories end with a block and blade. Some are quieter — and crueller. George III was never convicted of treason, never even plotted escape, yet he spent his last years effectively locked up in Windsor, a prisoner of his own mind and his doctors’ brutal “cures.” And in the 20th century, Hitler’s Colditz Castle became a surreal jail for royal hostages — cousins of the Queen turned into bargaining chips in the dying days of the war.

So — can royals be jailed? History’s answer is complicated. Some lost their heads. Some lost their freedom. And some, like poor Princess Alice, were locked away simply for being inconvenient.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Royal biographer Robert Hardman and Prof. Kate Williams whisk us through the protocols of a state visit, Windsor-style: Air Force One → helicopter → the quadrangle, where (yes) the guest correctly walks in front of the monarch for the Guard of Honour. We peek into that turret guest suite with the Long Walk view, the St George’s Hall mega-table laid to the centimetre, and the post-1992 kitchens that keep 130 plates piping hot.

We’ve the gossip: the day the Secret Service gave way and allowed Prince Philip to drive Barack Obama. Kate pits today’s three courses against Tudor 20-dish feasts (whale and dolphin, anyone?), and Robert explains why Windsor beats Buckingham Palace for security — and for dodging protests. We even invent a house cocktail: blood-red, jewel-bright, mildly dastardly.

Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things now drops every Monday — Royal etiquette decoded, history demystified, and just enough hauntings to keep you peeking over your shoulder.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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This week on Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things, royal historian Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams pit two formidable women against the seven deadly sins.

Mary I of England, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, fought her way onto the throne and set out to restore Catholicism by fire. Three hundred Protestants met their end at the stake, earning her the chilling epithet “Bloody Mary.” Catherine de Medici, the Italian-born queen of France and mother of three kings, gained her own dark reputation as the “Serpent Queen.” Legend has her inventing high heels, perfecting the poisoned glove, and masterminding the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre.

From pearls and palaces to phantom pregnancies and poisoned perfumes, the judges weigh whether these reputations were deserved or distorted — and whether misogyny shaped how history remembers them.

It’s England versus France, pyre versus poison, bonfires versus bechamel. Which queen was the deadlier sinner?

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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This week on Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things, royal historian Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams drag two of England’s most notorious monarchs into the dock of history.

Armed with the seven deadly sins as their scorecard, they weigh up pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. Richard III — the hunchbacked villain of Shakespeare, buried for centuries under a Leicester car park — is accused of dispatching nephews in the Tower and grasping for the throne at any cost. King John, youngest son of Henry II, nicknamed “Lackland” and “Softsword,” loses battles, loses crown jewels, and nearly loses his kingdom through arrogance, greed, and disastrous quarrels with the Pope.

The judges weigh sanctuary ignored at Tewkesbury, excommunications, ill-fated marriages, and even a death by peaches and cider. From Robin Hood cartoons to scoliosis scans, this is royal villainy at its most grotesque — and occasionally absurd.

It’s England v England, Plantagenet v Plantagenet, Shakespearean bogeyman v medieval tax-collector-in-chief. May the worst king win.

And the royal rumble continues: next week it’s Bloody Mary v Catherine de Medici — a deadly contest of queens.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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This week on Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things, royal historian Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams sharpen their quills and their wits.

Armed with the seven deadly sins as a scorecard, they put these two titans of royal misbehaviour through their paces. Pride? Henry struts about in padded sleeves and bans the middle classes from wearing fur. Louis builds Versailles — all 2,300 rooms of it — just so the Sun King can bask in his own reflection. Greed? Henry smashes up the monasteries and pockets the loot; Louis keeps ledgers in his pocket as if they were sweet wrappers. Lust? Both monarchs are formidable contenders — one leaves a trail of wives and mistresses (and the odd execution), the other an entire shadow dynasty of illegitimate children.

From whale meat and beaver tails to an autopsy revealing a stomach three times the normal size, gluttony is not in short supply either. And when it comes to wrath, Henry’s temper ensures that being “close to the king” could mean being close to the executioner.

It’s England versus France, Tudor versus Bourbon, axe versus wig — with laughs, learning, and a dash of horror along the way.

And the royal rumble doesn’t stop here: next week it’s King John v Richard III, followed by Bloody Mary v Catherine de Medici.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What’s worse than one demanding royal houseguest? A whole history of them — and in Part Two of Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things, Robert Hardman and Kate Williams dig even deeper into the guest lists from hell. From Henry VIII arriving with a thousand-strong entourage and an appetite for entire herds, to George IV’s ruinous dining habits (and total lack of return invites), to Louis XIV’s epic, toothless feasts, this is royal hospitality at its most exhausting.

You’ll discover which monarch forced hosts to build entirely new buildings just to serve them tea, which biscuits owe their names to the royals (and which ones hid the Crown Jewels), and how a simple “drop-in” could strip a nobleman’s pantry bare for months. It’s a whirlwind of Tudor meat mountains, Regency excess, and the occasional sensible snack — such as the Princess Royal’s legendary one kiwi fruit.

Expect tall tales, staggering menus, and a fair amount of sympathy for the poor souls who dared to open their doors. Whether you’d serve up a banquet or hide behind the curtains, this episode is your ultimate survival guide to entertaining history’s hungriest and haughtiest VIPs.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things throws open the palace doors to a line-up of monarchs and princes who’ve turned “popping in for tea” into a full-scale ordeal. From Princess Margaret’s legendary put-downs (“How unfortunate”) to Queen Mary’s habit of going home with your best chairs, Robert Hardman and Kate Williams swap outrageous stories of royal visits gone deliciously wrong.

You’ll hear about the Queen’s unexpected snowstorm stopover at a country pub, complete with Corgis demanding table service, and a Prince of Wales visit so badly timed the host hid in the loo thinking he was about to be arrested. Expect tantrums, tiaras, and the occasional singalong that ends in boos (yes, Francis Bacon, we’re looking at you).

This is history served with gossip, wit, and a large slice of Dundee cake. So pull up a chair, pour yourself something strong, and prepare to meet the royals who could empty your pantry, ruffle your dignity, and leave you with a story you’ll be telling for decades.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is the Holy Grail real? Can gold be made from stones? Did Diana really have a psychic on speed-dial? And why exactly did Queen Victoria try to give a clairvoyant a watch?

From King Arthur’s suspiciously round table (equal rights, medieval-style!) to Queen Elizabeth I's astrologer with stage-magician energy – and a creepy sidekick who claims angelic permission to bed his boss’s wife – this episode dishes the royal gossip with a side of sorcery.

Expect conjurers, clairvoyants, and chalices promising immortality. We meet John Dee, who mixed mathematics and magic (and questionable life choices), and peer into Queen Victoria’s séance-filled mourning rituals, featuring a moody Scottish manservant who may or may not be possessed by Prince Albert.

And yes, we go full ghost story – haunted bedrooms and spectral jesters.

History gets a magical makeover in this entertaining and insightful journey through fact, folklore, and the royal fondness for the utterly bizarre.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this hilarious and history-soaked episode of Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things, Daily Mail columnist Robert Hardman and history wiz Professor Kate Williams team up to explore the very real roots behind the blood-soaked fantasy TV series Game of Thrones.

You’ll learn:

1. Why the dragons in GoT are basically airborne spitfires with scales.
2. How Queen Cersei’s “walk of shame” was inspired by a real-life royal mistress who had a very awkward walk through London in her underwear.
3. Why never to accept a dinner invitation from a Scottish nobleman in the 1400s—especially if a black bull’s head shows up on the table.
4. And why Henry VIII’s Welsh dragon was the ultimate medieval hype beast.

Oh, and if you're learning Welsh on Duolingo, you’ll finally understand why "I am a dragon" is one of the first things you’re taught.

Packed with gory betrayals, royal revenge, scholarly banter, this episode proves once and for all: fantasy isn't that far from fact.

Download. Then maybe don’t RSVP to any mysterious royal feasts for a while.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Royal's public image is a delicate balance; attempts to entertain or appear modern can be seriously cringe.

Thumbs up for the late Queen Elizabeth II and her James Bond cameo at the Olympic opening ceremony, but two thumbs down for that ultimate pie-in-the-face moment: the 1987 televised game show, "It's a Royal Knockout." 

Who was to blame for the Windsors dressing up for a pantomime gameshow? Why did it go so very wrong? Was it a turning point for the public perception of the Royals?

Professor Kate Williams has a theory … perhaps the Royals could be saved from further blunders by taking a tip from history - employing a Royal Jester! We look back at some of those merrymakers, like ‘Roland the Farter’ (it’s much worse than it sounds!).

However, could a jester really have saved the Royal’s public image from the 101 gaffes of the late Duke of Edinburgh? Some of his jokes were funny, others, these days, would have the Royals cancelled!

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the second of two episodes, Royal historians Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams explore the often awkward and disastrous Royal first encounters. Discover which king ran from the room, demanding brandy when his blind date was revealed.  However, love is also in the air as Kate and Robert celebrate the truly remarkable and touching story of George III’s marriage.

And there’s also Robert’s confession: the cunning ruse he often used to get himself a date!

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the first of two episodes, Royal historians Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams look at the highs and lows of Royal first encounters. Welcome to the strange world of regal dating: marriages at first sight, bedding ceremonies, and proxy consummations. Pity the poor teenage girls who dutifully married Kings who were much older - or preferred the company of men in their bedchambers!

But Cupid’s Royal arrows do sometimes find their mark. Kate and Robert reveal that it’s possible for Royals to find ‘true love’.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A special edition of our podcast in collaboration with History Hit’s Betwixt the Sheets.

Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams team up with author, podcaster and sex historian Kate Lister to explore Queen Victoria’s intimate personal diaries.

They reveal that she enjoyed "heavenly love and happiness" with her husband, Albert, and the "bliss of watching him shave and the joy of him helping her put on her stockings." 

Also discussed, the two enduring myths: Victoria’s ‘sex button’ by her bed that triggered automatic door locking, ensuring privacy during her nights of passion, and Prince Albert’s alleged metal appendage - you know where!

Hosts then broaden their discussion to dual sexual morality of the Victorian Age. Publicly, Victorians promoted a repressed morality, especially the middle classes, contrasting with the notorious Georgians who were more openly sexual. This Victorian attitude fuelled a seedy underworld of pornographic photography and sex work. The strangest phenomenon to arise was the advent of ‘bicycle porn’, women being photograph in their new cycling bloomers. All very shocking.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn about the fury of the Royal Family and how the couple were shunned, and we reveal that Edward may have advised Hitler to bomb Britain into submission.

The final episode of a three-part deep dive into the controversial relationship between King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, examining its impact on the monarchy and revealing the truth behind rumours that both were Nazi sympathisers.

Both historians delve deep into this royal relationship – drawing on extraordinary anecdotal evidence and documents from the National Archives.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn about one of the cast-aside lovers of Edward who devoted her life to spreading dark rumours about Wallis Simpson,

and hear a blow-by-blow account of the abdication crisis that nearly brought down the monarchy.

The second of a three-part deep dive into the controversial relationship between King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, examining its impact on the monarchy.

Professor Kate Williams believes that Edward’s wife Wallis Simpson may not be the ’scarlet women’ that history paints her to be: “I believe she genuinely loved Edward, but she also craved attention and was dazzled by all the jewels – she had so many jewels!”

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen Now!

Learn how Edward scandalised the court and upset his father with a string of affairs with married women, and we reveal how he got bored of ‘Princing’ – an early indication that he wasn’t cut out for the duties of being a King.

The first of a three-part deep dive into the controversial relationship between King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, examining its impact on the monarchy and revealing the truth behind the rumours.

Royal Biographer Robert Hardman maintains: “Edward was selfish, greedy, and even treacherous; he cosied up to Adolf Hitler when the world knew the evils of his regime”.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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Who stole the so-called Irish Crown Jewels? What are the Cambridge Emeralds? And how did Scottish nationalists manage to drag the Stone of Destiny out of Westminster Abbey on Christmas Eve - a modern story with deep roots in British history.

The podcast also discusses the suspicious theft of Wallis Simpson's jewels in 1946, raising questions about insurance fraud and inside knowledge. And it also reveals King Edward VIII's appropriation of the Prince of Wales coronet, later replaced with a fake for Prince Charles' investiture.

Finally, join us for the debate on whether the crown jewels themselves are hot property, containing gems that many believe should rightfully be returned to India and South Africa.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the first of two episodes, Royal historians Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams explore the story of Colonel Blood who hammered down a royal crown so that he could slip it into his trousers. 

And discover royal secrets: how Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation crown had to be enlarged to fit the head of King Charles III, and how George VI wore his crown while gardening!

Hosts also explore the early jewel heists, like that of King John in 1216, which remains shrouded in mystery, with suspicions that the King staged the loss of his crown to cover financial misdeeds. And then there's the more definitive case of Richard of Pudlicott in 1303 who pilfered royal treasures from Westminster Abbey, leading to a medieval black market for royal gems.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the final of three extraordinary episodes, Royal historians Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams look at dastardly plots from history - from fiendish schemes to poison royal saddles to terrorists taking pot-shots at the theatre. 

Discover the Royal whose courage inspired a change to the National Anthem, and the Queen who refused to carry a bullet-proof parasol. And, finally, the hosts discuss which King and Queen in history showed the most grace and courage under fire.

Also ... find out what happens when you keep Prince Andrew waiting - you’ve been warned!

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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In the second of three extraordinary episodes, Royal historians Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams look at the motives and mindset of those who have sought to bring harm to the Royals. When are Kings and Queens at their most vulnerable as targets and how has their entourage of security adapted to challenges over the years?

History reveals that the Royals have always faced a dilemma - they have a duty to be seen in public but they all know from bitter experience that it's a dangerous thing for them to do!

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the first of three episodes, Royal historians Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams reveal the shocking attempts to harm the Royals. How did two Queens react when they found intruders in their bedrooms? Did King Charles III maintain his ‘stiff upper lip’ when someone took a shot at him? What training did Meghan, Duchess of Sussex , and Catherine, Princess of Wales, receive to safeguard their lives!

Also, get an insight into the rough and tumble of Prince Harry’s days at boarding school!

Each week, Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things offers a light, historical look at the scandals, intrigues, and often bloody history of Britain's royal family.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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In the second of two episodes, Royal historians Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams reveal the worst Royal house guest in history! Clue: they were one of the world’s most notorious tyrants, and the Queen’s corgis had good reasons to be suspicious of this visitor.

Also, a royal family skeleton is revealed - which blood soaked tyrant are the modern royals related to? Download now!

Each week, Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things sneaks a peak behind palace curtains - from Richard III to King Charles III. The hosts offer insights into the lives of the royal family - from Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, to Elizabeth I; the scandals and intrigues, and the often bloody histories of those that have worn the crown.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the first of two episodes, Royal historians Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams look through the visitors book for Buckingham Palace to discover the tyrants and troublemakers who’ve come to stay. How did Queen Elizabeth II react to the infamous and brutal African dictators Idi Amin and Mobutu, and is it true that Queen Victoria took a surprising shine to the lustful Shah of Persia?  

All will be revealed, along with the elaborate and secret details involved in laying out the red carpet for an official state visit.

Each week, Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things takes a look behind palace curtains at royal history - from William the Conqueror to King Charles III. The hosts offer exclusive insights into the lives of the royal family - from Meghan Markle to Anne Boleyn; the royal scandals and intrigues, and the turbulent and bloody history of the crown.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Royal historians Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams look at how royals throughout history have had their intimate bedroom moments witnessed. And that’s not all! Young royals would have their bedchambers exorcised of demons, and courtiers would then cheer on the couples as they performed their royal ‘duties’. No wonder some royals suffered from performance anxiety! But which ones?

Also, discover Robert Hardman’s own wedding night secret - a fiasco with parallels to the extraordinary nuptials of Atilla the Hun!

All will be revealed in the new season of the Daily Mail’s podcast, Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Royal historians Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams look at the extraordinary schooling of royals throughout history, from ‘whipping boys’ to rosy-cheeked governesses and cold Scottish boarding schools. Where will young Princes George and Louis go to school when they become teenagers - and will their parents have learned a lesson from royal history?

Also, hear the scandalous story of ‘Crawfie’, the woman who was shunned by the royals for writing a memoir of her days with the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret.

All will be revealed in the Daily Mail’s podcast, Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Royal historians Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams explore the secret ceremony at coronations that is said to give royals magical powers. Find out which Queens and Kings were the Hermoine Grangers and Harry Potters of history.

Also, discover the superstitions of the modern royals, the member of the Windsor family who’s in the Magic Circle, and what Professor Kate Williams did to earn a ‘Brownie badge’.

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Studio Manager: Sam Chisholm

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted by Daily Mail columnist and royal biographer Robert Hardman and historian Professor Kate Williams, each episode of Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things delves into the juiciest parts of royal history from eras past, and present... but mainly past. 

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Researcher: Tom Sankey

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted by Daily Mail columnist and royal biographer Robert Hardman and historian Professor Kate Williams, each episode delves into the juiciest parts of royal history from eras past, and present... but mainly past. 

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Producer: Ben Devlin

Researcher: Tom Sankey

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The disappearance of Edward V and his younger brother, Richard, Duke of York, has sparked centuries of speculation. Were they murdered, and if so, by whom? Was it Richard III – their own uncle, and that great Shakespearean villain – in a bid to secure the throne? Or, could other powerful figures have been involved? 

Join Kate and Robert as they separate fact from fiction and each offer their views on surely one of the juiciest royal scandals of all time.

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things is the Daily Mail's unmissable podcast that promises listeners a weekly dose of royal history and intrigue by unpacking a different royal scandal each week. 

Hosted by Daily Mail columnist and royal biographer Robert Hardman and historian Professor Kate Williams, each episode delves into the juiciest parts of royal history from eras past, and present... but mainly past. 

New episodes out every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. 

Presenters: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Producer: Rich Jarman

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Thanks to Dr. Fern Riddell 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On a summer’s evening in Kathmandu in 2001, Nepal’s royal family was almost entirely wiped out, in a single night. Hours later, the alleged killer lay in a hospital bed in a coma, having been proclaimed King the moment that his father died. The man in question – Crown Prince Dipendra – allegedly went on a murderous rampage, killing nine members of his own family, including his parents, King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya, before taking his own life. 

In this episode, Robert Hardman and Kate Williams will guide listeners through three turbulent Centuries of Nepalese history, tracing the build up to, and the fall out from, this shocking event.

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things is the Daily Mail's unmissable podcast that promises listeners a weekly dose of royal history and intrigue by unpacking a different royal scandal each week. 

Hosted by Daily Mail columnist and royal biographer Robert Hardman and historian Professor Kate Williams, each episode delves into the juiciest parts of royal history from eras past, and present... but mainly past. 

New episodes out every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. 

Presenters: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Producer: Rich Jarman 

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Thanks to Dr. Fern Riddell 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

And, hours later, one of the Duke’s valets, Joseph Sellis, was found dead in his room. His throat had been cut with a razor. It was a grisly crime scene. Sellis’ head was nearly severed from his body, and blood had soaked the bedclothes, furniture, and walls. 

Join Kate and Robert as they delve into the circumstances surrounding Sellis’ death by reconstructing what exactly happened on the night of the murder; exploring the Duke of Cumberland’s scandalous background and his subversive relationship with both Joseph Sellis, and his other valet.

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things is the Daily Mail's unmissable podcast that promises listeners a weekly dose of royal history and intrigue by unpacking a different royal scandal each week. 

Hosted by Daily Mail columnist and royal biographer Robert Hardman and historian Professor Kate Williams, each episode delves into the juiciest parts of royal history from eras past, and present... but mainly past. 

New episodes out every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. 

Presenters: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Producer: Rich Jarman 

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Thanks to Dr. Fern Riddell 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over the centuries, historians have spilt vast quantities of ink dissecting the evidence, the political intrigue, and the motives behind the charges that led to Anne's tragic demise. Robert and Kate explore the wider context of Anne’s astronomical rise and rapid fall; the key players in her trial; and, whether her alleged infidelities were fabrications to justify Henry VIII’s desire for a new wife, and that longed for son… 

Join Kate and Robert as they separate fact from fiction and uncover the truth behind surely one of the juiciest royal scandals of all time.

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things is the Daily Mail's unmissable podcast that promises listeners a weekly dose of royal history and intrigue by unpacking a different royal scandal each week. 

Hosted by Daily Mail columnist and royal biographer Robert Hardman and historian Professor Kate Williams, each episode delves into the juiciest parts of royal history from eras past, and present... but mainly past. 

New episodes out every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. 

Presenters: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Producer: Rich Jarman 

Production Manager: Victoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Thanks to Dr. Fern Riddell 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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Join Robert and Kate for the second episode of Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things as they unpack the life and times of Russia’s greatest love machine – surely one of very few dastardly historic icons for whom genital warts and cataclysmic social upheaval can justifiably be included in the same sentence. 

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things is the Daily Mail's unmissable podcast that promises listeners a weekly dose of royal history and intrigue by unpacking a different royal scandal each week. 

Hosted by Daily Mail columnist and royal biographer Robert Hardman and historian Professor Kate Williams, each episode delves into the juiciest parts of royal history from eras past, and present... but mainly past. 

New episodes out every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. 

Presenters: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Producer: Rich Jarman 

Production Manager: Victoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Thanks to Dr. Fern Riddell 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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But Charles II’s mistresses were so much more than footnotes in a new era of frivolity, parties and hedonism –  many of these women wielded significant power in their own right, and played pivotal roles in court politics and international relations. Their close relationship to Charles II during an intense period of social and political change means that they played a key role in shaping the course of English history. 

Join Robert Hardman and Kate Williams as they explore the stories of three of these fascinating women – Barbara Castlemaine, Nell Gywnne, and Lucy Walter – and ask what their stories reveal about the wider history of the period.

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things is the Daily Mail's unmissable podcast that promises listeners a weekly dose of royal history and intrigue by unpacking a different royal scandal each week. 

Hosted by Daily Mail columnist and royal biographer Robert Hardman and historian Professor Kate Williams, each episode delves into the juiciest parts of royal history from eras past, and present... but mainly past. 

New episodes out every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. 

Presenters: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Producer: Rich Jarman 

Production Manager: Victoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Thanks to Dr. Fern Riddell

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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Join Kate Williams and Robert Hardman for a rollicking ride through a royal scandal that really does have it all: sex, lies – and Marie Antoinette: one of the most iconic – and most misunderstood – female figures of the 18th Century. 

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things is the Daily Mail's unmissable podcast that promises listeners a weekly dose of royal history and intrigue by unpacking a different royal scandal each week. 

Hosted by Daily Mail columnist and royal biographer Robert Hardman and historian Professor Kate Williams, each episode delves into the juiciest parts of royal history from eras past, and present... but mainly past. 

New episodes out every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. 

Presenters: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Producer: Rich Jarman 

Production Manager: Victoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Thanks to Dr. Fern Riddell 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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Or did she?

Join Kate Williams and Robert Hardman as they dive into one of royal history’s juiciest, and often forgotten, scandals: an event that should have been a joyous moment (a male heir - hurrah!) but one that instead unleashed a chain of events that would lead to mother, father, and child being driven out of England to spend the rest of their lives in… exile. 

Robert and Kate will explore whether Queen Mary really did give birth to a healthy son, or if – as many English Protestants, unwilling to see a Catholic heir on the throne, claimed – the pregnancy was all a ruse.

Hosted by Daily Mail columnist and royal biographer Robert Hardman and historian Professor Kate Williams, Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things delves into the juiciest parts of royal history from eras past, and present... but mainly past. 

New episodes out every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. 

Follow us on TikTok and Instagram @queenskingspod, and email us at @dastardlythings@mailonline.co.uk

Presenters: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Producer: Rich Jarman 

Production Manager: Victoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Thanks to Dr. Fern Riddell 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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Professor Kate Williams and Robert Hardman reveal all about this mysterious royal relationship that captivated the Victorian public and continues to mystify royal historians and commentators today.

Hosted by Daily Mail columnist and royal biographer Robert Hardman and historian Professor Kate Williams, each episode delves into the juiciest parts of royal history from eras past, and present... but mainly past. 

New episodes out every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. 

Follow us on TikTok and Instagram @queenskingspod, and email us at @dastardlythings@mailonline.co.uk

Presenters: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Producer: Rich Jarman 

Production Manager: Victoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Thanks to Dr. Fern Riddell 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

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Join Professor Kate Williams and Robert Hardman as they uncover the suspects, the events and the motives behind a murder that definitively changed the course of Mary Queen Of Scots’ reign.

Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things is the Daily Mail's unmissable podcast that promises listeners a weekly dose of royal history and intrigue by unpacking a different royal scandal each week. 

Hosted by Daily Mail columnist and royal biographer Robert Hardman and historian Professor Kate Williams, each episode delves into the juiciest parts of royal history from eras past, and present... but mainly past. 

New episodes out every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. 

Follow us on TikTok and Instagram @queenskingspod, and email us at @dastardlythings@mailonline.co.uk

Presenters: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Producer: Rich Jarman 

Production Manager: Victoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Thanks to Dr. Fern Riddell 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted by Daily Mail columnist and royal biographer Robert Hardman and historian Professor Kate Williams, each episode delves into the juiciest parts of royal history from eras past, and present... but mainly past. 

New episodes out every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. 

Follow us on TikTok and Instagram @queenskingspod, and email us at @dastardlythings@mailonline.co.uk

Presenters: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Producer: Rich Jarman 

Production Manager: Victoria Cecchini 

Executive Producer: Bella Soames 

Thanks to Dr. Fern Riddell 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode focuses on the wedding and early years of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip's marriage, and the failing health of Princess Elizabeth's father King George VI.

Find out:

Did Winston Churchill heckle at Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip’s wedding?

Did King George VI have surgery at Buckingham Palace? 

How did King George VI’s plans for an overseas tour dictate the timing of 1951’s general election?

Did King George VI ever wear makeup?

Was the truth of King George VI’s illness kept from him?

Plus much more.

Email us at 

FactOrFiction@mailonline.co.uk

or send us a message or voicenote on Whatsapp:

07796657512 (start your message with "The Crown" so we know which show you’re getting in touch with.)

Make sure you're following The Crown: Fact Or Fiction so you don't miss an episode. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-crown-fact-or-fiction/id1714259572

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Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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This episode of The Crown shows Prince Phillip having a mid life crisis as he considers his faith and his place in the universe, all put into context as Neil Armstrong steps on the moon and a new Dean of Windsor is appointed.

Find out:

Is there evidence that Prince Phillip was having a mid life crisis around the time of the moon landings?

Did The Crown get the astronaut's visit to Buckingham Palace right?

How did Prince Phillip really feel about the creation of St George's House?

Were the Queen and Prince Phillip space fans?

And, how many stags roam the grounds of Windsor Castle?

Plus much more.

Tell us which episodes of The Crown are your favourites and we might give them the Fact or Fiction treatment on the next episode of the podcast!

Email us at 

FactOrFiction@mailonline.co.uk

or send us a message or voicenote on Whatsapp:

07796657512 (start your message with "The Crown" so we know which show you’re getting in touch with.)

Make sure you're following The Crown: Fact Or Fiction so you don't miss an episode. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-crown-fact-or-fiction/id1714259572

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Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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Scoop is based on Sam's first hand experience of booking Prince Andrew for Newsnight. Hear Sam tell the story behind the meetings, the planning, the recording and aftermath of the interview - what it was like to work on the biggest interview in the world, and how Netflix captured it for the screen.

Sam's book Scoops is available now:

https://amzn.eu/d/6qPhhfn

Scoop is streaming on Netflix now.

Tell us which episodes of The Crown are your favourites and we might give them the Fact or Fiction treatment on the next episode of the podcast!

Email us at 

FactOrFiction@mailonline.co.uk

or send us a message or voicenote on Whatsapp:

07796657512 (start your message with "The Crown" so we know which show you’re getting in touch with.)

Make sure you're following The Crown: Fact Or Fiction so you don't miss an episode. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-crown-fact-or-fiction/id1714259572

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Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode of The Crown depicts Queen Elizabeth II facing criticism from Lord Altrincham following a tone deaf speech at a Jaguar factory in Coventry before taking to the airwaves for the first ever televised Christmas message.

If you'd like us to analyse a favourite episode of The Crown, write to us at: FactOrFiction@mailonline.co.uk.

Find out in this episode of The Crown Fact Or Fiction:

Did the Queen address the workers at a Jaguar factory with a tone deaf speech?

Was Lord Altrincham punched in the face following his criticism of the Queen?

Did the Queen send for Lord Altrincham to discuss his criticisms?

Does Buckingham Palace have a network of secret doors and tunnels for monarchs to stealthily navigate the palace?

Plus much more. 

Tell us which episodes of The Crown are your favourites and we might give them the Fact or Fiction treatment on the next episode of the podcast!

Email us at 

FactOrFiction@mailonline.co.uk

or send us a message or voicenote on Whatsapp:

07796657512 (start your message with "The Crown" so we know which show you’re getting in touch with.)

Make sure you're following The Crown: Fact Or Fiction so you don't miss an episode. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-crown-fact-or-fiction/id1714259572

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Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode of The Crown depicts a reluctant Elizabeth 2nd questioning the appropriateness of her visiting Aberfan in the days following a disaster in the Welsh town, despite the insistence of those around her.

Our thanks to Claire Heeley, Melissa Clark and Kelly Woods who all wrote in to suggest the episode this week. If you'd like us to analyse a favourite episode of The Crown, write to us at: FactOrFiction@mailonline.co.uk.

Find out in this episode of The Crown Fact Or Fiction:

Was the Queen as emotionless as she is depicted in this episode?

Was the Queen as reluctant to visit Aberfan as depicted in The Crown?

Did The Crown accurately depict Prince Phillip’s attendance at Aberfan?

Did the Queen only attend Aberfan after the government briefed the press against her? 

Plus much more. 

Tell us which episodes of The Crown are your favourites and we might give them the Fact or Fiction treatment on the next episode of the podcast!

Email us at 

FactOrFiction@mailonline.co.uk

or send us a message or voicenote on Whatsapp:

07796657512 (start your message with "The Crown" so we know which show you’re getting in touch with.)

Make sure you're following The Crown: Fact Or Fiction so you don't miss an episode. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-crown-fact-or-fiction/id1714259572

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Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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This episode of The Crown delves into the history of the British royal family and portrays a strained marriage between the Queen and Prince Phillip while Britain forges a new relationship with Boris Yeltsin's Russia.

Our thanks to Hannah from Hertfordshire who wrote in and suggested the episode this week. If you'd like us to analyse a favourite episode of The Crown, write to us at: FactOrFiction@mailonline.co.uk.

Find out in this episode of The Crown Fact Or Fiction:

Did The Crown get the Romanov family's fate right?

Did Boris Yeltsin order Russian scientists to find the bones of the Romanov's after meeting the Queen and Prince Phillip?

Was Coach driving one of Prince Phillip's passions?

Did Prince Phillip's friend Penny Knatchbull attend Christmas mass with the Queen to quell rumours and speculation?

Plus much more. 

Tell us which episodes of The Crown are your favourites and we might give them the Fact or Fiction treatment on the next episode of the podcast!

Email us at 

FactOrFiction@mailonline.co.uk

or send us a message or voicenote on Whatsapp:

07796657512 (start your message with "The Crown" so we know which show you’re getting in touch with.)

Make sure you're following The Crown: Fact Or Fiction so you don't miss an episode. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-crown-fact-or-fiction/id1714259572

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Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode of The Crown portrays a rivalry taking place between the Queen and Jackie Kennedy, the first lady of the United States. Meanwhile, the Queen is trying to keep the commonwealth together, before the episode culminates in the news and aftermath of John F. Kennedy's assassination.

Our thanks to Emily Edery who wrote in and suggested the episode this week. If you'd like us to analyse a favourite episode of The Crown, write to us at: FactOrFiction@mailonline.co.uk.

Was Jackie Kennedy unimpressed both by Buckingham Palace and the Queen?

Do the Royals take note of protocol not being followed?

Was there a rivalry between the Queen and Jackie Kennedy?

Did the Queen dance the Foxtrot with Ghana’s president? 

And… ...Did the Queen favour cream or jam first on a scone? 

Plus much more. 

Tell us which episodes of The Crown are your favourites and we might give them the Fact or Fiction treatment on the next episode of the podcast!

Email us at 

FactOrFiction@mailonline.co.uk

or send us a message or voicenote on Whatsapp:

07796657512 (start your message with "The Crown" so we know which show you’re getting in touch with.)

Make sure you're following The Crown: Fact Or Fiction so you don't miss an episode. 

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Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The episode focusses on the BBC filming the Royal Family while Prince Phillip's mother, Princess Alice, moves into Buckingham Palace in the late 1960s. Our thanks to Paul Schlotthauer who suggested this episode. If you'd like us to analyse a favourite episode, get in touch at FactOrFiction@mailonline.co.uk.

Find out in this episode of The Crown: Fact or Fiction:

Did Prince Phillip tell American TV that the Royal family were going to go "into the red"?

Did the Royals agree to a documentary to prove their worth to the nation as the Crown portrays, or was the aim something different?

Was the BBC’s film a hit or a flop?

What happened to the proceeds from the BBC’s film?

Did the Queen send a private secretary to rescue Princess Alice? 

Did a Guardian journalist opportunistically secure an interview with Princess Alice after being stood up by Princess Anne? 

Plus much more. 

Tell us which episodes of The Crown are your favourites and we might give them the Fact or Fiction treatment on the next episode of the podcast!

Email us at 

FactOrFiction@mailonline.co.uk

or send us a message or voicenote on Whatsapp:

07796657512 (start your message with "The Crown" so we know which show you’re getting in touch with.)

Make sure you're following The Crown: Fact Or Fiction so you don't miss an episode. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-crown-fact-or-fiction/id1714259572

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Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thanks to The episode focusses on Princess Margaret's relationship with Peter Townsend, our thanks to Nicole, one of our Canadian listeners who suggested this episode. If you'd like us to analyse a favourite episode, get in touch at FactOrFiction@mailonline.co.uk.

Find out in this episode of The Crown: Fact or Fiction:

Did a journalist from The People uncover the relationship, and how did the newspaper report the story initially?

How did Prime Minister Winston Churchill react to the relationship and how did his wife influence him on this matter?

What's the significance of the phone number 4832?

What was the fallout for the Queen?

...And what is an Equerry?!

Plus much more. 

Tell us which episodes of The Crown are your favourites and we might give them the Fact or Fiction treatment on the next episode of the podcast!

Email us at 

FactOrFiction@mailonline.co.uk

or send us a message or voicenote on Whatsapp:

07796657512 (start your message with "The Crown" so we know which show you’re getting in touch with.)

Make sure you're following The Crown: Fact Or Fiction so you don't miss an episode. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-crown-fact-or-fiction/id1714259572

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Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Find out:

Did the Queen ask that Margaret Thatcher agree to trade sanctions on South Africa?

Did the Queen really ask that her opinion of Margaret Thatcher be leaked to the press?

What do we really know about the Queen's relationship with Margaret Thatcher?

Plus much more. 

Tell us which episodes of The Crown are your favourites and we might give them the Fact or Fiction treatment on the next episode of the podcast!

Email us at 

FactOrFiction@mailonline.co.uk

or send us a message or voicenote on Whatsapp:

07796657512 (start your message with "The Crown" so we know which show you’re getting in touch with.)

Make sure you're following The Crown: Fact Or Fiction so you don't miss an episode. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-crown-fact-or-fiction/id1714259572

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Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode find out the truth of the circumstances that led to Prince Phillip's sister taking a tragic flight in 1937. 

How did the Queen and Prince Phillip decide which school to send their children to? 

Did The Crown get it right when depicting the "Gordonstoun Challenge?"

Plus much more. 

Tell us which episodes of The Crown are your favourites and we might give them the Fact or Fiction treatment on the next episode of the podcast!

Email us at 

FactOrFiction@mailonline.co.uk

or send us a message or voicenote on Whatsapp:

07796657512 (start your message with "The Crown" so we know which show you’re giving your opinion on.)

Make sure you're following The Crown: Fact Or Fiction so you don't miss an episode. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-crown-fact-or-fiction/id1714259572

Robert Hardman's latest book, Charles III, can be ordered here:

https://books.mailshop.co.uk/charles-iii-9781035027415

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode focuses on the "second sons" - Prince Harry and Prince Andrew. 

Find out

What happened when Prince Harry married Meghan and Princess Eugenie married Jack Brooksbank.

What happened after Oprah interviewed Meghan and Harry

What happened after Andrew was interviewed by Emily Maitliss. 

And how would The Crown have tackled them?

Tell us which episodes of The Crown are your favourites and we might give them the Fact or Fiction treatment on the next episode of the podcast.

Email us at 

FactOrFiction@mailonline.co.uk

or send us a message or voicenote on Whatsapp:

07796657512 (start your message with "The Crown" so we know which show you’re giving your opinion on.)

Make sure you're following The Crown: Fact Or Fiction so you don't miss an episode. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-crown-fact-or-fiction/id1714259572

Robert Hardman's latest book, Charles III, can be ordered here:

https://books.mailshop.co.uk/charles-iii-9781035027415

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode focuses on the events that followed after 2012 - the birth of Prince George, the Queen relying on the support of Prince Charles at international and latterly local events and the special relationship and love that the Queen had with countries within the commonwealth.

Find out:

How did the Queen gradually reduce her duties?

Where were the Queen's last international trips and what did she do while travelling?

How did the world react to Prince George's birth?

And... What is a CHOGM?

We love reading your reviews and comments, leave one and we might read it on the next episode!

Send The Crown: Fact Or Fiction a voicenote on Whatsapp: 07796657512 and start your message with "The Crown" so we know which show you’re giving your opinion on.

Make sure you're following The Crown: Fact Or Fiction so you don't miss an episode. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-crown-fact-or-fiction/id1714259572

Robert Hardman's latest book, Charles III, can be ordered here:

https://books.mailshop.co.uk/charles-iii-9781035027415

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this podcast, find out which major events would be guaranteed to make an appearance in a future series of The Crown. This episode focuses on the events of 2012 - The Queen's Diamond Jubilee, The London Olympics and Prince Harry's return to active duty in Afghanistan. 

Find out:

How did the Queen's appearance at the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony come about?

Why did Prince Harry's first tour of duty in Afghanistan come to an abrupt end?

What happened on the day of the Queen's Diamond Jubillee Flotilla? 

How well does Season 6's vision of The Queen match up to the Queen in 2012?

All this and more, in this episode of The Crown: Fact or Fiction. 

We love reading your reviews and comments, leave one and we might read it on the next episode!

Send The Crown: Fact Or Fiction a voicenote on Whatsapp: 07796657512 and start your message with "The Crown" so we know which show you’re giving your opinion on.

Make sure you're following The Crown: Fact Or Fiction so you don't miss an episode. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-crown-fact-or-fiction/id1714259572

Robert Hardman's latest book, Charles III, can be ordered here:

https://books.mailshop.co.uk/charles-iii-9781035027415

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, find out which major events would be guaranteed to make an appearance in a future series of The Crown.

Find out:

How has the Queen's role in politics changed over the years?

Why is a hung parliament a headache for a monarch?

What happened when the Queen made headlines on her state visit to Ireland?

Find out what it was like to attend William and Kate's wedding.

How do we think The Crown would represent key scenes, including William's proposal?

All this and more, in this episode of The Crown: Fact or Fiction. 

We love reading your reviews and comments, leave one and we might read it on the next episode!

Send The Crown: Fact Or Fiction a voicenote on Whatsapp: 07796657512 and start your message with "The Crown" so we know which show you’re giving your opinion on.

Make sure you're following The Crown: Fact Or Fiction so you don't miss an episode. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-crown-fact-or-fiction/id1714259572

Robert Hardman's latest book, Charles III, can be ordered here:

https://books.mailshop.co.uk/charles-iii-9781035027415

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Find out:

Was The Queen's funeral under review as Charles planned to marry Camilla?

Did Charles have to ask the Queen permission to marry Camilla?

Was there a request to confess "Past Wickedness"?

Was The Queen planning to abdicate, as per The Crown?

Why would The Crown's Piper fail to have woken the Queen?

Did The Crown get The Queen's speech notes right?

All this and more, in this episode of The Crown: Fact or Fiction. 

Robert Hardman's latest book, Charles III, can be ordered here:

https://books.mailshop.co.uk/charles-iii-9781035027415

We love reading your reviews and comments, leave one and we might read it on the next episode!

Send The Crown: Fact Or Fiction a voicenote on Whatsapp: 07796657512 and start your message with "The Crown" so we know which show you’re giving your opinion on.

Make sure you're following The Crown: Fact Or Fiction so you don't miss an episode. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-crown-fact-or-fiction/id1714259572

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Plus, Find out:

Why did Mohamed Al-Fayed refer to the British royals a "Dracula family"?

Did The Crown get the details about the inquiry into Diana's death right?

What happened at the St Andrew's fashion show where William and Kate's romance began?

In an episode packed with events and storylines, has The Crown got its dates right?

Did William hurriedly leave the Middletons' jubilee celebration to support the Queen?

All this and more, in this episode of The Crown: Fact or Fiction. 

We love reading your reviews and comments, leave one and we might read it on the next episode!

Send The Crown: Fact Or Fiction a voicenote on Whatsapp: 07796657512 and start your message with "The Crown" so we know which show you’re giving your opinion on.

Make sure you're following The Crown: Fact Or Fiction so you don't miss an episode. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-crown-fact-or-fiction/id1714259572

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode of the Crown splits its attention between the end of Princess Margaret's life and the story of the Queen and Princess Margaret's celebration in London on VE day.

We answer the questions:

What do we know about the Queen and Princess Margaret's celebration of the end of the second world war?

Has the Crown got it right with their characterisation of Princess Margaret?

Did The Ritz have a secret club hidden from the sight of its genteel patrons?

Did the Duke of Edinburgh miss Princess Margaret's birthday celebrations?

What drove Princess Margaret's decision to have a very different kind of funeral to other royals?

All this and more, in this episode of The Crown: Fact or Fiction. 

Make sure you're following The Crown: Fact Or Fiction so you don't miss an episode. 

We love reading your reviews and comments, leave one and we might read it on the next episode!

Send The Crown: Fact Or Fiction your views and opinions on Whatsapp: 07796657512 Include the words “The Crown”, “Fact or Fiction” or “FOF” so we know which show you’re giving your opinion on, or even leave us a voice note!

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-crown-fact-or-fiction/id1714259572

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode of the Crown focusses on William’s time at St Andrews and the beginnings of his relationship with his future wife, Kate Middleton. 

Find out:

Have the Crown got it right about William and Kate’s first meet? 

What do we really know about William’s time at St Andrews?

Is there more than meets the eye when it comes to the Crown’s depiction of William’s first university girlfriend?

Was William hounded by reporters and photographers while at University? 

Did the Crown depict the Middleton family accurately and fairly?

All this and more, in this episode of The Crown: Fact or Fiction. 

Make sure you're following The Crown: Fact Or Fiction so you don't miss an episode. 

We love reading your reviews and comments, leave one and we might read it on the next episode!

Send The Crown: Fact Or Fiction your views and opinions on Whatsapp: 07796657512 Include the words “The Crown”, “Fact or Fiction” or “FOF” so we know which show you’re giving your opinion on, or even leave us a voice note!

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-crown-fact-or-fiction/id1714259572

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The episode depicts Tony Blair at the height of his powers, having won a landslide election, riding the wave of "Cool Britannia" and leading Nato in a just war. By contrast the Royal Family find their appeal waning, questioning if they are being left behind by the world and debating if modernisation is needed. 

Robert Hardman explains some of the more esoteric roles that are employed by the Crown and explores the relationships between the monarch and their closest advisors. 

Natasha Livingstone fact checks the events and timeline of the episode and gives additional detail on one of Tony Blair's lesser known but most heartfelt honours from the time.

Make sure you're following The Crown: Fact Or Fiction so you don't miss an episode. 

We love reading your reviews and comments, leave one and we might read it on the next episode!

Send The Crown: Fact Or Fiction your views and opinions on Whatsapp: 07796657512 Include the words “The Crown”, “Fact or Fiction” or “FOF” so we know which show you’re giving your opinion on!

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-crown-fact-or-fiction/id1714259572

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams

Series Producer: Ben Devlin

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 

Content Editor: Joseph Palmer

Executive Producer: Bella Soames

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the smartest way to stay in the royal inner circle. Just head to dailymail.co.uk/palaceconfidential to sign up today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The episode finds a teenage Prince William coming to terms with the loss of his mother, struggling with a strained relationship with his father, Prince Charles, and new found celebrity as a pin up for teenage girls around the world.