Prince Charles was given his own special request radio show as he toured the county of Kent for the day.
Sheppey FM, a community radio station in Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, played the Prince of Wales’s throne’s favourite songs during his visit to the town with wife Camilla.
The playlist during the 46-minute royal visit was an eclectic mix, ranging from Givin’ Up, Givin’ In by his old favourites The Three Degrees to La Vie En Rose by Edith Piaf, Upside Down by Diana Ross, and Charles Trenet crooning La Mer.
But when Charles and Camilla popped into the studio and he was invited to pick a favourite he came up with something not on the list: “I tell you what, if you’ve got anything by Jools Holland,” he said, giving a namecheck to his old friend, a regular visitor to Sandringham when the Prince is in residence during the summer. “He lives in Kent.”
Presenters Maz Camilleri and Anna Gillingham-Sutton, who said they had researched the Prince’s favourite songs on Google, found him a song featuring Holland and Ruby Turner, You Are So Beautiful.”
The royal couple took on a day of engagements in Kent to celebrate people and businesses in the country often dubbed The Garden of England.
To much delight of locals the Duchess of Cornwall was joined by her rescue dog, Beth, to take on television star Paul O’Grady and his abandoned pup, Sausage, in a canine showdown.
The two pooches went head to head in a dog training game known as ‘Temptation Alley’ in which competitors are encouraged to ignore dog treats and toys either side of them and run straight to their owner at the other end.
Camilla, 74, was at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home’s rural centre in Brands Hatch, Kent, in her role as the charity’s patron.
She has re-homed two Jack Russell Terriers through the organisation, Beth and her pal Bluebell - who was also present but deemed too naughty to take part.
O’Grady is Battersea’s ambassador and was filming his hit tv show, For The Love of Dogs, in which Camilla and Beth will star.
As she walked in Camilla was delighted to see ‘Bethy’ already waiting for and made a great fuss. “What could possibly go wrong!” she laughed, rolling her eyes.
As the pair were told to ready their pooches, O’Grady jokingly announced: “Mine doesn’t speak English! She’s from Romania and has a Polish chip!”
Speaking after the visit he praised the duchess’s commitment to Battersea, saying: “I just love her.
“She’s great. What I think is wonderful is that she had got two dogs from here too. She puts her money where her mouth is. She’s a fantastic ambassador for the charity.
“If Sausage and me were going to lose to anyone it might as well be her!”
Earlier in the day at Sheppey Matters, a community health organisation set up in Sheerness in 1994 to encourage healthier lifestyles because of concerns about high rates of illness in the area.
Camilla, 74, sat down with one group of women who were knitting Union Jack-themed blankets and bunting for use at street parties celebrating the Queen‘s Platinum Jubilee this summer.
“I’m afraid I’ve never been able to knit. I have tried but it’s just one of those things,” she told the women, admiring their work.
She and Charles also met Syrian refugee Osama Khaled Sharkia, 25, and his family who have been helped to settle in the county by the Kent Refugee Action Network after being moved to the UK by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The family arrived in Britain in 2018 after earlier fleeing to Jordan and Osama is now studying computer science at Canterbury Christ Church University. “At my age I’m too old to to learn,” Charles jokingly told the student.
