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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Entertainment
irishmirror.ie

Queen shares 'favourite TV show' - and she liked it so much she can even 'recite one-liners'

Many people have speculated as to what type of television shows the royal family might watch in their own time, with some curious if they love Netflix's The Crown, as much as we all do.

But it turns out the Queen's favourite programme might surprise you.

In a piece for The New Statesman, journalist Phil Jones claims that back in 2001 the Queen told him all about her favourite show during a visit to Buckingham Palace.

He claims he'd kept their conversation a secret for 21 years as he'd previously been told that journalists shouldn't reveal their discussions with the monarch.

However, now that he's leaving BBC Radio 2, he decided it was time to finally divulge what he had learned.

The show in question? The Kumars at No. 42.

He claims Her Majesty was such a big fan of the programme that she could even "recite some of the one-liners" from it.

Jones wrote: "In 2001 I was invited to a media function at Buckingham Palace.

"We chatted for ages, which I can tell you is rather surreal. My brain kept saying, 'Bloody hell I’m talking to the Queen and I can’t think of a single thing to say!'

Phil Jones claims The Queen said her favourite show was The Kumars at No. 42 (BBC)

"In the end, I alighted on, 'What’s your favourite programme?' Straightaway, she said, ' The Kumars at No. 42' and, even more astonishingly, proceeded to recite some of the one-liners from the grandma character, played by the brilliant Meera Syal."

Jones added that The Queen also shared that she was a big fan of Terry Wogan during their conversation.

However, he says this didn't come as much of a surprise at the time, as he already knew she liked to listen to Radio 2.

The Kumars at No. 42 was a British television show that ran from 2001 to 2006, spanning seven seasons.

The programme starred Sanjeev Bhaskar as Sanjeev Kumar, an aspiring chat show host who had celebrity guest over to his house to talk to them.

All would start to go wrong when Sanjeev's family started to interrupt the conversations, with the celebs ending up chatting more with his mother, father and grandmother.

A six-episode revival series of the show was also made in 2014 and aired on Sky, following divorced Sanjeev and his family who now lived in a flat above their gift shop. (No. 42B).

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