KING Charles rolled out the green carpet last night as the great and the good arrived at Windsor Castle to watch a new film on his environmental campaigning.
Charles, 77, hosted the first film premiere in a royal residence as stars including Kate Winslet and Dame Judi Dench arrived for the screening.
Also among the A-listers for the 90-minute documentary, which paints him as a baked potato-loving hippy, were Sir Rod Stewart and his wife Penny Lancaster as well as Benedict Cumberbatch and his other half Sophie Hunter.
Adding extra star quality were Sir Kenneth Branagh, Sarah Beeny, Stanley Tucci and gardening royalty Alan Titchmarsh.
Before the screening in Windsor’s Waterloo Chamber, the audience stood for the King and Queen Camilla, who, in keeping with the theme, wore a green dress by Anna Valentine plus a brooch from the King’s Foundation.
Winslet, the film’s narrator, said: “Your Majesty, it is thanks to your great vision and foresight in protecting our natural world we’re all here this evening.
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“Filming may have taken place across a short six months, but Your Majesty I know that for you, this documentary has been a lifetime in the making.”
The documentary, Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision, explores the origins, evolution and scientific foundations of Charles’ harmony philosophy as set out in a 2010 book.
It follows him through the speeches he gave in his 20s on green issues and shows off his achievements at the royal estates of Highgrove and Sandringham and at Dumfries House, Scotland.
Despite illustrating how he was years ahead of public opinion on the merits of growing and eating organic produce, the Amazon Prime Video film recalls how he was teased over his views.
Winslet says: “While explaining his passion for organic gardening to the Press, Prince Charles made a comment that has haunted him ever since.”
It is a reference to a 1986 interview in which he said: “I just come and talk to the plants, really — very important to talk to them, they respond.”
Ian Skelly, co-author of the King’s book, Harmony: A New Way Of Looking At Our World, said: “Those criticisms really upset him. He got treated very unfairly, seen very unfairly.
“Those of us that knew him better were quite upset by that. It was difficult to know how to respond. I really felt for him.”
While discussing organic growing, His Majesty is seen in the film admiring spuds growing in his gardens at Highgrove, Gloucs.
He says: “If you want a decent baked potato, which I love, you’ve got to have the crispy skins.”
He is also filmed carrying a basket to collect eggs from a coop which has on its door a sign reading Cluckingham Palace.
The film also features footage of Princes William and Harry with their father.
And in it, dairy farmer Patrick Holden, CEO of the Sustainable Food Trust, tells the documentary: “Jamie Oliver said he (Charles) was a bit of a hippy and I think that’s probably true.”
Charles is also seen watching archive footage of his campaigning speeches.
Describing his harmony philosophy, he says: “It all boils down to the fact that we are actually nature ourselves. We are a part of it, not apart from it, which is really how things are being presented for so long.
“Maybe, by the time I shuffle off this mortal coil, there might be a little more awareness of the need to bring things back together.”
He also recounts that he “wasn’t going to be diverted” from his campaigning despite the criticism he faced over the decades.
A spokesman for the King said the film was not a conventional royal documentary.
He added: “There are no golden carriages here; no glittering crowns or crimson robes.
“Instead, this is a deeply personal exploration of ideas that have shaped His Majesty’s life and work: the interconnectedness of all things, the wisdom of traditional knowledge, and the belief that we can build a future that works in partnership with nature.”
The film, produced in conjunction with the King’s Foundation, is believed to be his first documentary with a streaming platform.
It will be available in more than 240 countries and territories next month. The Harmony book will be republished in March.
Insights of a deep thinker
THE idea of a streaming giant making a documentary about the monarch would once have seen Buckingham Palace running for the hills.
But Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision on Amazon Prime Video is nothing like Harry and Meghan’s six-part documentary or her With Love, Meghan, both on Netflix.
I watched Charles’s 90-minute film at Windsor Castle yesterday and found it an honest, warm insight into what has driven his campaigning for 50-plus years.
From architecture to farming, and from Highgrove to Afghanistan, we see a man who has always taken on issues he believes in — despite criticism and mockery.
And it is sweet to see Charles, now 77, watch footage of himself in his 20s giving one of his first speeches on the environment.
And it is similarly uplifting to see him in his garden chatting to chickens and collecting eggs from “Cluckingham Palace”.
It shows that his campaigning spirit lives on with William’s Earthshot Prize and Kate backing mental health campaigns that emphasise getting out into nature.
It has a serious message. But no moans, whinges, attacks or “single skillet spaghetti” — just a deep-thinking man who happens to be King sharing his finest moments.
