King Charles “genuinely cares” about others and is always “straight on the phone” to help in times of crisis, those who work with him have revealed. Last week, the monarch, 77, and his wife Queen Camilla, 78, welcomed a host of celebrity guests to the star-studded premiere of Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision at Windsor Castle.
The high-profile guest list also included those who feature in the documentary, said to be a “deeply personal project” for the King. Among them is Shoshana Stewart, President of Turquoise Mountain, which carries out regeneration projects in Afghanistan.
Speaking to HELLO! at the premiere, she gave a rare insight into how Charles interacted with the team while making the documentary, which was filmed over a period of seven months. Shoshana said: “The film really depicts who the King is in real life. He’s warm, funny, gentle. And he genuinely cares.
“When people on the project have bad news, have lost someone or when there’s an earthquake for example, he’s straight on the phone, wanting to know who has been impacted, asking if he can write to them or give them a call. He’s very personally involved in his projects.”
The King and Queen were also joined by the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, as well as celebrities including Kate Winslet, who narrates the film, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Rod and Lady Stewart, and Sir Kenneth Branagh. Gardening legend Alan Titchmarsh, meanwhile, revealed that he and His Majesty have something in common – they both speak to their plants.
He told HELLO!: “His Majesty and I are both of the opinion that if a plant isn’t doing well, you have to have a strong word with it, threaten it with the compost heap, and generally what you find is that it will pick right up!”
And speaking of the film, he added: “I loved it, and what I particularly liked is that it’s very positive. It shows what can be done, and that’s very much what I believe in. He’s done these huge projects and they’re amazing, the one in India and in Guyana. But we can do our own things in our back gardens, and then the neighbours can do something, and before you know it we’ve made a difference.”
Benedict Cumberbatch said: “I was very moved by the film, actually. It was a very personal, heartfelt journey and really told a story that is very emotional for him – I had no idea about the depth of this – that he’d used his very first public speech to talk about pollution.”
© Getty ImagesThe Sherlock Holmes actor added: “How deeply personal this is and what a challenging journey it has been. I think the positivity of the film is really important, and it has a real opportunity to have a huge impact.”
King Charles’s ‘deeply personal’ project
The King’s documentary, Finding Harmony, will be available to watch on Amazon Prime from 6 February. The 90-minute film is a collaboration between Amazon and his charity, the King’s Foundation.
Viewers are given a glimpse into the King’s life like never before, and are shown into his living room and private garden at Highgrove and his private home in Tetbury in Gloucestershire, where he feeds his chickens in a coop called “Cluckingham Palace”.
The film explores Charles’s goal to tackle climate change and his love for the environment is clear, telling viewers: “We’re actually destroying our means of survival, all the team. To put that back together again is possible, but we should have been doing it long ago. We’ve got to do it as fast as we can now.
“The underlying principles behind what I call harmony, I think we need to follow if we’re going to somehow ensure that this poor old planet can support so many. It’s unlikely there’s anywhere else.” A spokesman for the monarch said: “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.”
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