King Charles has filmed a new documentary for Prime Video talking about how he was once considered ‘completely bonkers’ for his environmental beliefs
King Charles has spoken out about the lasting legacy he hopes will continue after his death in an intimate interview. The monarch, 77, announced he was being treated for a form of cancer in February 2024.
He says: “By the time I shuffle off this mortal coil there might be a little more awareness of the need to bring things back together again.” The King makes the remarks in a revealing documentary for Prime Video called Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision, and details his “despair” over declining wildlife.
Narrated by Kate Winslet, the 90-minute film explains the King’s ambitions for sustainability and his philosophy of working with nature, not against it. He adds, “The underlying principles behind what I call harmony, I think, we need to follow if we are going to somehow ensure that this poor old planet can support so many. It’s unlikely there is anywhere else.”
He adds: “We are nature ourselves, we are a part of it, not apart from it.” King Charles was widely ridiculed in the 1980s when he admitted he talked to his flowers because “they respond”.
Reflecting on the mockery the King says: “All this sort of thing was considered completely bonkers to say the least.” Since he was a little boy, King Charles has loved being outdoors.
The film, due to air on Friday 6th February, includes cherished home videos show him frolicking in gardens with his mother Queen Elizabeth II and her corgis, being buried on the beach with a young Princess Anne, leading ponies through meadows, clambering over rocks and fishing with his father Prince Philip. Later footage shows him casting off with young Prince Harry and looking through binoculars with Prince William when he was a boy.
King Charles says: “I’ve always loved the countryside. I’ve always adored being outside and as I got older I took more and more of an interest and I loved going out and exploring. So for me it’s an essential part of life to have that connection with the world outside.”
King Charles is keenly involved in nature and reveals that his gardens and the animals and insects that thrive there sustain his mental health.
He has a particular soft spot for birds. He says: “There is something irresistible about a swift swooping and that incredible cry they make, the speed they go at. For me swallows, swifts and housemartins are absolutely critical, if they didn’t come back each year I’d literally fall into despair.”
Growing up, the King was especially close to his grandmother and recalls his love of nature forming during long days in her garden at The Royal Lodge, which was later taken over by the king’s brother Andrew.
He says: “Childhood memories are so vital. My grandmother was a remarkable person I adored, she had the most wonderful mischievous sense of everything, but also her places like the garden at The Royal Lodge were magical. She encouraged me to look at things, observe. It is fascinating the life that goes on at a microscopic level. It’s just stopping and really looking and observing which is another thing that really matters to me a great deal.”
As in Prince Harry’s Netflix 2022 film Harry & Meghan, King Charles is also seen feeding his chickens at Highgrove. Viewers will be amused to see the hen house is amusingly named Cluckingham Palace.
In his gardens at Highgrove King Charles wanders through the trees he has planted and remarks at how long he has lived. He says: “The beeches I planted right at the beginning… It’s unbelievable how much they’ve grown.
I thought I’d never live to see… the fact that I have is praise be to the Lord frankly.” Hiding among the trees is a small ornate building called The Sanctuary that the monarch built to mark the millennium. It was created by Professor Keith Critchlow from The King’s Foundational School of Traditional Arts using traditional materials including cob bricks formed with Highgrove clay and chopped barley straw.
King Charles says: “I built it to mark the millennium but it’s all built with earth and straw from here.” Asked on the film if the building is where he gets his harmony, King Charles replies: “A little bit I hope, and ask for more of it really, for everybody else.” Above the door, these words are inscribed: “Lighten our darkness, I beseech thee O Lord.”
While his gardens provide a welcome retreat for the King, he’s saddened that there seem to be fewer birds and insects than there once were, despite his best efforts to embrace harmony.
He says: “It’s extraordinary. When I first came 45 years ago I used to hear cuckoos but I never hear a single cuckoo, and there used to be grass hoppers and the place used to hum, wonderful sound, you don’t get much of that, even though I’ve done my utmost…” Asked if he’s worried about the state of the Earth, the King replies, “Of course, it’s been my main motivation for a long long time.”
Throughout his life, the king has deployed his soft power to unite world leaders on environmental issues, making regular keynote speeches at the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) event, which he was instrumental in setting up. Via The King’s Foundation at Dumfries House and Highgrove he has pioneered organic farming, launched popular education programmes and created sustainable communities to transform lives.
On his estates the King has ensured the survival of many different varieties of vegetables. He explains that maintaining rare breeds increases genetic diversity and biodiversity. He says: “I wanted to find ways of ensuring we could rescue all these threatened heritage varieties of everything… all the vegetables, potatoes, cauliflower, peas… A lot of them were just being abandoned so I did my utmost to have as many rare breeds here as possible to demonstrate how valuable they are because concentrating on just a few varieties makes us unbelievably vulnerable, as we are finding, to disease and everything else.”
However, it’s not just biodiversity that drives the King. He also wants a decent baked potato. He says: “Half of the battle is to find the right varieties. If you want to have decent baked potatoes, which I love, then you’ve got to get crispy skins.” And his recommendation? “The Red Duke of Yorks are very good, which we’ve discovered again through trial and error.”
Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision airs on Friday 6th February on Prime Video
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