NICHOLA McAULIFFE: When Charles saw me doing the 分裂（する）s, he asked me to dinner!

By Nichola Mcauliffe
Updated: 22:10 BST, 15 November 2008

By 王室の 命令（する）: Nichola as the Baroness in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - a 役割 that led to an 招待 to St James's

When I was a girl, Prince Charles 現れるing from the Australian surf was the Daniel Craig of his day. He may now be 60, and have 貿易（する）d in the Aston ツバメ for a bus pass, but I still wouldn't はう over him to get to John Sergeant.

The 活動／戦闘 man of my 青年 has 生き残るd the slings and arrows of the マスコミ to 現れる distinguished, 尊敬（する）・点d and with all his own teeth.

A cat may look at a 未来 king though, and for years I did - from the other 味方する of a police 非常線，警戒線. Then in 1987, my cousin, who was 市長 of Tower Hamlets, asked me to …を伴って him to the 開始 of the London City Airport by the Prince of むちの跡s. This was my 適切な時期.

Sadly, my 成果／努力s to dress the part made me look like a dowdy 副 headmistress and Charles was not 荒廃させるd by my loveliness.

But he laughed at my jokes and I thought I had a friend for life. Unfortunately, he neither phoned nor sent flowers and it was many years before our paths crossed again, this time in the theatre.

I was on 行う／開催する／段階 in a comedy and he was a stalwart laugher まっただ中に a sea of Japanese tourists who regarded us like 展示（する）s on the Antiques Roadshow.

I wrote to the Prince, 感謝する for his enthusiasm, and was rewarded with a four-page eulogy - on the brilliance of one of my 同僚s.

Then, to my astonishment, my husband Don and I were 招待するd to spend the 週末 at Sandringham - on the streng th of my character doing a drunken curtsy which turned into the 分裂（する）s.

The Prince, I assumed, 手配中の，お尋ね者 an encore on his living-room rug.

I 受託するd with undignified haste. The jolly 発言する／表明する that answered the phone said she was putting together biographies of the guests, 含むing my husband Don. I toyed with telling her he was a serial 殺し屋, but 結局 認める: 'He's a 新聞記者／雑誌記者.'

'Sorry ... Did you say 新聞記者／雑誌記者?' 'Yes.' Pause. 'With whom?' I winced. 'A tabloid.' Amazingly, the 招待 wasn't 無効にするd and we fetched up with borrowed wellies, pearls and Barbours.

The upper classes love laying 罠（にかける）s for small animals and the socially inept. Napkins not serviettes, lavatories not 洗面所s: tips of the iceberg on which the unknowing 創立者.

But where these people delight in the gaffes of the 'lower orders', the Prince, who can trace his lineage 支援する to a protoplasmal blob, delights only in the 多様制 of those around him.

During that 週末 we （機の）カム to realise that not only had Prince Charles reinvented the 役割 of Prince of むちの跡s, he was also 決定するd to revolutionise the 君主国, to be a 長，率いる of 明言する／公表する who was vocally in touch with 問題／発行するs that 関心 us.

But such thoughts were far from my mind as I tottered through the gates of Buckingham Palace last Thursday night. 招待するd to the Prince's birthday concert, I was in long frock and vertiginous heels.

Approaching the inner facade on foot, the palace 似ているs a German town hall. The inside is decorated in superior curry house chic: flock wallpaper and red carpet. A small army shepherded guests into さまざまな rooms, real シャンペン酒 was served and tiny canap?s nibbled at.

The 絵s on the 塀で囲むs are so famous you assume they must be copies but no, they're real Rembrandts and Goyas: as real as the diamonds and sapphires in the ladies' jewellery.

It's like 存在 at a lookalikes party, until you realise the tiny, exquisite lady in cream really is the one on the stamps. And the handsome old boy 存在 kissed on either cheek by a tall lad with spiky red hair is Prince Philip, and the lad is Prince Harry.

Radiating happiness: Charles at 60

すぐに after, floating on a sea of シャンペン酒 泡s, I sat in the 広大な／多数の／重要な ballroom listening to Haydn and seeing the ghosts of Victoria and her 子孫s hovering around us. And all because of doing the 分裂（する）s. A better argument for keeping fit than the 脅し of furry arteries.

We were surrounded by 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の people. Miriam Margoyles said she wished her mother could see her, while Baroness Helena Kennedy 誘惑するd Prince William over to our group and 発表するd us as 'the 王室の Shakespeare Company'.

The two Benedictine 修道士s next to me looked a bit startled, but the young Prince was oblivious. 'Oh, my father loves Shakespeare,' he said. 'He always comes 支援する sparkling.'

同様に as the glittering array of personalities, the frocks were impressive, too. One lady wore a fabulous cross between a flower マリファナ and a Teletubby 控訴.

Was it Issy Miyake, I asked. 'Good Lord, no,' she said. 'I had it made and it's marvellous, just pop it in the wash and hang it up to 乾燥した，日照りの.' I asked the nearest equerry who this splendid lady was. 'One of the family,' was the laconic reply.

The programme 反映するd Charles's love of classical music, but it was the West End 生産／産物 of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang that brought us together after that 週末 at Sandringham.

I was playing the Baroness, but unfortunately, Chitty 衝突，墜落d and the show was cancelled. Undeterred, the Prince entertained the cast to drinks, then took us to dinner at St James's Palace.

The next time Don and I 受託するd an 招待 to Highgrove we did so with understated 楽しみ. We knew the form: 16 to 18 guests, dinner, stay over, breakfast and a 別れの（言葉，会） on the steps.

We drove 負かす／撃墜する laughing over memories of the Prince 論証するing the Edwardian thunderbox in our bathroom at Sandringham. Us old 王室の 手渡すs...

We arrived, 推定する／予想するing to see Joanna Lumley or maybe John Mortimer. No. It was just us. 加える Charles and Camilla. The four of us.

Don had been so nervous at Sandringham he'd 強化するd his 解決する with 産業の 量s of gin. He was about to 訴える手段／行楽地 to the same 戦略 when the butler said: 'Your usual, sir?'

We were surprised he remembered. 'Put it this way,' he said, 'there is little chance of Gordon's losing their 王室の 令状s, sir.'

We were petrified of running out of conversation, but we needn't have worried. Prince Charles is a 広大な／多数の／重要な conversationalist and was fascinated by Don's career.

I suppose it was rather like having a komodo dragon on the sofa. At one point he took the dogs out for a walk and Mrs Parker-Bowles, as she then was, talked about her man with the same smiling fondness as he had spoken about her.

Hot ticket: Charles and Camilla's wedding, when Nichola sat next to Melvyn Bragg

Dinner was venison and, since the only piece I' d ever had before was as edible as Bakelite, I 受託するd just a sliver.

It was delicious, but I was too shy to ask for more. Which was stupid of me as the Prince delights in pleasing his guests, though he himself is almost frugal in his eating and drinking habits.

There is not an ounce of fat on him, from what I could 裁判官 from his goodnight 抱擁する.

That night we sat up like naughty children in our 広大な bedroom, lighting cigarettes and blowing smoke 負かす／撃墜する the 沈む plugholes. We were afraid to open the windows in 事例／患者 a police marksman mistook us for 夜盗，押し込み強盗s.

Then, three years ago, we were 招待するd to the 王室の wedding. I sat next to Melvyn Bragg and everyone admired my shoes: £25 from Peckham market.

More recently, though, the Prince asked us to tea after he met a British man who'd been on Death 列／漕ぐ／騒動 in Pakistan for 18 years. We'd 接触するd Prince Charles to see if he could help.

Getting into a 解除する in Islamabad with Pakistan's 大統領 Musharraf, he 掴むd the moment. Mirza Tahir Hussain was home in 物陰／風下d three weeks later. And why?

Because the Prince is 尊敬（する）・点d in Islamic countries through his 尊敬（する）・点 for their 約束.

The Prince is an invaluable 資産 in cross-cultural relations and, as he enters his seventh １０年間, he seems more rather than いっそう少なく 決定するd to work for the good of others. As his sons say: 'He's faster on his feet at 60.'

And he now radiates happiness, thanks in no small part to the Duchess and his boys.

Like his father, the Prince is forthright, 決定するd, occasionally dogmatic, quick-witted, （疑いを）晴らす-sighted and with GSOH.

The big difference is that the Prince of むちの跡s, at least の中で those of us he counts as his friends, 苦しむs fools very 喜んで.