Prince’s Diaries: Philip's letters to actress
4 Sept 2012 2:20 PM IST
Highly sensitive letters written by Queen Elizabeth's husband to a British stage actress will feature in a controversial new musical.
The letters, all signed by Prince Philip, and sent from Balmoral and Sandringham on his personal notepaper, were written to the late Pat Kirkwood, a stage and screen star, whose magnificent legs were once described by the critic Kenneth Tynan as ‘the eighth wonder of the world’.
His correspondence, and Kirkwood's outspoken replies, which discusses Philip's views on the coverage of his private life by the media, are to feature in a new one-woman stage musical, ‘Pat Kirkwood Is Angry’, starring leading mezzo-soprano Jessica Walker.
Kirkwood's first meeting with the Duke of Edinburgh in 1948, when they were both 27 and danced the night away cheek-to-cheek in a London nightclub while the Queen was eight months pregnant with Prince Charles, fuelled decades of speculation about their relationship.
The rumours are said to have cost Kirkwood the chance of recognition in the Honours list. She died in 2007 at the age of 86.
The letters, all signed by Prince Philip, and sent from Balmoral and Sandringham on his personal notepaper, were written to the late Pat Kirkwood, a stage and screen star, whose magnificent legs were once described by the critic Kenneth Tynan as ‘the eighth wonder of the world’.
His correspondence, and Kirkwood's outspoken replies, which discusses Philip's views on the coverage of his private life by the media, are to feature in a new one-woman stage musical, ‘Pat Kirkwood Is Angry’, starring leading mezzo-soprano Jessica Walker.
Kirkwood's first meeting with the Duke of Edinburgh in 1948, when they were both 27 and danced the night away cheek-to-cheek in a London nightclub while the Queen was eight months pregnant with Prince Charles, fuelled decades of speculation about their relationship.
The rumours are said to have cost Kirkwood the chance of recognition in the Honours list. She died in 2007 at the age of 86.
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