New ITV documentary series Prince Charles: Inside the Duchy of Cornwall celebrates the Prince’s 50 working years as the Duke of Cornwall
Cameras follow Prince Charles as he tours the Duchy of Cornwall in ITV’s intimate two-part documentary Prince Charles: Inside the Duchy of Cornwall (see TV Guide for full listings).
The Duchy is a vast, private estate, which has provided an income for every Prince of Wales for the last 700 years.
The estate includes farmland, coastline, castles and even Dartmoor Prison.
There’s a glimpse of the Prince hard at work planning for the future of the estate, hosting a party for some of the Duchy’s 700 tenant farmers, as well as footage of him planting hedgerows along his own slice of farmland – the 1,100-acre Home Farm in Gloucestershire.
Prince Charles, 70, has been at the Duchy’s helm for 50 years.
In the series, he talks about running his vast business...
‘In the early days, I was dealing with the grandfathers of the tenant farmers I’m dealing with now.
’For me the wonderful thing is the connection between my family and their families,’ says the Prince of the Duchy.
And when he’s not in Cornwall, he enjoys his time at the family home in Gloucestershire.
‘I spend half my time when I’m down there pruning things and taking dead bits off things and goodness knows what,’ he remarks.
‘There are so many things to look at.
‘Then I get another idea or something like that – fatal, really!
‘I love farming. Converting to an organic regime 35 years ago was an unusual thing to do.
‘I just felt it was important to demonstrate other ways of doing things, rescuing rare breeds and heritage vegetables, all the things that were disappearing.’
TV Times rating: ***
