In a break from royal tradition, His Royal Highness demonstrates all the comedic acumen of a professional stand-up, by issuing some dry zingers about the experience before imitating Meldrum’s gaffes.
“There is an old show business saying which warns never to work with animals or children. But nobody prepared me for Molly Meldrum. Was it really 40 years ago? It only seems like yesterday. I wish it were tomorrow, I’d cancel it,” he says.
HRH asks Molly if he doesn’t have a teleprompter.
“I certainly learned some interesting new Australian words from Mr Meldrum and if he could have read my mind he would have learned some interesting new English words from me.”
The Prince of Wales stumbles over his words, gets flustered and requests a glass of water, and even gets man-handled by an aide.
An aide man-handles Charles, like a producer did to Molly.
The sketch will be aired as part of the ABC’s two-part Countdown: Do Yourself a Favour documentary to commemorate the iconic program’s 40th birthday.
“The world has gone mad!”, Meldrum apparently said after watching the footage.
