5 hours ago
4
The Duchess of Edinburgh Sophie Rhys-Jones and Prince Edward attended the Royal Variety Performance back in 2022, but Sophie was less than impressed with a particular act.
King Charles and Queen Camilla were also present. However, Sophie's remarks about one performance in 2022 were unexpected. Comedian and radio host Frank Skinner sang Three Lions with friend David Baddiel at the event, but his efforts did not win over Sophie.
Frank shared on his Absolute Radio show how he was feeling unwell that day but still managed to perform. Nevertheless, his performance was criticised by the royal, who bluntly advised him "not to quit his day job".
Frank recounted to his listeners at the time: "I was gradually getting more ill, and more ill, as the day went on I was struggling. We were singing Three Lions.
"So I croaked my way through the dress rehearsal. And then, on the night, we did the show. I made Dave sound like Mario Lanza on the night. It actually hurt to sing it. Four minutes of hurt never stopped me singing. I was in physical pain," reports the Mirror.
He added that he then spoke with the royals after his performance, saying: "Sophie led the way, bearing in mind I'd had a really hard day and I battled on like a trooper. So she comes up and she says, 'Well, don't give up your day job.'
"I thought, 'This is not how the royal walk thing works'. And we honestly said 'Pardon?' It's supposed to be just banal compliments. I said, 'Was it that bad? ' And she said, 'Well, you know, I could tell, you know, it's not what you do.'"
Frank was taken aback by the comments and continued: "And I said, 'Erm, well, normally we're like comics'. She said, 'Yeah, but you're on screen aren't you, you're not used to a live crowd'.
"I said, 'Well we've done a bit of live stuff you know, stand-up and stuff'. But she's sticking with it and she said, 'Yeah, but you haven't done anywhere the size of this.'"
He then disclosed to Sophie that he had performed at the Palladium as recently as last Sunday.
He added: "She looked at me like, 'You're not supposed to be arguing, I don't think you're supposed to be arguing with me.
"You're supposed to just nod'. It was like a really awkward thing."
English (US) ·