‘Grandma did an impression of Ali G’

Prince William and Prince Harry have cast the Queen Mother in a remarkable new light by revealing that she once impersonated Ali G.

In an extraordinary interview – the first ever given by Harry – the Princes affectionately recalled memories of their great-grandmother, and painted a portrait of a lady whose irrepressible sense of fun stayed with her until the end.

They told how she reduced the Royal Family to fits of laughter after one Christmas lunch by doing an impression of the spoof gangsta rapper.

Standing in the dining room at Sandringham, she turned to the Queen, snapped her fingers Ali Gstyle and said: ‘Respec’.’

Together with their father’s highly personal television tribute to the Queen Mother, the boys’ insightful recollections and observations underline just how much the Royal Family has broken free from years of restraint.

William and Harry detail how the Royal matriarch inspired and encouraged them, but above all made them laugh – her modern sense of humour at times almost eclipsing her old-fashioned sense of duty.

‘Anything that was meant to be formal and went wrong, she enjoyed,’ said Prince William. ‘She would have a good giggle.

‘She had such a young sense of humour. Every single thing that went wrong or was funny for any reason, she laughed herself stupid about it – it kept us all sane.’

He added: ‘She loved a good laugh, even if the joke was about her.’

William and Harry spoke at York House, their home in St James’s Palace, after returning from their sombre march behind the Queen Mother’s coffin on Friday as it was moved in procession from St James’s Palace to Westminster Hall. Still in their morning suits, they were in reflective mood, but they smiled as they recalled fond memories and amusing anecdotes.

William said the Queen Mother learned about Ali G, the television and film character played by Sacha Baron Cohen, at Sandringham.

‘It was two or three Christmases ago, and we were sitting down watching Ali G on TV,’ he said. ‘We were laughing when she came in. She couldn’t understand what was going on, so we explained to her what he was doing. Harry and I showed her what to do. She loved it, and after three goes she had it.

‘Later that day, we were all in the dining room, having Christmas lunch, when she tried it out.’

Taking up the story, Prince Harry, 17, added: ‘It was at the end of the meal, and she stood up and said, “Darling, lunch was marvellous – respec’,î and clicked her fingers.’

The entire family burst out laughing, including the Queen, to whom the remark was addressed.

Prince William himself has also impersonated Ali G before an audience, famously mimicking him in a television documentary of his gap-year trip to Chile in 2000.

As well as her beguiling humour, the

Princes said they admired the Queen Mother’s youthful spirit.

‘She loved to hear about all my friends and all they got up to, and relate it to her own youth,’ said William. ‘And she loved to hear about how much trouble I got into at school.’

The Princes have spent the week comforting their father who, in his own moving tribute, described the Queen Mother as his ‘darling, magical grandmother’.

William said: ‘They were very close. She gave him a lot of advice and help.’

Harry added ‘They always joked about everything. They both had the same sense of humour.’

The Princes, who honoured their great-grandmother by walking behind her coffin during the historic ceremonial procession, also spoke of how she had inspired them.

Harry said: ‘She was determined to do things without help. She always wanted to walk up steps on her own. She was amazing. And she was very interested in everything we did, whether it was school or polo or anything.’

His brother added: ‘I remember her as being a huge inspiration to me, someone to really look up to and admire. She was a historic link. I looked up to her because of what an achievement it was to live to 101.

‘It was a pleasure to sit next to her at lunch. She always had some great war stories and, to hear them from her, it really brought it all to life, something that happened long before we were born.’

He added: ‘She was incredible – nothing stopped her at all. Whenever I felt ill, I always used to remember that in the same circumstances she would battle on, no matter how she felt. She never gave up.’

During the interview Harry remarked how it was a shame that he and William never shared outdoor activities such as riding or fishing with their great-grandmother-because of the massive age gap. ‘By the time we were old enough to go riding with her, she had stopped,’ he said.

The fondest memory William has of the Queen Mother was being with her on her 101st birthday, August 4 last year. The Royal Family had assembled outside her home, Clarence-House, to greet wellwishers and watch a military march-past.

‘Being with her on her 101st birthday was great,’ said the Prince. ‘Standing at the gates with your great-grandmother who is 101 years old as her troops go by was quite something.’

He grinned as he recalled his earliest memory of the Queen Mother, which was at Birkhall, her home on the Balmoral estate in Scotland.

‘My first memory of her was turning up at Birkhall and, as I was getting out of the car, I tripped and fell flat on my face, right in front of her. I must have been about six or seven,’ he said. ‘She helped me up again. It was so funny because she was so old, and there was me being hauled off the ground by her.’

But as he grew older, it was William’s turn to look out for the Royal elder. ‘My favourite photograph of us together was a picture of me aged about nine or ten helping the Queen Mother up the steps at Windsor Castle,’ he said.

‘I remember the moment because she said to me, “Keep doing that for people and you will go a long way in life.î ‘

William also taught his greatgrandmother some of the mysteries of modern life.

‘I was given a mobile phone for Christmas and showed it to her. I invited her to press a few buttons and it kept blinking and flashing at her, until she put it down and said, “I think I’d better leave that to you.î

‘She loved seeing what we got for Christmas and asking what was the latest, trendy thing.’

The student Prince, who has now completed two terms of his art history degree, recalled how he had lunch with the Queen Mother on the day of his arrival at St Andrews University last September.

In fact, she made him late by laying on a massive spread at her Birkhall home.

He said: ‘She gave me an amazing lunch, better and longer than normal, and we talked about me going to university and what I was studying. She always took a great interest in all her great-grandchildren.’

Afterwards, as the Prince set off for St Andrews, full of anxieties about his college career ahead, the Queen Mother found the words to bring a smile to his face.

‘As she said goodbye, she said, “Any good parties, invite me down,î ‘ William recalled. ‘I said yes, but there was no way. I knew full well that if I invited her down, she would dance me under the table.’

Before the interview, in what must have evoked extraordinarily painful memories, William and Harry had walked behind the Queen Mother’s coffin, just as they had walked behind their mother’s five years ago.

William was 15 when Princess Diana died in 1997 and Harry just 12, but both boys were praised for the dignity they showed.

Their father Prince Charles had asked them if they wanted to follow her coffin and they had both agreed immediately.

In a poignant repeat of those scenes, on Friday the young Royals were prominent figures in the procession of 1,700 servicemen and women from St James’s Palace to Westminster Hall.

Later the boys joined 23 other members of the Royal Family – led by the Queen – when they filed past the Queen Mother’s coffin.

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