David Walliams revealed the details of his surprising conversation with Prince Philip during his appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show on Saturday. Appearing on the ITV talk show as part of his promotional tour for his new book, The Beast of Buckingham Palace, the children's author, comedian and actor talked about the fact that he's visited the palace himself more than once. "You must have been to the palace many times?" Jonathan asked, to which the Little Britain star responded: "Many, many, many, many, times thank you Jonathan, yes."
David was awarded an OBE for his services to charity and the arts in 2017
Then he added more seriously: "But you only see bits of it." David then went on to describe a Variety Club reception he attended that was held at the Queen's London residence, where he had an unexpected chat with the Duke of Edinburgh. The dad-of-one elaborated: "I was with my mum because I like to bring her to these events and also Rod Stewart was there and also Lenny Henry. [Prince Philip] said, 'What are you two doing here?' and we said, 'We're here representing Comic Relief', and he said, 'It's only on once a year!'"
The Prince spoke to David and his celebrity friends at Buckingham Palace
Laughing, David continued: "I was like, 'It takes more than one night to actually get the show together,' and he went to Lenny Henry, 'You're not even on television anymore, apart from those Premier Inn adverts." The show's other guest, Robbie Williams leaned forward and asked, "Seriously?" and David replied, "Yeah, who knew he watches ITV?" The audience and Johnathan Ross laughed and applauded.
READ: David Walliams shares rare photo with lookalike sister and mum
Robbie and David also spent a little time discussing their OBEs – more specifically, the fact that David has one and Robbie doesn't. The former Take That star pretended to be disturbed by this state of affairs, as he joked: "Yeah no, no awards. Gary Barlow OBE, Robbie Williams, nothing." "Why do you think that is, why do you think the Queen hates you?" David teased. Robbie replied: "Obviously not flavour of the day. You organise a jubilee for her on the roundabout outside the house, OBE straight away. Robbie Williams, no."
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