Do you think anyone listens at 6am? Duke of Edinburgh has audience in stitches with chat to BBC presenter

Robert Jobson14 October 2016

The Duke of Edinburgh left an audience in stitches by asking a BBC presenter what time she gets up in the morning and whether it's worth the effort.

BBC's Sinead Garvan met Prince Philip at a function to celebrate 60 years of his Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme at St James's Palace.

Sinead, who hosts the flagship news programme for Radio 1, was asked about her early starts by the Prince, who has described himself as a practicioner of "Dontopedalogy" - the science of opening your mouth and putting your foot in it.

"Not at 6 o'clock in the morning are you?," said the Duke of Edinburgh.

Banter: the Duke of Edinburgh meets the BBC's Sinead Garvan

She responded, "Yes I am. I have to get up at 4 in the morning."

Quick as a flash the Duke responded, "Really! And what makes you think anyone is listening?"

It drew a round of laughter from guests.

Sinead persevered: "They are, millions of people listen ..."

He responded, "What at 6 o'clock in the morning?"

She added, "No I don't get in until about 7.30am. But I have to be in quick early in order to prepare it."

The Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme, arguably the most successful enterprise set up by any member of the royal family, was established 60 years ago.

In its anniversary year it is challenging adults who missed out on the award to tackle a major challenge in 2016.

The Duke launched the Diamond Challenge this year encouraging adults of all ages to embark on the experience of a lifetime.

Rather than the four core elements of the bronze, silver and gold awards it will be a one-off personal goal.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s award was conceived by Prince Philip when, in the post-war years, he was troubled by the fact that boys could leave school at 15 and spend three years drifting before they began National Service at 18.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in