Camilla and Judi Dench rushed to nudist beach after hearing about Queen Mother’s old haunt
Holkham beach, once one of the Royal Family's favourite retreats, is also a famous recreational spot for nudists.
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With its miles of golden sands bordering a nature reserve, it is no surprise that Holkham beach was once an idyllic retreat for the Royal Family. They even had their own beach hut — which was given to the Queen’s father in the Thirties by Holkham Estate owner, the fifth Earl of Leicester — for around 70 years, until it was burned down in a suspected arson attack in 2003. The north Norfolk Estate is well-known all over the country for its stunning beach; it's one of the most unspoilt stretches of sand in the UK and from the bay, visitors can enjoy the panoramic views of the sweeping cove. For decades, the royals escaped to Holkham bay, but in recent years, it has fallen out of favour with the family — not least because of the increasing popularity of the designated naturist area at the western end of it.
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However, according to a royal author, some members of the Royal Family were not as put off by the nudist community.
Gareth Russell, author of the new book ‘Do Let's Have Another Drink: The Singular Wit and Double Measures of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother,’ was a guest on this week’s episode of the To Di For Daily podcast.
The historian discussed his new book, which delves into the fun parts of the Queen Mother’s life through 101 biographical vignettes — one for each year of her long, remarkable life.
A particularly humorous anecdote, which the podcast’s host Kinsey Schofield pointed out, detailed the moment the Queen Mother, formerly Queen Elizabeth, found out about Holkham beach’s designated nudist area.
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Mr Russell said: “There was a nudist beach near a spot that the Queen Mother used to go [to] in Norfolk. Her security used to tell her: ‘Don’t go too far up the beach — it’s a nudist beach.’
“And the Queen Mother said: ‘Well, that’s not embarrassing. Maybe the corgis will nip their bottoms.’”
Reading from the book, Ms Schofield quoted the Queen Mother, who when questioned by her security whether venturing up to the nudist area would be embarrassing for her, said: “Embarrassing, for whom? I’m longing to see them. Perhaps the corgis will nip their bottoms!”
In the book ‘Prince Philip Revealed’, author Ingrid Seward recalled Marina Ogilvy, the daughter of Princess Alexandra of Kent, saying the Queen Mother often had funny and naughty things to say about the nudists. She said that her royal cousins would use binoculars as they watched the people.
But the Queen Mother was not the only royal to show interest in the naturist community. Years later, then-Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and her close friend, Dame Judi Dench, found out about the western part of the bay.
Mr Russell recalled: “And I mention in the book that she [Dame Judi] was swimming there with Camilla, and they’d been friends for years.
“Judi Dench and Camilla found out about this [the nudist area] years later when they were at the same spot, and they soon disappeared and were later found talking to this completely nude gentleman who was a headmaster, a principal at a school. They were having a wonderful chat!”
Dame Judi is one of the Queen Consort’s closest celebrity friends. Not only has the actress taken part in the royal’s Reading Room Book Club, but she has also joined Camilla at an official engagement in 2018.
The pair were visiting Queen Victoria’s former home of Osborne on the Isle of Wight and were photographed enjoying ice cream together on the late monarch’s private beach.
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Dame Judi has recently spoken out in defence of the Royal Family amid growing concerns surrounding the upcoming season of The Crown, which is expected to focus heavily on the breakdown of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales’ marriage and the affair between the then-Prince and his longterm friend Camilla Shand.
In a strongly-worded letter to The Times, the actress called on Netflix to insert a disclaimer at the start of the programme to say it is a “fictionalised drama”, a move that she said would not only be a mark of respect for the late Queen Elizabeth II but would also help preserve the streaming giant’s reputation.
It came after former Prime Minister John Major called The Crown a “barrel-load of nonsense” after it emerged that the first episode of the upcoming series includes a fictitious scene in which Charles lobbies Major in 1991 in an attempt to persuade his mother to abdicate.
Dame Judi said Major was not alone in thinking that the Netflix show will present “an inaccurate and hurtful account of history”. She wrote: “The closer the drama comes to our present times, the more freely it seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism.”
The danger, she believes, is that viewers — particularly those overseas — could take its version of history as being wholly true.
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She continued: “Given some of the wounding suggestions apparently contained in the new series — that King Charles plotted for his mother to abdicate, for example, or once suggested his mother’s parenting was so deficient that she might have deserved a jail sentence — this is both cruelly unjust to the individuals and damaging to the institution they represent.
“No one is a greater believer in artistic freedom than I, but this cannot go unchallenged. Despite this week stating publicly that The Crown has always been a ‘fictionalised drama’ the programme makers have resisted all calls for them to carry a disclaimer at the start of each episode.”
The actress concluded: “The time has come for Netflix to reconsider — for the sake of a family and a nation so recently bereaved, as a mark of respect to a sovereign who served her people so dutifully for 70 years, and to preserve their own reputation in the eyes of their British subscribers.”
A spokeswoman for Netflix later said: “The Crown has always been presented as a drama based on historical events. Series Five is a fictional dramatisation, imagining what could have happened behind closed doors during a significant decade for the royal family — one that has been scrutinised and well-documented by journalists, biographers and historians.”
