![]() ![]() In the audience Doyle caught Prince Charles, as he was known then, in “fits of laughter.” When the prince was introduced to the cast and crew backstage he said to Doyle: “That was very funny. ![]() ![]() So I shouted in desperation, ‘Has anyone seen page one?’ The entire place erupted.” “Thinking about it now my heart sinks,” Doyle recalls, still mortified 30 years on. As the curtain went up and Doyle began to play, a lamp that was perched on top of the piano slowly toppled over, knocking the sheets of music all over the composer and the floor. Doyle was conducting the production’s orchestra as well as accompanying on piano (the show also marked the start of a decades-long partnership with Branagh). It turns out that Doyle and the King have what he describes as a “close professional friendship” that dates back to the late 1980s, when disaster struck during the opening night of Kenneth Branagh’s production of “Twelfth Night” at Riverside Studios in London. “And I felt that he wouldn’t have asked me if he didn’t think I would be up to the task.” “But I’ve known King Charles for a huge part of my career, over 30 years,” Doyle adds. But then the enormity struck me very, very quickly after that.” It’s an extraordinary thing to be asked, a huge honour. It was as simple as Buckingham Palace giving his agent a call, Doyle tells Variety. ![]()
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