Prince Philip was back to his devilish best as he joked with an 83-year-old factory worker about her talent for ‘stripping’.
The Queen’s 91-year-old husband proved he still has a twinkle in his eye as he indulged in a string of double entendres with Audrey Cook, who has worked at the at the Mars factory in Slough, England, for 69 years.
Mrs Cook explained that when she first joined as a 14-year-old girl in 1944 she was employed in the stripping department where the original Mars bars were cut by hand.
‘Stripping department? That’s Mars bars?’ Philip enquired. ‘I thought it was something else!’
Undeterred the factory’s longest-serving staff member told him innocently: ‘It was all done by hand then.’ To which the flirty nonagenarian replied: ‘Well, most stripping is done by hand.’
Fortunately he managed to spend the rest of the morning visit engaged in slightly less risqué conversation.
The Duke of Edinburgh is fond of bantering with well-wishers and last year got into a spot of bother when he spied upon pretty council worker Hannah Jackson, 25, on a Jubilee visit.
The elderly royal turned to the policeman standing next to her and gestured towards her eye-catching red dress which had a zip running the length of its front. ‘I would get arrested if I unzipped that dress!’ he exclaimed.
At the time, his comments were widely greeted as yet another ‘gaffe’, for which the Duke of Edinburgh has become notorious.
Most recently, the Duke hit the headlines when he told a Filipino nurse that her country must be ‘half empty as you’re all here running the NHS’ while on a visit to a London hospital.
Phillip made his latest remarks during a tour of the Mars factory in Berkshire, home to the eponymous Mars Bars, Snickers and other delights, with the Queen.
Before they left the Queen was presented with a remarkable edible carriage – a replica of the Irish state coach – made from chocolate, sugar and 24-carat gold leaf.
Mars’ president, Fiona Dawson, told the monarch: ‘It’s the first time we’ve had gold leaf in one of our products. I hope it doesn’t take off otherwise it might be expensive to make.’
The Queen appeared pleased with her gift which also featured an edible painting of Windsor Castle complete with a gold frame and two M&Ms dressed as guardsmen standing to attention in chocolate sentry boxes, complete with bearskins, guarding the rear of the picture.
As she stepped forward for a closer look, the monarch said: ‘Yes, very clever, it’s rather detailed isn’t it?’
The Queen pointed out the 7lb chocolate carriage, which took two weeks to make and will last for about a month (not that it is likely to hang around that long) to Philip who said to Miss Dawson: ‘You expect it to be eaten or kept?’
by Robbo Green
