King Charles had a very telling reaction during an interaction with disgraced TV presenter Jimmy Savile, before his crimes were exposed. Savile’s prolific sexual abuse only came to light after his death in 2011, with Operation Yewtree exposing his fellow stars including Gary Glitter and Rolf Harris.

According to comedian Jim Davidson, when Charles was still the Prince of Wales, he met Savile at an event taking place at Sandhurst, and his true reaction was priceless. Davidson appeared on Andrew Gold’s Heretics podcast last year to speak about his experiences working with Savile at the BBC, and recalled the day he was interrupted while chatting to Charles.

He explained: “I was at a do at Sandhurst, and the Prince of Wales was the patron of my charity, the British Forces Foundation.

“[We] sat on the top table – Spike Milligan came in, and the prince got up and spoke to him and all this stuff, and then… ‘Now then, now then, now then’, coming down the bit behind the top table, where all the seats were, was Jimmy Savile in a newspaper suit.

“He pushed me to one side and sat down in between me and the Prince of Wales, uninvited. The Prince of Wales was looking over his shoulder at me as Savile was saying, ‘Now, another thing we can do about this and take all those people and did you know…’

“The Prince of Wales was looking over his shoulder at me doing this!” Davidson proceeded to do an impression of Charles with a raised eyebrow and baffled look, quipping: “They said he was a great mate – he hated him!”

Gold chimed in to ask: “Really? He has been accused of… the Royals have been accused…” but Davidson waved it away, responding: “Oh, everybody gets accused of everything!”