Britain would be ‘mad’ to get rid of the monarchy, Sir Michael Caine has said.
The acting great, 91, gives his views on the Royal Family in his new autobiography, Don’t Look Back, You’ll Trip Over: My Guide to Life.
He says the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth was ‘extraordinary’ and her son King Charles is proving to be a ‘great’ monarch.
The retired star of film classics including the Italian Job and Zulu also insists that the monarch is not anti-democratic and adds: ‘We’d be mad to chuck that away.’
Sir Michael was knighted by the Queen in 2000, two years after chatting to the monarch alongside fellow showbiz legends Joan Collins and Shirley Bassey at a reception at Windsor Castle.
Britain would be ‘mad’ to get rid of the monarchy, Sir Michael Caine has said. Above: With his wife Shakira at Buckingham Palace after being knighted, November 2000
Michael Caine kneels as he is knighted by the Queen at Buckingham Palace, November 2000
His comments in his new book come after his fellow screen star Sir Ian McKellen branded the late Queen as ‘rude’ and ‘quite mad’ and said Prince Harry is ‘not bright enough’ to cope with royal life.
But in the interview with the Times in September, the Lord of the Rings star added: ‘I’m definitely on Prince Harry’s side.’
Sir Michael’s new book has been compiled with journalist Matthew D’Ancona.
The journalist asks him: ‘In the Sixties, did you still expect the monarchy to be around now?’
Sir Michael then gives his warm views of the royals, saying: ‘I doubt we gave it much thought. But if you’d asked us, most of us would have probably thought that it would survive.
‘By then, it was already pretty clear that the Queen was doing an incredible job, that she was absolutely right for the challenges she faced.
The acting great, 91, gives his views on the Royal Family in his new autobiography, Don’t Look Back, You’ll Trip Over: My Guide to Life. Above: The star chatting to the Queen alongside Shirley Bassey and Joan Collins at Windsor Castle in 1998
‘And she had such an extraordinary reign. The outpouring of love and respect when she died was amazing – you could see that she had represented something very special to people.
‘And I think Charles is turning out to be a great King, too. The monarchy isn’t anti-democratic, it’s one of the ways our democracy has lasted.
‘This stable institution at the heart of everything. We’d be mad to chuck that away. I don’t think we will, either.’
Sir Michael previously recalled how the Queen laughed at a joke he told at a meal, but he was not sure if she really found it funny.
He told USA Today: ‘She laughed. I don’t know if it was out of kindness, but she laughed. But that was the first clean joke I could think of.’
The actor also revealed that he keeps his knighthood in a special room at his Surrey home alongside his ‘other valuables’, including his two Oscars.
He added: ‘Unlike an Academy Award, this is not just for one film. It’s for a life. If my life was good enough for a knighthood, I am very happy with that.’
Don’t Look Back, You’ll Trip Over: My Guide to Life, by Michael Caine in conversation with Matthew D’Ancona, is published by Hodder & Stoughton
