An amused King Charles has looked back on footage of himself ‘fooling around’ during his 1975 trip to the Canadian Arctic – and joked over how ‘bloody cold’ it was.
A young Charles, then 26 years old, demonstrated his adventurous spirit by venturing to the region, home to polar bears and Arctic wolves, to complete a historic ice dive and showcase his passion for the environment.
During the visit, Charles, now 77, completed an ice dive near Resolute Bay, but despite the daring challenge at hand, he was very much still up for a laugh – and completed the dive while wearing a bowler hat.
Remarking on the trip, he said, ‘We had some laughs. I thought it’d be rather fun coming back up with the hat on, and I thought, a chance to fool around.’
That wasn’t his only bit of fun, and the royal also entertained his fellow adventurers by blowing up his snow suit with air. ‘I blew the thing up to see how far the thing would go,’ Charles said.
The clip also showed the then-Prince of Wales comment on his dive, saying: ‘It was splendid. It was very, very interesting indeed, I must say,’ He added that it was ‘bloody cold,’ which was met with laughter.
The monarch reflected on the trip as part of a new ITV show, which airs at 8.30pm this evening and follows environmentalist Steve Backshall as he looks back on climate change over the past 50 years.
Charles is set to discuss the ‘devastating effects’ of climate change during his appearance in the programme, titled Steve Backshall’s Royal Arctic Challenge.
King Charles, 77, has looked back on footage of himself during his 1975 visit to the Canadian Arctic – where he sported a bowler hat during an ice dive (pictured)
An entertained Charles looked back on the footage, explaining that the dive was ‘splendid’ but ‘bloody cold’
The Royal Family’s X account shared the clip, writing: ‘In 1975, The King made a historic ice dive during a trip to the Canadian Arctic.
‘The formative visit was a true adventure in freezing temperatures, taking in dog sledding, learning about the local culture, and shaping His Majesty’s lifelong passion for the environment.
‘Tune in, as environmentalist @SteveBackshall retraces The King’s steps, looking at the impact of climate change 50 years on.
‘Steve Backshall’s Royal Arctic Challenge: 18th December, 8.30pm on @ITV and @ITVX.’
The then-Prince also spent the 1975 trip learning about the local Inuit people’s culture and dependence on the environment around them – even trying raw seal liver when it was offered to him.
Steve, 52, will look at the accelerating impact of climate change on the Arctic, which is warming three times faster than the rest of the world.
Marshall Corwin, who directed the documentary, said that it was ‘eye opening’ to see King Charles ‘as never before’, including the monarch’s ‘extreme spirit of adventure’, ‘genuine passion for the planet’ and ‘his mischievous sense of humour’.
Speaking about the project, Backshall said in a statement: ‘To see the Arctic through the King’s eyes – then and now – was both inspiring and sobering.
Pictured: Charles wore a special diving suit as he attempted to walk below the five-foot arctic ice during a visit to the Northwest Territories in April 1975 at Resolute Bay, Canada
‘Standing where the King once stood, diving beneath the same Arctic ice he explored half a century ago, was humbling beyond words.
‘His Majesty was raising the alarm for the natural world long before most of us realised how urgent that call would becoming.
‘His commitment to protecting our planet runs through every fibre of this story.’
Nicky Cox, executive producer, also praised the King’s ‘decades-long dedication to the environment’, hailing it as ‘visionary’.
Charles’s 11-day royal visit in 1975 saw him landing first in Ottawa and spending three days in Canada’s capital region before travelling north.
The King carried out his dive under the ice with physician and researcher Joe MacInnis in Resolute Bay, which is known today as Nunavut.
Writing in the Canadian Geographic earlier this year to commemorate 50 years since the dive with the Royal, Joe recalled the moment he led the then-Prince into the freezing waters.
He said the 30-minute dive went smoothly, despite Charles initially struggling to control his buoyancy in his diving suit.
Towards the end of the dive, Joe said he prepared a black bowler hat and an umbrella for Charles to wear and hold on his ascent back up to the surface, as a joke.
Recalling the moment Charles, still underwater, saw him holding the hat and umbrella, Joe wrote: ‘He stares at me as if I’ve gone mad. My heart sinks. Seconds later, his eyes crinkle and the sound of muted laughter fills the space between us.
‘The prince puts the hat on, reaches for the umbrella, holds it over his head and slowly ascends towards the dive hole. Trailing a stream of bubbles, he is Mary Poppins in the flying nanny scene.’