PJ Vogt

All right.

Thank you, Chris.

After the break, we dive in.

Welcome back to the show.

Chapter one, the outer circle.

When we started trying to answer this question almost two years ago, it's not that we thought it'd be easy, but frankly, it didn't seem that hard.

We'd set the bar low enough.

We just needed to talk to a person who had seen the pool with their own eyes.

All we were seeking was a fact as small as, did the Royal Pool have a Royal Diving Board?

If so, was it one of the really big ones, like with a ladder?

So we made our reporting plan.

First stop, the press office of the Royal Collection Trust, the organization that manages visitor access to Buckingham Palace.

We told them we were very interested in the architectural history of the palace, and asked if they could make a historian available for an interview.

To our delay, they responded.

They asked for a list of questions in advance.

We sent them over questions, with our question about the pool artfully tucked towards the back, where we hoped it would not trigger alarms.

We said we just wanted to know if the palace had modern amenities.

Like, perhaps a swimming pool?

And if so, could they talk about that?

Those two words, swimming pool, they shut down like a pumpkin stand in November.