Robert Hardman

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910 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Aug 2026 last heard 8 Aug

Robert Hardman’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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TRIGGERnometry · The Truth About the Royal Family with Royal Reporter Robert Hardman · 8 Aug 2026 podcast

And then finally the Pope.

The Pope abdicated effectively.

The Pope is a sort of sovereign figure.

And all that in the space of a year.

And these are figures who were of a similar age to the Queen.

And it just didn't occur to her, it didn't occur to us as a country that she would stand aside because she took an oath, it's a job for life.

And I think that goes with that.

is is is you know she she was very good at adapting she did adapt she moved with the times she was never ahead of the times and the king's the same you you know he he he once said to someone I I I don't want to be ahead of the curve but I don't want to be behind the curve.

You know you've just got to move with it.

Um and and and and that's that's what she did.

I mean the monarchy you look at the monarchy she inherited from her father in in nineteen fifty two it was a sort of almost a uh Edwardian if not

Victorian structure.

I mean lots of people doing absolutely unnecessary jobs that that that were weren't needed with sort of crazy titles.

Mm.

The thing was essentially um at the top end, it was all done on kind of connections.

I mean the monarchy now, it's run, it's it's entirely uh the the the management of it is is is is meritocratic, the jobs, the duties, the roles, the pay, it's all benchmarked against sort of other public sector.

So I mean she she did

take is this institution and move it into the into the into the modern era but at the same time keeping that element of mystique which is which is part of what it's about you know you've got to have scarcity value um there's got to be a a a sort of thrill a sense of excitement when you walk through the door of of say Buckingham Palace otherwise it's not it's not special and and people know that that the there is this what I call the sort of royal paradox that we want

The royals to be just like us, but we also want them to be completely different.

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