Throughout her life, Princess Margaret’s entrances into bohemia tended to set everyone on edge. Anti-monarchists in particular would react in a strange way to her presence, either becoming more obsequious or more aggressive, or – catastrophically – a rapidly alternating mix of the two. On the way to a gala dinner for the film My Fair Lady in January 1965, the Hollywood mogul Jack Warner gave his curvaceous young escort – who had changed her name to ‘Lady Scarborough’ for the occasion – a rapid tutorial in one of the most basic rules of royal etiquette. ‘Don’t say shit in front of the Princess,’ he said.
In fact, the self-styled Lady Scarborough behaved impeccably in the Princess’s presence, while more seasoned members of society failed to catch the right tone. Lady Diana Cooper – never the Princess’s greatest fan – pointedly refused to curtsey, then came up later to apologise.
‘Oh, but I’m sure you did curtsey,’ replied the Princess.
‘No – ramrod!’
My Fair Lady’s costume designer, Cecil Beaton, looked on aghast as the actress Rachel Roberts, ‘a bit tight’, tottered up to the Princess and said, more than once, ‘I don’t know what I call you,’ without waiting for a reply. Her husband, Rex Harrison, who played Professor Henry Higgins, that stickler for correct manners, attempted to butt in: ‘You call her Ma’am!’ but Roberts appeared not to hear, and kept repeating the same question, over and over again. Eventually, both Princess Margaret and Rex Harrison began chanting the same reply – ‘You call her Ma’am! You call her Ma’am!’ – while Roberts persisted in yelling, ‘I don’t know what I call you! I don’t know what I call you!’