Some of his quotes.
While watching Elton John at the Royal Variety Performance he was heard saying: "I wish he'd turn the microphone off."
To an attractive blonde well-wisher during a Diamond Jubilee visit with the Queen to Bromley, South London: "I would be arrested if I unzipped that dress."
On the Duke of York’s house, 1986: “It looks like a tart’s bedroom.”
To a civil servant, 1970: “You’re just a silly little Whitehall twit, you don’t trust me and I don’t trust you.”
To multi-ethnic Britain’s Got Talent 2009 winners Diversity: “Are you all one family?”
When offered wine in Rome in 2000, he snapped: “I don’t care what kind it is, just get me a beer!”
“I don’t think a prostitute is more moral than a wife, but they are doing the same thing.” 1988.
On Princess Anne, 1970: “If it doesn’t fart or eat hay, she isn’t interested.”
After being told that Madonna was singing the Die Another Day theme in 2002: “Are we going to need ear plugs?”
To Atul Patel at reception for influential Indians, 2009: “There’s a lot of your family in tonight.”
Peering at a fuse box in a Scottish factory, he said: “It looks as though it was put in by an Indian.” He later backtracked: “I meant to say cowboys.”
To a woman solicitor, 1987: “I thought it was against the law for a woman to solicit.”
After the Dunblane massacre, 1996: “If a cricketer suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, are you going to ban cricket bats?”
To the Scottish WI in 1961: “British women can’t cook.”
“I’d like to go to Russia very much – although the bastards murdered half my family.” 1967.
To Aboriginal leader William Brin, Queensland, 2002: “Do you still throw spears at each other?”
“People think there’s a rigid class system here, but dukes have even been known to marry chorus girls. Some have even married Americans.” 2000.
To Scottish driving instructor, 1995: “How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to pass the test?”