The King and I! I’ve been a Charles impersonator for three decades and won’t use the tube because I look so much like him
- Guy Ingle was often unemployed in the 90s – but is now constantly in demand
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A professional impersonator of King Charles says he has never been busier than in recent months and now earns thousands a week.
Guy Ingle, 63, an entertainer from Ampthill, Bedfordshire, has been mimicking Charles, 74, since the nineties.
The huge royal fan says that although he says he was extremely sad when the news of the Queen’s death broke, he has since seen his career transformed.
He often works with other impersonators, such as of the late Queen and Princess Diana.
While in the run up to the Coronation, he has seen his workload quadruple.
This royalist has been using his looks and acting skills to pursue a life of impersonating King Charles and has never been busier since the former prince was declared king
Guy said: ‘Work has never been so busy since the Queen’s death as Charles is now king. Meaning I no longer play a second-fiddle character to the Queen.
‘The workload has quadrupled, but I never let myself get dragged into any inappropriate gigs as I’ve got far too much respect for the royal family to do so.
‘I’ve always been a huge fan of the royals, my family were always huge supporters of them.
‘We were all hugely saddened by the news of the Queen’s death, and I think the stress with Harry and Andrew must not have helped her I feel in her later years.’
Guy – who says he doesn’t use the tube because of the stares he gets from the public – has also revealed how he operates in his unusual role.
He said: ‘I have the same approach for majority of my gigs as King Charles.
‘I get my agents to give me info on the person who’s booked me and what the event is so I can tailor the routine.
‘I learn the script and get my costume ready, I practice my lines whilst in getting the make-up done and then arrive at the venue in plenty of time.
‘But I rarely use the tube to avoid stares and questions from the public as I often get stopped by them.’
Guy Ingle, posing as Charles in a regal setting. During his career as a King Charles doppelganger, Guy has seen himself work with other Royal impersonators such as Diana and the late Queen
After starting in the entertainment business back in the 90s, Guy has enjoyed a life of impersonating Charles
The royalist has been using his looks and acting skills to pursue a life of impersonating King Charles and has never been busier since the former prince was declared king
Guy added that the best work he has ever done was in Los Angeles.
He said, ‘The best experience I’ve ever had was when I was working in Los Angeles, on the set of the Superhero Movie in 2008 with the late, great Leslie Nielsen.
‘I was treated like a star out there, limo trips and a five-star hotel to then be moved to an apartment in Beverley Hills.’
But achieving success has not come easy to Guy.
He said, ‘The reason I got into this line of work was because I knew I could do better than most impersonators or lookalike.’
But he added that he had many rejections.
He said: ‘I had constant rejection in the nineties until I finally started getting jobs with other impersonators such as Diana and the Queen.’
He also lost much work in the pandemic, so his revenue increase has come as a boost.
It comes after clips from a BBC documentary showing Charles in 1975 making journalists howl with laughter have been revealed.
The 60-minute special ‘Charles R: The Making of a Monarch’, which will be aired on Sunday, features footage of the royal narrated by King Charles himself, using excerpts taken from existing interviews and speeches over the years.
One of the funniest moments comes courtesy of a colour clip showing the royal taking a dip in freezing water in Canada during a trip.
When he emerges from the water, in an inflated wetsuit, the then Prince says it is ‘b***** cold’.
He then makes journalists roar with laughter as he deflates the wetsuit, and at the same time, pretends to deflate himself.
The footage from the 1975 trip shows the then Prince of Wales making journalists roar with laughter, as he deflates his wetsuit
The clip goes on to show the monarch discuss his enjoyment of acting, and revealing that he enjoys making people laugh.
Meanwhile, another clip shared ahead of the documentary’s release features black and white footage of the now monarch as a toddler playing with a telephone. He can be seen mouthing the word ‘mama’.
Charles provides a voiceover to the clip, in which he explains why he would try and use the telephone.
He says: ‘My mama inevitably was so busy having to do all the tours abroad. I remember when I was quite young, trying to talk on the telephone, when she was miles away.’
Due to the late Queen’s busy schedule when the then Prince was young, it is well known that the mother and son often had to spend time apart.
Reflecting on this in the clip, Charles says his mother’s accession to the throne at such a young age must have been a ‘terrible shock’, as she would have ‘presumably hoped to do other things [like] bring up her family’.
The clip also shows Charles as a very young child playing in the garden at Royal Lodge, with his maternal grandmother with whom he spent a lot of time.
His voiceover says: ‘It was a marvellous garden there and I used to, as a child, potter about in the garden there.’
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