George Vi

He was the second son who was never supposed to be crowned as King, so when Prince Albert, Duke of York, wed Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon on 26 April 1923 (after asking her three times to be his wife), the ceremony was lower key than those of previous future monarchs. Even Bertie's younger sister, Princess Mary, had received publicly funded street decorations for her nuptials the year prior.

Queen Elizabeth II's relationship with her father, King George VI, can be described as nothing but "close," according to Good Housekeeping. The eldest daughter of the then-Prince Albert, Princess Elizabeth and her sister, Princess Margaret, enjoyed a "relatively quiet existence." The publication continued, writing "the family of four split their time between two royal homes — one in London, and one on the grounds of Windsor Great Park — where Elizabeth and her sister were privately tutored." The family enjoyed a reportedly happy life, with Albert calling "Elizabeth his 'pride' and Margaret his 'joy.'"

Antarctica's northern George VI Ice Shelf experienced record melting during the 2019-2020 summer season compared to 31 previous summers of dramatically lower melt, a University of Colorado Boulder-led study found. The extreme melt coincided with record-setting stretches when local surface air temperatures were at or above the freezing point. "During...

The King George VI Chase has long been the showpiece contest of the entire festive schedule given its association with some of the greatest horses to ever grace the track, with Kauto Star, Best Mate, One Man, Desert Orchid, Wayward Lad, Captain Christy, Pendil and the legendary Arkle all featuring on the long list of honour.

Clan des Obeaux has proved himself amongst the best staying chasers in training over the last couple of seasons, notably recording back-to-back wins in this race. He beat Thistlecrack by a length and a half in 2018 but was most impressive when annihilating the opposition 12 months ago. Held up in the early stages by Sam Twiston-Davies, he led on the bridle before two out and then cruised clear to land the spoils by 21 lengths from Cyrname. Clan des Obeaux once again failed to fire in the Gold Cup at the Cheltenham Festival on his only subsequent start last season, but he returned to his best after eight months off and a breathing operation when beaten two lengths into second behind Bristol de Mai in the Betfair Chase at Haydock last time. That was a proper slog in testing conditions, so it remains to be seen whether that effort has left a mark. Timeform ratings would also suggest he doesn’t deserve to be so short in the betting, but he nonetheless commands plenty of respect in his historic hat-trick attempt, trying to become only the third horse after Desert Orchid and Kauto Star to win three successive renewals of the King George. Whatever beats him will surely know they’ve had a race.

This column first appeared on Reaction. This week we learned that Mrs Brown’s Boys had been renewed by BBC1 for – wait for it – another five years. Perhaps it’s the circles I move in, but I have yet to find a single person who watches it, let alone finds it funny. BBC One has quite a few shows to rival it as the unfunniest programme on television, and that’s before we even get to hear the most dreaded introductory phrase on TV – “And now we welcome BBC Three onto BBC One…”. These are words we should never have to hear again. I admit I may not be BBC Three’s target audience but then again the channel seems to have a very loose sense of who it’s for.