How King Charles helped criminals to ‘feel’ again through bee-keeping
King Charles inspired a prison beekeeping project that taught criminals about relationships and the importance of living in “harmony” within society.
The King’s new documentary about environmentalism, Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision, follows the monarch as he reflects on the importance of harmony between humanity, nature and the environment.
The 77-year-old said he would not be “absolved” of his environmental campaign, despite the criticism he has faced for decades which has seen his activism derided as “completely crazy”.
The 90-minute Prime Video film focuses on Charles’ theory of Harmony, which encourages viewers to see ourselves as part of nature rather than separate from it.
The project, which began decades ago in the early 1980s at the monarch’s private country home, Highgrove House in Gloucestershire, has now spread to HMP Bristol, where prisoners run a beekeeping academy.
Mohammed Foulds, chaplain chief at the Category B maximum security prison, explained to the audience: “We see these individuals coming here because the society is broken, the family is broken down, so of course you’re going to get broken individuals as well.
“All these bees work in harmony, hence the harmony project here.
“99.99 percent of the inmates are here because they have no understanding of a relationship — husband and wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, family breakdown. The natural world will teach them about relationships and how to think as an ecosystem.”
The audience sees prisoners in protective bee suits tending to their honey-producing hives.
Prisoner Andrew says: “It’s quite fascinating when you see them all working together. Even though they could attack you, I feel quite relaxed. They just go about their daily business.”
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Mr Foulds adds: “The whole life of a hive is a system, a city within a city. And they make that connection; you’re not just an individual, you live in a community. Then we make that connection with the wider society and continue to emphasize that the umbrella of every step is harmony.”
The documentary, produced for Amazon MGM Studios in collaboration with the monarch’s charity The King’s Foundation, became the first film to premiere at the royal residence when a group of stars joined the King for a screening at Windsor Castle last week.
Among the 222 guests were actors such as Benedict Cumberbatch, Sir Kenneth Branagh, Dame Judi Dench and Stanley Tucci, as well as musicians Sir Rod Stewart and Jools Holland, and Oscar winner Kate Winslet, who narrated the documentary.
Believed to be the King’s first documentary on a streaming platform, the film chronicles how Charles emerged as a key figure on the environment as Prince of Wales, making regular keynote speeches. “I just felt like that was the approach that I was going to stick with, a path that I had set and that I wasn’t going to deviate from,” he says in the new footage.
Winslet says this dedication to the cause came despite “cries from some for her to stay in the background.”
Archival footage of Charles talking to plants is featured in the film, which Winsley describes as “haunting him ever since”.
Reflecting on his earlier portrayals and perceptions, the King says: “All this was considered completely insane, to say the least.”
But now the King’s warnings about the planet are among the accepted facts in mainstream circles.
Asked if he is concerned about the state of the world, Charles replies: “Of course, that’s been my main motivation for a long time. And you can see what happens. I think we have to follow the underlying principles of what I call harmony if we want to ensure that this poor old planet can support so many people.”
Following academic commentary that the world was not in the “orbit” needed to limit the worst effects of climate change, Charles issued a call to action. He exclaims: “It’s going backwards fast, I’ve been saying that for the last 40 years, but anyway, here we are… I can only do what I can, which isn’t much – anyway.
“People don’t seem to understand that the problem is not just climate but also biodiversity loss, so we are essentially destroying our means of survival all the time.
“It’s possible to put this back together, but we should have done it a long time ago. Now we have to do it as fast as we can.”
Other places affected by the Harmony project include Afghanistan. Charity Turquoise Mountain was established in the capital Kabul in 2006. According to the documentary, women and girls’ basic rights were systematically taken away after the Taliban took power in 2021, but tens of thousands of Afghan women have been given access to jobs and healthcare thanks to the charity’s contribution to healthcare and Afghan heritage.
Audiences also get a glimpse into the monarch’s more private world with footage of Charles collecting eggs from his chickens, housed in a coop called “Cluckingham Palace” on his Highgrove estate. He goes on to reveal his love of crispy baked potatoes, declaring that the best variety for it is “red Duke of Yorks”.
King concludes his documentary with the hope that “as I stir up this mortal coil,” greater awareness of “the need to put it all back together” may emerge.
Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision was released on Prime Video on Friday in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.
