The Duchess of Northumberland’s main residence is Alnwick Castle, which is home to both Harry Potter and Downton Abbey. But unlike the aristocratic family, she and her family also have homes in London and the Scottish Borders. She spends her life whizzing between residences, often on the train, often bringing “the odd dog” who needs a change of scenery. Her dogs are “almost like her friends,” she says.
Isn’t there anything unusual about this? Actually there is. The dogs she is talking about are dead. Stuffed up. One of her big interests (aside from gardening and trying to buy coca plants from the Colombian ambassador, but we’ll get to that later) is taxidermy. All this is revealed in The Duchess And Her Magical Kingdom on More 4, in which Jane Percy, 65, will throw open the doors of her castle for a fly-on-the-wall series about her activities with rather bizarre transvestites, naturists and cage fighters.
She currently has “about 20” stuffed dogs that she moves around her various homes. Do the dogs get a seat on the train? ‘No, they go in a bag. I remember asking someone to pack a really big one and he put bubble wrap around it but left the feet sticking out. I thought, “We can’t have that.”
The Duchess’s family – she has four children and five grandchildren – does not share her passion. “I say to my children, ‘Which of you want my stuffed dogs when I’m six feet underground?’ and they all rush at once to say, “I don’t!”
It turns out that she not only collects stuffed dogs, but also stuffed rats and even stuffed sheep. “It’s not my own pets that died. I couldn’t, couldn’t bear it. Mine are cremated. I get them from a taxidermist who sometimes stuffs people’s pets for them, but when they come to pick them up, they can’t bear it because they’re too lifelike. He’ll call me and say, “I have a beautiful collie.”
The Duchess And Her Magical Kingdom on More 4 will see Jane Percy, 65, throw open the doors of her castle for a fly-on-the-wall series
Sometimes I give them as gifts. When I go away for the weekend, I bring my hosts a stuffed rat instead of a box of chocolates. I think people like it. Or they tell me they like it. I hope they’re not just being polite.’
This is a woman who moves in the classiest of circles. Please tell me, say I, that you gave King Charles a dead rat? ‘Haha no. Still, it’s not a bad idea. He might like it. I did give someone a stuffed sheep as a housewarming gift.’
Why, you must be wondering, has no one ever made a TV series about this woman? Luckily they have now. It’s being announced to be about a specific, epic project – the construction of a £15 million ‘magic village’ on the Alnwick site. The Lilidorei attraction – her brainchild – is a giant playground (think amusement park) filled with goblins and fairies, intended to bring in a different type of tourist than would visit Alnwick Castle for its history.
But the real draw for the TV viewer will undoubtedly be the Duchess herself. The stuffed dogs make her sound eccentric, but she’s actually just down-to-earth about her life, which sometimes feels eerily similar to Downton Abbey.
She says that while the Downton crews were filming, they told her that her staff didn’t have to set the table so formally. She pointed out that “this is exactly what we do. I think what people will see in this program is that we are Downton Abbey, but for the 21st century. When we have guests, we set the table just like that. We’ve got staff, fights, problems… just like Downton.”
Not quite. You can’t imagine the Countess of Grantham feasting on baked beans as much as she does one evening. Also, Lady Grantham never opened a branch of Greggs, as the Duchess did. “I’m sure I’m a constant disappointment to those who have preconceived notions of what a Duchess is like. I was once asked to visit a lady who had reached her 100th birthday, so I went to eat cake and have a chat with her. After half an hour she said, “It was very nice talking to you, but I’m expecting the Duchess of Northumberland, so maybe you should go.” Maybe I should have tried harder to dress in something big.’
The King with the Duchess at Alnwick in 2018. Running Alnwick Castle, which has over 150 rooms, is not for the faint hearted. A large part of the documentary is about the constant renovations that are necessary
Viewers of this documentary may be shocked when they discover what is happening on the castle grounds. It’s a long list, but it also includes toenail clipping (“we have a drop-in center where retirees can get their feet done”), drag queen events (they hosted Mr Gay Europe), cage fights (“isn’t it fascinating?’) and nudist conventions. “I said the naturists could come, on the understanding that I didn’t have to take my clothes off too,” she clarifies.
Jane was not born to be a duchess, but she came from a wealthy family in Edinburgh. She was a talented figure skater who trained five hours a day “which taught me discipline and made me pretty self-sufficient,” and met her husband Ralph at a party when she was 16 and he was 18. So young! “Yeah, but we became best friends and now we’ve been married 44 years. I think there’s a case for getting married young, so that when your kids grow up and go away, you’re still young enough to do things with your life.’
Her husband never expected to inherit the title, nor own large parts of the land, but when his elder brother Henry, 11th Duke of Northumberland, died of heart failure after overdosing on amphetamines (“he was a depressed”), Jane’s world turned upside down. Suddenly, with her eldest child just five (and now heir to the family fortune), she was a duchess.
“There’s no manual,” she nods. Our lives have changed so much in 24 hours. I’m sure there were some of the old guard who thought I was waiting to be told what to do. I don’t like being told what to do.’
Running Alnwick Castle, which has over 150 rooms, is not for the faint hearted. Much of the documentary looks at the constant renovations that are required. There’s a staggering cost for new silk on the walls (£30,000 to re-decorate a drawing room, anyone?). “When we showed the new version to my mother-in-law, she didn’t notice any difference,” she says.
Around the turn of the century, she suggested to her husband that she “have a go” in the gardens. He thought she might plant a few rosebushes. She created one of the largest tourist attractions in the Northeast. She became “obsessed” with poisonous plants and created her own poison garden, where any plant can kill. This obsession has led to some interesting encounters – for example, she had terrible trouble getting her hands on the coca plant (from which cocaine comes) and “ended up in a letter to the Colombian ambassador.”
The Duchess of Northumberland’s main home is Alnwick Castle, where both Harry Potter and Downton Abbey were filmed
She is candid about the challenges of being a Duchess. There is much talk of duty and life with the understanding that the castle must be preserved in order to continue. George, her eldest, becomes the 13th Duke of Northumberland. She says her “biggest parenting challenge” was making sure her second son Max — the “spare” (although she’d never use the word) — grew up confident. “I made sure he didn’t feel in his brother’s shadow. I’d say, ‘Remember Max, you’re the lucky one. The world is your oyster. You can work where you want to work, live where you want to live.’
We all know what can happen in these situations. Her children grew up dealing with royalty, and her daughter Melissa’s boyfriend is Chelsy Davy, Harry’s ex-girlfriend. Since she knows both princes, what does she think of their quarrel? “Having two boys who don’t communicate, one on the other side of the world, is the saddest thing there is. Hopefully they communicate. I’m sure there’s a lot we don’t know.’
Protecting her own children, even from herself, has been paramount. She and her husband went to court to prevent George from taking advantage of an archaic trust fund that would give him access to eye-watering wealth while still in school. “Anyone with half a brain would do the same thing,” she says. “The kids you see with problems are the ones who’ve had too much too young.”
She says she was desperate to instill a work ethic in her children. ‘You see on those TV shows young girls wasting their days with a dog in their handbag. How sad is that? Don’t they understand how much good they could do?’
Her dog-in-the-handbag brand is very different indeed.
The Duchess and Her Magical Kingdom, Wednesday, 9 p.m., Meer4.