His wife, Christine, had just left him, per The Independent. THE CROWN season four depicts Michael Fagan's infamous Buckingham Palace break-in but what the Netflix drama does not show is that the Palace intruder was actually high on magic mushrooms at the time. The fourth episode of The Crown's fourth season focuses on the biggest breach in royal security in the 20th century: The day Michael Fagan (played by Tom Brooke), a 32-year-old Irishman living in London, snuck into the Queen's bedroom in Buckingham Palace. The Buckingham Palace dust-up turned Fagan into an unlikely celebrity, rendering him a degree of infamy that he has seemingly relished. It was one of the most extraordinary moments of Queen Elizabeth II's reign, and one that is still unbelievable 40 years later. He attacked a Welsh police officer in 1984. In 1972, he married his wife Christine, with whom he had four children. "Its a complete fiction, the bit about me and the Palace. The comments below have not been moderated, By Michael D. Pitman, Journal-News, Hamilton, Ohio. It was being used to store gifts the public sent for the Prince and Princess of Waless baby. November 15, 2020 On July 9, 1982, at just around 7 a.m., Michael Fagan shimmied up a Buckingham Palace drainpipe all the way to a flat roof that was only a few feet away from the palace's main. As a result of the incident, which caused a major scandal in the public eye, the UK Home Secretary William Whitelaw reportedly offered the Queen his resignation; however, she declined. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. "I was under a lot of stress and just wanted to talk to the Queen about what I was going through," Fagan explained later, per Penny Juror's book The Firm: The Troubled Life of the House of Windsor. He did suffer from a heart attack and COVID-19 earlier this year, he told The Sun. The book also described how Fagan's thumb was cut, and "dripped" blood onto the Queen's "bedclothes" (as reviewed in The Times on 29th September 1983). On July 9, 1982, at around 7:15 AM, Queen Elizabeth II .css-umdwtv{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:.0625rem;text-decoration-color:#FF3A30;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:inherit;-webkit-transition:background 0.4s;transition:background 0.4s;background:linear-gradient(#ffffff, #ffffff 50%, #d5dbe3 50%, #d5dbe3);-webkit-background-size:100% 200%;background-size:100% 200%;}.css-umdwtv:hover{color:#000000;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;-webkit-background-position:100% 100%;background-position:100% 100%;}awoke with a start. However, there are some biographical details omitted. So I had to pee on the corgi food. Tom Brooke (known for playing PS Budd's mentally scarred friend in BBC One's Bodyguard) plays Fagan in The Crown cast, alongside Olivia Colman's Queen Elizabeth II. According to a 1982 report from Scotland Yard, Fagan "intended to slash his wrists" in front of the Queen. However, he had disappeared before the guards arrived, who then didn't believe the housemaid's report. So I go over and draw the curtain back, just to make sure, and suddenly she sat up," Fagan saidjust as he does in The Crown. Thousands of people walk the halls of the royal residence every year for state events, receptions, and tours, not to mention the veritable army of staff that keeps the palace running and, of course, the royal family themselves. On that occasion, according to the The Guardian, Fagan slipped in through the open window of the room of one of the royal housemaids, Sarah Carter, who was actually in her room reading at the time. In 1966, he left home at 18 to run away from his father, who Fagan said was violent. Furthermore, Scotland Yards incident report at the time said that, after two phone calls to the police, Her Majesty attracted the attention of the maid, and together they ushered Fagan into a nearby pantry on the pretext of supplying him with a cigarette.. Every weekend, Michael Fagan and his wife Nancy would attend memorial services and funerals for retired and fallen police officers and firefighters. Meanwhile the footman was outside exercising the palace corgis, and the maid was cleaning in another room with the door shut "so that the noise of her work would not disturb Her Majesty". The Crown also shows Mr Fagan breaking a valuable vase during his escapades, something which he says was made up. Fagan himself admitted drinking the wine while in Charles's staff's office, saying on the stand, "I was waiting to be captured. When Fagan visits his local Member of Parliament to complain about Thatchers policies, the MP jokingly encourages him to voice his complaints to the Queen. Fagan himself has since described the Queen's bedroom interior, right down to the size of her bed and the details of her knee-length nightgown; but again, he said nothing to suggest that the pair shared a conversation while he was sat on her bed. He drank a half bottle of white wine, became tired and left. Is his rendition a bit too on-the-nose? They don't know what happened in there," he told The Telegraph. For example, the article titled 'The man who created a security nightmare' (The Times, September 24th 1982), referenced how Fagan "stepped towards the sleeping monarch," mentioning "his appearance by her bed," and how he "talked to the Queen for some minutes". And Michael Fagan said he thinks that Charles will be a good King who could heal the rift between rich and poor in this country. As she continued to wait, she was able to flag down a maid, who helped her steer Fagan into a nearby pantry with the promise of a cigarette. All of it is a complete fiction. For example, "the police sergeant who is in the corridor outside at night had gone off duty at about 6 A.M., when members of the domestic staff had come on duty.". (Jonathan Banks/Shutterstock) . He claims the Queen simply asked, "What are you doing here?" But unlike the dramatic scene shown in The Crown, there was no long conversation between Fagan (played by Tom Brooke) and the Queen (Olivia Colman) at her bedside about Margaret Thatcher's policies and the struggles of the working class. The man who broke into the Queen's Buckingham Palace bedroom in 1982 has criticised Netflixfor 'having a pop at the Queen'. 'It surprised me how shoddy it was. He disappeared before guards arrived, who then disbelieved the housemaid's report. [1] Fagan wandered the corridors for several minutes before reaching the royal apartments. Smooth's All Time Top 500 with Eamonn Kelly The Queen may not be eager to hear from Faganbut hey, at least hes not planning another unscheduled visit to Buckingham Palace. In interviews, Fagan denied reports from 1982 claiming that he and the monarch had a 10-minute chat. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism and dreams of the day Northwestern will go back to the Rose Bowl. 21:24 EDT 19 Nov 2020. Ultimately, Fagan made his way into the residential wing of the palace and, apparently unwittingly, to the bedroom of none other than the Queen. and Michael Klein of Creative Artists Agency for broadcasting. The episode takes us out onto the streets of Margaret Thatcher's Britain, 1982, where unemployment has risen above three million - the highest rate since the 1930s depression. Reports at the time suggested that the Queen held a lengthy conversation with Fagan, intended to buy time until help arrived; however, Fagan tells the story differently. Evidently assuming the alerts were a glitch, the police on watch turned the alarms back off. The conversation ends with the interruption of a maid with the Queen's morning tea, who fetches a policeman. In 2012, Emma Thompson starred as the Queen in an episode of Playhouse Presents, a series of one-off dramas, centered entirely around the break-in. Yet perhaps the most shocking thing about Fagans unforgettable break-in isnt that it happenedits that it wasnt the first time hed breached palace security. Fagan tells her: 'You're my last resort, someone who can actually do something.' Download 'Fast Car ' on iTunes. Regardless of his motivation, Fagan may have taken his courage that night from a previous success; after all, July 9, 1982 wasn't the first time he illegally entered Buckingham Palace. [5][1], Since Fagan's actions were, at the time, a civil wrong rather than a criminal offence, he was not charged with trespassing in the Queen's bedroom. The duty footman, Paul Whybrew, who had been walking the Queen's dogs, finally appeared, followed by two policemen, who removed Fagan. Three years later, he was found guilty of indecent exposure. Michael Fagan was born in Clerkenwell, London, on August 8, 1948. He was preceded in death by his loving wife of almost 60 years, Pamela M. Fagan. Buckingham Palace is no stranger to visitors, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. The Crown: Who was Michael Fagan and how did he break into Buckingham Palace. What transpired between the Queen and Fagan has since gone down in history as one of the most dramatic royal security breaches on record. According to an August 2020 interview with The Sun, researchers from The Crown did not contact Fagan, who is lucky to be alive after recovering from both COVID-19 and a heart attack earlier this year. But what was the real story behind their meeting? Long obsessed with the Queen, Fagan made 12 trips to Buckingham Palace that summer, telling his mother he was visiting his girlfriend "Elizabeth Regina." In September of 1982, he was charged with stealing a bottle of Prince Charles's wine from among a collection of gifts sent by the public in anticipation of the birth of Prince William. Mike had been fighting pancreatic cancer since his diagnosis in February of this year. (Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images) Fagan and his estranged wife did eventually divorce, and he was granted custody of their four children. Known for his high backswing, he was given the nickname "King of Swing". Scott and his wife were also later found in a 2018 Miami Herald report to have invested upwards of $500,000 of their own money into the train company at the time. At 6:45 a.m. on July 9, 1982, Fagan climbed over the gates; shimmied up a drainpipe; and, after removing his shoes, walked across a narrow ledge into the Master of the Household's office. An alarm sensor had detected him inside the palace, but police again thought the alarm was faulty and silenced it. In 1972, he married his wife Christine, with whom he had four children. In one of the most high-profile security breaches in royal history, British man Michael Fagan, then 31, managed to scale palace walls and make his way into Queen Elizabeth's chambers while she . He claimed that he had not entered the palace with this intention but that it formed in his mind for the first time when he saw the ashtray.". Reports published immediately after the incident in 1982 fleshed out their conversation topics a bit more: The New York Times, for example, wrote that Fagan and the queen talked about Prince Charles. I didnt frighten her too much but I was quite shocked," he told of the moment he pulled back the bed curtains to discover Queen Elizabeth asleep in her bed. However, Fagan did go on to commit more crimes. Michael Todd Fagan (born November 4, 1980) is an American former professional bowler on the PBA Tour. Michael Fagan, the intruder who gained access to the bedroom of Queen Elizabeth II in Buckingham Palace in 1982, pictured at the Tower of London, UK, 9th February 1985. [10], Two years after entering Buckingham Palace, Fagan attacked a policeman at a caf in Fishguard, Wales, and was given a three-month suspended sentence. Looking for something else to watch? Wybrew said in a statement at the time, according to The Guardian. The day after he was released, he went back to the palace. According to The Time, Grant "stretched the doctrine of constituency interest to grotesque lengths by claiming that the fact that Mr Michael Fagan lived in Islington gave Mr Grant a constituency interest in the bedchamber incursion [at Buckingham Palace]" (published 27th July 1982). His longest prison stint came in 1997, after Fagan, his wife, and 20-year-old son were charged with dealing heroin. Fagan did spend four years in prison after being arrested in 1997 for conspiring to supply heroin with his wife, Christine, and their 20-year-old son. Fagan claimed that his famous palace break-in on 9th July 1982 was in reality his second break-in, meaning he managed to sneak into Buckingham Palace not once, but twice within the space of almost exactly a month. In a scathing report from Scotland Yard, Assistant Commissioner John Dellow wrote, If police officers had been alert and competent, Fagan would have been apprehended well before he got close to the private apartments. After a full investigation, Dellow came to the damning conclusion that a number of palace windows were improperly secured, and that numerous alarms were either incorrectly installed or malfunctioning. As the security guard bursts into the room, the Queen shakes his hand and tells him: 'I shall bear in mind what you've said.'. Fagan is pleased with the performance of Tom Brooke, but jokes, Al Pacino would have been better. Yet all these years later, Fagan has no regrets. And the second time, he did wander into the queens bedroom for 10 uninterrupted minutes until she was able to get help. This content is imported from poll. But the Queen expresses sympathy for Fagan, questioning the prime minister about the state of the 'moral economy' in the UK. Queen Elizabeth is seldom depicted as having heart-to-hearts with the public in The Crown, the rare exception being season 3's wrenching "Aberfan." Fagan compared the nature of his visit to Goldilocks and the Three Bears, describing how he sat on multiple thrones in order to find the softest perch. He found a bottle of Australian wine in the cabinet and poured himself a drink. Katy Perry and Lionel Richie Will Perform at King Charless Coronation Concert, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis Have a Color-Coordinated Easter, Prince Harry Will Attend the Coronation Without Meghan Markle, The Princess of Wales Breaks Royal Tradition With a Bold Easter Manicure, The Death of the Matching Bridesmaid Dress, The 11 Biggest Releases to Look Out for at Cannes 2023. During his visit, he broke a glass ashtray, cutting his hand. However, it appears that Richard Hastings did not exist, meaning that his on-screen conversation with Fagan was fictional and made-up by The Crown's writers for the purpose of creative license. After reaching the Queen's room, Fagan second-guessed himself. Technically, this was the second time Fagan successfully scaled the fortified wallsbut the first time he managed to accomplish his goal of speaking to the Queen. Sign up to receive the freshest reviews and recommendations for Streaming & On Demand. Who Is Michael Fagan, the Man Who Broke Into Queen Elizabeth's Bedroom? Removing his shoes and socks (he later told the Independent that they were returned to him two years later by palace staff, who found them up there), he entered the royal residence through an unlocked window.

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