Prince William pleads with Jason Bourne creators to make new film

Prince William has pleaded with director Paul Greengrass to make a new Jason Bourne film as he celebrated young creatives in the film, TV and gaming industries.

The Prince of Wales, 42, was introduced to the filmmaker behind the action thriller series at the Bafta offices in London yesterday. Clasping the 69-year-old’s hands he told him: “Another Bourne! Another Bourne!” Greengrass later said about a new instalment: “Not for me. They need somebody younger.”

Wills met students benefiting from a Bafta bursary in his name and hailed the arts “an important part of the fabric of our lives”. It comes after the heir to the throne waded into the Strictly Come Dancing ‘fix’ row when he met swimmer Tom Dean – the shock first contestant to be eliminated from this year’s competition.

The Prince of Wales met the Olympic gold medallist on a trip to Birtley, Tyne and Wear, where he visited the Birtley Community Swimming Pool near Gateshead. The pool opened in 1974 but was closed by Gateshead Council in July 2023 due to costs. The prince was told that the community came together to support efforts to reopen the pool through a crowdfunding campaign and that businesses and tradespeople gave their time to refurbish the facilities.

While there, he was also introduced to fellow Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty as well as Tom, who was controversially kicked off the show on Sunday with partner Nadiya Bychkova, after losing in the dance-off to Toyah Wilcox and Neil Jones – despite Toyah coming much lower down the leaderboard than him.

And speaking after chatting to William and showing him his gold medals which he earned in Tokyo in 2021 and at the Paris Olympics in the summer, Tom said how William and wife Kate thought him being voted off the show was “robbery”. After the visit, the swimmer said: “He (William) doesn’t watch it but his wife’s a big fan. Robbery was the word he used. Very, very kind of him but it does give me a lot more free time to do stuff like this.”