Bindon.

I’ve just finished Ma’am Darling, Craig Brown’s brilliant biography of Princess Margaret and it alluded to a story I heard (almost) first-hand. Back in the 70s, Margaret became friendly with a gangster turned actor called John Bindon. Known as the hardest man in London, Bindon’s macho charisma intrigued the princess and there were strong rumours of an affair. Bindon’s biographer told me that one morning, two official – possibly MI5 – men knocked on Bindon’s door and politely asked him to get into a car with them. When they dropped him back, Bindon – the hardest man in London – was shaking like a leaf. His girlfriend asked who those men were but Bindon was too terrified to talk about it. John Bindon died in 1993 but nobody ever found out what these men had said to him. Though the message was clear – you don’t fuck about with the Royal family. Especially not literally.