He was a man of many talents: a dance partner, gin supplier and manager of his boss’s famous lunch parties.
But ‘Backstairs Billy’ Tallon, the Queen Mother’s closest aide, was best known for his powerful sex drive, which saw him bring young men back to Clarence House for late-night trysts.
Although fiercely protected by Her Late Majesty, William Tallon’s luck ran out after her death in 2002; he was thrown out of his grace and favour home and died in his flat in Kennington, south-east London in 2007.
Now a new play about his relationship with the Queen Mother is set to hit the West End this autumn.
Downton Abbey star Penelope Wilton is set to play the royal, whilst Luke Evans, of Beauty and the Beast fame, will portray Tallon.
‘Backstairs Billy’ Tallon, the Queen Mother’s closest aide, was best known for his powerful sex drive, which saw him bring young men back to Clarence House for late-night trysts. Above: Tallon with the Queen Mother on her 97th birthday in 1997
Now a new play about his relationship with the Queen Mother is set to hit the West End this autumn. Downton Abbey star Penelope Wilton is set to play the royal, whilst Luke Evans, of Beauty and the Beast fame, will portray Tallon
Michael Grandage is set to direct the new play, which is written by Marcelo Dos Santos.
The production is set in 1979 against the backdrop of civil unrest in Britain.
Speaking in The Guardian, Wilton, 77, said: ‘It brings the Queen Mother into Technicolor rather than being a pastel person in pale chiffon.
‘She suddenly becomes a very vibrant person and we see her for herself, not just for being the Queen’s mother. Billy allowed her to be who she was.’
Evans, who said the script made him ‘giggle so hard’, added: ‘t’s just so entertaining and such a joyous story about these two people: the Queen Mother, who was super famous, but also Billy.
‘He was always there and spent most of his life working for her.’
Tallon, a shopkeeper’s son from Coventry, spent half a century as the Queen Mother’s steward.
Tallon, a shopkeeper’s son from Coventry, spent half a century as the Queen Mother’s steward. Above: Tallon holds the Queen Mother’s corgis at Heathrow Airport in 1996
Tallon acted as a frequent dance partner for the Queen Mother. Above: The pair jive together as the then Prince Charles looks on
He began royal duties after leaving school and his first post was as a junior assistant in the Steward’s Room at Buckingham Palace.
Having served for two years in the RAF for his National Service, he joined the Queen Mother’s household at Clarence House.
He was given the use of Gate Lodge, a cottage attached to his boss’s home. All the furnishings, decorations and most of the pictures hanging on the walls came from the Queen Mother’s collection.
But, as author Tom Quinn’s biography of the aide revealed, Tallon’s powerful sex drive ensured that he made many enemies.
Rita Edwards, who served for years as a maid at the Queen Mother’s official residence, recalled one of many such incidents, when she encountered a well-dressed young man in the corridors one night.
‘For there to be a stranger alone in the house at night was a serious security breach,’ she said.
‘Then I saw Billy suddenly at the far end of the corridor. His hair was all over the place and he was trying to put his jacket on – I’d never seen him so flustered.
‘He quickly reached the young man and was clearly furious. Next time we met he made absolutely no reference to this night-time escapade.
‘But then he always would simply float above any difficulty or embarrassment.’
When the Queen Mother was away, he would allegedly invite two or three men back at a time.
One former partner recalled, on condition of anonymity, how he had sex with Tallon on the Queen Mother’s favourite sofa.
Tallon walks behind the Queen Mother at Clarence House on the occasion of her 91st birthday in 1992
Tallon is seen waving to crowds at the Queen Mother’s funeral in April 2002, after her death aged 101
At the Queen Mother’s lunch parties, Tallon would ensure that everyone had an alcoholic drink, and would even pour wine through a guest’s fingers if they tried to cover up their glass. Above: The pair in 1989
He attracted the royals’ fury in 2001 when he was pictured pushing an ailing Princess Margaret in a wheelchair at the Queen Mother’s 101st birthday celebrations
Tallon is seen with the Queen Mother as she celebrates her 94th birthday at Clarence House in 1994
Tallon seen behind the Queen Mother on her 101st birthday at Clarence House in 2001
Tallon bows his head towards the Queen Mother’s coffin as it arrives at St James’s Palace in 2002
A solemn William Tallon displays his medals on his chest at the Queen Mother’s funeral at Westminster Abbey in 2002
Tallon stares at a newly-unveiled portrait of the Queen MOther at the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London in 2002
After suffering liver failure, Tallon himself was found dead at his ground-floor flat in Kennington, south-east London, in 2007
Later, when a newspaper reported that a ‘rent boy’ had been invited back to Clarence House by Tallon, the Queen Mother betrayed her endless tolerance for her aide, responding: ‘How kind of William to invite that poor boy in out of the rain.’
One contemporary, who worked with Tallon at Clarence House, recalled: ‘Billy was two completely different people.’
‘He was calm and almost rigidly decorous during the day, but at night he had only one aim: to have sex with as many men as possible. The truth is that Billy’s only real interest outside his work was sex.’
Another servant recalled how the Queen Mother did not mind Tallon getting drunk, as long as he did not ‘actually fall over in front of her’.
At the Queen Mother’s lunch parties, Tallon would ensure that everyone had an alcoholic drink, and would even pour wine through a guest’s fingers if they tried to cover up their glass.
Once guests had left, Tallon would ridicule or mock them to make the Queen Mother laugh.
His friend Noel Kelly recalled: ‘I think she was definitely rather in love with Billy.
‘We all thought it. He was the only person in the household who seemed to her to be in touch with the bawdy, funny, irreverent world outside the horribly closed-up, serious world of the Royals.
‘He also stood up to her now and then, as no one else ever did, and he reminded her of the fun and gaiety of the 1920s, which is where she really lived.’
Tallon himself recalled how the Queen Mother’s love of dancing meant he would often be ‘drafted in’.
He said how dancing, ‘was above all things the pastime she pursued with a real passion, and as she had few partners who were deemed suitable, I was often drafted in.
‘And she might decide to dance on a whim when one was least expecting it, perhaps five minutes before her luncheon guests were due to start arriving.’
However, Tallon relied on the Queen Mother for his job security, and so when her mind began to fail in her final decade, he was no longer safe.
The Daily Mail’s coverage of how Tallon fell foul of the royal household after being seen wheeling Princess Margaret in a wheelchair at the Queen Mother’s 101st birthday
He attracted the royals’ fury in 2001 when he was pictured pushing an ailing Princess Margaret in a wheelchair at the Queen Mother’s 101st birthday celebrations.
She was seen wearing dark glasses with her arm in a sling. The shocking photo is said to have also affected his close relationship with his boss.
He was later barred from her personal quarters and, when she died aged 101 in 2002, no member of the Royal Household told him of her passing and he was instead told by a journalist.
After suffering liver failure, Tallon himself was found dead at his ground-floor flat in in 2007.
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