Celebrity spoof artist Alison Jackson says lookalikes of the royal men are ‘difficult’ to find

Artist Alison Jackson – famous for her ‘lookalike’ photographs – is grappling with an issue. 

Tomorrow she is launching her new Coronation-themed exhibition The Crown in London with a ‘King Charles’ and ‘Queen Camilla’ who will be travelling down the Mall in a carriage as a publicity stunt.

In an ideal world, she’d love to plonk a Prince Harry alongside him as a piece of mischief.

‘The problem I have is that my Charles won’t go in a carriage with my Prince Harry. He identifies with the real King Charles and he doesn’t want to do it – and I don’t want to upset him at this point,’ she sighs.

And that’s far from the only problem for Jackson, who turns out to be quite a perfectionist.

‘We do have a hair problem with Harry. The Harry I use has more hair, and it’s the wrong shade of red. I have got him to dye it and asked him to shave it off around the top and back, but that didn’t go down well. He told me to bog off.’ 

She adds: ‘The beautiful women are quite easy but its very difficult for King Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry, I am always looking out for them. 

‘I am desperate for them. I found a Prince Harry on the street the other day – that’s the best way to do it. You have to have your eye in.

‘Sometimes people don’t want to admit that they look like someone or they might not want to go through the bother of contacting an agency, but they can make really good money. 

‘Years ago when David Beckham was at his peak his lookalike told me that he was making £250,000 a year from it.

‘It is very very hard for Charles. I am working with a good impersonator but what you want is people who are an identikit. 

‘I had about ten for the Queen and ended up working more with one in particular over the years. 

‘The trouble is that most people are only good from one angle, but you can’t only shoot people from the side all the time.’ 

Lookalikes of Prince Harry and Prince William fight in this photograph taken by the artist

Another shows ‘Camilla’ sitting on a throne while surrounded by a crown and holding a drink and a cigarette 

Royal sister-in-laws ‘Kate and Meghan’ brawl in this photo, which shows two lookalikes fighting

Camilla is the subject of many of her photographs, often with a cigarette or a drink on the go. One particularly cheeky image shows her and King Charles on the Palace balcony, with Camilla wearing only knickers and stockings below the waist

The death of the Queen was a moment of sadness for Jackson as the monarch was her greatest subject, and she admired her on a personal level also.

‘She was brilliant, and that final image of her meeting Liz Truss, when she was obviously very unwell – that devotion to duty and work ethic is the most incredible example,’ she said. ‘When she died I thought gosh I need to celebrate the Royal Family as they are now.

‘I suppose that I have been working on projects related to the Royal Family for my whole working life. 

‘The Queen was wonderful because she was this sort of zipped up mystery and you would always wonder what she was really like, whereas Charles speaks a lot more and you know where he stands on things.’ 

She adds: ‘I love Camilla, she is forthright, racy and fun and she is a party girl who likes to smoke and drink. It is fun to depict a sexy older woman.’ 

A lookalike aiming to appear like Camilla sits on a chair in her undergarments while drinking a glass of sparkling wine

A Camilla lookalike drinks from a glass while trying on a glamorous gown in this photograph

A pair of lookalikes aiming to appear like the Prince and Princess of Wales posed with Prince Harry’s bombshell memoir Spare in a campaign to promote Birds Eye Green Cuisine (pictured)

Other photographs by Alison show lookalikes of Kate and William reacting to Harry’s memoir

Camilla is the subject of many of her photographs, often with a cigarette or a drink on the go. One particularly cheeky image shows her and King Charles on the Palace balcony, with Camilla wearing only knickers and stockings below the waist.

In this era of deep fakes and AI, Jackson’s art has perhaps come into the mainstream. The point she always tries to make is that you can’t trust what you see as everything is filtered. 

She says: ‘People are scared of doing anything that they think they shouldn’t do but I am a disruptor – I think that’s the best way of not being passive. 

‘There is always an element of interpretation to any image – it might be cropped, the context could be different.. The truth can be wholly distorted by an image.’ 

And she has a final plea. ‘I’m on the lookout for a Rishi Sunak – tell people to find me on Instagram.’

The Crown exhibition is at the Grove Gallery, Fitzrovia, free to attend and runs from April 28 to May 27.