Who is 45th in line to the British throne? It’s probably Danny Dyer, but the question is irrelevant because in our new, slimline monarchy, they’ll never stand on the palace balcony.
But in Saudi Arabia, the question has proved crucial ? because the nation’s founder and first absolute ruler, King Saud, had 45 sons by more than 20 wives… and they were all in line to succeed.
The opening ten minutes of The Kingdom: The World’s Most Powerful Prince briefed us on the country’s next six monarchs, all of them half-brothers – because the line of succession ran sideways, sibling by sibling, instead of passing down through the generations. The current king, Salman, was Saud’s 25th son.
He’s now 88 and, with no surviving brothers, he will be succeeded by his own son Mohammed bin Salman al Saud… who has had to dispose of a good many cousins, one way or another, to ensure his inheritance.
The founder of Saudi Arabia and first absolute ruler, King Saud, had 45 sons by more than 20 wives… and they were all in line to succeed.
Most of this complicated but intriguing documentary, the first of two, comprised a portrait of the Crown Prince, told partly by those who know him – both friends and enemies – but chiefly through archive news footage and Morven Christie’s narration. Next week’s episode covers the notorious murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Mohammed likes to be referred to by his initials, MBS. That seems a strange choice, since it makes him sound like a furniture store with a perpetual sale.
He has much cooler nicknames, such as the Bullet Guy (because reputedly he once sent a judge an envelope with a bullet in it, as a hint to make sure a court ruling went his way).
After he launched an attack on Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen, giving his U.S. allies just 12 hours’ notice of his intentions, the Saudi media began calling him the Prince of Decisiveness. That’s a title the Duke of Edinburgh might have envied.
Typical MBS policy veers from public relations coups to mafia tactics. In April 2016, wielding his elderly father’s autocratic powers, he defanged the Saudi religious police – eliminating their influence with a single decree.
He then gave the go-ahead to a superhero convention where men and women were allowed to mix in public for the first time – to the fury of ultra-conservatives.
But he is also notorious for taking rivals hostage and intimidating them into submission. Dissent is forbidden, and the law is enforced by kidnap squads.
Experts including the UK security adviser Sir Kim Darrouch and former head of MI6 Sir John Sawers offered guarded insights, helping to unravel the contradictions of MBS’s personality.
He’s a smiling playboy, who loves the Maldives and owns a South African game reserve. But one former high-ranking Saudi insider now in exile claims he also once proposed assassinating his father’s predecessor as king.
The murder weapon was to be a handshake – while wearing an antique Russian ring armed with a poison-tipped needle.
You’re unlikely to hear a stranger tale all week.
