This story published 16.6.2000

My secret calls from Prince Edward

Cambridge Evening News deputy editor Peter Wells has announced that he is to retire early after 35 years in journalism. Here, he recalls the special relationship he forged with a member of the Royal Family.

It was Prince Edward on the phone, posing as his private detective.

The prince was studying at Cambridge University and had called the Evening News to ask for help with a Rag Day stunt. He needed a black, London-style taxi.

Peter Wells was on the newsdesk and had a friend whose brother was a London cabbie. The brother readily agreed to take his taxi to Cambridge for the weekend.

“I couldn’t tell him what it was about until we were driving in there on the Saturday morning, because we were sworn to secrecy,” Mr Wells recalled.

“We sat in his cab in King’s Parade and Prince Edward and fellow students came over and decorated the cab with balloons.

“We got an exclusive picture spread out of it.”

The call that led to that Royal scoop was one of several Mr Wells received from the undercover prince.

“He used the name of his private detective and asked us three or four times for special help with Rag Day stunts. He would just call and say ‘Can you give us a hand?’

“I said to him once: ‘All I ask is that you give us an exclusive interview when you leave university’ and he did. I went to see him for a couple of hours in his room and it made a good spread.”

Another highlight of his career was the story that he and a colleague broke about Olga Peters, daughter of former Soviet leader Josef Stalin. They discovered that she was returning to the USSR in the new era of freedom under glasnost. Mr Wells later wrote to Peters to ask for an interview. She declined but sent him “a nice hand-written note”.

He began his career as a trainee reporter with the Bucks Herald in 1965, then moved to the Western Daily Press, becoming municipal reporter. In 1973, he joined the Cambridge Evening News and has been there ever since. He took charge of a district office before being appointed city news editor, news editor, chief news editor and assistant editor. He was appointed deputy editor in 1996.

At 52, he has decided to take early retirement and will leave the paper on August 18.

“I decided that I just wanted to be master of my own destiny for a while – perhaps try something a bit different, although I’ve no specific plans at the moment. Obviously, I will need to do something just to keep the brain active.”

He has clearly enjoyed his career.

“I’ve seen enormous changes at the News over the years, worked on some great stories and worked with some terrific people,” he said.

Among the trainees who worked under him when he was on the newsdesk was Alan Rusbridger, now editor of The Guardian.

Mr Wells joined the paper when it was still using hot metal. Then, as now, there were seven editions a day and, although technology brought vast improvements in the paper’s appearance, the race to get the best stories into print as fast as possible was as keen in 1973 as it is today.

“I think our record from court report to publication on hot metal was 20 minutes. I don’t think we could do it an awful lot quicker these days.”

He will miss “the immediacy of the news” more than anything else.

“Setting up big stories and getting involved in them still gives me the same buzz it did 35 years ago,” he said.

“But basically, I thought it was time to give the youngsters a chance – and I’ve seen five editors and three MDs, which is enough for anybody!”

Mr Wells is married to Barbie and has two grown-up children, Gavin and Sascha. He enjoys reading and conversation, dislikes DIY and confesses to being “a great gardener in theory”.

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