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1956: “It’s my custom to say something flattering to begin with so I shall be excused if I put my foot in it later on.”

1962: “I never see any home cooking – all I get is fancy stuff.”

1965: “Cats kill far more birds than men. Why don’t you have a slogan: ‘Kill a cat and save a bird?'”

1966: “British women can’t cook.”

1969: When speaking to Sir Tom Jones after a Royal Variety Performance: “What do you gargle with, pebbles?”

1969: “I declare this thing open, whatever it is.”

1976: “We don’t come here for our health. We can think of other ways of enjoying ourselves.”

1981: “Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed.”

1986: “It looks like a tart’s bedroom.”

1986: “If it has four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.”

1991: While in Thailand: “Your country is one of the most notorious centres of trading in endangered species.”

1995: To a Scottish driving instructor: “How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to pass the test?”

1996: “If a cricketer suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, are you going to ban cricket bats?”

1997: Speaking about a successful marriage: “Tolerance is the one essential ingredient… You can take it from me that the Queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance.”

1998: To a backpacker in Papua New Guinea: “You managed not to get eaten then?”

1999: When presented with a hamper by an American ambassador: “Where’s the Southern Comfort?”

1999: “It looks as though it was put in by an Indian. I meant to say cowboys. I just got my cowboys and Indians mixed up.”

2000: To deaf children standing near a steel band: “Deaf? If you’re near there, no wonder you are deaf.”

2003: Speaking to the President of Nigeria: “You look like you’re ready for bed!”

2004: “Bugger the table plan, give me my dinner!”

2009: Speaking to an attendee at a reception for influential Indians: “There’s a lot of your family in tonight.”

2010: When responding to a female Sea Cadet who told him she worked in a nightclub: “Is it a strip club?”

2010: When speaking to Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie: “That’s a nice tie… Do you have any knickers in that material?”

2011: Speaking of his approaching 90th birthday: “Bits are beginning to drop off.”

2013: When speaking to a nurse: “The Philippines must be half empty, you’re all here running the NHS.”

2015: “Just take the fucking picture!”