Prince Charles roasts Molly Meldrum

Prince Charles has roasted Aussie Countdown host Molly Meldrum in a tongue-in-cheek message. Photo / Getty

Prince Charles has roasted Molly Meldrum in a tongue-in-cheek message coinciding with the 40th anniversary of Countdown.

In 1977, Meldrum stumbled, swore and sweated through a disastrous interview with the prince on the groundbreaking Australian music show.

In the interview in South Melbourne, a young Prince Charles tries to put Meldrum at ease by chatting to his interviewer.

But Meldrum, looking pale and uneasy, is unable to deliver his lines and gets increasingly frustrated.

Almost four decades on and a deadpan Prince Charles has delivered a comedy send-up to the well-loved music journalist.

"There is an old show business saying which warns never to work with animals or children but nobody prepared me for Molly Meldrum," Prince Charles says in the video, in which he also mimics parts of the 1977 interview.

"Was it really 40 years ago? It seems like yesterday ... I wish it were tomorrow, I'd cancel it."

The young prince was only in the studio less than 15 minutes but it was enough to make television history.

"I certainly learned some, um, interesting new Australian words from Mr Meldrum," the 65-year-old prince says in the video.

"And if he could have read my mind he could have learned some interesting new English words from me."