Duchess of Cambridge thanks 'Stockport Spiderman' for bringing joy during lockdown

If you cast your mind back to the start of the first lockdown last year, you may remember the so-called 'Stockport Spidermen' who decided to don superhero costumes and walk the streets to cheer up the people in their local area.

Jason Baird, 34, from Manchester, runs Jason Baird's Black Belt Academy in Stockport. His colleague Andrew started the craze by dressing up as the beloved character on a live video call to some of their students. Together, they covered more than 400 miles during lockdown - surprising and delighting people otherwise stuck at home.

Today, The Duchess of Cambridge released a telephone call she made to Jason, as part of her Hold Still portrait competition. Jason was photographed performing a backflip, which was included in the Duchess's book Hold Still: A Portrait of Our Nation in 2020.

She said: ''It was such a wonderful, positive image of community spirit.''

''You've shown a huge dedication to the community [...] It's really resonated with lots of people out there. And thank you so much for sharing it with us.''

She later mused- ''I'll see if it takes on the trend here at Kensington Palace. Might have to buy William a suit to go and see...unfortunately I'm not sure he'd get the air clearance you've got.''