PRINCE EDWARD LAUNCHES TV PRODUCTION COMPANY

After a two-year hiatus, Britain's Prince Edward is returning to the working world by launching a television production company. Edward, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II, said on Saturday that he will become joint managing director and part-owner of Ardent Productions, which he said would make serious programs. His partner will be Eben Foggitt, a lawyer and former business manager at the British Broadcasting Corp. The prince said in a statement he was "looking forward to working full time with my new colleagues and making Ardent Productions into a name that everyone will come to recognize as makers of serious arts, drama and documentary programs for British television." Edward, 29, has been out of work since July 1991, when the last entertainment company he helped found, Theatre Division, folded $900,000 in debt. Since then, taxpayers, and now his mother, have provided him with $135,000 a year. Edward joined Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group in 1988 as a production assistant. He and five associates left in 1990 to form Theatre Division, which helped fund stage shows, but the venture quickly crashed.