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[brass band music playing]

Royalty is a mixture of myth and reality.

It's the fairytale romance of a princess
coming together with living history.

When it comes in the shape of a queen,

my goodness,
you've got the full package there.

This is a dream, and yet, it's true.

[soft music playing]

When Princess Elizabeth was a little girl,
she didn't expect to be Queen one day.

She was just a little princess.

Special, yes,
leading a rarefied life, an unusual life.

But her father was the Duke of York
and her mother was the Duchess of York.

And they lived in London, in Piccadilly.

Quite a-- an almost normal,
if very grand, life.

[Robert] She was like Princess Beatrice
or Eugenie nowadays.

I mean, she was the daughter
of the Duchess of York

and the Duke of York,

um, lesser members of the Royal Family.

So, she grew up
with a great reverence for the crown,

understanding the importance of duty
in the monarchy,

but never got that sort of conceit
or big-headedness

that sometimes goes
with actually being in the job.

And I believe this gave her
a modesty that people respect.

[Hugo] In those days,
members of the Royal Family

didn't have to do
nearly as much as they have to do now.

So, the Duke and Duchess of York
and their two children,

Princess Elizabeth, born in 1926,
and Princess Margaret in 1930,

could pretty much disappear to Scotland

from somewhere
round about the middle of July

until perhaps the middle of October

and hardly would be seen at all.

[Ingrid] Well, Princess Elizabeth
was very close to her father.

And they were a very tight family unit.

He used to call them "the four of us."

And although they obviously had, uh,
tours and duties to do,

they were quite a sort of
stay-at-home family.

[Helen] So incredibly spoilt in many ways

beyond anything that any of us
can comprehend,

and yet, completely deprived.

Deprived of any kind of normalcy, really,

therefore desperately trying
to make normalcy

within the little, tiny world
that she can make normalcy within.

[Glenn] The Princesses were very much
isolated from other children.

Uh, hence, they interacted with each other

and they paradoxically
would have developed an intense interest

in everything ordinary.

"What is it like to ride on the tube?"

Or they would, uh, look at other children
playing at a distance

and, uh, wish that they could talk
with them and make friends with them.

[Gyles] She wanted to join the Brownies,
the Girl Guides.

Uh, yes, that was considered a good idea,

so they formed a Girl Guide troop
inside Buckingham Palace,

and a handful of nice, respectable girls
formed the Girl Guide troop.

So, she was a Girl Guide,
she was a Brownie,

but in the safety of a palace.

[announcer] Princess Margaret Rose

has feet which, at the age of seven,
cannot keep still.

However, that's what you'd expect
of a Brownie of the Leprechaun Six

of the Buckingham Palace pack.

[Margaret] Well, I mean,
they were deliciously carefree children.

They led as totally normal a life
as it was possible

under the circumstances.

And we were wonderfully unsophisticated.

I mean, we enjoyed
very silly outdoor games

that keep us happy all day.

[Gyles] I've talked with one
of Princess Elizabeth's playmates

who knew her
when she was a very little girl,

and she said
she was great fun to play with,

but quite undaring.

She didn't ever do anything dangerous.

Right from the beginning,

she was a well-brought up,
well-behaved, well-ordered little girl.

She didn't go to school or university
in the traditional way.

She was brought up
as young, aristocratic women

of her generation would be.

First of all, she was educated at home,

and then later,
a schoolmaster from Eton College

gave her special lessons
in constitutional history.

[Elizabeth Longford]
Their official source of education

was, uh, in many ways, reliable,

trustworthy, good, basic,

but, I have to say, inadequate.

Her education
was essentially that, um, of her mother.

That's to say, um, her mother's views

on how an aristocratic little girl
should be brought up,

um, namely to be a debutante,

um, to be interested in country pursuits,

to be able to make
polite dinner party conversation

of not too high-powered kind,

and emphatically not to be a bluestocking.

[Gyles] Princess Elizabeth, of course,
was born in the 1920s,

in the aftermath of the Great War,

and in the run-up to the Second World War.

It was a time of austerity,

and through the 1930s,
it was a time of unemployment.

It was a stringent and hard, tough time.

[announcer] For the 14th year out of 15,

His Royal Highness, the Duke of York,
spends a night at his camp,

where under
the Industrial Welfare Movement,

400 boys from the public schools
and industrial centres

are spending their holiday together
in the comradeship of the open air.

[Nicholas] I think her parents
were a little bit more in touch

with what was going on
in the "real world."

And I think that was a good thing,

so the Queen would have been aware,
even as a youngster,

that things were not good on the outside,

that many of her subjects
were having a very, very difficult time.

Ch-- Previous generations of royals,
that wouldn't have applied.

They would have been away in their palaces

and wouldn't have had anything to do
with, let's say, ordinary people.

Not so in the case of Princess Elizabeth.

[crowd] ♪ Under the spreading… ♪

♪ Where I knelt… ♪

[Camilla] They were
really eye-opening times for the Queen.

Uh, particularly, I think, because
of her relationship with her mother.

The Queen Mother was always someone
who wanted to be involved

in society and community.

Famously, during the Blitz,

she said that she was glad
that Buckingham Palace had been bombed,

because she wanted to look
the East End in the face.

I think, similarly, they were
very much in tune with their times,

and the Queen particularly,
I think, understood

the notion of not being seen
to be splashing cash

at times when things were difficult
for other people.

[Hugo] She was devoted to her father,
and he to her.

He always used to say
of the two daughters,

"Lilibeth is my pride
and Margaret is my joy."

The younger sister, he spoilt rotten.

He couldn't believe that he had created
such a glamorous creature.

[Gyles] Her little sister, Margaret Rose,

was the naughty, skittish one
in the family.

Right from the beginning,
Princess Elizabeth behaved

almost as though she was
the Queen-in-waiting.

You can find nothing on record at all

of Princess Elizabeth ever doing anything
that would really be considered naughty.

[Camilla] At the time,
it was quite an idyllic upbringing,

because the Princesses
saw a lot of their parents

because they were around
a lot more, post-abdication.

All of that changed,

and I think what was most difficult
for the Queen when she was a girl

from what was quite a low-key existence

to suddenly being thrust
into the spotlight.

[tense piano music playing]

[Hugo] Nobody was expecting
the Prince of Wales,

who's later Edward VIII,
to abdicate until really quite late on.

And it was a terrible shock
for the Duke of York

to realise that, um,
this was the King's intention,

and that he was then going
to have to take over.

And I would suggest

that it was probably not much
before the end of November 1936

that this really dawned on them.

God save the King!

[announcer] The man who had sought
a quieter part in life

was crowned ruler
of the greatest empire in history.

[Robert] Her father, famously,
of course, with his stutter,

wasn't made for public life,

but really applied himself, as
we saw in the film, The King's Speech,

to the job of becoming a modern monarch.

[Peter] He had not performed terribly well
at a speech he'd made at Wembley,

which is the speech which opens the film.

And as a result of that,

there was a feeling
that he needed to get treated.

Had it had been a century earlier,

probably people wouldn't even have
noticed that he had a stammer.

Before that, all a King had to do

was to stand up
or not to fall off his horse,

is, uh, one of the great lines
in the film.

That changed, of course,
in the 1930s with the invention of radio.

[George VI] The Queen and I
will always keep in our hearts

the inspiration of this day.

And may we ever be worthy
of the good will,

which, I am proud to think,

surrounds us at the outset of my reign.

[Peter] His marriage
to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon,

the future Queen Mother,

uh, had an extraordinary influence
on his life.

She was really the one
that encouraged him to seek treatment

because she just really wanted him
to be cured.

When the Duke first consulted Logue,

they had an extraordinary number
of-- of meetings.

Uh, it was very, very intensive indeed.

Um, it worked out
in the first 14 months or so,

that they met 80 times.

Um, sometimes meeting as often
as once a week at the very beginning,

or often more frequently than that.

And he then continued to consult Logue

not on such a frequent basis
in the late 1920s and 1930s,

but after the abdication of his brother
at the end of 1936.

Then, their relationship
really moved up a gear.

[Neville] This morning,
the British Ambassador in Berlin

handed the German government
a final note

stating that unless we heard from them
by 11 o'clock

that they were prepared at once
to withdraw their troops from Poland,

a state of war would exist between us.

I have to tell you now

that no such undertaking
has been received,

and that consequently,
this country is at war with Germany.

[Peter] Neville Chamberlain,
the Prime Minister,

had already declared war earlier that day.

This was the first chance for the King,
the kind of the father of the nation,

to speak to his people,
uh, and to speak to the empire.

The speech which ends the film,

uh, The King's Speech,
as it's become known now,

uh, was obviously an extraordinary,
important, important speech.

And Logue was clearly orchestrating
the speech, was--

I'm sure was encouraging him,
was egging him on

in the same way
as he appears to be doing in the film.

[George VI] In this grave hour,

perhaps the most fateful in our history,

I send to every household of my people,

both at home and overseas,

this message.

We are at war.

With God's help,

we shall prevail.

[Peter] In a sense, one could say

that the Second World War
came to his rescue.

Because he was there, he was…

Played a very statesman-like role
during the Second World War.

And by the end of it, he was, uh,
absolutely entrenched as a beloved king.

[announcer] Whether in France
with his troops

or at home with his bombed people,

his courage and cheerfulness
were an inspiration.

This was total war,

and the King suffered,
with so many of his subjects,

the bombing of his home.

[Ingrid] Princess Elizabeth
saw in her father this devotion to duty.

Duty really what came
before personal happiness,

and she also saw it in her mother.

And that is the way
that she has structured her own reign.

You know, she's really sacrificed
her family in a way.

[Robert] She loved her daddy.

She was a daddy's girl in many ways.

But she looked at what her father did,

and respected what he did,
and tried to follow his example.

Now, in the same way,
he felt that respect for her.

[Camilla] King George said
from a very early age,

Elizabeth seemed very regal,

and even as a child in the cot,

she seemed to be very much in control
of herself and her emotions.

[Robert] He said, "I look at her,
and I see Queen Victoria."

"I see the evidence
of a great monarch in the making."

"We don't need a boy to do the job,
she'll do it better."

There were several events
early in her life

which have shaped the attitude,

and I think, the essential seriousness
of the Queen.

One, the recession, the depression years
in which she grew up,

um, secondly, the abdication,
which was such a trauma in her own family,

um, with such upset
to her very emotional father,

um, through her uncle, Edward VIII,
not doing his duty,

um, as the Royal Family saw it,

indulging in his love for a woman

and putting that
above his duty to the crown,

and certainly, World War II.

[Gyles] During the Second World War,

she and her younger sisters
lived at Windsor Castle

really in sort of isolation.

They lived in the castle,
people came in to entertain them.

Dances were given, parties were given.

They met young aristocratic soldiers,
guardsmen of the day.

Well, it sounds a bit strange,

but I think the war was actually rather,
um, an enjoyable time

for the Princesses.

And I think Princess Elizabeth
actually said to her governess,

you know, "Perhaps we're smiling too much,
we're looking too happy,"

because she knew what was going on,
obviously, and she was really interested.

But they were…

Really had their war years
at Windsor Castle.

And it was like a great, big playground.

[Robert] She wanted to join
something called the ATS,

the Auxiliary Territorial Service,
effectively the women's army.

[announcer] Although she drives it
with apparent composure,

she had no experience of driving
before she commenced her training.

And for a couple of months,
she went to Aldershot every day

and studied how to be a car mechanic,
um, how to change wheels,

how to take off a cylinder block.

[announcer] And when it comes
to checking the plugs,

Princess Margaret has obviously become
suitably impressed.

Yes, she did do war work.

She got into a uniform,
she did some training,

she learnt how to change the--

oh, you know, the wheel on a-- on a car.

She, you know, got her hands dirty.

But she then went back at night
to the safety of the castle.

[Robert] Then she would come home
in the evening and bore the family rigid

with the dynamics of, uh, cylinder blocks
and that sort of thing.

I mean, everything this woman does,
at any age,

is something she's done seriously.

At the end of the Second World War,
when victory in Europe was announced,

there was huge celebration
in the streets of London,

literally dancing in the streets,

uh, Princess Elizabeth asked her father

if she might go down into the streets
to see what was going on.

And with a couple of equerries, guardsmen,

uh, she went down
into the streets of London

and briefly mingled with the crowds.

And that really was as close as she'd got
to the reality of war.

-[lively music playing]
-[crowd cheering]

[Queen Elizabeth II]
My sister and I realised

we couldn't see
what the crowds were enjoying.

handed the German government
a final note

I remember we were terrified
of being recognised,

so I pulled my uniform hat
well down over my eyes.

We cheered the King and Queen
on the balcony

and then walked miles
through the streets.

I think it was one
of the most memorable nights of my life.

It was the Emperor Napoleon who said,
"If you want to understand a person,

you should look at the way the world was
in the year that person turned 21."

Well, the Queen became 21 in the 1940s,

and she has the values
of a woman of that generation.

She is decent, she is discreet,

she does her duty.

One of the extraordinary things
about the Queen

is that she fell in love and married
just about the first man she met.

Of course, it's a slight exaggeration,

but she met Prince Philip of Greece,
as he then was, in 1939,

when he was a dashing naval cadet
at Dartmouth Naval College.

She'd met him before at family occasions,

but this was the occasion
when, by her own account,

uh, the-the spark was struck.

[Ingrid] Very dashing and very handsome,
and, I mean, quite unusually.

She actually thought this man
is wonderful, you know,

as a 13-year-old could think, you know.

A handsome prince.

And never really, um, had any affection
for any other man ever since.

[slow jazz music playing]

[Tim] He was astonishingly good-looking.
You know, flaxen.

He had a little number of women
who swooned at the time,

and who swooned later,

and described him as having Viking looks
and flaxen hair and all the rest of it.

He was an astonishing figure,

and in uniform,
he looked ridiculously good.

And he's always maintained
a very fit profile,

and he looked what he was,
a young Greek god.

[Ingrid] Prince Philip
was very alpha male.

Quite controlling, but--
And very positive.

And I don't think Princess Elizabeth
ever met a man like that in her life.

She was used to going out
with, uh, Lord this and Lord that,

and, you know,
people being very deferential to her,

and suddenly, someone comes along
and tells her what to do,

and drives too fast,
and does all kinds of things.

And I think he was just so male,
she was so incredibly in love with him.

[Gyles] They were both
great-great grandchildren

of Queen Victoria.

And by the end of the 1930s,

Prince Philip, though he had a family,
his father was in the south of France,

his mother was back in Greece,

his sisters were in Germany,
and he was in England.

And he would go to homes,
houses of people,

and in the visitor's book, would write
when-- his address as, "No fixed abode."

And Princess Elizabeth and he
became friendly as the war wore on,

and by the end of the war,
their friendship was deepening.

[Hugo] From time to time,
he used to wind up at Windsor Castle.

He saw the Queen in one
of those pantomimes, and-and, uh…

And at a certain point,
she was writing to him,

and indeed had a photograph
of a bearded gentleman

on her dressing table,

um, which, uh, is always quite fun
to share in lectures

because that is indeed Prince Philip,

um, in-in the days when he had a beard.

And then, of course,
shortly after that, the romance developed.

[Gyles] He was in the Royal Navy,
he was a cousin,

he was certainly eligible,
he was hugely charming.

And by 1946, they were in love
and ready to get engaged.

I don't think that Prince Philip
ever fell foul

of King George VI particularly,

but, uh, you know, she,
his bride-to-be, was very young.

They were both quite young.

Um, and he wanted her to wait.

And it's rather touching, actually,
that, um, they went off

the only time that they were together
on a foreign trip, en famille,

"just the four of us,"
as he always said, George VI,

was the 1947 trip to South Africa.

Princess Elizabeth became 21
when she was in South Africa

and, uh, made this extraordinary speech

uh, dedicating her life to the service
of the Commonwealth,

"the Empire," indeed, I think she said
in those days.

And i-it's very, very her, that.

I mean, it fits in
with this wish to serve first,

and I think that
that's what she's always wanted to do.

Will you, the youth
of the British family of nations,

let me speak on my birthday
as your representative?

Now that we are coming
to manhood and womanhood,

it is surely a great joy to us all

to think that we shall be able to take
some of the burden

off the shoulders of our elders,

who have fought and worked
and suffered to protect our childhood.

[Robert] Now, she didn't write it herself.

Uh, it was written
by one of her private secretaries

and given to her to approve.

But apparently,
the first time she read it, she cried,

and she said,
"This is exactly what I feel."

"This is exactly what I want to say."

It showed that her father's faith in her
was justified,

that she had
this overwhelming sense of duty

not just to Britain,
but to the Commonwealth as a whole,

and that that was gonna be
the most important thing in her life.

I declare before you all,

with my whole life,
whether it be long or short,

shall be devoted to your service,

and to the service
of our great imperial family

to which we all belong.

But I shall not have strength
to carry out this resolution alone

unless you join in it with me,
as I now invite you to do.

[Robert] It was really her last time
as a daughter in the family.

She knew that when it was over,

she was going to get engaged to Philip
and then marry him.

[Hugo] The King was naturally anxious
that his daughter make the right decision,

and, of course, he was also…

No, not totally happy at the idea

of-of this very, very close-knit
family of four,

"us four" as he used to call them,
being broken up

and the additional figure
of Prince Philip,

who was, of course,
you know, an interesting character,

but he's not entirely easy, either.

I mean, he wasn't going
to just arrive on the scene

and not make an impact.

And I think the King
was well aware of that, too.

[classical music playing]

[announcer]
With news of growing preparations

for the Royal Wedding

come these notable pictures
of the Royal Family

accompanied by
Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten.

[Gyles] People at court
weren't sure who this man was.

Princess Elizabeth was a perfect princess.

She was beautiful,
she was well-brought up,

she knew how to behave.

Nobody was quite sure about Prince Philip.

Who was he? Where were his parents?

His grandfather, the King of Greece,
had been assassinated.

His own father,
in the year of Prince Philip's birth,

was put on trial, in a show trial,
and due to be possibly executed.

He escaped into exile,

uh, this is Prince Philip's father,

with his family,
and they settled in France.

Prince Philip's upbringing
was, in a sense, difficult.

I mean, he was born famously, um,
on a kitchen table in Corfu,

and he was evacuated in an orange box
on board a British destroyer.

And he led a life of comparative…

And I think it's reasonable to say
comparative penury in France.

Then at the end of the 1920s,
his parents split up.

His mother had a breakdown,
ended up in an asylum in Switzerland,

and his father floated down
to the south of France

where he ended up with a girlfriend,

living in a boat,
uh, off the French Riviera.

[Tim] He always said to me

that he was essentially, um, Pan-European.

I don't know what he was.

He certainly is categorised
as being, uh, filled with Greek.

Um, but he doesn't have
any Greek blood in him at all.

The-The Greek Royal Family
of which he was a member

were parachuted in,
they were rent-a-royals.

Um, insofar as he comes from anywhere,

I guess he comes from Germany, probably.

And, you know, he himself said, you know,

"Why should I like the Greeks?
They treated my family appallingly."

Which they did, um, uh…

So, the idea that he's Greek
is very far from the truth.

[ballroom music playing]

[Gyles] So, people didn't know
who this prince was.

He hadn't been
to a proper English public school,

he hadn't been in the brigade of guards,

he'd been to this school
called Gordonstoun

founded by a German, Prince Max of Baden,
you know, who'd founded Salem.

Uh, he joined the Royal Navy.

Well, mentions dispatches, that isn't bad,

but who was he?

And so, when the engagement happened,

there were lots of people
around the Queen and the King at the time

who had their reservations.

[classical music playing]

[announcer] Homage and rejoicing,
side by side with flowing pageantry,

marked Britain's greatest royal occasion
since the Coronation.

[Ingrid] The Royal Wedding was seen
as a sort of new Elizabethan Age.

The country was in a terrible state,
it was very austere right after the war,

and suddenly,
there's this beautiful bride, because…

because, you know, Princess Elizabeth
was incredibly beautiful,

and this handsome naval officer

were going to carry the country
out of the doldrums of war

and present them with a golden future.

[classical music playing]

[Ingrid] But the feeling was very much,
of their wedding,

it was like a fairy tale.

[crowd cheering] Kiss the bride!

Kiss the bride! Kiss the bride!

[announcer] Before long,
the calls of the people were answered,

as onto the famous balcony
came the bride and bridegroom.

[Gyles] The time of the wedding
of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip,

his sisters were not invited

simply because they were Germans
living in Germany

with, you know, German husbands,

one of whom was still going through
the denazification process.

So, you know, they had to be careful.

[Tim] I think the British public
on the whole

regarded the marriage of-of Prince Philip,
um, to the future Queen

as a welcome, blessed relief,

you know, from a time
of considerable austerity and awfulness,

and there was more rationing paradoxically
after the war ended

than there had been during the war itself.

And one of the charming things is,

that I think of the 1700 or so
wedding presents

that were officially listed,

several hundred were nylon stockings,

which, um, ladies,
loyal ladies in the country,

decided to send to, uh, the Princess.

They knew, in those hard times,
what every girl wanted.

[announcer] May the present happiness
of our Princess and her sailor husband

grow ever deeper for the years to come.

-[classical music playing]
-[people cheering]

[Robert] After her marriage to Philip,

they'd had their first two children
pretty rapidly.

She wanted more,
she had to delay her family.

That's why her children
come in two tranches, as it were.

One before her coronation,

one once she'd played herself in
and settled.

And she had had this wonderful experience,
for just about a year with Philip,

of being a naval officer's wife.

Philip had insisted after the marriage
that he should pursue his naval career.

She wanted him very much to do this.

Um, the Royal Family agreed.

And so, he actually went off to Malta

where the British Navy had
still a large contingent in those days.

He was given his own ship.

She went out there, not as a princess,
but as the captain's wife.

And for the first and only time
in her life, she drove her own car,

she went to hairdressing salons,
she met friends in cafés for coffee.

She had something
resembling an ordinary life,

and it had been her wish and hope

that that could continue
for several years.

[romantic music playing]

[John] It was obvious
that she meant to enjoy herself.

She had no restriction,
she could move about on her own in Malta.

It was, uh, absolutely novel
for her, you know.

I think, officially, she was the boss.

But in private life,
I think Philip ran the show.

That's my impression, yes.

He seemed to boss her around
most of the time, you know?

And…

I shouldn't say this, perhaps.
I've-I've heard him swear at her.

[Hugo] The thing about the Queen
and Prince Philip

is that they both, as it were,
they're very, very well-matched.

I mean, she took on somebody her own size.

I mean, he is the one person

who can categorically tell her
if something is not going well.

Um, he can talk to her directly,
and he does.

And it's been a very, very interesting,
uh, relationship

which has lasted, um, now,

you know, very nearly 64 years.

[Camilla] I think the Queen herself
will be the first to admit

that Prince Philip isn't somebody
who minces his words.

He's got an opinion on everything,
and he doesn't mind expressing it.

Um, and for the Queen herself,

when you consider that she's surrounded

by a lot of lackeys
and perhaps a lot of yes-men,

actually having a man in her life
to tell her what he thinks,

um, of what she's doing
is probably a refreshing change.

He does wear the trousers
behind palace doors,

and he's the head of the family,

and he's made a lot of changes
at Buckingham Palace,

uh, which have been for the better.

I think he likes to avoid comparisons
with Prince Albert, and, um, doesn't--

Didn't want to be called a consort.

And he wanted to be an individual
in his own right.

And if you say anything
about Prince Philip,

it's certainly that he's an individual.

[Ingrid] I think that perhaps some of
the Queen's character that she has today,

'cause she's very funny
and can be incredibly waspish…

I think a lot of that sort of comes

from being around someone as
sort of strong as Prince Philip.

And i-it's an enduring love
she has for him.

I think he would have been so different,
uh, to Princess Elizabeth herself.

And, you know, in many happy marriages,
that is the key.

It's the differences between people
that make it work.

And I think--

That's, I think

what has been the glue that has held
that marriage together so well.

[Queen Elizabeth II]
All too often, I fear Prince Philip

has had to listen to me speaking.

[crowd laughing]

He is someone who doesn't take easily
to compliments.

But he has quite simply been my strength
and stay all these years.

[Gyles] I remember a few years ago,

I went to the theatre with them
one evening

and sat in the royal box with them,
and the interval came.

And I came out and joined the interval.

I-I walked with the Queen,
and I walked by,

and obviously, with the Duke of Edinburgh,
the Queen went first,

and she was introduced to all sorts
of celebrities during the interval,

and I stood at the side of the room
with the Duke of Edinburgh.

And he looked across the crowded room
towards the Queen,

who is quite a small woman,

and she was surrounded
by people meeting her

and bowing and shaking her hand.

And he lent against the wall,
and he was holding a drink,

and he caught her eye.

And across the crowded room,
she smiled at him.

He merely lifted his glass
and toasted her.

I thought, "Yes, of course."

"There is some special relationship
between these two people."

[sombre music playing]

[Ingrid] The King's unexpected death
changed everything,

not only for Elizabeth,
but for Philip, too.

As a couple, they had enjoyed
a blissful existence in Malta

where the Duke of Edinburgh
was then based,

um, as an officer in the Royal Navy.

And their first tour, so to speak,

was brought to an abrupt halt
when they heard news of the King's death.

Where in Kenya, of course,

it was the Duke of Edinburgh
that broke the news to Princess Elizabeth,

and understandably, she was devastated.

[Hugo] You get this extraordinary vision
of the Queen coming down the steps

to meet all these, uh, ancient ministers
like Winston Churchill, born in 1874,

who'd served in Queen Victoria's army,

Junior Minister Andrew Edward VII
who was then her Prime Minister,

Attlee, and Eden, and Mountbatten,
and the Duke of Gloucester,

and all these other figures
that were standing there,

and the old cars that came to meet her.

And she arrives back into her country

to take over the reins of being sovereign.

From that moment when she stepped
onto the runway back in Britain,

people were bowing to her,
and she was the new Queen,

and for both of them,
it really brought to an abrupt end

what had been as normal a marriage
as possible for a royal couple,

and they were suddenly thrust
into the limelight.

[Ingrid] It was a mortal blow
to Prince Philip

because he realised that family life,
as he knew it, was over.

I mean, he realised it
in a way before she did.

The enormity of the situation hit him.

Suddenly she's Queen,
and she can't be the wife anymore.

The mother.
She can't be the mother anymore.

I mean, there was just--
She really had very little time

to be with her children.

So, Prince Philip, in a way,
sort of became the house husband.

From 1952, as soon as she became Queen,
she was off on lots of royal tours

and, in the early days,
they were very lengthy.

They often went by ship.

So I think there was a distance
between her and her children

that hadn't applied in her own case.

Basically, Prince Philip,
in a way, lost his wife.

Lost his wife to the role of duty.

What would have struck journalists
at the time

is her relative age and innocence
in the scheme of things.

Um, she was certainly a very well-read
and well-schooled woman

of her tender years in those days.

That said, she had no experience
really at all of even married life,

let alone being Queen.

I think people would have wanted to know
how she felt she was gonna cope

with such a huge burden on her shoulders
at such a young age

when she's just starting out
in her marriage and starting a family.

[Nicholas] If you lose a parent
at any age, it's difficult.

Uh, if you're going to be
the next monarch,

if you know that your father dies
and you're going to step into the job,

one can't begin to imagine
the sort of weight of responsibility,

the weight of apprehension
and suspension that that would give you.

Uh, so, I think that when her father died,

it was a cataclysm both personally,

and then, she had to face the fact

that she was going to be the monarch
of the United Kingdom.

There was anxiety to start with.

Um, when George VI died so young,
a father figure,

how could this young girl cope?

And then,
it was actually Winston Churchill

who, in his speech of mourning
and farewell to George VI

and welcome to the new Queen,

pointed out that here she was,

uh, modern Elizabeth coming to the throne

at the same age as the first
Queen Elizabeth in Tudor times.

Um, and here perhaps Britain
and the whole Commonwealth

had the chance
of a modern Elizabethan Age.

[classical music playing]

[Camilla] I think the Coronation
again coinciding

with, um, the rollout of TV
around the world

meant that it was one of the first
and biggest televised events of its kind.

[Nicholas] Television was just taking off.

Low and behold,
we had the Coronation in 1953.

So many people
acquired their television sets for that.

My family did.

We sat in the house,
my dad bought a television,

the neighbours came around
as in so many other cases.

And, really, that set television
going as well.

[choir singing]

[Camilla] I think
it was very much the notion

that this should be a world event,

and that everybody in the Commonwealth
should be able to enjoy

what was an occasion where they would be
seeing their Queen crowned.

Madam, is Your Majesty
willing to take the oath?

[Queen Elizabeth II] I am willing.

[Robert] She was very worried

that she might make mistakes
that would be recorded live on television.

[bishop] "…according to
the respective laws and customs."

I solemnly promise so to do.

[Robert] There's also several
very emotional, private moments

in the service,

like when she took communion.

Another moment when she has to bare
most of, um, the upper part of her breast

and have the coronation oil
anointed there.

She didn't want that
to be shown on television.

[Ingrid] The people wanted to see royalty.

They wanted to not just be able
to watch them physically in London,

but I think they really needed
to see this happening.

[crowd] God save the Queen!
God save the Queen!

-God save the Queen!
-[trumpets blowing]

And the BBC, um, really pushed

for the Coronation to be televised.

Um, and it wasn't the Queen that said no,
or indeed, the Queen that said yes.

It was actually--
Her advisors were very sniffy about it

and said, "No, no, no,
it can't possibly be the case,"

because there'll be men
with cloth caps in pubs,

you know, they won't be deferring.

There was a national outcry.

You know, they said--
People said, "Look," you know,

"It says the Queen should be crowned
in the sight of all the people,

and these days,
the people are watching their tellies."

-[choir singing]
-[brass band music playing]

[Ingrid] It was televised, as we know,

and of course,
it was a huge, huge success,

and a sort of bringing together
of the Commonwealth

and the whole world, in fact.

[Camilla] I think for the Queen,

it was a very, uh,
momentous occasion in her life,

not just because of the world
who are following,

but because
she's a deeply religious woman,

and making her vow before God

in such austere circumstances
to serve her country

was really a defining moment for her
in her life.

She'd always had a strong sense of duty,
but that became even stronger.

And, you know, her Coronation
was a religious service

as much as anything else,

and she was very much at the centre
of a religious, um, ceremony

presided over by the archbishop.

Why, her archbishop
and all the rest of it.

And I think that, um,
what really changed her life totally,

um, at the Coron--

At, first of all, the Accession,

even more so after the Coronation in 1953,

was the sense that she was on her own,
she was chosen by God, if you like.

[jazz music playing]

[Hugo] Very, very soon
after the Coronation,

uh, the euphoria of that great event

was overshadowed
by the Margaret Townsend affair.

The Queen was in conflict there,
because as head of the Church of England,

she could not really permit her sister
to marry a divorced man.

But as the sister of Princess Margaret,

she obviously was very keen
that Princess Margaret should be happy.

And it wasn't easy.

[Peter] In the 1950s,
it was a very different period from today.

The family meant a great deal.

Uh, divorce was, uh, terrible.

The idea of going out with a married man
was frowned upon.

A married man with children,
who was going to divorce,

to marry a royal princess?

It was just unheard of.

Probably the Queen
just didn't want to believe

even if she thought it might be possible.

What happened in that particular situation
was that they separated the couple,

they sent Peter Townsend
off to, um, Brussels as an attaché,

and by the time he returned in 1955,

when the general public,
all getting tremendously excited

at the thought that Princess Margaret
was now 25

and could, to some extent,
do what she wished.

In fact, I think, no,

the path of love had,
as it were, run through.

And by the time Princess Margaret realised

there was a possibility
of her, um, civilised allowance ceasing

and possibly losing her royal titles
and things, it was over.

[classical music playing]

[announcer] Princess Margaret's
personal message

issued from Clarence House.

"I would like it to be known

that I have decided not to marry
Group Captain Peter Townsend."

"I am deeply grateful for the concern

of all those who have constantly prayed
for my happiness."

[Camilla] Because of their closeness,

the Queen during the whole
Group Captain Townsend period

was very supportive of Margaret

because it was really their mother

who they didn't want to let in
on the notion of the relationship.

And I think Elizabeth and Philip
counselled Margaret

as much as they could through that,

and, uh, it's sometimes been misreported
that it was the Queen that said

that this relationship
couldn't be allowed.

Actually, she was devastated
that when push came to shove,

it was the government who said,

"Actually, we can't allow you
to marry this man."

And, uh, I think she had
a lot of sympathy for Margaret,

because after all,
the Queen knew what true love was.

She had married the man of her dreams.

She obviously played a part in it,
an important part.

And it could not have been done
without her agreement.

Problem the Queen has, I think, often had

is, as it were,
the role of the Queen as Queen

and the role of the Queen as a person.

I mean, in some extent,
they're two different people,

and the Queen has been known sometimes
to turn to a private secretary,

um, who produces something for her
to look at and to ask her the question,

you know, "What should the Queen do?"

[Robert] At the beginning
of the Queen's reign,

the massive tour of the Commonwealth
that she undertook,

the best part of a year
in the newly built yacht, The Britannia,

was obviously partly a celebration
of her Accession,

but it was mainly a thank you
to the British Commonwealth,

to Australia, New Zealand,
Canada, South Africa, India,

um, the African countries

that had contributed so many men and lives

to the war effort
against Germany and Japan.

[Nicholas] When the Queen
came to the throne,

we still had the British Empire.

It was very much part
of all of our lives, I remember.

I was young, but I can remember it.

Uh, hard to think of it now,

but we-we had influence
all over the globe.

Real influence.

And the Queen was queen
of all those countries, as well.

It became the Commonwealth,
a much looser association

of mostly friendly countries.

The Queen has always taken that
extremely seriously.

Of all the jobs that she does,
I think possibly she would say herself

the two that really matter to her
are being head of the Church,

because she takes her religion
extremely seriously,

and being head of the Commonwealth.

[Hugo] I'd say that the Queen
has adopted the Commonwealth

almost as one of her sort of prime causes.

I mean, rather like, uh, a prime minister
with a new government

that identifies an area
that he wishes to be identified with.

It's true to say that
that's what the Queen has considered

to be very important.

And she never misses these
Commonwealth heads of government meetings.

You know, she has prime ministers
all over the world,

and she has said that sometimes,
when she goes to these meetings,

she feels a bit like a doctor.

She sees four prime ministers
in the morning and four in the afternoon.

And they all tell her
their different problems.

And who better to talk to than her?

Because she's not gonna tell us
what they say.

And equally, of course,
she's known all their predecessors,

way back into the 1940s,
before a great deal of them were born.

And the Queen doesn't mind

if these countries wish to not have her
as Queen any more,

as long as they remain
in the Commonwealth.

That's-- that's the thing
that she's most keen on,

likes to keep the link going.

[Robert] Princess Elizabeth
as Princess and Queen

has always been guided
by a great sense of duty.

When she became crowned Queen,

um, one of the symbols of authority
that she took

was what's called
the Wedding Ring of England.

She considered herself,
and she considers herself,

married to England, Britain, Australia,
um, the British Commonwealth,

all the countries that acknowledge her.

And that, for her,
is the most important thing.

[people cheering]

[Gyles] I don't think she has yet seen
the film called The Queen,

because she's not interested in herself.

She doesn't read about herself.

She is not preoccupied with herself.

She doesn't belong
to the "me, me, me" generation.

She isn't touchy-feely as a human being.

There are no photographs in existence

of the Queen and Prince Philip
walking along, holding hands.

They reflect their generation.

That's not what they want you to see.

You may want it, it may reflect
what you were looking for in royalty.

That's not what they're going to give you.

[Nicholas] I think
there are two big influences

on the Queen's approach to her job.

Uh, one was the example of what happened
with her uncle, Edward VIII,

king for such a short time,
never even crowned.

Uh, I think, uh, that would have
instilled in her the idea

that you do not walk away
from what is your duty.

What her father had done, she carried on,

and I think succeeded even more,
if you like.

She was even more taken to people's hearts

than her father had been.

[cheering]

[woman] It's wonderful.
She's our monarch.

And, uh, for her to take the time
to speak to me is wonderful.

[sniffles] I can't believe it.

I made it! [laughs]

[Gyles] One of the most interesting things
I ever heard about the Queen

said to me
by one of her private secretaries,

and it was this,

that the Queen sees it as her duty

to walk at the pace
of the slowest person in the land.

So that nobody in the country
feels left behind.

So, there is the Duke of Edinburgh,
thrusting, going forward.

Trying to do this, trying to do that,
trying to change this.

And there is the Queen,

quite steadily walking along
at the pace of the slowest person,

feeling, "Okay, this is the way it is."

"Everyone should be included in this."

And so, the Queen
has actually been hugely inclusive

in the way that she has run things.

I think the strength of the Queen
is she's seen it all come and go.

There is no doubt at all that she had
a special feeling for Winston Churchill.

None whatsoever,

because she'd known him
since she was literally a little girl.

She sat on Winston Churchill's knee.

He was a friend of her parents,

her father went through
the Second World War

with Winston Churchill.

She was a young girl in her mid-20s
when she became Queen,

and Winston Churchill,
the grand old man of European politics,

was her first prime minister.

He was the special prime minister.

Since then, I think,
she's seen them come and go,

and been very skilful

at not letting them
become too intimate with her.

[people laughing]

James Callaghan,
a British prime minister, said to me once,

"You know, royalty, they offer you
friendliness, not friendship."

"There is a difference."

I've worked for a succession
of prime ministers

who have enormously valued the, um…

What they get
from their weekly audience with the Queen

in terms of, uh, very penetrating
and shrewd questioning

and expressions of judgement and view.

The idea has always been

that at least once a week, on a Tuesday,

the Prime Minister makes time,
clears his diary,

and goes over to Buckingham Palace
to talk to the Queen.

The Prime Minister just sits and talks
in total confidence,

totally openly with the Queen
about what's going on.

She listens, she does much more listening
than anything else.

[Gyles] A few years ago, I found myself
at a private party in a corner,

making conversation with the Queen.

And, uh, I found myself talking about, uh,

the Prime Minister of the day, John Major.

And I found myself saying to the Queen,
"Oh, you had an audience with him today."

There was a recession at the time,
and um, I said,

"Do you know, um, it's very bad,
the recession?"

She said, "Oh, yes, very bad."

And she said, "Do you know
how I've been Queen since 1952?"

I said, "I do know that, Your Majesty."

She said, "You know,
I've had 13 prime ministers."

I said, "Oh, yes,
I know that, too, Your Majesty."

"You know, we have one
of these recessions every few years,

and I'm not sure any of my prime ministers
knows what to do about it."

[Hugo] She's very dry, the Queen.
She's got a very good sense of humour.

Behind it, she's not quite--

She's not as much of an actress
as the Queen Mother.

I would say that if you succeeded
in making the Queen laugh,

you can be genuinely 100 percent certain
that you have amused her.

She is a very amusing person.

People always think the Queen
is looking rather serious,

and this is simply because
she's a bit older now,

and she's got one of those faces
that looks solemn when it's in repose.

But when she smiles,
her face is absolutely transformed,

and she looks wonderful, radiant.

But she's also very amusing
and does impressions.

Some impressions of individuals,
but she does accents.

She can go to a place and come away,
and do you impressions of people.

[Ingrid] When I just first joined Majesty
in 1983,

the Queen and Prince Philip
did a tour of Jordan,

and I remember going on it.

The Queen said to me, "What do you find
to write about in your magazine?"

And I said,
"Oh, your family, ma'am." [chuckles]

And, um, she said,
"Well, I use it as a diary

to know what they're all doing."

[Hugo] One, uh, story I rather like
about the Queen

was that she always wanted
to see a supermarket.

And once in Norfolk, she was-- put on
her sort of husky, and her head scarf,

and she had claimed that she hadn't been
to a supermarket

other than when she had been opening ones,
so she wanted to go along.

So, she was walking
up and down the aisles,

and a little old lady spotted her there,
went up to her and said,

"My dear, I-I must tell you,
you look awfully like the Queen."

To which the Queen replied,
"Thank you, that's very reassuring."

That's very much the Queen.

[brass band music playing]

[Ingrid] People look to the monarchy,
especially, um, in times--

Because they are above politics.

They're not there because
we've elected them there, they're…

Maybe they don't even want to be there,

but they're there,
and they've devoted their lives to duty,

which is really important
that we see that.

Which is why the behaviour
of some of the young royals in the '80s

was so damaging to the monarchy.

But I think
because they're above politics…

And because we know
people like Prince Charles really care.

He does really care about this country
and its people.

Um, we want to look up to them.

[Robert] It's really no secret

that she has her differences
with Prince Charles.

I mean, she loves him,
obviously, as her, um, eldest son,

but she feels that he is espousing
of quite controversial causes.

He's dangerous for the monarchy.

Now, Prince Charles,
in his own defence, would say…

Well, this is only while
he's Prince of Wales,

that when he becomes monarch
in due course,

um, all of that would end,

and he totally understands
the impartiality…

that a modern constitutional monarch
has to have.

[Camilla] I think when you look
at Charles and Andrew,

you can probably make comparisons
with William and Harry,

in that Andrew
is a spare to the heir as Harry is,

and they can both get away
with a bit more.

And they might be labelled
party princes or playboy princes,

because they haven't got the burden
of responsibility on their shoulders.

They aren't gonna be the future king.

[Ingrid] Andrew seems to have
an extraordinary place in her heart…

that he can do no wrong.

Or if he does, she forgives him.

[Camilla] He also had
a very gung-ho image,

in that he was out in the Falklands,
and flying helicopters,

and generally being quite macho,

and it fitted in
with that whole Top Gun image.

He had a bit of a, um,
Hollywood image at the time,

and it was easy to label him
as "Randy Andy"

because of the excitement

that that title might bring
to the Royal Family,

as far as the press were concerned anyway.

[reporter] There's sometimes a perception
of aloofness and distance

-which was certainly bridged--
-Ah, now I think I would-- I would…

I would twist that slightly and say to you

that perhaps that's the way
that other people think we want to be.

Rather than necessarily the way
that we would choose to be.

Do you understand the difference?

[reporter] Yes, I do,

but what is then preventing you
from being that?

Um, probably, again,
other peoples' perceptions,

rather than our own desire.

[stammering]
Because when you actually see,

and understand, and feel what it is that--

For instance, you've seen
what Prince William is doing

in, um, Australia and New Zealand, uh…

he was able to do that.

The difficulty is being able to do that
all the time,

because there are times
when things have to be more formal.

I, for one, think
that the Royal Family is relevant.

I think it's relevant
probably more so in the 21st century

than we really either want to or realise.

When it comes to Andrew and Edward,
these are her, um, indulged younger sons.

Um, and, uh…

she's… she's fond of them,

and perhaps she's less critical of them
than she is of Charles.

[people cheering]

[Ingrid] I think everybody
that saw It's a Royal Knockout

realised that it was
an incredibly undignified thing to do.

And although it made great television,
um, it was almost embarrassing,

watching, uh, the way

that some of the members
of the Royal Family behaved.

I mean, actually, Diana wanted to do it,
and Prince Charles wouldn't let her.

He was quite right.

Um, and of course,
Edward came out of it very badly

because he really did go
into a sort of funk.

-Haven't you been watching it?
-[reporters] Yes.

-Uh, what did you think of it?
-[cameras clicking]

-[reporters laughing]
-[tongue clicks] Thanks.

[reporters murmuring]

[Camilla] Well, Prince Edward didn't have
a great press in those days

'cause I think he was very much
in his elder brothers' shadow

as the youngest child.

He didn't do very well
in the Royal Marines,

and so, was labelled, uh, soft
if not gay in some quarters,

which was later denied by his wife

in the ill-fated interview
she gave to the Fake Shake,

not knowing that he was undercover
at the time,

headlined, "My Edward's Not Gay."

Um, and I think, really,
he suffered a bad press

because he tried to have
his own endeavours

and he ran odd in his production company.

It didn't do very well.

I think the nail in the coffin

was when he went and filmed
Prince William, um, at Eton

um, when he had been
expressly told not to,

and, uh, that really ended his career,

and the Queen
didn't want the bad publicity.

Uh, on this particular occasion,

we are celebrating somebody
which was really an accident at birth

over which I have no control.

[laughter]

And for which, I seriously owe
one very important thank you,

which is to my mother and father.

[laughter]

I think people will say
that Princess Anne is her biggest support,

and that is both
personally as her only daughter,

but also in a professional sense

in that she's an absolute tireless
workhorse for the Royal Family.

She carries out multiple engagements
most days of the week.

And in that respect, she is
the Forbesnumber one performer.

And the Queen really admires that
in a daughter.

I think probably Princess Anne
actually is more like Prince Philip

than her mother in some other respects.

Um, she's also very straight-talking
and no nonsense.

Um, but I think the Queen is close
with all of her children.

It's really her grandchildren
on whom the Queen focuses.

She is a great matriarch, the Queen.

She loves having
all the family around her,

and that's why I had time
at Sandringham at Christmas

and Balmoral in the summer.

Uh, very precious to her,

because those are the times
when she can be a matriarch

for a few weeks, at least.

The Royal Family has reflected
family life in general

because behind palace gates,
they are a normal family

with normal problems and normal emotions.

In fact, they're under more pressure,
really, than the rest of us,

because their moves are all scrutinised,

and if there's problems
in the relationship,

the cameras are there to pick it up.

And that very much happened, of course,
with Prince Charles and Diana.

But the interesting thing
about, uh, Diana Spencer,

who became Princess Diana,

was that she rather came out of nowhere,
no one really spotted her.

And although she had
some royal connections in her family,

she wasn't the usual type of girlfriend

that, uh, I remember Prince Charles
accompanying to places.

[Ingrid] A lot of his girlfriends
had a past,

and we, the press, knew
that Prince Charles had to find…

At that time, definitely,
find someone who had no past.

And then, Lady Diana Spencer appeared,
and, you know, it was a gift to all of us.

[Camilla] She was a young girl,
and quite naive at the time, as we know.

But I think, actually,
Prince Charles' parents were relieved

that he had decided to marry someone.

He had quite a long period of bachelorhood
where he couldn't seem to settle down,

and it was actually attracting
the wrong kind of headlines.

Um, "Was he a playboy prince?
Was he not able to make decisions?"

"Was he not able to commit?"

And suddenly, this beautiful young girl
came into his life,

and it really improved his PR enormously,

because not only had he managed
to settle down,

but with such a gorgeous
and glamorous figure.

[Hugo] I was always very much
actually a Diana Spencer fan,

and, of course,
it was terribly interesting to watch

how she emerged from that chrysalis,

that early chrysalis,
into the girl that she became.

And she was very, very good
at those royal duties.

And of course, they were, for a time,
really, completely a dream team.

They could have gone anywhere
and done anything.

Everybody wanted to see them.

[Robert] The problem for Diana Spencer
and what she really fell victim to

was a time warp.

By the 1970s, when Diana Spencer
appeared on the scene,

most people couldn't care less

whether the bride walking up the aisle
was a virgin or not in ordinary life.

But when it came to the Royal Family,

we still expected this old-fashioned view.

Uh, it meant she was much younger
than Prince Charles.

And Prince Charles, of course,
as we've since discovered,

was already committed emotionally
to another woman, and that was Camilla.

But poor Camilla's problem,
um, was sort of catch-22.

And when she met Prince Charles,
she fell in love,

they went to bed together,

but that sort of automatically
ruled her out as a future queen.

It sounds ridiculous,
it sounds primitive, and it was.

Um, and, of course, in two or three years,

Prince Andrew fell in love with Fergie.

She didn't pretend she was a virgin,
she'd had boyfriends in the past.

Everybody had moved on by that time.

But Diana was caught
in this particular trap,

and it's the basis for, really,
the tragedy

that became, um, her life
and Prince Charles' life,

and an enormous challenge to the monarchy

and to the reputation of Elizabeth II.

[Ingrid] One of the many, many problems
that Diana had

was I don't think anyone
actually explained to her

the enormity of what she was doing.

And you'd think
her father would have done,

'cause he was the one person
that did know it.

And Diana was just thrown in
at the deep end.

She went to live in Buckingham Palace.

She was incredibly lonely.

She was looked after by a footman,
actually was a friend of mine.

And Prince Charles
was away travelling a lot.

And I think she thought
it was all gonna be wonderfully romantic,

and they'd be having candle-lit suppers
in Buckingham Palace,

and he would sort of whisk her away
on a white charger,

but it wasn't like that at all,
she hardly saw him.

Well, we didn't cover her unhappiness
until probably about 1987,

when it became so obvious
that she was unhappy.

[Robert] The Queen
was immensely distressed

by what was happening
in the marriage of Charles and Diana

for a number of reasons.

Obviously, the threat that it carried
to the reputation of the Royal Family.

But particularly to the happiness
of the couple,

and particularly their ability
to be parents to William and Harry,

whom she loved dearly as a grandmother,

but also who represented
the future of the Royal Family.

So, there was a whole complex
of emotions going on in here.

[Ingrid] The Queen actually tried
to bring Diana under her wing,

but Diana was very reluctant.

She thought, you know, she didn't want
to have supper with the Queen.

That was too boring.

And also, she found it a bit daunting.

I mean, the Queen would invite her

to come and have lunch with her
or have supper with her,

and Diana really didn't want to do that,
and so, she'd find excuses.

And so, they never really formed
a very close relationship

at a time when it might have
really helped Diana to do so.

When the marriage
really started to break down,

Diana used to go and see the Queen.

Now, nobody sees the Queen
without an appointment,

but Diana used to wait
in the page's vestibule

until the Queen's last visitor,
if you like, um, had left.

And then she'd dash in
before the next one, and she'd just cry.

And say, "Everybody hates me.
I hate my mother."

"I hate my sister. I hate my husband."

And the Queen, not used
to this kind of moral confrontation,

just didn't know how to handle Diana.

It really threw her.

And, um, as a result,
she sat on the fence with Diana.

[Robert] It would be a great mistake

to think that she blamed Diana
for what went wrong.

If anything, I believe,
that she and her husband Prince Philip

put more of the blame on Prince Charles
than on Diana.

Because after all, he was the one
who had this extra girlfriend

who was by then not a secret
to the Royal Family.

He was the one, the older, um…

partner of the couple…

whose job it was to steer things through.

He was the royal who'd spent all his life
getting ready for this.

[Ingrid] I just think from everything
I know about the Queen

and everything everyone's told me,

she tries not to interfere
with her children's lives.

She probably should have done.

I think that could be
the great mistake of her reign,

is that she didn't interfere
between Charles and Diana,

and say, "Now, enough is enough."

"I don't care if you loathe each other,
you're gonna have to stay together."

She didn't do that.

[Hugo] Prince Philip made
a very concerted effort

to commune with Diana.

I've seen the letters that he wrote to her
and I've seen her replies.

And they're very moving,

and they were very constructive
on his side,

desperately trying to find a way
of keeping her in the fold

and trying to work out balance

where the things that she might do
with Prince Charles

that they did both like doing,
they should do more of,

in the hope that things would settle down.

[Gyles] I asked Prince Philip about it
once, and he said to me simply,

"We're a family. We are a family."

"These things happen in families."

And they cope with it as a family would,

and their reaction to it

was that of parents
of their particular generation.

[camera clicking]

[Camilla] Actually, the Royal Family
was very fond of Diana,

and even after the divorce,

there were lots of letters exchanged
between Diana and Prince Philip.

Prince Philip very much wanted
that relationship

to stand the test of time.

Not because of the image
of the Royal Family

being dented by their divorce,
but because he really was fond of Diana

and wanted the relationship to last
for the couple's benefit and for the boys.

[Robert] The Queen was curiously
on Diana's side, certainly,

while the marriage was breaking up.

Now, when it comes to a question

of what she thought of Diana's behaviour
after the marriage broke up

and her succession of boyfriends,

and particularly, Dodi Fayed,
and all that sort of thing,

that's another issue.

[rock music playing]

[Gyles] I once asked the Duke of Edinburgh

why he felt the press approach
to the Royal Family was as it is

and where it had begun to go wrong.

And he told me, in terms,

it began to go wrong
when Rupert Murdoch arrived here.

And I think he would say

that the sort of day-to-day insidious
gnawing away

at the views of the Royal Family

really began when Rupert Murdoch
arrived in this country.

[Ingrid] The Royal Family are convinced,

and I've spoken
to Prince Charles about it.

I've spoken to other members
of the Royal Family.

They are convinced that Murdoch
was out to destroy them.

They really are.

I mean, Prince Charles banged on
about Murdoch and the Murdoch press.

And they almost seemed to think
that there's a Murdoch plot.

I'm not talking about actually now,
but say, you know, like 10 years ago.

[Tim] It's terribly easy for journalists
to latch onto an alleged failing

and to say that, um, Prince Philip
has committed another gaffe.

I think he's been rather unfairly treated.

Prince Philip is known for his gaffes,

and he's known for not mincing his words
and saying what he thinks,

and often, people like me in the press
like to interpret that in a certain way

to make a good headline.

And I don't think
there's anything wrong with that,

because often, he has made
controversial comments.

That said,
often I've observed Prince Philip,

and really, all he's trying to do
is put people at ease

in the way he thinks he should put
people at ease, is by cracking jokes.

And I recently profiled him
for his 90th birthday,

and he, uh, suggested to a chef
who was collecting an award,

that it was no wonder he was a good chef,

because he was certainly the size for it.

And this man was enormous,
and wasn't offended at all,

thought it was hilarious.

And I think people quite like being
singled out by the Duke of Edinburgh.

I think the notion of Rupert Murdoch
coming and being a Repub--

Staunch Republican and from Australia
didn't really change things that much,

because at the time, '80s and '90s,

the stewardship of The Sun
was very much Kelvin McKenzie's domain,

and he realised in Fleet Street
more than anyone

that Diana was gonna sell papers.

And in that respect,
it was what the readers wanted.

And if you look back
to those times in the '80s

of how many resources
were thrown at royal stories,

you'd have royal reporters
sent across the world.

They spent hardly any time in Britain.

All they did was follow royals around
on their holidays.

[Gyles] One of the things that disturbed,
distressed the Queen and Prince Philip

about Diana, Princess of Wales,

and about Sarah Ferguson who married
the young Duke of York,

was that the attention they got,

uh, they may have thought
that it was for them as individuals.

And the Duke of Edinburgh said to me once,

"You know, when the Queen
first became queen,

and went on tours in the early 1950s,

millions, millions of people came out
in the streets and cheered."

And if the Queen
had taken that attention for herself,

it would have been corrosive.

She never did.

She knew the attention,
the adulation was not for her.

It was for the position of being Queen.

One of the things that makes them
feel a bit distressed

about the way they're presented,

I've discussed this
with the Duke of Edinburgh,

is that people now regard them
as part of the celebrity culture.

They're not.

They think of themselves
as part of history.

There is blood in their veins

that has been coursing through royal veins
since before 1066.

[Camilla] The Queen's mantra
when it comes to her family

has always been,
"Never complain and never explain."

And in that respect,

she's always remained resolutely solid
on issues

such as love, marriage, divorce.

[Helen] But she's someone to whom
public display of emotion is…

is, um, offensive.

It's rude.

You know?
You keep those things to yourself.

You don't lay them on other people.

You keep them to yourself.

You suffer your pain, and your elation,

and your difficulty privately.

Probably the most demonstrative
she ever was

was when she talked
about her annus horribilis.

[dramatic music playing]

[Ingrid] Well, 1992 was the worst year,
so the Queen says, of her life.

She called it her annus horribilis.

Now, there was the divorce
of Andrew and Fergie.

Before that, there was the fire
at Windsor Castle,

when the Queen sort of almost saw,

it was on her wedding anniversary,

and I think she almost felt her life
was going up in flames.

And then, of course, the separation
of the Prince and Princess of Wales

which really was something the Queen
had tried incredibly hard

to help them avoid.

She said, "You know, just try
a bit longer, just try a bit longer."

And then, she realised that,
you know, it wasn't going to work.

So, that was a really rotten year for her.

[Robert] Shortly after the Windsor fire,

the Queen was scheduled to make a speech,

and she didn't duck the issue,
she didn't, uh, avoid it.

She was ill herself,
she had a terrible sore throat

from the smoke and from a cold
that she was suffering from.

Um, and all of this added up
to this poignant, um, image

of this, uh, middle-aged, elderly woman
who'd seen her home burnt down,

who'd seen her children divorce.

It has turned out to be
an annus horribilis.

[Robert] If it hadn't been Latin,
she wouldn't have been able to say it.

But suddenly, it provided her
with a format

for broaching this dreadful subject.

Uh, and she did, and of course,
people loved her the more for it

and rallied around, and gave her,
um, the emotional support

that the monarchy
had so often offered to them.

[dramatic music playing]

I was asleep in bed when the phone rang,

and one of my bosses said,

"Nick, there's been a car crash in Paris."

"Dodi Fayed is dead, and we think
the princess is dead, too."

So I obviously got up, got dressed,

went straight to the studio
in the middle of the night,

and then, was really on television
I have to say, for the next week, really.

[reporter] We have a flash here
from the Press Association news wire

saying that Diana, Princess of Wales,
has died in a car crash in Paris.

[Hugo] What happened was, of course,
that the week after Diana died,

was a long week
from a media point of view.

So, on the Sunday you had the shock.

Uh, the next day, it was discovered
it turned on the paparazzi

or perhaps even on the same day
that it had pursued the car.

Then after that, it was discovered

that the chauffeur had more alcohol
in his blood than he should have done,

so he was the next one to be blamed.

And then, once they'd finished with that,
they turned on the Queen.

And the press played it up like anything,

they played up the fake thing of the flag,

there being no Union Jack
flying at half-mast on Buckingham Palace.

Uh, I tried to tell ITN
time and time again,

"Why didn't you film Windsor Castle,
which has its flag at half-mast?"

"Surely that makes a certain point."

Didn't quite fit
to what they were interested in.

They wanted the stark flag pole.

The monarch who did not care,
and so forth.

We didn't whip up hysteria.

Um, I always get a bit cross
when people accuse us of that.

The British people felt very deeply,
most of them, about Diana.

They felt her loss personally.

And we were very aware
that we shouldn't inflame people.

We shouldn't say,
"Oh, the Queen's being terrible."

"She hasn't come down to London
to meet the crowds."

We tried to be very careful
about what we were doing.

But the story just swept along.

No one could have imagined
what had happened to Diana

and what would happen
in the days that followed.

[Ingrid] With Diana's death,
the Queen did what she's always done.

Remember, she likes continuity,

and she did what her father
would have done

and what her grandfather would have done.

So, they batten down the hatches,
stay at Balmoral,

on the outward, act as if nothing
so terrible has happened.

But she completely misread
the mood of the country,

because she was in
the ivory tower of Balmoral.

You don't know
what's going down in London.

[Hugo] The Queen is somebody
who had been through the war.

And her generation respond
to things like car crashes

in which ex-daughters-in-law
are killed in a different way,

to the, um, more touchy-feely way

that the younger generation
responded to that.

[Robert] Her job
was to look after these boys

at this traumatic, terrible moment
in their lives.

That became a priority,

and that was very much the reason

why she did not want cameras
paraded around.

She did not want to make
public statements.

She certainly wanted to keep William
and Harry away from, um, attention.

And she thought,
"Let's go down at the last moment."

There was the practical matter
of not disturbing people at the palace,

but more important,

it just means the boys can focus
on this one thing, um, uh…

paying tribute to their mother
at the funeral, and then come home.

Well, of course,
that was not how people in London

or indeed, through the media,
people around the world, saw it.

[Brian] The image of the Queen
took a serious dent in that first week.

They seem to misjudge
the, um, mood of the nation.

And I think that the silence
from the Royal Family

for those early days
and nothing happening,

the no mention of Diana
at Crathie Church at the service

and no flag coming down
at Buckingham Palace,

you know, that in itself caused,
um, probably a lot of anger with people.

I know it's tradition that their flag
flies at Buckingham Palace

when only the royalty are there,

but I really would have liked to have seen
the flag flying half-mast there as well.

They're the most cold people
on this earth.

I mean, all these people here today
are showing the strength of the nation,

and she hasn't said anything, the Queen.

[Ingrid] Well, the Queen,
when she came back

to Buckingham Palace from Scotland,

I think she was
actually extremely nervous,

because she could feel
the hostility of the crowd.

So she did a walkabout.

And actually, she heard things, like,
"Oh, about time you've come."

You know, t-they can hear an awful lot
of things that the crowd said.

And then I think a woman
actually gave her, um, a bunch of flowers,

and said, "Oh, would you like me
to place it for you?"

And the woman said,
"No, Mum, it's for you."

And that sort of broke the ice,
it was that moment,

and I think suddenly, people saw her…

instead of feeling all prickly and angry,

they suddenly thought,
"My goodness, this is a grandmother,

and she's got to deal with all this."

I suppose it was a sort of natural feeling
of sympathy in many ways for the Queen.

Plus the fact,
and I remember this terribly well,

the Queen went on television,
live from Buckingham Palace,

to address the nation
in the middle of all of that.

And it was a very masterful speech.

What I say to you now
as your Queen and as a grandmother,

I say from my heart.

First, I want to pay tribute
to Diana myself.

[Nicholas] It did just the right thing,
it said just the right thing.

She used the famous words,

"As your Queen and a grandmother."

That was very important thing to say,

to remind people
that she isn't just some remote figure.

But she has a family,
children, grandchildren,

and all the sorrows and pleasures
that that brings to everybody.

[Robert] For a woman
who's thought of as conservative

and a bit stick in the mud,

she's always shown
throughout her reign in moments of crisis

the ability to think on her feet,
and switch, and change.

[Hugo] And of course,
what was also very interesting about that

was that there was a time

when Prince William wasn't terribly keen
to walk in the procession

because he thought the whole thing
had turned

into a terrible ghastly media shenanigans.

But the night before,
Prince Philip said to him,

"I think when you're older,
you would regret it

if you didn't walk
in your mother's procession

and I will walk with you."

And that's
an immensely supportive grandfather.

I think he got it absolutely right.

And there's a moment,
if you look at the footage of that,

that they're passing under White Hall,
and they think the cameras aren't on them,

and Prince Philip sort of leans over
and says, "How's it going?"

That's what you need from a grandfather
on an occasion of that kind, I think.

There's no question about it,

that the Royal Family
had some difficult times in the late '80s,

and I suppose
almost right the way through the '90s.

It shows tremendous regenerative powers
of the hereditary system.

In that this year in which we speak now,
which is 2011,

it's been a very exciting year
for the Royal Family.

And when Prince William
was getting married,

of course, there's always excitement

about a good-looking prince
getting married.

At the same time, of course,
they are actually very interested

in the Queen as she approaches
the Diamond Jubilee.

And of course, the whole thought
that the Queen presiding over this family

might, you know, be seeing perhaps even a…

You know, another generation
of the House of Windsor

in direct line of succession to the throne

in her Diamond Jubilee year
or very soon afterwards,

well, that's all very exciting, indeed.

The Queen symbolises
stability and sovereignty,

means permanence
and the ability to go on and on.

[Hugo] People like me
who are sort of monarchists,

we like the Royal Family and the Queen
not only for political reasons,

'cause we think it's a good system,

but also for historical reasons,

I would say, for emotional,
even aesthetical reasons.

It's a much more wider thing,

there is a great affection
for the Queen and the Royal Family.

[Tony] The effect
of having a monarchy or a crown

presiding over our society

is to make it very hierarchal.

Everybody's got their place.

God bless the squire and his relations,
and keep us in our proper stations.

If you're a plain mister,

there's a gentleman above you, an esquire.

[inhales] Above an esquire is a knight,

above a knight is a baronet,
above a baronet is a baron,

above a baron is a viscount,
above a viscount is an earl,

above an earl is a marquis,
above a marquis is a duke,

above a duke is a royal duke,

and then a royal duke
bows and scrapes to the crown.

[inhales] So, it is a hierarchal society.

[Peter] We definitely got
a class distinction

within the households of the Royal Family.

At the very top, you could call it
the aristocracy, if you like,

of the royal household,
that is the members.

Then, you've got
a sort of a middle-class area

which may well be described
or is the officials.

And then, of course,
you've got the downstairs area.

The working class, if you like,
which is called the staff.

The three classes are completely separate.

They do not socialise in any way.

They don't eat together.

The lower orders have to address
the upper ones as sir or madam.

[inhales] The whole thing
is very, very class-based.

Very much like it was in Victorian times.

If you want to receive the accolade,

the way that I recommend you go down,
stop behind it, as I am here.

Take the handrail in your right hand,
your left foot on left side,

and just go down on the right knee.

So you stop, and it's one, two, three.
Very nice and easy and quite comfortable.

[Nicholas] The key person for any monarch

uh, in modern times,
has been the private secretary.

And this tends to be
a very, very senior figure

who's been in royal service
for many years.

In our country, the monarch
does not have any real power.

And there are times
when people almost wish they would,

and it's the job of that advisor
to steer Her Majesty

through all the problems that arise.

[classical music playing]

[Hugo] Being the sort of character
that she is,

she has always accepted her role in life.

And she is very, very dutiful.

Somebody once wrote of her

that she possesses that calm, level gaze
conscious of duty fulfilled.

[Robert] I've been writing articles
and books about the Royal Family

for just about 40 years
since the early '70s.

And I have to say,

that though I think I know the Queen
and the monarchy pretty well,

the essence of the Queen
remains an enigma to me.

And that, I think, is her strength
and that is, I think, how it should be.

[Camilla] I think
she's absolutely fascinating

for the fact that she has been
on the throne all these years,

celebrating a Diamond Jubilee,

and actually,
while we can make a historic record

of every second of her reign,

what we don't know much about
is the Queen herself,

and as a woman,
and how she's been as a mother,

and what she's felt

as she's seen these momentous
historical events take place.

Her emotions have always been kept
under lock and key,

and that's why she is one
of the most elusive figures of our time.

[Ingrid] She's got one personality
when you're her friend,

another personality with her family.

She's got that wonderful mimicry,
which she can do.

And then, she's got
her formal personality.

I don't think anyone,

maybe no one ever will get
to the root of her.

[Camilla] I think people find her
endlessly fascinating

from what is going on behind the façade.

And of course, why she's also fascinating,
is because deep down,

we know
we'll probably never find that out.

[Robert] She has been consummate
at preserving her own privacy,

her own values, um, her own ideas,
uh, her own sense of self.

And mystery and enigma
is a very important element of the magic.

[Hugo] Her strength
always has been steadfastness,

that she takes the good and the bad
in her stride,

that she has, uh--
Takes a very long view of everything.

People admire her longevity.
They also admire her consistency.

There she is, she keeps on going.

[Camilla] The Queen is one person
who can get a crowd together,

and we witness that time and time again,

and people are then surprised afterwards

to see so many people out there,
celebrating with her.

But she is one of those public figures
that people will turn out and see.

And that's-- History has repeated itself
in that respect.

The Silver Jubilee,
the Golden Jubilee again was poo-pooed.

Even people said before the Royal Wedding,
"Does anyone really care?"

You look at them now,
and make your own mind up.

I think the Queen is constantly surprised

of the great feeling of goodwill
she gets from her people,

and I find that strange
after all these years.

But it still surprise-- And rather
charming that it still surprises her.

I mean, it's extraordinary,
she is still there.

She was there in 1952.

She-- Sixty years later,
she's still there.

The same Queen, the same smile.

She goes through the same things
year in, year out.

It's what a poet once described as,
"the security of known relationships."

We know where we are with the Queen.

She doesn't let you down.
She's always there.

[brass band music playing]