Original subtitles

[Music]

all countries come with a history

attached and ours centers on one of the

oldest and grandest monarchies of all

and the opinion polls show with

remarkable consistency that the British

liked this idea and in our lifetimes the

reason for this liking has been Queen

Elizabeth the second

[Music]

as a young girl he didn't expect to

become queen until the age of 10 she

could have hoped for a quiet country

life but a crisis in the British

monarchy made her father King and 60

years ago today when he suddenly died

she became queen now in her Diamond

Jubilee year she reigns over a different

country and indeed a hundred and

thirty-five million people around the

world you know she was 25 you think

about how young that is for somebody to

take on this incredible responsibility

but what does that mean what does she

actually do

it's been a life of turning up and

reading official papers by our most

familiar enigma Queens has provided a

huge stability and a huge wealth of

experience for those that want to tap

into it this series follows the Queen's

working life over a year and a half

we'll hear from some of those closest to

her mother she's put up with him a lot

and muscle on speaking terms so I think

that's where we achieve Minh we explore

her own history and look at just how

much behind the pageantry she has

changed the British monarchy she's a

proper professional her trade got some

young upstart like me trying to do his

way it was always important everyone

again to look at how it's how it's

really done for 60 years she's been

looking back at the rest of us

understated sometimes hard to read at

over 60 years many of us have become so

used to her we've stopped asking quite

what she does or why she does it

we've taken her rather for granted and

after 60 years perhaps it's time we

stopped

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

it's spring 2010 hello Queen she's

making a regional visit to Wales this is

what she does

a symbol of the country on legs she's

been on parade for six decades seen it

all but watching as closely as ever

remembering names comparing the road

includes jobs done in other countries by

presidents but also native traditions

presidents know nothing about she never

stops rarely pauses every day almost

every hour is carefully planned we talk

about veteran politicians out in the

campaign trail

this is the real endless perpetual

campaign year in year out and in terms

of pressing the flesh meeting people

this is the real veteran

she's here one week after her 84th

birthday but retirement nevermind

applications seem to be words never

mentioned in her presence this is a

typically busy schedule on a two-day

visit North Wales she's getting about

the Queen has a private motto I have to

be seen to be believed

and this of course is a family train

she's professional ability to to know

how to move around to who speak to and

how to also engage with people you know

in their few split seconds of meeting

them in the way that she carries herself

forward smiles constantly able to go

into a room and bring the room to life

you know these are the things that our

age you shouldn't be doing and yet she's

carrying on and doing them I'm not only

in this country but all around the world

to some extent that's in the genes are

thinking there is an understanding of

getting out and about you you actually

have to go to meet people to find out

what's really going on and to give

people a sense of your understanding and

what is happening whatever granny walks

into a room everyone stands up stops and

just kind of watch his/her because I see

it's usually she was in her room and I

find that incredible I Kroger

now of course she's north ornery she's

very rich privileged protected and

cherished different in so many ways big

and small

she doesn't need a passport or a driving

license her husband does more important

she's only the fourth in what is

effectively a new royal dynasty

stamped with her personal style but

built by her grandfather in years of

mayhem and war

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the First World War toppled the

monarchies of Russia Germany and Austria

George the fifth faced criticism that

his family saxe-coburg-gotha were

somehow Pro German and he knew there

were anti royal murmurings at home when

the writer HG Wells spoke of an

uninspiring and alien Court King George

retorted I may be uninspiring but I'm

damned if I'm an alien in 1917 he

changed all the German sounding family

names and not knowing what his own

surname might really be he chose Windsor

for it's thoroughly British ring he

insisted the Royals crisscross the

country visiting hospitals towns and

barracks and a lot about today's

monarchy comes from him for the Queen

this was not something that she had to

read about in books

the Queen remembers very well the man

she played with when she was a small

girl she called him grandpa England and

George v really was the man who made the

Windsors her father was george v ii son

Prince Albert of York who'd married a

cheerful young Scottish aristocrat Lady

Elizabeth bowes-lyon she turned him down

twice but it turned out to be a very

happy marriage

so that princess Elizabeth Alexandra

Mary spent her early years in a private

world of quiet security but when she was

born it was a time of turbulence

eight for the 21st 1926 and there is a

really uneasy air in the country the

general strike is just about to start a

lot of people predict a revolution and a

princess is born third in line to the

throne here in Bruton Street a fairly

post part of central London

but in a relatively normal house owned

by her aristocratic grandparents later

the German bombs would remove it and

it's now possibly one of the dullest

buildings in central London

at eight months her parents left her to

take a six-month sea voyage to Australia

in New Zealand her mother was very upset

to leave the baby but the Empire called

duty first family feelings second her

parents were following the rule book set

out by their grandfather George v get

out there be seen work hard

his wife we married once retorted to an

exhausted princess who complained she

was tired of traipsing round hospitals

we are the royal family and we love

hospitals if you're looking for a motto

for this Queen 60-year reign it's not a

bad place to start

she loads being late still Criss crosses

Britain and hardly ever cancels on the

second stage of her North Wales visit

she's about to do it all over again well

here in London no she's not due for

another hour there hasn't been much

advance publicity and already there was

a pretty substantial crowd hoping to see

her now I ask you how many politicians

could draw a crowd in advance not only

hoping to see them but hoping to be

pleased to see them

[Applause]

[Music]

celebrities caught the camera they open

up the Queen is not a celebrity cameras

caught her and she doesn't is this

instinctive or something she's learned

but it's shrewd celebrities Flair and

then they burn out it's pretty

remarkable that in her 80s she still

generates the same warmth and excitement

as ever

the Queen has developed this into an

absolute art form how to get around the

maximum number of people make as many

people as possible feel that they've

made some kind of contact some small

human connection with her the thing is

when you're in the presence of the Queen

you're at your feet up and you know you

you want to be your best you want the

occasion to be something you can talk to

everybody about afterwards

that of course is the magic of what she

is wherever she goes the real human

exchange that happens there is not

effects imminent and it's not drummed up

by the press it's it's something about

the best of us if we've come to take

this for granted it's worth remembering

that she would never have become Queen

if her uncle hadn't been a failed

unsuccessful monarch the body of his

late Majesty King George the fifth

behind the captain walks his majesty the

king their Royal Highnesses the Duke of

York you have Gloucester the Duke of

Kenton North Tower

she was nine years old when her

grandfather George the fifth died as he

was lying in state part of the Imperial

state crown fell from the top of his

coffin his heir Uncle David as she

called him the Prince of Wales saw this

and wondered if it was a bad omen

it was 1936 would become the year of the

three kings already loved and respected

as Prince he said I'd to do his duty as

king in the industrial areas of Britain

[Applause]

but behind the scenes the constitutional

crisis grew the crisis which concern not

only politicians of Westminster but the

Church of England and which was to

prevent his coronation Edward V 8th

reigned for just 325 days surrendering

the throne to marry the twice-divorced

American Wallis Simpson he was the bad

King the Windsor who got it wrong

vain and self-indulgent he demonstrated

that charisma while useful in politics

or entertainment is a dangerous

confection for a constitutional monarch

[Music]

these are the unreleased stamps designed

by him looking like an emperor to mark

the coronation that never was he was

bored by duty left of official papers

lying around with whiskey stains on them

but the Queen's moral seriousness have

been an instinctive reaction to her

uncle's short and disasterous reign it

must have been a terribly cruel betrayal

for her because he was such an enjoyable

relaxed member of the family in this

very stiff sort of environment and then

suddenly she discovers him must have

been revealed to her at the time of the

abdication that he's blotted his

copybook in this terrible way in a way

that they probably didn't thought a

mother and father couldn't talk to her

about mrs. Simpson divorced women or

this sort of thing the very silence

about it people going quiet when she

came into the room this must have made

it all the more awful and all the more

of a betrayal

[Music]

carefully stored away in Victoria tower

at the Palace of Westminster archives

which record these dark days of the

monarchy

these are the papers on the abdication

of Edward the eighth and they reek of

misery and crisis this is his address to

the House of Lords in which he says I

will not enter now into my private

feelings but I would beg that it should

be remembered that the burden which

constantly rests upon the shoulders of a

sovereign is so heavy it can only be

born in circumstances different from

those in which I now find myself as you

then get the act of abdication which

went through both houses of parliament

all of its stages in a single day that's

a sense of crisis for you and then here

is the Royal Assent to that and it

finishes with the great Red Seal by the

king himself signed with his own hand

and his own hand is on the front of the

document Edward RI Edward Rex Imperato

King Emperor and by writing that

signature on this document he ceases to

be King so it's the only example I've

ever seen and may exist of a signature

which destroys itself amazing with

barely time for the country to take it

all in the Queen's father was crowned

King George the sixth eleven-year-old

Princess Elizabeth who was a little

shocked to realize she would have to

move into the drafty Buckingham Palace

but she caught the sense of magic

writing of the coronation I thought it

all very very wonderful and I expect the

abbey did to the arches and beams at the

top were covered with a sort of haze of

wonder as papar was crowned at least I

thought so

papa was only 41 and the prospect of her

own reign must have seemed unimaginably

distant but that quiet little family her

mother's sense of fun her sister

Princess Margaret's mischief what they

called wee for would now be changed

forever and it's a family whose joys and

sorrows are much like yours and mine I

suspect

a new King George the six moved his

family out of the comfortable and

familiar house in Piccadilly and into

the grandeur of Buckingham Palace

imagine what it must have felt like for

the young girls and the shift certainly

pushed the father and his older rather

serious ten-year-old daughter who he now

knew was going to be Queen much more

closely together it was a pretty

intimidating drafty old bother place and

and pretty austere and some fairies

fairly strange working practices as well

by minder the worker price has been

going there for a long long time I think

even in Queen Victoria's day I think

that she will Prince Albert complained

you know that there were three different

departments that were responsible for a

fireplace so there was there was she

made been for I think one was

responsible for cleaning it another one

that's responsible for filleting it

because the forestry department had to

produce the laws and somebody else had

to light it and then another Department

I'd look after I mean it was absolutely

ridiculous he's got a lot better since

[Laughter]

her childhood was comfortable but not

exactly crowded no random friendships

city streets for looking down at not for

walking on remarkably even then security

issues including Irish Republican

threats loomed over the girls Elizabeth

and Margaret lived in a world dominated

by family jokes and private games often

played in a kind of ante palace hidden

away in the grounds of Royal Lodge

Windsor the people of Wales gave who

booth in bath the little house to her on

her sixth birthday and here she'd play

in read books beginning a tradition that

now includes her granddaughter Princess

Beatrice growing up and now we've been

lucky enough to play here and cousins

and

and second cousins mitts the big family

family treat it's the most glamorous

Wendy house ever but it's really

beautiful and what you're seeing in the

eyes now is after through the year

renovation which you've been in charge

of yeah it's one of the one of the

people but it's been we completely being

researched and new curtains new wiring

new sort of bit of a bit of a spruce up

really because it was such you know it's

such a wonderful little place that you

never want to have a look at that can we

see inside

[Music]

Wow

he said as you see as you see no sort of

all the little little China and glass

and everything is created for its good

especially for the house

it's got a very 1930s feel to it doesn't

it yes it does

the kitchen is very 1930s - and actually

the fridge in that it's not supposed to

be in here it was the fridge from the

nursery but when all the boxes came back

it suddenly reappeared we now have the

original 1930s fridge in the house and

granny was Rayanne Runa was very clear

that all the fabric she wanted very

little very little designs because it

was such a little house that she knows

who have come for very little flowers

and bows but soon we have some quite new

modern friends that have that she spent

she spent many many happy hours and days

here as a girl yeah she did and I'm

still now she likes to come back and

visit and it's you know it's wonderful

that we can have you know sages granny's

a great grandmother now so we can have

Savannah come and come and play in here

as well to put herself

great-grandchildren in the future

as a child granny never went to school

when her mother was urged to get her

more books they all turned out to be

comedies by PG woodhouse but she learned

French and she was taught about the

Constitution by an eccentric history

teacher from Eton more important the new

king was passing on his own advice and

despite his stammer

and lack of readiness for the role was

growing in confidence himself he refused

to leave London during World War two

splits the queen mother took up pistol

practice in the palace grounds in case

she had to make a last stand against

german paratroopers and they visited the

battered East End visit the scene to

bring comfort and share to all those who

have suffered from this all too frequent

form of Nazi frightfulness on September

the 13th 1940 in George the 6th and

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother were

very nearly killed when a German bomb

landed right here in the quadrangle at

Buckingham Palace if the window in the

room where they were standing had been

closed rather than open they would have

been hideously mutilated by flying glass

a workman nearby was killed showing fine

British phlegm one of the policemen

there turned to the Queen Mother and

said a magnificent piece of bombing if I

may say so mob within a few yards from

where the king and queen were sheltering

the Royal Chapel was struck tearing

through the roof the bomb completely

wrecked the altar and hurled 20 tons of

debris into the basement we thank God

that their Majesties were unhurt during

world war ii the whereabouts of the

princesses was a national secret in fact

they were at windsor castle from where

they made a radio broadcast to the

children of britain

[Music]

this country have had to leave your home

and be separated from your fathers and

mothers my sisters Margaret rose and I

feel so much for you as we know from

experience what it means to be away from

those we love most of all you only have

to look at pictures of the Queen's

father before and after the war to see

the toll it took on him

a dramatic aging but this was also the

time when the ties were more tightly

bound I think that was the time when the

Queen got closest of all to her father

and to see him wasting away in front of

her and you wondered was she aware you

know that even as she's losing her

father and can see his mortality what

that means for her and how that's going

to limit her own personal life he was

really the only person from whom

Princess Elizabeth could learn about how

to reign how far to go with the

politicians how to do the paperwork he

become a revered symbol of the British

reliable constant still in his mid-50s

for her an anchor and then the cable

snapped King George the sixth death came

60 years ago this week here at

Sandringham the private estate he loved

so much his daughter was then 25 she had

two children of her own but this sudden

death pitched her straight into the

public and private world of remorseless

meetings and duties which she's always

taken with the same kind of

dead-straight seriousness that she

learned from him she was considerably

younger than you are now and she became

queen do you ever have reflect on what

an extraordinary jump that must have

been from a relatively private life

suddenly thrust into that role

Rick yeah definitely and one of the

things that's also really struck me when

I sort of look back at it now was also

in a very probably male-dominated age

where it must have been extremely

daunting to be put in that position and

that age you know I and I still have

trouble trying to be serious about

certain things so for her at that age it

must have been incredible having that

burden or that responsibility placed on

you she's shouldered the responsibility

since then one day after his father it

will land on Prince William's shoulders

but what is the essence of that

responsibility what's the point of a

constitutional monarch what really is

the job for but first the Queen is head

of state and the state is a political

creation one of the most important of

the Monarchs duties is something the

Queen has done thousands of times her

weekly audiences with a prime minister

these meetings mostly happen here in the

deep privacy of the Queens apartments at

Buckingham Palace the Queen's first

prime minister was Winston Churchill a

titanic figure she found a great speaker

[Music]

he's saw things in a very romantic and

and glittering way but perhaps a less

good listener since then she's had

eleven British Prime Minister's alone

and at the heart of the relationship are

those totally confidential conversations

compared by one official to a weekly

meeting with a therapist here one can't

take it in but there it must be electron

magic isn't it it's simply two people

sitting down talking in an entirely

relaxed and informal way but they cover

everything I mean the Queen as head of

state has a right to know what is

happening has a right to know what her

prime minister has in mind to do I

certainly found I could discuss anything

with her in total confidence and that

included by the way all sorts of cabinet

ructions and difficulties

[Music]

early on in her reign the Queen had to

cope with prime ministers who were older

Wilier and often ruthless Anthony Eden

came close to entangling her in his

deception of the House of Commons and

the wider world during the Suez invasion

of Egypt in 1956 a disastrous adventure

that divided the Queen's advisors and

family she was said to have been upset

by the dishonesty involved and so was

Prince Philip's uncle Lord Mountbatten

or do you Mountbatten very close to the

royal family was First Sea Lord and he

tried to resign as that crisis deepened

and was ordered by the First Lord

Quintin Herschel to state his post and

he did the resignation the attempted

resignation letter all Declassified so

the Queen was deeply deeply concerned

Eden's successor Harold Macmillan

entangled her in politics by forcing the

pace when he resigned so that his

favored successor Alec Douglas tune got

the job

[Applause]

the Queen had visited Macmillan in

hospital to hear his views and many

thought that the conservative leader was

using her his own end

oddly perhaps she seems to have

established a very warm relationship

with her first northern labour Prime

Minister Harold Wilson I think it was

said that Harold Wilson once remarked

that particular times of crisis late 60s

when he was in deep trouble and there

were plots as he thought against him he

used to say that he looked forward to

the meeting with the sovereign which I

think was then on a Tuesday evening

because it was the only meeting he

attended in the week which didn't leak

and it was the only time he met somebody

for a proper serious conversation who

wasn't after his job

[Music]

as the Queen has grown ever more

experienced and grown older and her

Prime Minister's have grown younger the

balance has changed perhaps the most

pivotal important Premiership of all was

that of Margaret Thatcher in 1986 the

Sunday Times suggested the Queen thought

mrs. Thatcher was uncaring and

confrontational that the Queen was a

political inner fighter prepared to take

on her prime minister this was over

briefing by an enthusiastic Buckingham

Palace press officer the Queen was

fascinated and sometimes amused by

Margaret Thatcher once during a

particularly stuffy diplomatic reception

when the Iron Lady felt faint for the

second year running the Queen glanced

over and said oh look she's killed over

again and the royal family isn't

comfortable with too polarized politics

as the people at the top they like the

idea of the country holding together

however the Queen always saw the point

of Margaret Thatcher she admired her

guts and she was intrigued by this

self-made female leader evidence is

generally that actually on personal

level they go on very well no I think

they did I think they do

I think they each thought the other was

like a stray I am the pence Prime

Minister of Queen Elizabeth the second

reign Tony Blair's new labour presented

a different problem a vigorous

government of self-proclaimed

modernizers which Whitehall insiders

said had little instinctive feel for

monarchy being in power changed that

you know the fact is any Prime Minister

ends up with with unexpected events and

happenings and crises and you need to be

able to come through those and handle

them and actually handle them

psychologically as well as politically

and I often used to talk to her about

the past about previous prime ministers

what it was like for how they handled

things and she was she was prepared

within the context of the audience to be

very frank and open and informative in

fact I mean I think they want to do that

deal if they possibly can the question

is how we can get everyone through it at

the end of this week really but it's for

the new countries particularly they want

one that's and that's the best chance

we're gonna get anyone you can imagine

we now have an older grandmotherly queen

who remembers so many forgotten scandals

and got past that one crises the Queen

has according to the great Victorian

journalist Walter Badgett the right to

be consulted to advise and to warn and

the more experience she has the more

perhaps that means

and today it's David Cameron's turn

we're recording this as it happens on

budget day and at a time when British

pilots are flying over Libya so there

will be a great deal for the prime

minister and the Queen to talk about

once they get down to the meat of their

conversation what will she say to him

what will he reply we will never know

and that is the point but here's a rare

glimpse that David Cameron's probably

keeping his dynomite news or his best

gossip for when the camera has gone

probably the only meeting from seeing

mrs. Cameron at the end of the day is

about the only meeting where there's no

one else in the room and I feel the

responsibility as Prime Minister to try

and explain my perspective on the big

issues going on in the world and the

country that week does it make you

thinks it makes me think because there's

no one else in the room because there

are no minutes taken I think you are you

reveal both to her but also to yourself

your deepest thinking and deepest

worries about these issues and sometimes

that can really help you to reach the

answers but does all this really matter

what's it for has it in any way changed

the lives of the British the Prime

Minister is the executive arm of the

government and the monarch has this

extraordinarily important set of

ceremonial duties that means that the

country whatever things that its

politicians can fear a great sense of

ownership and unity around

the institution of the royal family and

in particular her Majesty the Queen I

think gives us not only all the

advantages in terms of people wanting to

come to Britain and engage with Britain

but gives us a huge advantage of

stability the Queen stays on top of

things she reads the newspapers not just

the racing post the lot she really does

she listens to the radio and the evening

news on television and every day

wherever she may be those fat heavy red

cabinet boxes arrive brimming with

closely typed paperwork carried to her

through the corridors of the palace in

these boxes have been some of the

deepest secrets of the British state

over the last sixty years what they

really thought in Whitehall during the

most dangerous parts of the Cold War

when the world was on the edge of

nuclear annihilation what they really

felt about some of the big domestic

stories those great confrontations when

Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister or

the true story of Tony Blair and taking

the country to war in Iraq and

Afghanistan the fight between Blair and

bran the Queen really has had an

absolute ringside seat for everything

that's most important they call her in

number 10 reader number one she uses a

desk glossy with royal history modern

Britain's business is dispatched on

furniture which once belonged to the

Bourbons of Paris brought down by the

bloody French Revolution

here is British democracy's reader

number one always ready for when the

next box of documents arrives

why does she read those papers is it

important that she sees the secrets of

the state and knows what's going on if

she's going to fulfill that function of

keeping prime ministers and secretaries

of state on their toes in her weekly

meeting with the prime minister or the

bilateral she regularly has with the big

ministers she's got to be well primed

and she has this enormous accumulated

compost with memory and knowledge but

you have to keep it up to speed it's I

suspect it's her equivalent of athletic

training it's her workout I've heard it

said that there are only three people in

government who really truly understand

what's going on the chief secretary to

the Treasury the Prime Minister and the

Queen one of her former private

secretaries way back in the 70s said

that if she wasn't on top of all of this

stuff very quickly people would notice

Prime Minister's ministers ambassadors

for it would realise that she didn't

know what was going on and sort of

something soggy and soft would happen at

the apex of the state I think that's

probably true although to be honest

quite a lot of the Queen's functions are

almost rubber-stamping I think on a more

personal level if the Queen didn't keep

up this great discipline of having to

read every single day and keep on top of

things

she might never be able to catch up

again or she would feel under pressure

and she has an iron discipline to read

[Music]

Iren discipline is of course a military

quality and the Queen grew up often

surrounded by men with regimental

instincts for timekeeping order dress

code and duty responsibilities was

drummed into her the South African

speech aged 21 is the speech of a true

believer in monarchy nationhood God and

destiny shall be devoted to your service

and to the service of our great imperial

family to which we all belong so this is

the woman who became queen we've seen

the way her reading at her private

meetings with politicians mesh at the

heart of the British state but what

about the grand public occasions such as

the opening of Parliament which she's

done 58 times Britain unlike other

countries has no written constitution no

founding document her authority is more

like an ancient echo a half hidden

mystery and this is the room that you

never see this is the robing room and

the Queen will come in here and the

Imperial state crown which with the

other jewellery has arrived in its own

coach from the Tower of London and then

she gets rode this is not to the House

of Lords and it's not the House of

Commons this is the Queen's bit of the

Palace of Westminster and it's really

important symbolically because the

monarchy the state the unending United

Kingdom meets the day-to-day world of

politicians arguing about the things

that politicians argue about and when

the Queen leaves this room with that

great crown on and all the regalia she

is going to speak the words of her here

today gone tomorrow politician the Prime

Minister of the day but

she is still the queen she is not the

government it's her government but she

is not the government and this is a

crucial distinction

[Music]

we don't live in a Tory country or a

coalition nation there was never any

such thing as New Labour Britain these

are just the labels of governments

weren't quite squatters that would be

unfair but are merely launchers the

state is meant to represent all of us

whatever we think of the people running

things at the moment the state should

have an acute memory of what happened in

the old days and how things used to work

and a lively interest in the longer term

future other countries represent the

state with a constitution of walk a bit

of paper some kind of symbol France has

Maori an or a clapped-out politician

called a president we have a lady who

every year reads out what her government

is up to and quite rightly never lets us

know what she really thinks of it my

Lords pray be seated

in modern times the state opening of

parliament can look like a gaudy

pantomime or convocation of playing

cards but its political significance is

real enough my Lords and members of the

House of Commons my government's

legislative programme will be based upon

the principles of freedom fairness and

responsibility and yet all the work at

home is only part of what she does a lot

of the Queen's life has been about

travelling abroad again why why is she

the most well-traveled mana in history

why has she made more than 325 overseas

visits to more than 130 countries doing

far beyond the state she reigns over or

even the Commonwealth

they included Russia we're

revolutionaries killed her relatives are

nicholas ii and his family and communist

china all of this costs money does it

really bring britain much in return does

her presence make a real difference to

the way we sell ourselves abroad well

yes it does it's undoubtedly adds great

weight to how it was and it draws

attention to us selling ourselves abroad

the queen doesn't do trade deals the

queen isn't actually herself soliciting

business for the country but the

presence of the queen draws enormous

attention and her travels take her deep

into Republican territory to

if there's one place on the planet which

challenges the idea of monarchy more

than any other it's the United States of

America the most successful democracy of

all time

they didn't just reject monarchy they

rejected our monarchy and built a system

with an elected leader whose powers are

far greater than any king or queen has

ever had

on the other hand what they lost was

continuity they're always remaking

themselves the queen remembers

Eisenhower jf Kennedy Nixon Reagan

Carter and there's nobody at the apex of

the United States you could say that

about here in the United States you

might think that nobody thinks much

about that you might think that in

hard-boiled New York people don't miss

continuity or a sense of history but

you'd be wrong

[Music]

by here in America you don't really see

as much females with her statue so I

think she has a great influence I like

that she's a remnant of the past so I

like that you don't see too many of the

Monarchs still around so

the Queen we love here and that's what

she's coming here though

[Music]

she's here to make a speech at the

United Nations the organization set up

to promote world peace it's a speech

she's worked hard on before largest

current providers of peacekeeping troops

in the world our Commonwealth countries

she's head of state of 16 United Nations

members so this matters to her the Queen

makes speeches all the time but she's

not one of those people who like the

sound of their own voice she is pleased

when the speeches are over public

speaking is a routine familiar

well-oiled ordeal in less than two hours

time the Queen is going to be standing

there addressing the United Nations

first time she's done it since 1957 back

then she was upbeat and optimistic and

so she will be today you might say

mostly her story has been the triumph of

optimism and hope of a bitter experience

but after all that is the story of

monarchy and it's the story of the

United Nations - it is perhaps always

been the case that the waging of peace

is the hardest form of leadership of all

that was a really important speech and

she was able to to go there and talk a

lot about foreign policy aspects talk

about the successes that the UN has had

and the issues that are still troubling

it about failed States so you know she

can do an enormous amount queen is not

controversial and therefore everybody

feels included in in in in when she goes

abroad and that is a completely

different atmosphere when the Queen

comes down the stairs as well it's it's

different from where anybody else doing

it it just is different in tomorrow's

world we must all work together as hard

as ever if we are truly to be United

Nations

[Applause]

rousing speeches aren't really her thing

in truth the way the Queen connects best

is with a personal touch she may not be

a natural performer she's never

provocative but she has found the right

words for times of grief and crisis and

she moves people just by turning up as

she's about to do here in the last part

of her New York visit at the site of the

Twin Towers Ground Zero nearly a decade

on and it's messy dirty and busy and hot

and still very sad part of the job of a

monarch is to articulate what people

feel when tragedy strikes when things go

wrong

67 British people died here among the

nearly 3,000 who perished and in the

days afterwards

the Queen spoke very well she spoke

through the British ambassador just

along the road at a church as the rain

streaked down and she said these were

dark and harrowing times and she

finished by saying something which is

simple and true which is that grief is

the price we pay for love

now so long afterwards she's back she's

going to be laying a wreath Prince

Charles and Camilla have been here

before but she's never been here and

it's going to be I'll be a poignant

moment actually among those waiting for

her is firefighter John Moore Abita who

who survived the collapse of the South

Tower 411 emergency workers lost their

lives as a result of the terrorist

attacks just to be able to meet the

Queen and see her human side that she

would come down here and grace us with

her presence at the World Trade Center

site I think it lifts the spirits of

Americans especially New Yorkers

there are times especially in the fire

department we feel like were the world

kind of forgot about us and what we went

through so to have someone like the

Queen of England which is you know a

sister country to us we feel we feel

very closely close bonds of England to

come down here and to pay our respects

it means a lot to New Yorkers especially

and I think some Americans it shows a

human side of her as well

[Music]

watching the Queen operate abroad even

outside of the Commonwealth you do see

her differently people I've talked to

here in New York were genuinely thrilled

and moved that she'd come in a way I

don't think they'd feel about a British

Prime Minister or politician it would be

absurd however to say that the Queen

helps to project British power power

seems the very last thing that she's

about all glory or pomp at least here

it's as if we have a foreign office a

Ministry of Defense the Department of

Trade and she is our slightly mysterious

Department of friendliness it is a rum

business but in a good way

[Music]

it's November 2010 in Abu Dhabi and the

Queen is in the Gulf

once the Windsors were king emperors now

they travel as would be wealth creators

promoters first onto the beaches were

the politicians and the businessmen at

their backs the color of the carpet

waiting for her never changes but the

world certainly does when she became

Queen this place was in British hands

and it was mostly dust and camels and

old forts when she was last here more

than 30 years ago this was an

independent country on its way and now

it's one of the great mushrooming Jack

and the Beanstalk economies enormous ly

powerful do they need us still do we

need them

we certainly do it strikes me that this

has become a place which matters an

awful lot - I mean Manchester City fans

but also to a lot of workers it's not

really sure it's not just it's not just

the UAE it's the whole region yeah

hugely important from the business

opportunities the business case there's

an awful lot going on

I've been coming to this region now for

whatever it is in 12 years and

developing the relationships and this

part of the world needs continuous

hands-on time and personal contacts

matter a lot o hugely hugely and the

fact that her magic is coming and now is

really really important especially after

the the new government has given and

reinvigorated the relationship with

whole of the region but as you can see

here a plane is rolling up now yes

that's all right

mustn't keep them from the Queen thanks

very much thank you monarchies are a

minority in today's world but they're

hardly unusual 40 odd countries of

monarchs depending on how you count them

and there's no doubt that monarchs have

a natural curiosity about one another

which can all the wheels of trade the

kings and queens club tonight this queen

is greeted by the Crown Prince of Abu

Dhabi so straight from the airport her

first stop is the exuberant Sheikh Zayed

Grand Mosque one of the world's largest

and partly the work of British companies

shoeless the Queen whose range of hats

is famous now where's her tribute to

local fashion including her version of

the traditional abaya gown she meets

children learning the Quran rather late

at night one of the things that's

changed in the Queen's reign and she is

now very conscious of is that she is

also queen of 1.6 million British

Muslims

ambassador what does it actually mean in

concrete terms for Britain that the

Queen comes all the way out here it's

tremendously important for the

relationship this is a country that

counts for the UK it counts because a

hundred hundred twenty thousand British

people live here it counts because of

their security so the defense and

security relationship between the UK and

UAE with our troops serving alongside

each other in Afghanistan with our law

enforcement agencies intercepting bombs

on the way to the UK is very important

Yemen's just round one corner in Iran's

over the water so it's a pretty

important place if there was no royal

family if we were a republic what would

be the difference do you think it will

be shallow shallow shallow how big a

deal is it this is probably the most

important bilateral contacts between the

UK and the UAE of the decade the

official welcome is a traditional

Bedouin one but again this is really

about corporate Britain a European

influenced museum designed by a Britain

backed by the British Museum a British

architect Lord Foster produced its own

lots of money involved but the bigger

picture is that in the Gulf the Chinese

are moving in and this dance of royal

diplomacy is one of the ways the British

government is trying to fight back

the role the Queen can play as Britain

tries to find its place with the other

great powers that there's a great part

of the work is is a really big one the

fact that they have such esteem and

affection for her actually gives Britain

enormous advance is seriously interested

in in the project and in architecture we

saw they don't work which is really

impressive

one thing you have to realize when

you're abroad is people absolutely adore

the notion of the British monarchy they

are fascinated by they want to know

about it I mean if I'm whatever part of

the world I'm in they will always ask me

about the Queen about what it's like

about the monarchy and so for us as a

country it's a no brainer actually in

terms of what they bring because they

they bring something no one else can the

pinnacle of course is the Queen's visit

but it's what's going on beforehand

where the political context is what's

going on with a relationship and then

you've then got a look at what happens

afterwards and it's it's it's the

gathering of those strands that you pull

together and then as it were the Queen

is the person who sort of cinches them

at that one particular moment and so

these are special and they add shine

varnish and to some extent paint to the

canvas that is the relationship between

us and another country

[Music]

the Queen's visit continues to the

kingdom of Oman ruled by an old friend

of her Sultan Qaboos at times it feels

more like Narnia bagpipe playing camel

mounted soldiers glittering forts but

Oman counts an oasis of relative peace

in an increasingly angry region often

ignored by her people at home the Queen

has been helping keep Britain quietly

plugged in around the world for 60 years

she seems to enjoy it that is the job

but for a woman of her age the

politicians keep on pushing her hard is

there any sense that sometimes it's a

bit much to ask a lady of her age to

undertake some of these huge trips well

not really I mean of course one

naturally thinks would it be a bit much

but very clearly it isn't a bit much

I mean she's extremely well rehearsed

these sort of things now but having done

that for so many years it must be

incredibly tiring and is extremely

emotionally draining but she's led the

way in in doing waka bites and with

engagements and long way that continue

at that level of head of state with the

Queen as our mana with the institution

of the royal family even if you come at

it with a sort of cold heart and a clear

head it is a brilliant Organization for

Britain

[Music]

[Music]

the experience of following the Queen

even for a short time takes you to some

strange places and involves a great deal

of exotic transportation it sometimes

like ordinary life with the color

balance turned up so high

it's almost shrieking but it's hot hard

work and underneath the clutter and

glitter rather more hard-headed and

down-to-earth than it looks

for 60 years the Queen has been many

people would say an adornment what she

isn't is an ornament it could have been

done differently

running this monarchy in modern times

juggling old Authority and noisy

democracy hasn't just happened it's been

carefully thought through by the Queen

her father her grandfather and their

advisors they had an idea a plan and by

and large they've stuck to it

in episode 2 of the diamond queen we

explore that plan further we look at how

the Queen has been a quiet but restless

moderniser she did Clause a circuit of

history we ask how the family have

learnt from her she very much leaves the

family to go off and find their own way

and if you get it wrong stand by you'd

be put back in your place and we hear

the inside story of her grandson's

wedding I rang my grandmother off some

clarification on the issue and Julie got

told that it was a ridiculous she was

right as she wasn't

[Music]

the diamond Queen continues at nine next

Monday tomorrow the One Show comes live

from Buckingham Palace that's at 7:00

[Music]

[Applause]

you