Behind the scenes of a historic life...
WHAT A SWELL Jubilee party we had. I could barely see the TV for the beer, bunting and Coronation Chicken. But unusually, TV, for once, turned on a right Royal occasion. In documentaries it was a tale of two portraits of our monarch.
The week began with the excellent Elizabeth: The Unseen Queen (BBC1, Sunday), a touching feature using rarely seen and unseen home movie footage from the Windsors.
If you were looking for controversy, you were in the right place. A nation gasped as Edward, the soon-to-be disgraced monarch, and his brother George, soon to be King, did double somersaults together on the lawn. I was agog.
This was largely the tenor of the piece, with engaging clips of Her Majesty as a goodly, smiley child. Then we were into her teenage years and the Coronation, but not before the film reflected on the terrible news she received on holiday in Treetops that her father had died – and she was now Queen.
Just days earlier she was filming exciting footage of lions – decent shots too. They’d have made it into any Springwatch.
Slightly more daring, was a reading of letters to her grandma in which she said: “Hitler is a horrid man. Let us hope this war will not last long.”
The sovereign knows how to sum-up a situation, often profoundly, which came through in this 75-minute film. Among footage of Prince Philip, much of it mischievous, she said: “We are just passing through…”
In sum, what did we learn about the Royal Family? Not an awful lot. This was an exercise in tone and image. We did perhaps learn that Prince Charles, from a young age, didn’t like the cameras.
He cast a largely disagreeable face as grandpa George and grandma tried to get him to sit still for a spell. He was a man of action right from the start! As the Queen herself put it about home movie footage, “It brings a sense of intimacy”.
Elizabeth: A Portrait in Part(s) (Prime Video) was a far more authored and rounded appraisal of this 70-year reign. Put together from archive by late Notting Hill film director Roger Michell, it focused on repetition – the waves, the dinners, the speeches, the corgis, the horses.
No Royal occasion was left unturned as he cast a witty eye over proceedings to unearth some real gems.
One bonkers commentator reckoned, to presenter Robin Day, we weren’t getting the “real Queen” in the way she talked.
He was bopped on the nose as he left the BBC. Quite right.
Or there were her visits to film and TV sets, one to Noel Coward’s In Which We Serve, and more improbably to Eamonn Andrews’ set of Crackerjack! If only she would go to Pointless – that would complete her reign. But if you really want to see excitement on the face of Royalty, put them before a horse race – any course will do – and you will see them come alive.
The Queen was so animated, darting hither and thither around the Royal box, in a health & safety nightmare, as her horse roared into the money. The Queen Mother looked nonplussed, our sovereign was anything but. She’d just won £16!
There were sad pictures though of the Queen bidding farewell to the Royal Yacht Britannia.
Tears filled her eyes as she mulled over Tony Blair’s most ridiculous act. If you’re
going to have a monarchy, they have to behave like one otherwise you have a bland head of state – like Monsieur Macron. A final word though to Beatle Sir Paul Mccartney, who had a schoolboy crush on the Queen. In class they would say things like, “look at the heave on her”. Whatever can he mean.
The festivities properly got underway with Naga Munchetty spluttering her way through BBC Breakfast (Thursday), confusing her pageants with her parties.
Nerves were clearly jangling but more capable hands would follow, as Kirsty Young and Huw Edwards took the reins for Trooping The Colour.
Though the coverage felt distant and without atmosphere or warmth perched, as they were, in their isolated lakeside bandstand in St James’s Park.
Even the ducks went for cover. Things were missed too – horses spooked and Royal limos were seen gliding past without comment. They could well have been broadcasting from the moon.
There was just time for Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, to quickly scamper to Albert Square where they made an inspired appearance in Eastenders (BBC1, Thursday). Appearing strangely at home outside the Queen Vic (left), they were plied with drinks from every quarter – and politely accepted each offer. It was left to the nation’s favourite publican Mick Carter (Danny Dyer) to lead the country, with his own Royal heritage, in a rousing toast to Her Majesty The Queen. An expected triumph.