A Very Royal Wedding
ITV, 9.00PM
We tend to think of the Queen’s coronation in 1953 as the royal event that most exhilarated postwar Britain. But six years earlier in 1947, when she was 21 and still Princess Elizabeth, her marriage to the dashing naval officer Philip Mountbatten, Prince of Greece and Denmark gave Britain, emerging from the Second World War, an enormous morale boost just when it was needed. In this feather-light documentary, presenter Alexander Armstrong recalls the electrifying sense of romance and excitement that surrounded the wedding. He also gets access to the Queen’s “private home movie archive”. But by far the best moments focus on ordinary people, such as the Dunfermline weaver who unknowingly made up the silk for the wedding dress and the seamstress who sewed it together, as well as some lovely sequences recreating the Queen’s “recycled” engagement ring and her 500lb Mcvities wedding cake. What comes across more than anything is a sense of the forgotten public spirit of a people and Commonwealth who, at a time of rationing and austerity, banded enthusiastically together to ensure their princess had the perfect wedding. Gerard O’donovan