Cambridges launch own Youtube channel
Couple post 25-second ‘best of ’ video of their life and work to promote their arrival on the platform
FROM the moment cameras start rolling, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are always note perfect, the epitome of professionalism.
But as they launched their own Youtube channel yesterday, the couple offered a brief glimpse behind the scenes, proving that they lark around and rehearse tricky words with the same uncertainty as anyone else.
In a slickly produced, 25-second video released to mark their arrival on the social media platform, they encapsulated the breadth and scale of their work while also demonstrating that they have plenty of fun along the way.
To the zippy beat of a song called
At one point, the Duke quips: ‘Be careful what you say now because these guys are filming everything’
Your Waves by Kicktracks, the couple are shown at more than 20 engagements, from a visit to Bhutan, to the Bafta awards.
They are captured shearing sheep, cooking, trying archery, and shaking hands with the public. The Duke is seen flying a helicopter while there are cameo appearances from Sir David Attenborough and the Queen.
But it is in two brief out-takes that the couple offer a never-before-seen look behind the lens.
The montage opens with the couple perched on a sofa as they prepare to record a piece to camera for the Time to Change campaign to end mental health stigma.
Pointing to the unseen team behind the camera, the Duke quips: “Be careful what you say now because these guys are filming everything.”
The Duchess laughed nervously: “I know.”
Another clip shows the couple just before they recorded a video to mark St Patrick’s Day in March, which opened with the Duke speaking in Gaelic.
“You don’t need to roll your Rs,” the Duchess tells her husband, with a mildly concerned look.
“Do you not roll it?” her husband replied. “No,” she said with a frown.
Within a couple of hours, the channel, called simply The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, had more than 50,000 subscribers.
For consistency, they also changed the name of their Instagram page from Kensington Royal. Although the Cambridges are part of the Royal Family Youtube channel, they are only mem
bers of the family to have their own dedicated page on the video sharing site.
They will use it to “showcase their work in more depth” by releasing longer form videos of their engagements, projects and work with the Royal Foundation.
Kensington Palace sources said it would enable the couple to reach a wider audience.
“It’s a very popular social media channel,” one said. “They already have Twitter and Instagram but Youtube is different and will give them a vehicle to highlight more of their work.”
The content will be produced by the couple’s existing digital team comprising just two or three members of staff.
The launch follows the release of a
professionally shot but intimate family video showing the Cambridges playing with their children on the beach and at their Norfolk home.
The Duke and Duchess are “stepping up” their public duties and assuming an ever more high profile role.
In the absence of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, they have found themselves among a core team of senior members of the Royal family who will shoulder an increasing burden on behalf of the Queen.
And like many parents, now that their youngest child, Prince Louis, three, has started nursery, the couple are able to move into the next stage of their working lives and take on more significant roles.
The concept of the video sharing website was explained to the Queen by her granddaughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie before she launched her own channel on the platform in 2007 to promote the monarchy.
Established Youtubers have become the next generation of celebrities with millions subscribing to the video makers who have turned posting clips online into lucrative full-time careers.
‘They already have Twitter and Instagram but Youtube will give them a vehicle to feature more of their work’