We were so lucky to have him... Royals unite for Philip tribute
PRINCE HARRY has joined forces with the rest of the Royal family to celebrate the life of the Duke of Edinburgh in a new BBC documentary.
In a trailer released yesterday, the Duke of Sussex appeared to put on a rare show of unity with the rest of the family, saying: ‘What you see is what you got with my grandfather. He was unapologetically him.’
Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers will be broadcast later this month and features interviews with senior members of the family both before and after Philip’s death in April, aged 99.
The Duke of Cambridge pays tribute to his grandfather by saying: ‘He’s always been a huge presence behind everything we have done really.’
In a poignant moment, the Prince of Wales says: ‘We were lucky to have him for nearly a hundred years.’
Originally conceived as a documentary to mark the Duke’s 100th birthday, which had he lived would have been in June, the programme has been recast by the film-makers.
More than a dozen Royals including all of the Queen and Philip’s children – the Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex – and their adult grandchildren, the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, have taken part in the one-hour programme.
Neither the Duchess of Sussex, who has accused the Royal Family of racism, nor the Duchess of Cambridge nor any other spouses of the Queen and Philip’s grandchildren will appear.
Zara, daughter of the Princess Royal, Philip’s only daughter, says: ‘You never really prepare yourself for losing him because he was always there.’
The Queen has not been interviewed for the programme but granted special access to her private cine-film collection.
Billed as ‘an unrivalled portrait of a man with a unique place in Royal history – by those who knew him best’, the programme shows footage from inside Buckingham Palace, meeting the Duke’s longserving staff and capturing his study, private office and library as they were during his seven decades of public service.
Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers will be broadcast on Wednesday, September 22, at 9pm on BBC1.