The Real Marigold Hotel
Chuckle Brother Paul Elliott braves the chaotic roads of Puducherry by taking an Indian driving lesson, while Susie Blake and John Altman cook a Tamil feast with the help of a local chef. Some of the group want to explore the spiritual side of India, so they head to the Golden Temple, where Britt Ekland becomes overwhelmed by the cow prayers. There’s also fun at the Chithirai festival in Madurai…
Lucy Worsley opens the royal photo album to reveal some of the most famous images of the last 150 years…
The wedding-day kiss between Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer on the balcony at Buckingham Palace is one of the most iconic images of the 20th century.
But it’s just one of hundreds of famous pictures of the Royal Family taken over the last 150 years, from intimate portraits of Queen Victoria to Instagram pics of the Duchess of Cambridge.
‘When the monarchy want to send a message, they use a photograph and it’s by harnessing the power of photography that the monarchy has survived,’ explains Lucy Worsley, who takes a look at the stories behind royal photos in this documentary. ‘A photograph is never just a photograph – it always has a meaning that goes deep beneath the surface.’
One of the most important royal photographs was the coronation portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by celebrity photographer Cecil Beaton. ‘Photographs of the newly crowned queen would go all over the world and they would contain a message about how Britain wanted to be seen,’ says Lucy. ‘Cecil Beaton created an idealised, fairy-tale version of a queen.’
Lucy also looks at the earliest royal walkabout snaps of King George V and Queen Mary,
Idealised
as well as racy photos of Princess Margaret taken by her soon-to-be husband Antony Armstrong-Jones, and images of Prince Harry joking about.
Some of the most striking pictures, however, are of Princess Diana cradling a boy with cancer and walking across a minefield in Angola.
‘Diana brought her own special charisma to the business of being photographed. She was exceptionally good at communicating through images,’ says Lucy.
‘But she died being pursued by photographers, and with her death, the relationship between the Royal Family and photography would never be the same again.’