By Sammie Jones-
The Queen regretted her decision to allow the cameras in to conduct a documentary, her Royal biographer said. The documentary in which the queen was made to look normal came to be seen as a “reinvention that went wrong”.The film, entitled ‘Royal Family’, followed the royals around for an entire year , revealing scenes of breakfast time inside Buckingham Palace as well as the Queen’s visits to Chile and Brazil.
The documentary was aired on the BBC and ITV in 1969 and it was watched by around 37 million people. Viewers at the time reportedly were horrified to see the Queen store Tupperware containers
According to a video from the Smithsonian Channel, the queen’s advisers agreed the idea of releasing a documentary film to give the public greater insight into their private lives. The queen questioned the length of the two and half hour long film, before ordering that the film should never be seen again. The documentary presented the queen in a new light never imagined by the British public. Her role as wife and mother put her in the bracket of the everyday woman, which her advisers considered dangerous. Her true majestic post of Head of State and of the Common Wealth automatically called for the preservation of a certain image.
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Short clips of the documentary released in 2011 for an exhibition in honor of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee showed the royal family eating together (possibly alluding to 9 of their bizarre eating habits), having a picnic, and even playing with puppies, though the clips did not include a cameo from the queen’s beloved corgis. The 1969 broadcast did indeed achieve its goal of strengthening public support, but the queen and her advisers “realised that being too normal was as dangerous as being too different,” according to the Smithsonian Channel, attesting to the unique position the royal family occupies in British society.
In 2011 the Queen granted permission to the National Portrait Gallery to play a small extract as part of an exhibition celebrating her Diamond Jubilee at the National Portrait Gallery. The 90 second clip depicts the Queen sitting down to breakfast at Buckingham Palace with Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Princess Anne. Later that year additional clips were also shown as part of the BBC documentary ‘The Duke’ at 90 in 2011, celebrating Prince Philip’s 90th birthday.Paul Moorhouse, the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition curator at the time, said at the time, said: “Legend has it that the Queen doesn’t want parts of it to be shown.
“Regrettably, the film hasn’t been seen for a long time. It just disappeared. There is a reluctance for this to be revisited.We wish we could show it in its entirety. It tells you a lot about family life. And it redefined the nation’s view of the Queen – the audience were amazed to be able to hear the Queen speaking spontaneously, and to see her in a domestic setting.” A majestic setting is what the public will get from now on. What people want and what they get are often two different things. The Queen’s advisers thought the documentary to be a good idea, and it did well. Public consumption of anything about high public figures will never run out, but the higher powers decide the boundaries. It must be their right because everybody is entitled to a private life.
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Yesterday MP Emma Dent Coad called for Buckingham Palace to be vacated by the Queen, arguing that members of the public whose taxes are being used to refurbish it should have more access to the Palace. The controversial Mp said Buckingham palace should be accessed by the public and that the wealthy Royal family should pay for the own lifestyle, pointing out that the Royals have over 150 bedrooms in the palace. No official response addressing Coad’s comments have been made by Buckingham Palace, but comments of the MP is being closely examined by powerful people in all offices. If her strong objections are right, then there will be a call for a review on how Buckingham Palace is run. and funded. Can anybody see that happening, and can it? It can because even the impossible has happened in the political landscape in the last two years with the UK’s Brexit vote, and Donald Trump winning the U.S elections. If MP Coad was out of place, she would be criticised heavily, but silence on Coad’s daring remarks yesterday should not happen.
The Queen has always been a source of national and global interest . She is the highest authority in the land whilst also a figurehead of the Monarchy with specific functions to carry out. The entitlement of a private life like everyone else is hers. If Queen Elizabeth is as ordinary as the rest of us in reality, then she must be one of the most fortunate people in Britain-born wealthy without the need to spend much of that wealth. The Queen is very active in public engagements
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