As someone who is just about old enough to remember watching the now controversial documentary Royal Family, I cannot understand what all the fuss is about. It’s as if this 110-minute film, which was banned by the Queen but briefly appeared on YouTube this week before being hastily removed, is a modern day Cannibal Holocaust or A Clockwork Orange, which must be secured in a nuclear-proof bunker for the protection of the public’s morals. In fact,.
| UPDATED: 10:34, Sat, Jan 30, 2021
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The Duke of Edinburgh once enlisted the BBC to make a ground-breaking documentary entitled ‘The Royal Family’. The fly-on-the-wall broadcast followed a year in the lives of the Royal Family, allowing the public inside Palace gates to see how they lived their everyday lives. It showed the Queen and the other royals hard at work, but also what they did in their leisure time.
It was heralded as one of the most personal insights into the British royal family. A documentary, filmed in 1969, promised to show the public what life was really like as a royal, from eating meals together, to footage of the Queen discussing matters with world leaders – and it didn t disappoint. It was a classic fly on the wall documentary and the public absolutely loved it. The BBC s Richard Cawston and his team had incredible access to the royal family for 18 months, filming them as they went about their day-to-day lives. It was the first real attempt to portray the royals in a fresh light, letting the British public see them as ordinary people.
Royal Family documentary at Windsor Castle, 1969
Hulton Archive / Getty Images
Back in 1969, a BBC documentary aired that offered a tantalising glimpse into the inner workings of the lives of the Royal Family. So tantalising, in fact, that a staggering 30 million viewers tuned in to watch it. Yet while her subjects were delighted with the chance to peek behind the royal curtain – creating a new sense of proximity to a family traditionally kept at a careful distance – the Queen is believed to have regretted agreeing to the film, subsequently requesting that it never be broadcast again.
The Queen with her corgi during filming, 1969
| UPDATED: 15:29, Fri, Jan 29, 2021
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The Royal Family documentary was first aired in 1969 on the BBC, but after being shown to the public just a handful of times, it vanished from all public access areas. It returned to the mainstream this month, when the full 90-minute film made its way onto YouTube 50 years after its debut. At the time, the monarchy was beginning to flounder in the public eye. It was seen as increasingly out of touch, and irrelevant.