Michael Flanders

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

King Charles III of the United Kingdom

Anne, Princess Royal

Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh

Prince Andrew, Duke of York

Richard Nixon

Robert Graves

Arthur da Costa e Silva

Eduardo Frei Montalva

Cameron "Kim" Cobbold

Walter Annenberg

Antony Armstrong-Jones Snowdon

Christopher Cockerell

Frederick Hayday

Hugh Shearer

Harold Wilson

Julius Nyerere

Keith Holyoake

Milton Obote

Dawda Jawara

Pierre Elliott Trudeau

Giorgio Borg Olivier

Leabua Jonathan

Indira Gandhi

Robert Menzies

Antony Jay

Peter Bartlett

Patrick Whitaker

Philip Bonham-Carter

Dave Gorringe

Tony Thorp

David Martin

Justin Smith

Roger Cary

Barbara Saxon

Ray Henman

Richard Cawston

Michael Bradsell

Peter Edwards

Doug Mawson

Documentary

TV Movie

Royal Family

United Kingdom

CinemaSerf

This original fly-on-the-wall Royal documentary is quite interesting on a number of fronts. It's access to the private life of the Queen and her family is sometimes quite tedious to watch - as would be, I suspect, a documentary on most of us; but this serves as more of a social anthropology too. Looking back to the end of the supposedly profligate 1960s in the most establishment manner possible, we see a Queen who is relaxed and natural in front of the camera, and though the set piece scenarios are a little dry, we do get a slight sense of just what the job entails. It's not overly deferential which helps, and as we follow the season over which this is set, we get to meet and observe quite a few of those she meets and wonder perhaps if it's the subjects who expect the monarch to behave in a certain fashion rather than she actually choosing to. The usual tours, visits, banquets all feature - an opportunity to take a look at what we wore, drove and even ate fifty years ago and it's topped by a family chat with President Nixon that shows the ultimate mundanity of a job that struggles with endless diplomatic small talk (and family snaps). The photography is effectively discreet and though I'm sure nothing was left to chance, it does offer us a semblance of what might pass for "spontaneity" at court. It's probably more notable in 2024 for being an archive source for so many subsequent programmes, but I imagine that in 1969 when most people knew little about the monarchy they didn't read in the papers, it proved insightful.

English

ROYAL FAMILY 1969 BBC Documentary