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I just watched The Royal Family on YouTube. Long banned allegedly by the Royal Family, it has been popping up the past few days online. I don't understand what the ban is for. I found it interesting and well done, without anything that the Royals should be ashamed of. Segments with Richard Nixon, Prince Charles, and on the Royal Yacht Britannia are especially interesting. The Queen is charming.

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.

This is the classic film that follows HM The Queen and her family for a full royal year. It was made to coincide with the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales. It is the first time that cameras had been allowed to follow The Queen and her family on official and private family occasions. One such official event is the visit of then President Nixon of the United States. A private moment is The Queen and her family having a barbecue lunch in the grounds of Balmoral. Another shows Prince Charles playing the cello when a string snaps and hits poor little Prince Edward in the face. Yet another delightful scene is The Queen visiting her dogs at Sandringham. As such it is superb primary source historical material. This film did a lot to show that the royal family are not distant figures living in a museum state but are warm human beings trying to get on with the job they have to do. It is a film not to be missed.