Inside Windsor Castle

When I saw the announcement that a documentary series was to be made about Windsor Castle, I hoped that it would be a serious historical examination of a famous castle that has been at the centre of English royal history for nearly a thousand years and remains the home of the current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. How wrong I was. Instead of a serious, professionally-made history documentary, the producers have served up nothing more than a salacious, shallow, tabloid-style review of the Windsor family and Elizabeth II's reign. This series was not so much taken from the annals of history as cut- and-pasted from a century of muck-raking gossip column headlines. The script sounds like it was written by a committee of celebrity scandal magazine editors, and the various invented scenes that supposedly show the private lives of the Windsors are played out as wordless, amateur theatrical melodramas by incredibly badly-cast and badly-directed "lookalikes". There is nothing here for the serious student of history but plenty for the avid consumer of royal scandal and tittle-tattle. Don't waste your time with this.

For instance -- they talked about how Philip was upset his children did not take his name and then claimed his name was Battenberg. It wasn't -- it was MOUNTBATTEN. The name was changed in WWI. hat's only once example of the errors in simple fact that turned me off. That and the fact it hyped and overplayed a lot of the story.

I absolutely loved this documentary.... I was fortunate to see this 4 part documentary on YouTube as I live in America and don't have access to British TV channels...I wanted to watch it again and to my horror, discovered that it was no longer available. PLEASE make this series available on Amazon VOD or on region 1 DVD so that we Americans can enjoy.

This 4 part documentary combines newsreel footage with dramatic recreation to tell the story of Windsor Castle during Elizabeth II's lifetime. It is divided into time periods 1992-2016, 1932- 1952, 1952-1972 and 1972-1992. I believe it provides the most comprehensive modern history while also managing to be entertaining as well. Again, PLEASE make this series available to us Americans!