All language subtitles for Episode03

The British Royal Family.

One of the most famous
dynasties in the world.

God save the Queen.

For more than a century,

the lives of the Windsors
have enthralled the nation,

mesmerised the press,

and inspired
some of the most popular films

and dramas of recent decades.

But what's fact,
and what's fiction?

There were rumours

that not everything was right
in the marriage.

He was only on

extremely lose terms
with monogamy.

That was the moment

when the Palace absolutely
lost grip of the narrative.

In this series,
we delve deep into the archives

to reveal controversial
documents concealed for decades

This is a hand-written note

saying: "We're going to tap
the King's phone".

And meet royal insiders

who witnessed history
first-hand.

She steps out

and we realise
this is a horror story.

About four feet from the Princess.

It was the first sign
something was wrong.

In this episode, we explore

how the Queen has managed
some of her greatest trials

and tribulations.

Anything that could go wrong
did go wrong.

It was like slap, slap, slap

across the face
of the royal family.

From scandal and disaster...

The flames seemed to be
200 feet high.

She's standing there,

this small figure
in a raincoat.

You could see it in her face.

The emotion was palpable.

To tragedy and murder...

My brother and I
were at the castle

and we actually heard
the bomb go off.

Blew it to smithereens.

And of course,
there was nothing left.

And find out
what it takes to be Queen

when your family,
and the nation,

are tested to the limit.

She's getting out of the car...

Nobody knew
what the reaction would be.

It was a very dangerous
time for the royal family.

Being Queen,
monarch, is a very lonely job.

Captions edited by Ai-Media
ai-media.tv

Grenfell Tower, June 2017.

The worst residential fire
in the UK

since World War II.

Seventy-two people were killed.

Dozens more were injured.

As survivors
struggled to cope,

politicians became the target
of public anger.

I was down there at the time.

Tempers were at breaking point.

I remember standing in the crowd

at the sports hall
just under the A40,

and suddenly this...

well... silence.

Here was the Queen.

"It's appalling sight", she said

after hearing about the flames.

But she has clearly noticed
how this community

has pulled together to help.

She was talking to people,

without any the of protocol

and people surrounding her.
It was just the Queen.

Defusing some of the anger
and some of the emotion.

I think when you have a colossal
tragedy or national shock,

all the usual responses
are there:

anger, incomprehension.

And the Queen somehow
rises above that.

When she appears,
it's a different mood.

I think it's come over
very strongly

how good the community
has been to help.

There she is, looking strong,

smiling, giving comfort.

And that's what the Queen does
at times of national tragedy.

Just three weeks
before Grenfell,

the Queen had gone to Manchester

in the wake
of the concert bombing.

Throughout
Manchester's Children's Hospital

there was a ripple of excitement
when news spread this morning

of the Queen's
unexpected arrival here.

The royal family in general,

the Queen in particular,
are meant to act

as national conduits of feeling.

So when the Queen turns up

at the site
of the Manchester bombings,

at Grenfell tower,

it is as if the whole nation

is showing their sympathy,

and that perhaps
is their function.

What the Queen
called a wicked act

had, she said,
brought this city together.

Very interesting how everybody
has united, haven't they, here.

It's been amazing.

The thing with the Queen is
that she's always herself.

She's not some actress
putting on a part.

So, she's going there
because she feels

it's her duty to be there.

It's a hard role

to tread between,
on the one hand

being stoical, being brave.

You enjoyed the concert,

- Yeah, it was really good.
- Was it?

And on the other,
showing that they feel

and perhaps
the balance has swung

over the Queen's reign.

I got to meet her before
the concert, she was lovely.

- Really?
- Yeah.

Perhaps
at first it was about showing

courage, steadfastness.

Now it's a little more
about showing feeling.

But the important thing is just for
the Queen to be there.

It's almost like
as the mother of the nation,

as she is supposed to be.

You just want mummy

to be there
in times of national trouble.

By rushing
to Grenfell and Manchester

immediately after
those disasters,

the Queen got the mood
of the nation right.

But 50 years earlier,

her judgement was not as sure.

On the 21st October 1966,

a slag heap collapsed

upon the South Wales
mining village of Aberfan,

engulfing
the local primary school.

The school lay
in the direct path

of the disintegrating
man-made mud...

144 people were killed,

116 of them children.

Their children
were buried in that mud,

mud almost filled the classroom.

With shovels, if necessary,
with bare hands,

they pitted themselves
against the uncounted

tonnes of slimy filth.

Aberfan
was one of the first

great national disasters

that the Queen had to handle.

She issued a statement
expressing her condolences,

but rather than going
straight to the scene

she waited
and sent Prince Philip instead.

The reason that she gave
for this delay

was that she thought
that if she was there,

she would attract attention,

when people should be
dealing with their grief,

and that's what
she wanted to avoid.

She said that she was terrified

that all the fuss,
that would accompany her visit,

might mean, god forbid,

that some child
was missed in the wreckage.

But it was misunderstood.

A lot of people
were incredibly critical,

"the monarchy doesn't care",
etc.

It was a huge national tragedy

and still the Queen
did not show up.

But now, Daily Mail
journalist, Robert Hardman,

believes there was
another little-known reason

the Queen didn't rush
to the scene.

What
everyone I've spoken to about it

says is that
the Queen was really worried

that she would let
the side down.

She didn't want to go there

and make things worse
for these families.

She was a young mother.
Prince Edward was a baby

and she knew
that she was going to be

as overwhelmed
as everybody else was.

And the last thing people want
is a sobbing Queen,

crying on their shoulder.

The tragedy of Aberfa

presented a dilemma
for the Queen

as leader of the nation.

How much
of yourself do you show,

when you are confronted
with death,

with trauma, with a disaster?

Of course, you don't want
to be seen as apathetic.

But also, we don't want
to see the Queen

collapse, unable to cope,

overcome with emotion at times
when we are looking to her

to keep the nation together.

Finally,
eight days after the tragedy,

and under mounting criticism,

the Queen made the journey
to Aberfan

to pay her respects.

When eventually she did go,

at the end of the week,

you could see she was genuinely moved
by the tragedy of it.

When she actually arrived,

she spoke with families.

There was one woman who'd lost
seven members of her family.

And the Queen just sat with her,

quietly, saying nothing,
for half an hour.

That was the Queen
showing her humanity.

The occasions
when you see the Queen display

her grief, those occasions
are very few and far between.

But you really do see
that emotion in her face.

She saved the situation

and I think the lesson was,

that it's really important
to make an instant appearance

and not to wait.

The Queen learnt
from her mistake at Aberfan.

Over the past 50 years, she has
worked hard to make up for it,

returning to the village four times
to meet bereaved families.

If you ask anyone who's
worked with the Queen a long time

to name her regrets,

one that usually pops up
is Aberfan.

The Queen said that
she has to be seen to be believed,

it's one
of her favourite mottos,

but she has also to be seen to feel,
to care.

But 13 years after Aberfan,

the Queen would again
be tested by tragedy,

and this time it would strike
at the heart of her own family.

The bomb was placed in the decking
just under here.

We saw the police rush back.

There was utter mayhem.

Winter 2019.

Britain is bitterly divided
by the Brexit crisis.

On the 24th of January,

the Queen makes a telling speech

to the Sandringham branch
of the Women's Institute,

that's read
as an allusion to Brexit.

She talks of the importance

of "respecting the other
person's point of view",

seeking out "common ground"

and "never losing sight
of the bigger picture".

This is the stuff
of what being a sovereign is.

Uniting rather than dividing.

It would be very interesting
to know

what the Queen thought
about Brexit.

But she has transcended
all that.

The monarchy
should be a unifying factor.

People up and down the country
admire her,

even republicans admire her.

They may dislike the principle,

but they cannot fault the woman.

She is all things to all man

and that really works.

In a divided country,

it often falls to the monarch

to lead the work
of reconciliation.

But some
of the most painful conflicts

the Queen has had to deal with

have been within her own family.

It's fitting
that here, the present Queen

should meet the Duke
and Duchess of Windsor.

He is her uncle
and when he gave up the throne,

Princess Elizabeth was a girl
only ten years old.

In 1972, the Queen
would attempt to make peace

with the man who nearly
brought down the monarchy.

The vendetta had been incredibly

long lived, bitter, horrible.

And the Queen Mother had
been utterly unforgiving.

The Queen's mission
would coincide

with a state visit to France

as Britain prepared
to join the EEC

the following year.

In the National Archives at Kew

Royal biographer Robert Hardman

has uncovered
some remarkable documents

revealing the planning
of the trip.

Here is this very,
very important state visit,

today we go on about Brexit,
but what we're looking at here

is effectively "Brentry".

This is Britain
going into Europe

with a lot of grandeur,
with balls and dances

and all the pageantry
Britain and France can deploy.

So, this is a very big moment.

But for the Queen,

the visit also had
a personal dimension.

Paris was the home of her uncle
the Duke of Windsor,

formerly King Edward VIII,

exiled to France
after giving up the throne

for American divorcee
Wallis Simpson.

This was the man
who had abdicated in 1936,

and the abdication had
really shaken the monarchy.

It was a dereliction of duty.

It was the worst thing for the
monarchy in the 20th Century.

And it had defined and shadowed
the reign of the Queen.

As the Queen prepared
for the state visit,

her uncle was dying
of throat cancer.

Here
we have a letter from the Palace

to the British Ambassador
in Paris,

saying
"Please make sure there is time

in the Queen's schedule
for her to visit

her uncle, the Duke of Windsor.

On the assumption
that His Royal Highness

and the Duchess are going
to be in Paris during the visit,

the Queen would like
to pay them a private visit".

The Duke of Windsor is very,
very unwell.

The Queen fully understands
this may be the last chance

she gets to see him alive.

The Queen realised

that for the sake of unity,

to heal this terrible internecine
family rift,

that she should make a gesture

to the Duke of Windsor
at the very end of his life.

But for the organiser
of the State visit,

the Queen's meeting
with her uncle

was fraught with danger.

At the Embassy, at the Elysee
Palace and at Number 10,

what they're worried about
is what happens if he dies

either during
or just before the visit?

And this causes terrible
diplomatic seizures.

What we have here is a memo
to the Prime Minister

explaining
all the various options.

"The reports
of the duke's health

are becoming more discouraging
and the duke himself

has recently cancelled
a visit to Spain...

Up to what point can he die

without it ruining the visit?"

What it boils down to is
he can die

some weeks before the visit,

he can die after visit.

Just can't happen during.

Finally,
on the 18th May 1972,

the Queen, with Prince Philip
and Prince Charles,

arrived at her uncle's home
in the West of Paris,

and was ushered upstairs

to the duke's
private sitting room.

It would be
a historic moment

as the two of them met.

The Duke of Windsor was so ill

that his Doctor had implored
him to stay in bed,

and he insisted
that he had to get out of bed

and stand up and bow
to his niece, the Queen.

He even put on a blazer
over his pyjamas

so that he looked smart
for the occasion.

And it took all his strength
to do that.

He had tubes
sticking into his neck.

And he got up
and he bowed to her.

And it was a most moving moment,
really,

because he had been
bitterly hostile

to George VI,
her father whom she had adored.

It was a very emotional moment.

The Queen was seen
to dab her eyes as she left,

because she knew that was
the last she'd see of her uncle.

And it took all his strength
to do that

and he then went straight
back to bed,

and then the Queen
had a chat with Wallis Simpson.

And just a few days later,

he was dead.

I think
this is really a significant

and rather moving moment.

In a sense, his death

releases the Queen
from the shadow

of his abdication.

There was a sense of closure,

this is the end of what had been

a turbulent period
for the monarchy.

That was
an example of her ability

to draw the curtain
over the past

and to act as a reconciler,
a healer.

And that's the crucial
about monarchy,

that it should
draw people together,

and that's what she did.

Over the course
of her reign the Queen has acted

as a unifying force
for the nation.

But 40 years after her truce
with her uncle,

the Queen would be called upon
to perform

an even more demanding gesture of
reconciliation:

making peace with a man who had
overseen the murder

of one of her closest relatives.

Lord Mountbatten
was Prince Philip's uncle,

and also a very key player in the
political, military,

social life of the nation.

And he was very close
to the Royal Family.

He was, after all,
great-uncle to Prince Charles

who worshipped him.

Every August, however

Mountbatten was off
the royal scene,

gathering with
his immediate family

at their summer holiday home,

Classiebawn Castle
in the north-west of Ireland.

The whole coast was so remote,

quiet, it was blissful.

It was one of the most
enchanting places in the world.

William Evans was
Mountbatten's valet for 10 year

and remembers his boss's love for the
castle and its location.

First morning of the holiday,

he couldn't wait
to get out to sea.

Every second that we had was spent
out lobster fishing.

Shadow V,
my grandfather's fishing boat

was incredibly simple.
There were no frills whatsoever.

And he loved it.

India Hicks,
Lord Mountbatten's granddaughter

has spoken only rarely
about the holidays

she spent with her grandfather
at Classiebawn.

He would try and get

as many grandchildren
as possible

to come every single day,

and the excitement
of when the lobster pot

was pulled out of the water
and you could smell it,

that Irish smell,
the salt water, the lobsters...

But idyllic Classiebawn

is just 18 miles from the border
with Northern Ireland

and in 1979, the Troubles
were at their height.

It is extraordinary

that just when tension
and violence

were at their most acute,

Mountbatten still did
his summer holiday in Ireland.

All the family tried their best

but there was no way they would
stop him going to Classiebawn.

August 27th, 1979
was a glorious day.

Mountbatten
and his extended family,

including his daughter
and twin grandsons,

set out on Shadow V.

But just as they reached
open water,

tragedy struck.

My brother and I
were up at the castle

and we actually heard
the bomb go off.

We saw the police rush back
for their binoculars.

There was utter mayhem.

The bomb was placed in the decking,
just under here,

which is just close to where
the steering wheel is.

This is exactly as the
Shadow V would have been,

coming out of the black rocks.

Lord Mountbatten's on the wheel,

and up above is a coast road,

where the terrorists
were waiting

to remotely control the bomb.

Blew it to smithereens.

Of course
there was nothing left.

Lord Mountbatten,
one of his twin grandsons,

fourteen-year-old
Nicholas Knatchbull,

and a 15-year-old crew member,
Paul Maxwell, were killed.

Another passenger,

the Dowager Lady Brabourne,

died the next day in hospital.

It would be hard
to define a more cowardly attack

in the annals
of high-profile terrorism

than to blow up a grandfather

with his children
out fishing on holiday.

The Queen was at Balmoral

when she received the news

of Mountbatten's death.

The twin who was not killed,

later came up to Balmoral.

And he arrived late at the night and
the whole house was shut up,

and the Queen rushes
down the corridor

to greet him, to sort of
enfold him, if you like.

And that's a side of the Queen
we don't often see.

Mountbatten's death

hit the Royal family
really hard.

I mean, he was very close
to Prince Charles and the Queen.

The day of
my grandfather's assassination,

of course,
is embedded in my memory.

I was lucky that I was at an age
where I was able

to get all of the emotion out,

so I am possibly
more able to look at it

more in the eye than other members
of my family,

who have never recovered.

19 years after Lord
Mountbatten's assassination,

the Good Friday Agreement

brought the Troubles to an end.

Martin McGuinness,
an IRA commander

at the time
of Mountbatten's murder,

would become
Deputy First Minister

of Northern Ireland.

From
childhood, the Queen has known

that duty comes first,
it trumps everything else.

Whatever your personal,
private feelings are,

duty calls

and maybe you're not
feeling very well

and you don't want
to do something

or it may mean
you've got to shake hands

with someone who murdered
a member of your family

and tried to kill you.

He was second
in the receiving line,

and it lasted for just a moment.

Extraordinary, nevertheless,
the British sovereign

and a former IRA commander
shaking hands.

She showed magnanimity,

and astonishing political savvy

in shaking hands
with Martin McGuinness,

the man who was
probably responsible

for the death
of Lord Mountbatten.

Two years later in 2014,

the Queen invited Martin
McGuinness to Windsor Castle,

for a state dinner in honour
of the president of Ireland.

As Head of State,

she is constitutionally bound

to do what the state
wants her to do,

and if the state
wants her to bury the hatchet,

then that is what she has to do.

We'll never know how,
privately, she felt about it.

Private grief
is not allowed to trump

public need
for a political reconciliation.

She has embodied

the whole business
of reconciliation

in her own person.

And that is really
quite something

in an age where old hatreds

are extremely difficult
to extinguish.

Over the decades,
the Queen may have mastered

the art of diplomacy.

But mastering her own family

has always been
more of a challenge.

I do not know the Queen coped

with all those catastrophes.

If you think it's "horribilis"
now, just you wait!

1992 should have
been a year of celebration,

marking 40 years
since Elizabeth became Queen.

Instead it'd become one
of the most challenging years

of her reign, when her skills
as monarch and mother

would be tested to the limit.

1992 was extraordinary.

It was month after month,
every month

a different scandal.

Started in January,

those pictures of Fergie

and Steve Wyatt.

Anne and Mark Phillips announced

they were to divorce.

Divorce?
-Daily Mirror.

Never been mentioned.

Then there was the tour of India

that was supposed
to mark a reconciliation

and instead we saw Diana
photographed

ostentatiously alone.

Andrew and Fergie split up.

She's been accused
of extravagance,

bad taste
and an over-exuberant manner...

The Squidygate tapes,

late night conversation
between Diana and her lover

recorded and broadcast
to the nation.

It was like slap, slap, slap

across the face
of the royal family.

I mean, it just didn't stop.

And the paparazzi were out there

trying to get the photographs
to go with all these stories.

Fergie is photographed

having her toes kissed

by her financial advisor.

Papers say
the pictures show the truth

about his relationship
with the Duchess.

What is your relationship
with the Duchess of York?

And they were all at Balmoral
when the news broke

and the Queen had
to come down to breakfast

and see them all
reading the papers.

Some of the stories were really

things you wouldn't
have wanted to discuss

with your own family,

let alone
with the Head of State.

The Queen herself

is reported
to have said to a friend,

"Where did I go wrong?"

One event
did more than any other

to shatter
the picture-perfect image

of the Royal Family:

a biography of Princess Diana

by journalist Andrew Morton.

There was a huge build up

to the Andrew Morton book.

And we had an idea of what
was coming but not quite sure

what scale of it
was going to be.

We were told to batten down
the hatches

and try and deal with it
as best we can.

But how do you deal with something
that is there in print?

The book
contained astonishing,

intimate revelations
about Diana's married life.

Diana
had spoken via an intermediary

to Andrew Morton about
the horrors of her marriage,

about the coldness
of the royal family,

about everything
that you would never ever,

in a million years,
expect a Princess to talk about.

It went crazy,
it was in Parliament,

it was discussed
in every television programme.

You hear stories about Diana

throwing herself
down a flight of stairs

in front of the Queen Mother,
about bulimia,

about you know unfaithfulness
in the marriage.

Royal advisers love to control

as much as they can.

Suddenly here was evidence
of a total loss of control.

That was the real earthquake
behind Morton.

The problem that the Queen faced

was that the younger
generations of royals

were not adhering to these high
standards

that she herself had set,

and therefore
she was being undermined.

In the 1980s and '90s

managing the succession
of family scandals

would become one of the Queen's
biggest tests of judgement.

The Queen's style has been

laissez-faire, sometimes

I thought too laissez-faire.

There were many times
when I was working

for Princess Diana when I wished
The Queen would intervene more,

and I think there were times
when a bit more direction

from above, could have produced
a much happier result.

Sir Martin Charteris,
who was her private secretary,

said that the Queen could judge
when things were going badly,

and she worked
to try and put them right.

Not so good
in taking initiatives,

in doing something new.

The Queen may have
taken a hands-off approach

to her family troubles,

but later in 1992

she would face a disaster

where she could do
little more than react.

I remember,
it was a Friday morning.

I got the call that there was
a small fire at Windsor.

I got a call
from a local radio station

at about quarter to 11,
asking about the fire.

I said, "What fire?"
I didn't know about it.

And I jumped in my car,
and got there in 35 minutes.

There were already something
like 400 media outside.

From five miles away,
you could see smoke

and you could actually see
flames from about a mile away.

It was horrific.

I was probably the first
BBC reporter there

and it was just astonishing

to see this seemingly
impregnable building in flames.

The fire began in the north wing

when an unattended builder's
lamp set fire to a curtain.

What started as a fire

in a small private chapel
soon spread

to some of the most famous,
famous rooms

where some of
the most important moments

in modern royal history
had happened.

At one point there was
this extraordinary scene

of soldiers, castle staff,
cleaners, cooks,

all passing Leonardo drawings,
carpets,

vases, priceless items

from hand to hand to get them
out of the path of the fire.

The only member
of the royal family

who was in residence
at the time was Prince Andrew.

Shock, horror,
that it took hold so quickly.

Her Majesty was shocked.

The Queen
arrived to see the house

that she'd grown up in,
a place with so many memories,

the place from which
her family take their name,

and there it was
going up in smoke.

At one stage
you think,

"Well, they've
dampened it down".

and the next thing,
the Brunswick Tower right over

in the north east corner
was like a chimney

with flames shooting out.

The massive
salvage operation

helped save most
of the priceless furniture.

But the fire had destroyed
over 100 rooms.

The Queen was devastated by it.

You could see it in her face.

The emotion
was something palpable,

you don't often see
that utterly depressed

look on her features.

There is a photograph of her,

while the fire rages.

This castle that she has loved.

And she's standing there,

this small figure in a raincoat

with a hood put up
over her head.

What a terrible blow,

personally, that must
have been for the Queen.

She must have felt,
"I'm the custodian of this place

and I've failed in my duties".

In the evening,
I drove along the M4

on the way back to London,

and the flames seemed to be
200 feet high,

which you could see
from a couple of miles away.

And it seemed like
the end of the world,

the metaphorical end
of the monarchy.

Four days after the fire,

the Queen delivered a speech
at the Guildhall in London.

It was being made
to mark her jubilee,

but at the end of a year
of scandal and disaster

it became a plea
for understanding.

She had a very bad cold

and she'd also breathed in
quite a lot of smoke.

She was having
some difficulty speaking,

and she said
to her private secretary,

"I think I'd really rather ask

the Duke of Edinburgh
if he can deliver this".

And her advisor said, "No, look,

I think you need
to make this speech".

1992 is not a year

on which I shall look back

with undiluted pleasure.

It's a speech that's remembered
for two words in particular.

It has turned out
to be an Annus Horribilis.

Or to transpose it
into the Sun's charming argot,

"One's Bum Year".

I think she felt those two words
really summed up

the year that
she'd been through.

I sometimes wonder
how future generations

will judge the events
of this tumultuous year.

I dare say that history

will take a slightly
more moderate view

than that of some
contemporary commentators.

I think
that was another rare moment

where you saw
the vulnerability of this woman.

She may be monarch,
but she is still,

underneath it all, a woman who feels
and...

and hurts just as we all do.

I think everybody realised,
yes, of course

various members
of the Royal Family

have made mistakes,
things have been done

that shouldn't have been done.

But that speech
and that moment summed up

this is a human institution.

And it did have that effect
of turning things round.

But five years later,

the Queen would face
an even greater tragedy

that would shake the monarchy
to its core.

The country was desperate

for some sign of grief

from this royal family.

It's disgusting that they've
not appeared or said a word.

It was a very dangerous time,

I think, for the royal family.

On the 31st August 1997,

The Queen was at Balmoral

on her annual summer holiday

when she was awoken in the early
hours of the morning.

We have reports from Paris

that Diana, Princess of Wales,

has been killed
in a car accident.

They were apparently being pursued by
paparazzi on two motorcycles.

In terms
of the death of an individual,

it was perhaps
the biggest story in the world

since JF Kennedy's
assassination.

And it just was astonishing

how many people seemed
to be personally affected

because she had been
this universal

much-loved figure.

Diana's death shocked the world.

But rather than
rush back to London

to lead the nation in grief,

the Queen remained at Balmoral.

Well,
I remember I came up to London

and when I got to the top
of The Mall, I realised

that Buckingham Palace
was totally... shut.

There were no lights,
there was nothing.

Yet thousands of people,
very quietly had come there,

and there was nobody at home.

There was
no information coming out.

They weren't briefing the press,

they were kind of on lockdown,
there was no information.

Clearly,
the country was desperate

for some sign of grief

from this royal family,
who just seemed

to be carrying on as normal.

For the past five days,

most of the royal family,
including the Queen

have been 521 miles away
at Balmoral,

leaving the palace empty
with no flag flying.

People wanted to see the Queen.

Where's our Queen?

Where are you, ma'am?
Where's our flag?

Speak to us ma'am,
your people need you.

Show us you care.

Very, very, very disgraceful
and I find their behaviour

very disgraceful.
-What do you think, Madam?

It's disgusting they have not
appeared or said a word.

I think it's a disgrace
on the whole royal family.

It was...

a very dangerous time,
I think, for the royal family.

It was perhaps the single
clearest moment in her reign,

when she and her people were at odds.

But since Diana's death,

the real reason for the Queen's
silence has become clear.

The week after Diana died,

the Queen...

I think probably rightly,

decided to stay in Balmoral to look
after the boys,

because they boys were her prime
concern.

They were very young, 12 and 15,
and they'd lost their mother

in the most horrifying
of circumstances.

I mean, the most horrendous
tragedy for any family,

but to have to play it out
in the public gaze...

She decided to keep the family
very private,

put her family first.

In Diana's death you saw

a tragedy hit a family.

They may have been royal,
but they were just a family.

Princes William
and Harry

looked uncomfortable
in front of the cameras,

but this was
their first opportunity

to read for themselves
the touching messages

left for them
by a grieving public.

I think that outpouring of
grief and shock

took the royal family
hugely by surprise.

Certainly, I think the Queen
was quite shocked

and didn't really know
how to deal with it.

More than
any other tragedy

of the Queen's reign, the death of
Diana was a conflict

between her two roles.

On the one hand
there's a public grief

and the Queen is expected
to lead that.

And on the other hand, a really

terrible,
traumatic tragedy for her

as a private individual,
and these two things meet

in a way that they hadn't met
before in her reign.

Finally,
five days after Diana's death,

and as public anger
was reaching boiling point,

the Queen returned to London.

There we see the Queen
leaving Northolt airport

on the way down from Balmoral.

To me, the most
significant turning point

of the Queen's reign,

and I was there covering it
for the BBC live,

was the day that she returned
from Scotland.

Wesley.

What is the mood outside
of Buckingham Palace at the moment?

It's extremely sombre mood

and a very sombre scene,
that there are literally

thousands of people here.

She did two
extremely significant things.

One of which amazed me,
which was that

the car came down
Constitution Hill

with her and the Duke
and the car stops

outside the gates
of Buckingham Palace.

It looks as though
the Queen is about to...

She's getting out of the car,
and is going to talk to people.

It's extremely unusual,

this is almost unprecedented.
I think perhaps

the last time that the Queen
was among her people

outside the palace was the day

the war in Europe ended.

That was a very bold example
of personal leadership,

to go out amongst those crowds.

Actually, nobody knew

what the reaction
was going to be.

Those of us
who'd been in those crowds

for a week, knew that
the crowds were quite hostile.

Then she goes up
to somebody in the crowd

who hands out a flower to her
and the Queen says,

"Would you like me to put that with
the others?"

And the woman says,
"No, it's for you".

And from that moment,
the sort of crowd flips

and it's no longer
the hostile crowd it had been.

The Queen
had won over the crowds,

but now she had to win back
the nation,

with one of the most significant
speeches of her reign.

The speech was delivered live.

It wasn't pre-recorded as most
of her TV appearances are.

I happened to hear her
doing the one run through

and then straight
into the speech live

at a moment of very,
very high emotion.

The reason that the crowds
were the shot behind,

they only had one camera

and they said, "Well,
let's have the crowds behind".

Like anyone my age,

I have seen the Queen speak
so many times

and she has a way of speaking

that is very, in a way,
rather formulaic.

But when she spoke
after Diana's death,

that for me was something
completely different.

What I say to you now,
as a Queen

and as a grandmother,
I say from my heart.

First, I want to pay tribute
to Diana myself,

she was an exceptional
and gifted human being

in good times and bad.

She never lost her capacity
to smile and laugh

nor to inspire others
with her warmth and kindness.

She'd chosen absolutely
the right words,

to say that she was speaking

not just as the Queen,
but as a grandmother,

it automatically
made you understand

why we hadn't seen her
that week.

Because she had been looking
after her grandchildren,

those two grieving boys.

She managed to convey

a sense, not just
of the national tragedy,

but also of the private grief

that the Royal family
was going through

and that's why
the speech worked.

I thought it was a grandmother
speaking and not a Queen.

I was quite moved by it.

She sounded very sincere

and she looked as though
she was very moved

and I think
that will satisfy everyone.

I thought she said everything
she should've said,

I can't think of anything
she left out at all.

What I thought
was very striking,

being there that day,

was that she brought
the country together.

So, I think with the Queen there
is very, very powerful

personal leadership.

Diana's death
marked a turning point,

and in recent years
the royal family

has become more open about
publicly expressing emotion.

In 2017,

Prince Harry gave
a remarkable interview.

So, Hazza,
how are you today really?

Today I am OK,
I'm a little bit nervous,

a little bit tight in the chest
but otherwise fine.

Speaking
to a newspaper podcast,

he talked
for the first time publicly

about the emotional impact
of his mother's death.

Losing my mum at 12

and therefore shutting down
all of my emotions

for the last 20 years has had a quite
serious effect,

and actually,
all of sudden all of this grief

I had never processed started
to come to the forefront.

I was like, "There is actually
a lot of stuff here

I need to deal with".

In that interview, Prince Harry

was incredibly candid.

To hear him admit
that it had taken him

the best part
of two decades to cope

with the grief
of losing his mother,

to hear him talk about
coming close to the point

of a complete nervous breakdown,

this was absolutely
extraordinary.

It was 20 years
of not thinking about it,

and then two years
of total chaos.

Quite hard to believe that

such a senior member
of the royal family

would be speaking so openly.

For a century or more,

the royals
have been stoic

about emotion,

but what we want from our royals is
changing.

The youngest generation
are very aware of that,

and that really shows how far
the royal family's come.

In the future,
it will be William and Harry

that the nation looks to
in times of grief and tragedy.

The nation has always had
a place in its heart

for both of those boys.

Having gone through
such a personal tragedy,

I think that resonated
with people.

Anyone who's suffering
tragedy themselves

can feel that Princes William
and Harry understand

because they have been
there themselves,

and they felt the pain

just as anybody else would do.

I think William and Harry
both inherit

different qualities
from different family members.

So, William has got a bit
of his grandmother's

and his father's stoicism.

Harry's hilarious.

Welcome to Canada!

Thank you very much.

Did you see
the competitors come by?

He's
his mother's son, very warm

and he wears his heart
on his sleeve.

The Queen and members
of the Royal family

are part of an institution

that was going long before
they arrived

in the world
and will still be going

long after
they've left the world,

and I think that gives them
a very unique perspective

on the things
that go wrong in life.

I think you could do a lot worse
than those four

youngsters
leading the new generation.

Next time,
we examine just what it takes

to hold the very top job.

She's got a great personality,

very much a character.

The Queen's discretion

is her secret weapon.

She very, very, very seldom
puts a foot wrong.

The Queen puts up
with many different people,

but Ceausescu was too much
for her,

she made it quite plain.

She's always going
to be the most important

person in a room,

but she doesn't have
a sense of importance.

One of her favourite jokes
is if a phone goes off,

she says, "That must be
somebody very important".