Original subtitles

a queen has reached 60 years on the

throne for the first time in modern

history queen elizabeth ii is part of

the background of every british life but

what matters to her no matter where she

is who she's with what time of day she

always has this ability to to bring what

I could describe as energy and fun to

the occasion in this final episode of

the diamond Queen we look at the

defining moments of her reign so tainted

by thy servant Elizabeth we examine how

she's coped with decades of changing and

sometimes tense relations between the

monarchy and the media what I say to you

now as your queen and as a grandmother I

say from my heart it was a very

difficult thing for her to balance from

silver and gold to diamond we look at

those unusual celebrations royal

Jubilees in the run-up to every jubilee

that's a kind of institutionalized

pessimism as if it can never be the same

as last time but so far it always is and

for the first time ever all of the

Queen's adult grandchildren have they're

safe about the diamond Queen nation's

grandmother will have massive respect

for an inner lover to vent she's led the

way and along with a continued

this is London it is with the greatest

solo that we make the following

announcement it was announced from

Sandringham at 10:45 today that the king

who retired to rest last night in his

usual health passed peacefully away in

his sleep earlier this morning 60 years

ago

February 6th 1952 the Queen's father

King George the sixth died here at

Sandringham previous day he'd been out

shooting rabbits a favorite occupation

and he went to bed with his usual cup of

cocoa he wasn't a well man he'd survived

some very serious operations but he was

all of 56 years old and his death came

as a terrible shock when this defining

moment the start of the Queen's reign

happened she knew nothing

she was thousands of miles away in Kenya

on the first leg of a Commonwealth tour

Prince Phillip was told first when he

heard said an age he looked as if the

whole world had dropped on him he broke

the news to his wife delayed by

thunderstorms it took her 24 hours to

get back to British soil she was seen

sitting alone tearful and white-faced

staring out of the aircraft window but

by the time she landed she was poised

already ready met by Winston Churchill

and Britain's political Grandy's this 25

year old mother of two young children

began a life sentence even if it was a

gilded cage and a fate she accepted

you think one of the most interesting

things is as I'm approaching the age

that she was when she became Queen that

you think about you know she was 25 when

she became queen and you think about how

young that is for somebody to take on

this incredible responsibility and give

up her life in service

she took the helm from the man who had

saved the monarchy after the abdication

crisis and on the day of King George the

sixth funeral the Queen with her

grandmother and mother looked

shell-shocked a vast weight of

expectation now sat on her shoulders

it took 16 months to plan but on Tuesday

June the 2nd 1953 the Queen was crowned

at Westminster Abbey through the gray

dawn of that day came people from all

over the world making from the route of

the royal procession the day had started

cold and wet with some 30,000 people

estimated to have slept out overnight on

the pavements and stones of the

processional route and another 20,000

trying and failing to find a good spot

it was less than 10 years since the end

of World War 2 s Blitz a tough people

but people - who were reaching forward

for better times the coronation was a

genuine national carnival but also a

hoped-for moment of patriotic rebirth we

had coronation mugs at school and I

bought a dinky toy version of the golden

coach and it seemed to me as a young boy

that this was Zenith really I was only

six

and as a young six year old going on the

trolley bus from Finchley central to

Barnet to Auntie Gwen's to watch it on

this tiny little screen wonderful people

poured into London a shabby post-war

Capitol now decorated at last

around Britain that was dancing and

parties and a bit of silliness plenty to

eat a new dish coronation chicken was

specially invented and has become a kind

of British classic

a coronation who was the most important

moment in the Queen's life certainly the

most important official moment as a 27

year old she'd thought long and hard

about what was ahead and she practiced

in the buckingham palace ballroom using

sheets pinned together as her 21 foot

long train she also walked around

wearing the crown on her head so that

her neck could get used to its very

considerable weight

as the Queen left for Westminster in the

gold state coach there are two small

figures watching from one of the windows

at the front of Buckingham Palace one

was young Prince Charles dressed in the

silk suit and the other was Princess

Anne and one of them would soon leave to

become the first British child ever to

see his mother crowned monic Princess

Anne wasn't quite three and she was told

she was too young the only thing that I

remember if that's the right expression

is feeling just to touch grumpy that I

wasn't allowed to go and after that

nothing it's not not very I'm not I

should have been aware of being on the

balcony but he said not entirely sure

whether I was aware of that or whether

it's just the fact that you see

photographs new you think I must have

remembered it yeah I'm sure that I do a

novel aspect of the coronation was that

it was televised both Churchill and

Buckingham Palace courtiers had been

against letting such a vulgar new medium

inside the Abbey but the Queen herself

wanted the cameras in and back then

BBC presenters could almost have been

mistaken for somebody else

we take you first to Buckingham Palace

there we shall see the departure of the

Queen's procession to the Abbey

so she goes

more than half the adult population 20

million people managed to watch I was 10

at the time and I remember my family

scraping together their savings and

buying a small black and white

television to watch it but it was hugely

exciting everybody was really uplifted

and for most of the adults present it

was the first great event since the

dreary days of the war and the tough

days that immediately followed Oh

symbolic of a new life people thought

and the Queen looked horrific she was

beautiful and she had this dashing

consort and it was one of those moments

in a country where we tend to be a

little bit ill at ease with ourselves a

bit nitpicky that it was gilded and it

was going to get better

well guard the crown of the faithful yes

we beseech thee this part and so

sanctified thy servant Elizabeth the

father whose head this day just face it

or a sign of royal majesty things which

I have here before from I will perform

unto Him of my dad as a historian put it

at the time no Manik was ever crowned

more fully in the presence of the people

and yet there was one moment in the

ceremony where the cameras were kept

away which was veiled and never seen

then or since and it happened here when

the Queen was anointed with the holy oil

because for the Queen being called by

God was not a metaphor it was absolutely

serious

what do you think that meant to her in a

direct spiritual way I think it meant a

profound sense of vocation about all

this not simply stepping into a role

exercising function but actually

becoming a certain kind of person which

is what a vocation is about and I know

that it mattered a great deal to her

that in the months leading up to the

coronation the then Archbishop of

Canterbury provided her with a little

book of private prayers to use which she

still has and clearly she took that

entirely seriously as as a matter of

spiritual formation

at times of difficulty and certainly in

the midst of a hugely demanding and busy

life she comes across as somebody who is

at ease

serene confident and that gives me the

impression that her faith is something

that she really can draw upon and makes

a great difference to her life so quite

a day exciting but exhausting all those

hours and hours of standing and

remembering and concentrating and

greeting and the waving of hands and the

noise of the crowds a long day and ahead

of her a long life of much the same

thing

for the Queen the 1950s would be the

most glamorous years when she was a

young and glittering international icon

buoyed by the barely critical enthusiasm

of the patriotic post-war press and the

broadcasters she could have been viewed

as some sort of global celebrity which

he represents something rather more

enduring than that

she doesn't care for celebrity and I

think it's very important to be able to

retreat inside and be able to sort of

collect one's thoughts and collection

you know your ideas and and and the way

things are going and then to sort of

move forward and to be able project

those ideas and those thoughts to other

people and I think she does that

extremely well in order to project those

ideas the Queen began an annual

tradition which has carried on to this

day one which allows her to be heard and

seen can be Christmas it's Christmas

1957 and sitting here in the library at

Sandringham at this desk which had been

used by her father and her grandfather

before her the Queen did something that

no British monic had ever done before

she made a television broadcast King

George the fifth then King George the

six had made radio broadcasts at

Christmas and during the Second World

War they'd been very important for this

was something different

the Queen was having to deal with the

new medium of television and furthermore

she was having to broadcast completely

live which is quite an ordeal

twenty-five years ago my grandfather

broadcast the first of these Christmas

messages today is another landmark

because television has made it possible

for many of you to see me in your homes

on Christmas Day there is something

wonderful in the way these old familiar

warm hearted words of the traditional

Christmas message never seemed to grow

stale no longer live but recorded she's

now done 54 of these and she's known in

the trade as one-take Windsor

a pro who knows about lighting or the

sound mic picking up a flight overhead

Erica and she's relaxed into this as the

content it's serious and sincere rather

than surprising this is the real queen

on what matters most to her faith family

the Commonwealth and the military this

year I'm speaking to from the household

Calvary barracks in Windsor because I

want to draw attention to the many

servicemen and women who are stationed

far from home this Christmas support for

British forces has always been fantastic

second to none I personally being her

grandson as well as and her employee is

I mean it's a huge honor it's fantastic

for me and the guys that I spend time

with at work undoubtedly and have huge

amounts of pride the fact they and they

work for such a fantastic woman I mean

it really is that simple for us I

certainly recognize that much has been

achieved in my lifetime like the rest of

her life the Christmas message is about

just that the message not the personal

image the Queen is no doubt proud of

many things especially her family what

she doesn't seem to be is vain even

though her image is inescapable when she

was born in 1926 the BBC had barely

started

films were still silent as it were and

we now live in a world where there's

24-hour news we live in a world of IT of

Facebook of Twitter all of which means

that she is the most remorselessly

represented figure probably ever to have

lived in human history it is an amazing

thought

even when we're barely aware of her the

Queen's image is stamped on our

imaginations get paid the Queen is with

you go and buy a drink

the Queen's there too for though she may

lack vanity the Queen's be very

protective of her image as monarch when

Tony Benn tried to remove her head from

British stamps in the 1960s he was

thwarted this rebellious decade also

brought her tougher media atmosphere and

satirical mockery journalists were more

questioning and less deferential than in

the first years of her reign Media is a

professional intruder it wouldn't it

wouldn't work if it did live him that's

what it's doing all the time so you

can't complain about it the monarchies

responds to the anti-establishment 1960s

and the greater media curiosity was to

agree to let some light in with an

observational documentary called royal

family

let's go straight for those previous

driving force was a member of the royal

family or bad marriage John Bree born

who was a filmmaker and thought if only

people could see what the royal family

is like they'd feel much much better

disposed towards them disgusting just

gooey mess it's going to be in the cars

for 75 days the crew filmed some of the

ritual and pomp of the ceremonial year

but were also allowed to capture the

Royals at home we didn't invite them

into the bathroom or I mean I had people

have judgment to put on to a secret

society answer why people shouldn't know

what's going on much better that they

should know than speculate he did have

some very strange habits well father I

wrote but I used to come up to Roy Lodge

I asked when I arrived and as it was the

king in his 'days he's in the garden and

and I went out at night there's nothing

to be seen except a lot of exteremly

rude words and language coming out of a

rhododendron bush so I actually found

him there hacking away wearing a baskin

cabinet but it was first shown in 1969

it became the most watched documentary

in British television history with

two-thirds of the population watching Oh

a triumph except that almost at once

there were second thoughts were parts of

it a little embarrassing too much since

the year of its release the full version

has never been broadcast again there was

a feeling this is done all that was

hoped of it it's restored a sort of

respect and affection for the royal

family that at least within the press

and the media didn't seem to be there

that's it

finish that we've done it it went very

well put it back in the box and let's

look at it again

happening to him once you're there at

the Royal barbecue and you see the

sausages sizzling there's an extra layer

of penetration and expectation that's

created for the future and the problem

with all these things is not the the

film that gets made with careful

supervision but what happens next

and we were all greedy in the media we

want to take it a stage further film

royal family that I don't remember a

great deal back we've done that I was

only eight nine I mean that was that was

the moment when went went when the sort

of that the veil was lifted to a certain

extent and the the interactivity and

it's just got greater and greater and

greater come around the third the 1970s

was a relatively easy decade for the

Queen's family with Prince Charles as a

bachelor in his naval uniform or

careering around on polo ponies Princess

Anne taking part in the 1976 Olympics

relatively innocent times but for the

country there were hard times industrial

strife inflation angst about national

decline so it when the Queen's Silver

Jubilee arrived in 1977 was a set amount

of uneasiness many socialists argued the

celebrations would be a waste of public

money some handed out role on the red

Republic badges and punk rockers sang

god save the queen but not in a good way

her Majesty the Queen in the event the

Silver Jubilee was a great success

I remember that the National celebration

day and just the staggering size of the

crowds and the noise the cheering it was

the most infectious atmosphere and then

going out onto the dog no food and I

hadn't really sort of registered

particularly how important the year was

looking back at because you can you can

see how it just caught everybody's

imagination and it just became a bigger

and bigger event

but the silver jubilee turned out to be

oppressive to the most melodramatic

story of the Queen's reign from 1980

onwards are more aggressive media and a

fresh target to hunt

what do you think above all caused the

change to the world that we live in that

in two words Rupert Murdoch he bought

the Sun newspaper I was there on day one

and became involved in royal stories

quite early on and it's quite clear that

he didn't want to belong to that old

school at all he wanted to treat the

like ordinary people and most of all

which I agreed he wanted them treated as

news stories his newspapers all fell in

love with Diana because of course she

was account a superstar which of course

the queen is not my editors once said to

me the trouble is with Queen and Prince

Philip they're not good box office now

Murdoch was only interested in good box

office as Lady Diana entered the hall

for the concert there were audible

admiring gasps from those present his

lady had well and truly arrived in a

manner a few of those present were

likely to forget in a hurry well the

Queen in many ways and Prince Charles

were were very much ignored I mean she

was the number one attraction you know

this woman was just a gift for the

newspapers a gift for television and she

was not just a great member the role

family but she was a megastar

a staggering 750 million people around

the world tuned in to watch the wedding

of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer

in 1981 but the Queen was soon becoming

uneasy about the pressure journalists

were piling on her daughter-in-law Fleet

Street editors were caught Buckingham

Palace by Michael che

the Queen's then press secretary when

they turned up the doors opened and in

walked the Queen who then proceeded to

give them a severe dressing down over

what she thought was harassment of the

Princess Diana in particular there had

been an incident where Diane had gone

into a sweet shop in temporary the

village where I were was situated and

had been pursued by photographers and a

lone voice piped up that of the then

editor of the news the world Barry asked

you who said one man couldn't she sent

one of her servants for the chocolates

and the Queen said Mr sq that's one of

the most pompous remarks I've ever heard

in my life the editor left his post

weeks later

and as their marriage broke down both

Princess Diana and Prince Charles turned

to journalists to tell their side of the

story

Diana who was a child of this media

culture who takes it for granted that

she should pose for the cameras and that

she should know the first names of the

cameramen and then the reporters and

then actually confide in them and then

even as her marriage starts breaking

down sits in cars in in Kensington

Gardens pouring her heart out to

sympathetic journalists this is the

absolute opposite of the Queen's

attitude she's from the reticent

buttoned-up wartime generation she

doesn't give interviews the only time

she's spoken about her life came in 1992

for a BBC documentary Elizabeth our to

mark the 40th year of her reign this was

the period of the young Diana the young

Sarah Ferguson in the family they were

attracting the attention and you tended

not to get very much coverage of the

Queen and I think there wasn't there was

a feeling that perhaps it would not be a

bad idea to remind people of the Queen's

role and the words we heard were about

her duties they were about other people

not herself

I always absolutely fascinated by the

people who come all the things that they

they've done

I think that's very important that the

system does discover people who built on

some things who know them and I think

that's very satisfaction all right I

think people need Pat's on back

sometimes it's a very dingy world I was

but it was the absence of words which

created the biggest media storm of the

Queen's reign when in 1997 on the sudden

death of Princess Diana in a Paris car

crash the Queen stayed at Balmoral for

another four days for the Queen I think

it was it was a very difficult thing for

her to balance because her first

priority was to look after her

grandchildren make sure that they were

properly cared for and and helped

through this period of grieving when

there was all this huge Ferrari going on

around but at the same time obviously

for the country because Diana was

revered in the door there was a need for

her to be there with with the country I

remember being in my room in Buckingham

Palace and the crowd lining Birdcage

Walk waiting for her car to come back

down and there was a very quiet and

quite threatening atmosphere there

almost a mutinous almost a mutinous

feeling and the moment the car appeared

people started to clap and the whole

atmosphere changed and the very fact of

just responding and returning to the

palace and becoming the public figure

again not the private grieving family

sort of did it

she took this one step further using the

media herself to talk to the nation

what I say to you now as your 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 what you say to the

country was that you have to understand

this is my family and and and I'm

approaching this as a grandmother but I

acknowledge my duty to you as Queen and

it was interesting when she realized

that that's what she had to do she did

it and by the way those those words and

that speech were her own though they

weren't written by new labor because

they were absolutely not written by new

labor no she was and and the very

personal touch was was actually hers

it was a terrible time for the Queen as

for the rest of the royal family and as

the media has kept changing so has the

monarchy these days the British monarchy

has a Facebook page a royal channel on

YouTube and a Twitter page though no

tweets from the Queen herself doesn't

seem quite right or likely is she in

touch with what's going on in your

generation much do you think she's on

Facebook I mean that certainly

Buckingham Palace is using some of the

social networking sites well I think

that I think that's nature of the world

today that you have to be in touch to a

certain extent but I think the wonderful

thing about the Queen is that she's

timeless she's in touch with every

generation just instinctively because

she is this matriarch of society now

reading and responding to the British

public mood is a daily art but the mood

in the Queen's other realms is crucial

to Jamaica now wants to end the royal

connection while there are Republican

movements in countries such as Australia

Canada and New Zealand as with the

changing media at home the Queen has had

to cope with some tricky challenges

gliding through Sydney heads the sleep

white liner gothic brings Her Majesty

the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh to

the threshold of Australia thousands

lion the great in 1954 she arrived newly

crowned in Australia where she was an

unknown quantity this was the first

visit of a reigning monarch she hadn't

faced a tour on this scale before

so how would she cope and how would they

react it's reckoned that three-quarters

of the adult population turned out to

cheer about half of the three million

people who'll cheer the royal couple

slept on the pavements all night for a

glimpse of this historic scene the queen

is queen of Australia only because in

1770 a bold explorer Captain Cook was

bouncing along the coast and obeying

orders planted a flag and said on behalf

of George the third

we'll have this now Australia has long

been an independent and very powerful

country full of people from all around

the world many of whom have absolutely

no connection to Britain even in modern

planes it's an 18-hour flight from

London to here put like that it seems

bizarre that the Queen reigns here in

1986 the Australia Act formally severed

any rights of the United Kingdom to

interfere in Australian politics and

references to the Queen were removed

from the country's oath of allegiance

in 1999 however a hard-fought referendum

came down narrowly in favor of monarchy

today members of the Australian

Republican movement still calling for

radical change we think that we've

outlived the role that a British Queen

can play in Australia that time of

Empire and been in more traditional days

of monarchy that to have a British

monarch as a head of state and to have

her representative the governor-general

as the de facto head of state was

probably a system that's worked well

enough in the past but the time to move

on has come so in October 2011 how might

the Queen be received on her 16th visit

to Australia the press is full of

questions asking whether this is the

last time she'll visit she certainly

puts in the legwork taking in Canberra

Melbourne Brisbane and Perth and

wherever she goes

the mood on the streets is sunny

she finds plenty of the old British

spirit at events such as this garden

party you've got some nice music you've

got the canapes and the little cakes

it's a little bit like Buckingham Palace

well only a little bit

Buckingham Palace they offer you a very

nice cup of tea here we are in Australia

and you get something rather more

interesting unless you're working

there's no doubt that the visit of a

traditionalist octogenarian monarch to

this sun-baked continent will have its

odd moments the Queen has kept her

dignity traveling in many royal vehicles

a golf buggy complete with aquarii and

royal crest something else in the past

the Queen has explained away her Dora

expressions by saying that often she's

just trying not to giggle well this may

be one of those moments

in Australia's national capital Canberra

the Prime Minister Julia Gillard holds a

reception for Queen as she said to be

Republican minded but there's little

evidence of that today many heads of

state and government are welcomed within

these walls but in this the home of

Australian democracy you are a vital

constitutional part not a guest just as

in this nation you can only ever be

welcomed as a beloved and respected

friend and she's not the only welcome

member of the royal family the Queen's

grandson has made several visits the

last in March 2011 in the wake of the

floods and the cyclones which hit

Queensland and Victoria Prince William

really touched the hearts of Australians

including talking to those who had lost

family members who had lost their mother

and was able to talk to them about his

own feelings about what that was like in

his own experience so it was a very

emotional intense engagement his visit

and his wedding has boosted enthusiasm

for the monarchy people stood for hours

to catch a glimpse of him there as he

was to represent his grandmother

when I came back and then I got a letter

from her saying you know congratulations

well done it's a very good trip and you

know words like that there's a lot of

gravitas behind them and you feel know

you've done you've done a good thing

it's were sellout that mean an awful lot

the Queen ends her journey in the remote

city of Perth venue for the Commonwealth

Heads of Government Meeting held once

every two years at as head of the

Commonwealth the Queen tries to open

every meeting she considers this

organization one of the greatest

achievements of her reign by the end of

her father's reign the Empire had been

wound up and now newly independent

states could reject the British monarchy

and choose republicanism and yet stay

inside the grouping as part of the

Commonwealth of the 54 members today

only 16 have the Queen as head of state

the Commonwealth is not one of the

world's essential organisations but it's

a very popular club even for countries

that were never part of the British

Empire and don't speak English it is

perhaps the only political passion that

the queen is allowed to express she's

called it the original World Wide Web

but essential or not it's popular with

members big and small I think as a head

of the Commonwealth she has given

inspiration she has given encouragement

and indeed by her very presence on every

sugar um she came to my country for the

spin when we hosted sugar in 2009 she

was an apple to Spain there and she's

gone to any part of the convoy thank you

she's been referred to as the glue that

binds the Commonwealth together and I

think the stability and certainty of her

role and her pursuit of Commonwealth

values of democratic values has helped

find the Commonwealth together

these Commonwealth visits a lot of

people particularly in Britain I suspect

scratch their heads and wonder what

they're really for does it matter

anymore

well the Commonwealth is an amazing

network it has more than a quarter of

the world's population more than a

quarter of the world countries it

actually has an increasing share of the

world's economic output and so a

remarkable network is something actually

more relevant as the 21st century goes

on than perhaps it was at the end of the

20th century because we live in a

networked world now from the start she

saw the value and the benefits of

Commonwealth I think she's really trying

to explore and expand and you know make

it more of a more of a global

institution and you know it's you know

two billion people you know in the

Commonwealth and growing it some people

want to join all the time it exactly I

mean that is testament to her that

really is her leadership her guidance is

what's really seeing the Commonwealth

through the Queen made a promise to

uphold the Commonwealth and she takes it

very seriously

in 2009 the actor and writer

Kwame gwaymar set out to replicate the

Queen's first ever Commonwealth tour for

a Channel 4 series to try to discover

what its impact had been what was very

interesting for me about making this

documentary about the Queen is I went in

slightly fascinated by power and by how

power presents itself and came out

actually an admirer of the Queen's work

ethic and and I don't feel ashamed to

say that at being a spirit Republican

actually my understanding is is that she

really does understand the world of high

politics really understands and cares

for her position and her job and her

work ethic seems to be absolutely

magnificent

but what are the future of the

Commonwealth without her her air will

not automatically become head it will be

up to the Commonwealth leaders to decide

do you think the Commonwealth will

survive in its form after the Queen

absolutely because it's almost

impossible to to disentangle because

there are this myriad of connections

it's not just about the Heads of

Government it's not just about sport

there are so many other different

connections that you can't you cannot

disassemble it now by the end of this

trip it's absolutely obvious that the

Queen's visit has been hugely popular

Chinese Australians Japanese Australians

Indian Australians are among those

waving flags when the Queen and the Duke

arrive for what's billed as the world's

largest barbecue around a hundred

thousand people turn up in Perth we

should stop coming said one leading

Republican she sets the cause back

twenty years every time she does once

again we will return to the United

Kingdom

with fond memories of our time here and

the warm Australian welcome we have

received on our 16th visit to this

beautiful car

after all those head shaking stories

about this being the last trip to

Australia and perhaps the last time a

Moloch will ever visit but by the end

neither of these things seems

particularly likely if she can make it

back she will and even that Republican

Prime Minister doesn't see a republic

looming anytime soon right now I think

in the life of the Australian nation it

is not the question at the forefront of

people's minds we are a wonderful

democracy a vibrant democracy and

ultimately I believe Australians will

have their say again on our ongoing

constitutional arrangements but it's not

the center of national life or national

debate at the moment

the Australian visit also marked a legal

change which will affect the entire

future of the British monarchy at that

Commonwealth meeting the leaders of the

16 realms agreed to amend the 1701 Act

of Settlement so that the first born of

Prince William and Kate girl or boy will

succeed to the throne ending 300 years

of monarchical male discrimination

the process of change for an institution

like that is constant you have

constantly have to change and adapt

that's the best way of maintaining what

we have and I think this was the right

time to make this change the queen is

now the oldest lived monarch in British

history who's reigned for sixty years

this summer brings her Diamond Jubilee

and the Diamond Jubilee is a very rare

event this country's only seen one

before in 1897 Queen Victoria marked

hers at the zenith of Britain's

worldwide Empire plenty to celebrate

frail though at 78 rather younger than

our Queen Victoria enjoyed every minute

the cheering was quite deafening and

every face seemed to be filled with real

joy I was much moved and gratified

today as at earlier celebrations in the

Queen's reign times seemed tough and the

future uncertain but the historians

perspective suggests this may mean

Jubilees matter more not less

if you live in a republic if let's take

the United States of America and you

think about the periods of history that

the countries chopped up into it's four

years for president eight years if

you're lucky and then it's a hundred

years for centenary Zoar Centennial's

and that's about it really

whereas if you have a monarchy

especially if you have the present queen

who has reigned for twenty-five years

then fifty years then sixty years what

you get is this sequence of Jubilees

which provides you with the opportunity

for structured retrospection looking

back 25 years 50 years 60 years that

otherwise you don't have

the 2002 Golden Jubilee saw the Queen

tore the country the weekend itself so a

million people flock to the MAL to show

they still cared for their monic the

first time the Queen allowed Buckingham

Palace to be the setting for a pop

concert which opened live from the

rooftop

was there something you particularly

want to do for the Queen yes permit yes

and for many reasons really because in a

sense the Queen razón feels like really

oh of course

yes the Queen yeah I mean she presided

over that the birth of rock and roll

really also which I pointed out at the

time so in a sense I was symbolizing 50

years of her reign and 50 years of rock

and roll

about 2002 was also a year of family

sadness in the run-up to the Golden

Jubilee weekend the Queen's mother and

her sister Princess Margaret died within

weeks of one another

losses which struck the Queen heart we

all knew that it never to be the Queen

Elizabeth was going to have to die soon

because of her age but I think that the

importance is Margaret it becomes cereal

with various strokes things but in a way

it was probably almost a merciful

release you know there is no doubt that

losing your mother and your sister in

the same brief period is really hard

because both of them in a way had a very

close relationship pretty well on a

daily basis and that's pretty hard to

lose probably your closest sounding

boards in such a short space of time

part of getting over that the experience

is to keep going and okay that's anyways

handsome a traditional and bit

old-fashioned but I don't believe that's

necessarily bad I think that's you that

gives you a way of dealing with things

it was 12 and when she died so I'm over

the last few years we spent a lot of

time together and she again was this

energy when you walked into the room you

just felt she was there and everyone

listened and learned and sat with her

and it was just this another silent sort

of great being in the room she's a very

special lady but I only as you get older

do you really do I really appreciate

because when I was growing up it was

just Gang Gang and then now it's like no

oh my goodness it sort of does it takes

you by surprise a little bit

this Diamond Jubilee year is marked with

the release of new stamps and coins for

a March the Queen will once again

crisscross the United Kingdom in June

there'll be an extra bank holiday over

the central weekend of celebrations and

2012 beacons will flare around the

country and the Commonwealth on the

River Thames there with a splash and

Eddy of a Jubilee pageant a thousand

boats with the Queen in a specially

designed royal barge boats of all shapes

and sizes Road boats and motorized boats

and historic boats and working boats and

these boats have come from not just from

London and the the 10th region but all

over the UK the party continues when a

rather surprised Queen Victoria hosts a

pop concert from her memorial outside

Buckingham Palace I hope that I'm gonna

be around for it um I hope job-wise um I

don't know exactly I'm gonna be but

fingers crossed I'll be around a concert

in the garden would always go down well

I'm sure for us

what do you think the silver and the

golden Jubilees tell us about what's

going to happen this year the Diamond

Jubilee in the run out to every Jubilee

there's a kind of institutionalized

pessimism on the part of some

commentators and some papers it's if it

can never be the same as last time but

so far it always is the people come up

trumps the Marxists always say the

masses let us down well the masses don't

let the Queen down when in these

Jubilees I don't believe that there's

any real risk of a Jubilee flopping Oh

contraire this gloomy foreplay is always

confounded and long may it be so

throughout the Queen's reign of course

she's not stood alone a sight er has

been a constant presence it's often said

that the Queen has done everything

expected of her but it's not quite true

when she was young all sorts of

establishment figures had all sorts of

clever ideas about who she might marry

the sons of grand landowners titled

guards officers but from the time she

was a teenager she knew exactly who she

wanted and none of the more conventional

candidates proposed by friends of the

family had a chance the man who captured

her heart was of course Prince Philip

the Duke of Edinburgh at the age of 90

despite recent heart surgery he's always

been there to steer and steady when the

water gets choppy

in November 2011 she made him her Lord

High Admiral

there's has been the closest Union he is

someone who doesn't take easily to

compliments but he has quite simply been

my strength and stay all these years

trying to imagine what it is actually

like to be the sovereign where that's

where the buck stops in many ways it can

be a very lonely place to be because at

the end of the day of words gonna defer

to you having somebody there which you

can share that that load I think is

really important I think the do fembra

has been able to do that particularly

well without ever stepping across that

magic line I think the story Prince

Philip the Duke of Edinburgh is the

unrealized success story of of the

monarchy here is a man a man's man

no-nonsense man who has managed

throughout his life with total loyalty

not to upstage his wife

he's been popularly known for his salty

and sometimes crotchety sayings but the

truth is that for a long time this was a

restlessly reforming figure once voted

the most popular member of the royal

family chivvying british business taking

risks like letting television cameras

into the palaces appearing on television

to promote wildlife and helping urban

youth from his Duke of Edinburgh Award

scheme to campaigning for children's

playing fields what do you want to see

me about

when you come to write play and he gave

up his naval career to spend his life by

her side some people have said he could

have gone all the way to the top as a

professional he could have been sitting

in your uniform as a professional I

think all the indications of the manner

in which is conducted his royal duties

since 1950 to 3 indicate that he had

everything that was appropriate to doing

my job

the Queen may be head of the nation but

he is still head of the family

the support that he could to and to my

grandmother is I mean phenomenal I mean

I'm still doing engagements by myself

you know Williams also Nell got

Catherine and other members of family

you know other other haulage I think

makes a huge difference and regardless

of where my grandfather's what seems to

be doing his own things or wandering off

like a fish down the river and the fact

that he's there I personally don't think

that she could do it without him

especially and when they're both of this

age

so sixty years on the throne quite an

achievement for this small woman with a

world familiar face a thousand years of

history at her back since a twist of

fate at the age of ten has known her

destiny I've been stalking you too much

in the last 18 months and pursuing in

the background auditor

for her children and grandchildren it's

a different story next in line of

succession the Prince of Wales is the

oldest heir apparent in British history

the age of 63

half the battle isn't it is how to adapt

in the best way without losing that

element of continuity not easy to feel

your way gently and her legacy also

course lies in the hands of her eight

grandchildren

there's quite a lot of pressure on

someone like me as a junior boy coming

through as well because of the example

you know the queen is set while she's

still and providing such a good example

it allows me to learn and to be able to

develop and to be able to understand

better what of sort of role plays and I

think she she defines it brilliantly

every time I find myself whinging about

wife touch bottom

the dinner jacket and go and do this

again to that I know and cotton recently

I've been things myself actually I can't

complain at the end of day you know she

has put this country way before way

before anything that she'd ever want to

do I mean it's it wasn't it's her job

understandably but she at a very young

age was put in a position that I would

love to see anybody handle and I don't

think they would be able to as well as

she has

family is a massive thing in her life

and even though she is the monarch she's

the most caring just a person that you

could actually just go to and ask

anything and we'll have massive respect

for and you know Liberty bits just the

consistency that she has shown

throughout those 60 years and the

support that she's had from the family

from grandpa the support that she's

given to her family as well and you know

don't forget you she may have visited of

many countries it's been in the last in

the last sixty years and had so many

engagements and this and the other she's

also being a mother and a grandmother

and a now great grandmother and she's to

get that balance and then do both so

incredibly well as probably have been

greatest tribute take about 13 month old

Savannah daughter of the Princess Royal

son Peter Phillips and his wife autumn

the Queen's first great-grandchild

queen elizabeth ii has been part of all

our lives for 60 years doing her quiet

phlegmatic relentless best during her

reign she's been a witness to the most

rapid changes in society more than

21,000 days since the age of 25 she has

dedicated her life as the servant of her

people

she's seen triumph and disaster family

heartache and family delight and she has

come through the rapids into Carmel

waters I've seen the Queen over the

years and I just are inspired by her

ability to listen to to consider and to

be able to alter things and suggest

things that's where she's been so clever

I think our ability to keep pace with

the changes understand what those

changes mean but also that the role of

the monarch Eden doesn't change very

much in that sense so that degree of

continuity Constance remains no reason

for that not to be able to go on my hope

but if these are karma waters for the

Queen they're hardly calm times for her

country will Great Britain survive or

will Scotland leave

how will the British deal with the rest

of Europe now struggling with its

greatest crisis since the Second World

War and in hard economic times how well

will we hang together as one people

that's politics but the state is more

than its politicians one of the things

you want for Prime Minister is to have a

safe space where they can talk to

someone very openly about what's working

and what's not and actually have someone

really senior really independent really

discreet who will have those discussions

and very wise and I seen it all before

that's priceless in my book you think in

our lives how many mistakes we all make

politically professionally personally I

mean it is extraordinary 60 years you

know she has just been a unbelievable

model public servant and we've just been

so lucky to have someone like that on

the throne for such an extraordinarily

long period confronted by trouble and

argument the British have someone at the

top of the tree who didn't fight or

elbow her way there who's there because

she's there

modern monarchy is not inevitable it's

not a part of nature

it's a choice the Windsor dynasty was

created at the time of crisis a national

soul-searching and for 60 years

this Queen has reigned knowing that

monarchy works when it sustains and

supports the democracy

in the future as in the past the British

monarchy will not be made by monarchs or

by princes or princesses or by

politicians in the end as in the past it

depends on the people who turn up and

the people who don't it's in their hands

it's in our hands

I declare before you all with my her

life whether it be long or short shall

be devoted to your service and to the

service of our great imperial family to

which we all belong

I think she's brought life energy and

passion to the job she's managed to to

modernize and evolve monarchy like no

other and it just shows the strength of

women at the top I think it's fantastic

and she's on her you know she's really

set set the bar very very high

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