a history of the monarchy on screen

1950s – 1960s
The Screen Queen

In 1953, households huddled together to watch Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. Many bought their first TV just for the ceremony.

The decision to film the coronation originally raised objections from Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who didn’t want the sacredness of the occasion to be compromised. However, with over 20 million people tuning in, the event made Elizabeth II the most recognisable head of state in the world.

In her own words, the Queen’s 1957 Christmas speech, the first to be televised, delivered a “personal and direct” message. Surrounded by family photos she started to lift the veil on royal life, if only for a fleeting moment.

Just a handful of years later, the Royal Family agreed to a once unthinkable venture – a feature length film about their day to day lives.

Those against the idea included the then BBC controller David Attenborough, who warned that capturing the monarchy so closely would take away their mystique. However, filmmakers saw it as a chance to soften and modernise the institution amid the Swinging Sixties. “The Queen did it because she was trying to get publicity for Charles’ investiture as Prince of Wales,” says academic Mandy Merck, author of The British Monarchy on Screen. “What could possibly go wrong?”

First broadcast in 1969, Royal Family showed the Windsors eating breakfast, interacting with state guests and barbecuing. Buckingham Palace reportedly hated it. But millions watched something they had never seen before: the royals as people, not symbols of power.