What's with Royal Family?
This last week saw the return and, shortly thereafter, the disappearance of a royal curiosity.
For the first time since 1977, courtesy of Youtube, people were able to view Royal Family, a documentary film first broadcast on 21st June 1969. The 110minute film showed a year in the life of the Windsors, and was aired shortly before Prince Charles’ investiture as Prince of Wales at Carnarvon on 1st July 1969. It was made as part of a wider strategy of changing the image of the monarchy and was a companion piece to the series Royal Palaces. Richard Cawston’s film was made with full cooperation of the Monarch and was viewed one month ahead of transmission.
There has long been the suspicion that this film shone a little too much "daylight on magic" with the Royals looking a little too ordinary: decorating a Christmas Tree, having a barbecue, buying an ice-cream, watching tv, the Queen driving herself. It had such an effect that the next full documentary about the Queen wasn’t made until 1992. Elizabeth R followed a similar format but, fascinatingly, has a commentary by the Queen herself, talking about her life and role as sovereign – and you see her dance too!
The amount of television exposure in 1969 may have been the reason behind the decision that the Queen made that year, to defer her regular Christmas message on television and radio and instead simply use a printed message. The broadcast returned the followed year and has remained an annual appointment to view ever since.
The film was shown twice in 1969, first on the BBC then on ITV. Then it was shown again in 1972, to celebrate twenty years since the accession, and for the last time in 1977 as part of the Silver Jubilee. Since then, it has not been broadcast in its entirety, although I’m sure there has been a desire by the BBC to do so. The film falls under Crown Copyright so it belongs to the Windsors themselves and it’s up to them to release the footage, or not. Clips have been used in various documentaries including The Diamond Queen and The Duke at 90. Anthony Jay, who wrote the script, once said that it had served its purpose and it’s been put back in its box and there it is.
It’s not the first time a film has been either withdrawn by its director or at the request of a contributor. One obvious example would be Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971) which was withdrawn from UK cinemas at his request and not released until after his death in 1999. But the BBC has also withdrawn controversial content too. After an internal kerfuffle, the 1971 film Yesterday’s Men in the current affairs series ‘24 Hours’, it was agreed that the film would not be repeated in Harold Wilson’s lifetime. It was repeated as part of a theme night on BBC Parliament in 2013, thirteen years after his death.
But was Royal Family banned? Well, it depends how you like your editorial copy. The clue is in the title. It’s a fly on the wall documentary about a family from over 50 years ago. So would you like your home movies out there even when you’re on the news or in the papers nearly every day? Probably not.
The clamour to see the film has waxed and waned over the years and with the story of its making featuring in an episode of Netflix’ The Crown the desire to view it may never go away. If you're really wanting to watch it, I believe it can be viewed with permission via the British Film Institute on their premises, where it can’t be loaned or no doubt copied but when you’ve finished, be kind – and please rewind.