IT WAS meant to make them seem more relatable, but a 1969 documentary about the royal family was banned by the Queen after its message backfired.
The monarch, 93, has not allowed the 110-minute BBC film – which sees her buy an ice-cream for a young Prince Edward with cash from her own purse – to be broadcast since 1972 in case it “lets the magic out”.
Despite being watched by 30.9 million viewers on BBC One on June 21, 1969 – and another 15 million a week later on ITV – few people now know that Her Majesty once let the cameras in on intimate family life.
One of the most memorable scenes of the documentary sees her enter a sweet shop with her youngest son Edward, then four, where she purchases him an ice-cream using her own money.
Like any other normal mother she hovers around him as he tucks into the sweet treat, while telling the cameras she worries he’ll make a “mess on the car seat”.
This dispelled the widespread belief that she never carries her own money – an suggestion that was also countered by a recent Channel 5 documentary.
Other behind-the-scenes moments in the film see the Queen, then 42, along with husband Prince Philip, son Prince Charles and daughter Princess Anne, enjoy a family barbecue while on holiday at their Scottish home in Balmoral.
The documentary was poorly received with then-BBC Two controller David Attenborough claiming it was “killing the monarchy” by presenting them as too normal and getting rid of the mystique.
Recalling the aftermath in a documentary about the film, Jean Varnham – who was working as a voluntary worker in Nottingham when it initially aired – said: “Many of us hasn’t necessarily seen her in the role of a mother and a wife.
“We saw her as head of the state. Suddenly we think, goodness gracious me, she enjoys exactly the same kind of things and does the same kind of things as we do.”
The 1969 BBC documentary about the royal family was met with criticism
That Christmas, the Queen decided to not deliver her usual television message because she was worried about “overexposure” of the royal family.
Robert Lacey, told ABC News in 2018, that she had realised giving a behind-the-scenes look into royal life too often would “cheapen” the family and let “the magic seep out”.
After February 1972, the film, whose copyright is still retained by the Queen, was broadcast for the last time on the BBC and hasn’t been aired in full since.
Filming began at Trooping of the Colour on June 8, 1968 and lasted a year, creating more than 43 hours of footage.
The subject of the documentary has been covered in the new series of The Crown, starring Olivia Colman, where the monarch is seen being trailed by cameras.
In other royal news, we told you that Prince Harry would hide from his nannies in the kitchen cupboards at Kensington Palace.
We also revealed how Meghan Markle pays tribute to the Duke of Sussex and baby Archie with two of her favourite gold necklaces.
And Kate Middleton and Prince William told off Greg James for mocking Princess Charlotte on her first day of school.
