KEY POINTS
- The BBC's "Elizabeth: The Unseen Queen" will tell the monarch's story from her life as a young princess to her coronation
- Queen Elizabeth granted the BBC access to "hundreds of private home movies" for the documentary
- The documentary will air on BBC and its streaming service on May 29
A new documentary will feature never-before-seen private moments from Queen Elizabeth’s life.
The BBC has announced a new documentary that will air unseen home movies of the monarch filmed by the royal family, including footage showing the Queen beaming and showing the camera her ring when she got engaged to Prince Philip. The clip was captured during a vacation to Balmoral Castle in Scotland in 1946, when the couple's impending wedding was still not public.
"Elizabeth: The Unseen Queen" will tell the monarch's story from her life as a young princess to her coronation at the age of 27 in 1953 "in her own eyes and own words," according to the BBC.
The 75-minute program pieces together personal films, mostly shot by the members of the royal family, that date back to the 1920s and have been kept private for decades by the British Film Institute on behalf of the Royal Collection Trust.
The Queen granted the BBC access to "hundreds of private home movies" for the documentary, the broadcasting company said.
Among the rare moments that royal fans can expect to see in the documentary are then-Princess Elizabeth with her uncle Prince George, the Duke of Kent, who died in a plane crash in 1942 while on active service, and her father King George VI's last visit to Balmoral in 1951. Elizabeth acceded to the throne in February 1952 following the death of her father.
The film relies on the Queen's voice and words through the many public speeches she's made over the last eight decades.
"It's through her own eyes and in her own words across her reign," an unnamed palace spokesman told People.
While the Queen is aware of the production and gave her permission for the use of the footage, she hasn't seen the film as it is not yet finished, an anonymous royal source told the outlet.
"We are honored that the Queen has entrusted the BBC with such unprecedented access to her personal film collection," said Simon Young, the BBC's commissioning editor for history. "This documentary is an extraordinary glimpse into a deeply personal side of the Royal Family that is rarely seen, and it's wonderful to be able to share it with the nation as we mark her Platinum Jubilee."
"As program-makers who have previously worked closely with the Royal Household on ceremonial and celebratory broadcast events and programs, the production team was under no illusion quite how special having access to this very personal archive was," Claire Popplewell, creative director for BBC Studios Productions added in a statement.
She continued, "Being able to draw upon the self-recorded history of a young Princess Elizabeth and her wider family - and allowing The Queen to tell us her own story - is the very heart of this film."
"Elizabeth: The Unseen Queen" will air in the U.K. on BBC on May 29, ahead of the country’s long weekend celebrations for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. The documentary will be released on its streaming service iPlayer on the same day.
Profile of British Queen Elizabeth II who turned 96 on Thursday. Photo: AFP / Gillian HANDYSIDE
