The famous TV programme following the Royal Family through a year in their lives at the end of the 1960s has been pulled from YouTube, just moments after it became public knowledge that Buckingham Palace wanted it removed.
The film, called ‘The Royal Family’, was made by the BBC in 1969 and gave unprecedented access to life behind palace doors. It was uploaded to a channel called HM Government Public Service Films, around a week ago and attracted a dozen or so views. On January 27th 2021, its presence was shared on Twitter and it was viewed several thousand times in the following hours.
Buckingham Palace was approached by The Daily Telegraph for comment on January 28th and issued a statement saying ‘’this is a matter for the BBC. From time to time things pops up on the internet that should not be there. We will assume it’s going to be taken down.’’
The BBC issued its own statement saying I would approach You Tube to have the video removed, adding ‘’we always exercise our copyright where we can. However, it is notoriously difficult to chase these things down on You Tube once they are out there.’’
The Royal Family asked for the documentary to be locked away in 1972 and it hasn’t been available in full in the intervening years. However, it was seen by millions at the time of its broadcast and was repeated several times before the ban. It attracted an eager audience once its presence was made public again although the chance to view it once more now appears to have gone.
Royal Central’s Editor-in-Chief, Charlie Proctor, says that he hopes that now the film has been leaked on the internet, Buckingham Palace and the BBC will consider releasing the 90 minute footage in full to the public.
He said: “People who perhaps had never seen the documentary before might have been expecting scandal and drama – after all, why else would The Queen order the film be locked away never to be seen again?
“That being said, the footage was entirely innocuous and inoffensive. It gave viewers a unique insight into royal life in the same year that man first landed on the moon.
“Perhaps the powers that be at the time thought the documentary presented our ‘betters’ as being far too normal, ruining the enigma of the monarchy.
“I hope that we will now finally see Buckingham Palace and the BBC remaster the footage and rerelease it, perhaps to coincide with Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022.
“The 1969 documentary is an important historical artefact that should be freely available for future generations to watch. It has no place in the BBC vault.”
