My favourite Prince Philip moment: Royal Family documentary

As part of our obituary coverage marking the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the Royal Central team are reliving some of their favourite moments involving His Royal Highness. In this article, Chief Reporter Kristin Contino talks us through her most memorable moment.

When thinking back over the many years the Duke of Edinburgh was part of the Royal Family, I found myself struggling to come up with one stand-out memory. Although telling a photographer to “just take the f**king picture!” is a personal favourite, I’m not sure it warrants an entire article. The moment I chose is one that not many people have seen, but maybe that makes it all the more special.

Earlier this year, the infamous 1969 documentary “Royal Family” popped up on YouTube, and many of us in the royal community scrambled to watch before it was taken down the next day. Giving the public unprecedented access to day-to-day life behind palace walls, the film follows The Queen, Prince Philip, and family from the Trooping the Colour ceremony in June 1968 through a range of other events and duties over the course of a year.

Prince Philip chaired a committee that had to approve the documentary’s final scenes, although he was said to have hated the actual filming of it. “Royal Family” was watched by a massive 68 per cent of British adults when it aired in 1969.

Although the programme itself was fairly bland, and I hate to admit it, even a bit dull at times, many felt the mystique of the Royal Family had been ruined after it aired. The Queen wasn’t happy with the outcome, and the film in its entirety has never been shown again.

The Duke of Edinburgh is shown going about his official duties in the film and also relaxing at Balmoral barbecuing with the family. But the memory I chose happens at the very end of “Royal Family.” The Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, and Princess Anne are gathered around the breakfast table sharing some stories, and Philip recounts a memory of The Queen’s father, King George VI.

“He did have some very strange habits, your father,” he said. “I remember when I used to come up to Royal Lodge and I asked when I arrived and I said, ‘Where’s The King?’ and they said ‘Oh, he’s in the garden.’ And I went out and there was nothing to be seen except a lot of terribly rude words and language coming out of a rhododendron bush. And I actually found him there hacking away, wearing a bearskin cap! I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.”

It was quite a funny story, but seeing Prince Philip, The Queen, Charles, and Anne laughing and relaxed was my favourite part of the documentary. In parts the family seems stiff and like they aren’t sure how to act around the cameras, but this interaction is the most genuine, relatable one in the entire film and perhaps the most “real” glimpse at how the Royal Family interacts at home.

Philip was a complicated man, and perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea, but this moment reminds everyone that the royals are, at the end of the day, a family like any other, just laughing around the table about their quirky relatives.