The Royal Year Review

The Royal Year.

Congratulations from all of us! How

are you feeling?

This was the year

in which Prince Harry introduced his

new leading lady. The American

actress, Meghan Markle.

I fell in

love with Meghan Markle so

incredibly quickly, that was

confirmation Timmy that all the

stars were aligned and everything

was perfect.

After 70 years of

public service, the Duke of

Edinburgh, Britain's longest serving

Royal Concert Hall hung up his hat

and retired from Royal duties.

Prince George had his own milestone

moment. His first day of school...

And flexing their loyal muscles in

an effort to put the issue of mental

health firmly on the national

agenda. After weeks of fevered

speculation came confirmation that

Prince Harry, the fifth in line to

the throne, was engaged to the

American actress, Meghan Markle. The

happy couple appeared in the grounds

of Kensington Palace, which will be

her new home. This was only the

second time they had appeared

together for the cameras.

When did

you know she was the one?

Their very

first time we met! Later, in a

candid interview with the BBC's

Mishal Husain, they admitted they

met on a blind date set up by a

mutual friend. In November, while

preparing a roast chicken dinner,

Harry popped the question.

It was

such a surprise, so sweet and very

romantic.

He got one knee.

Was that

an instant yes from a? Yes, I could

barely let him finish proposing!

Can

I say yes? I had the ring on my

finger. Can I give you the ring?

Yes, the ring! It was a really nice

moment, just the two of us and I

managed to catch by surprise as

well. The fact that I fell in love

with Meghan Markle so incredibly

quickly was confirmation Timmy that

all of the stars were aligned and

everything was perfect. This

beautiful woman had just tripped and

fell into my life, I had fell into

her life, and I know that she will

be unbelievably good at the job, or

part of it as well, is obviously a

huge relief to me because she will

be able to do with everything else

that comes with it.

Unlike most

people, there is this layer of what

it means to get involved with

someone from the Royal Family, how

much of a sense did you have the

enormity of what you're getting

into?

What it might mean for your

life? I can safely say, as naive as

it sounds, having gone through this

learning curve in the past year and

a half, I didn't have any

understanding of just what it would

be like. I don't think either of us

did, we both said that, even

though...

I try to one you as much

as possible but I think both of us

were totally surprised by the

reaction after the first five or six

months but we had to ourselves, of

what happened from them. I think you

can have as many conversations as

you want and try to prepare as much

as possible but we were totally

unprepared for what happened after.

The scrutiny? And some of that

scrutiny and you ended up making a

very public statement about that,

some of that was centred around your

ethnicity, Meghan, what did you

think?

Of course it is

disheartening, it is a shame that

that is the climate in this world,

to focus that much on that ought to

be discriminatory in that sense but

at the end of the day, I am just

proud of who I am and where I come

from and we have never put any focus

on that, we have just focused on who

we are as a couple.

It is an immense

change, you are getting a new

country out of it, and a husband,

obviously, but giving up your

career.

Yes. But I don't see it as

giving anything up, I see this as a

change. It is a new challenge. It is

a new chapter. And have been working

on my show seven years. So we were

very fortunate to be able to have

that sort of longevity on a series

and once we had the 100th episode

mark, I thought I had detected this

box and I feel very proud of the

work I have done and now it is

time... To work as a team with you?

And their parents, very happy for

you, obviously, do you think they

are worried about the scale of what

you're getting into?

I think the

onset, with my parents and my close

friends, they were concerned because

we were quickly swept up in a media

storm that was not part of my life

before that but they also had never

seen me so happy. And once my

friends were able to really meet

Harry and my mum, it was so much

fun. Your mum is amazing. It was

just obvious. No matter what we were

being put through, that it was just

temporary and that we were going to

be able to get through that so

everybody was really happy. You have

talked to my dad a few times, he has

not been able to meet him yet, but

it has been worth every effort. Have

you met the Queen? Yes, a couple of

times. It is incredible. To be able

to meet through his lens, not just

with his honour and respect for her

as the monarch, but the love that he

has for her as his grandmother. All

of those layers have been so

important for me, when I met her I

had such a deep understanding and of

course, incredible respect for being

able to have the time with her.

She

is an incredible woman. And the

corgis took to you straightaway!

433

years I have parked at! They'd just

lay at my feet during TE!

Tell us

about your ring.

The ring is yellow

gold because that is her favourite.

And the main stone was sourced from

Botswana and the little diamonds on

the side are from my mother's

jewellery collection to make sure

she is with us on this crazy journey

together.

It is beautiful, and he

designed it. It is incredible.

Yes.

Make sure it stays on that finger!

Of course! What does it mean to you

to have those stones on your finger,

that once belonged to Princess

Diana?

I think everything about

Harry's thoughtfulness and the

inclusion of that and obviously not

being able to meet his mother, it is

so important for me to know that she

is part of this with us.

What do you

think your mother would have thought

of Meghan?

They would have been as

thick as thieves, without question.

She would be over the moon, jumping

up and down, so excited for me. We

would have been best friends with

Meghan. It is days like today that I

really miss having her around and

being able to share this happy news

but with the ring and everything

else going on... I am sure she is

with us, jumping up and down

somewhere else.

Meghan's seem to be

in-laws could not have been happier.

What do you think about the

engagement?

We are thrilled, thank

you very much. I hope they are very

happy indeed.

That is all I can say.

Absolutely thrilled, it is

brilliant.

America's loss is our

gain. Personally, he will stay out

of my French! He has been eating my

food for the last couple of years!

Despite freezing temperatures, the

people of Nottingham gave them a

very warm welcome. This was Meghan's

first Royal walkabout and she

handled it with aplomb.

She seems

really full of life and down to

earth as well.

My gosh, I think she

is wonderful, I watched interviews

and she is great.

Meghan has

committed to the UK. She will apply

for British citizenship and has left

the TV show that made her famous.

Thank you so much.

Congratulations!

Royal fans have until May to get

their flags and hats ready for the

couple's wedding at Windsor Castle.

A very cold day here in Nottingham

does seem a world away from Los

Angeles and the acting world but

this is what Meghan Markle is signed

up to. She will make the public

across the UK and the Commonwealth,

she has become a key member of team

wins, in the same year as another

key member has finally announced his

retirement. For seven decades, this

is an image to which the public has

become accustomed. The Queen

accompanied by Britain's longest

serving consort, Prince Philip,

together with him a couple of steps

behind. This was a significant day

as the announcement had just been

made that he was to retire from

public duties. He was customary good

humour, chatting to the members of

the Order of Merit, swapping stories

about hearing aids...

We have all

got them!

And joking about

retirement. Standing down, I can't

stand up much longer, he replied!

His decision was not health-related

but, at 96, he felt he had done his

bit. As he had remarked the previous

day...

You are seeing the world's

most unveiled a plaque!

It was a

surprise but not really a surprise.

This is a job from which you cannot

retire. He has just proved that it

might be possible to retire, which

is quite good for the rest of us.

Whenever he is in the world, people

will continue to remember him and

you cannot get a better accolade

than that.

Over the years, the Duke

has completed more than 22,000 solo

engagements. Encouraged millions of

young people in more than 60

countries to challenge themselves

through the Duke of Edinburgh's

awards.

And he had time to discuss

with Indian officials the problems

of conserving...

And he was an early

advocate of environmental issues

through his Presidency of the world

wildlife fund. But it'll be his

unwavering support for the Queen in

this, the other platinum wedding

anniversary, which will be seen as

his greatest achievement. They were

married in 1947. In the gloom of

post-war Britain, the wedding was

described by Sir Winston Churchill

as a flash of colour. She, the

future Queen, and he was a dashing

neighbour -- Naval officer. In the

years since he has travelled the

world with her and been her

companion both in public and in

private. In June it was illness

rather than retirement which

prevented the Duke from being at the

Queen's side at the State Opening of

Parliament. Prince Charles took his

place but going forward, this will

become the norm and all of the

palace has been keen to emphasise

that for the Queen it is still

business as usual, the gradual

transition of roles and

responsibilities from one generation

to the next as noticeably

accelerated this year.

Most significantly in November. For

the first time in her 65 year reign,

the Queen was present at the service

of Remembrance at the Cenotaph in

London but she did not lay a wreath.

Instead, she was from the Foreign

Office balcony alongside her husband

as her son and heir laid a wreath on

her behalf. The Duke will continue

to support the Queen at events of

his choosing. But this was his final

official public engagement.

Fittingly for a former Royal Navy

officer, it was a parade for the

Royal Marines in front of the palace

which has been his London home for

so many decades.

The band's rousing sendoff could not

have been more appropriate.

# For he's a jolly good fellow.

The UK's exit from the EU edges ever

closer and new relationships need to

be formed in Europe and beyond and

as this year has shown, the Royal

Family is uniquely placed to carry

out soft diplomacy, spreading a

little Stardust while reinforcing

those old bonds of friendship.

APPLAUSE.

In the United Kingdom, Irish people

make such an extraordinary and

essential contribution to so many

parts of our society and our

economy.

Polish is a second most spoken

language in the UK, with the

generation of young people growing

up who feel both British and Polish.

APPLAUSE.

September and some high-profile

bilateral meetings for Prince Harry

in Canada. But this trip was not at

the behest of the Foreign Office. He

was there to help make his

brainchild, the Invictus Games, the

biggest and best yet. For eight

days, more than 500 athletes from 17

countries took part. All of them had

been damaged either physically or

mentally in the course of serving

their countries. The Invictus Games

where Harry's idea to help them on

their road to recovery.

Right now,

you are on a high, at the summit of

a mountain many of you thought was

too high to climb. You have done it,

this is the moment, right here,

right now, shoulder to shoulder, you

are Invictus!

APPLAUSE.

The Sydney games will take place in

October in what is shaping up to be

a busy 2018 for Prince Harry.

Tonight on Panorama... The offshore

secrets of the rich and powerful alt

in the open.

In the year in which

Royal headlines were overwhelmingly

positive, early November was an

early exception. The Queen and

Prince Charles were drawn into a

global media story looking into

offshore investment funds. A league

of millions of documents revealed

that the Duchy of Lancaster, the

Queen 's private estate, had

invested £10 million in funds based

in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.

Not a legal but questions were asked

as to whether this should be held

the Monica's cash should be

invested. As Prince Charles toured

the Far East, the same questions

will be asked of his private estate,

the Duchy of Cornwall, as well as

investing offshore, the Prince was

also accused of a conflict of

interest in relation to a particular

investment. Clarence House was

robust in their denial of any

wrongdoing. The fact that both the

Queen and the Prince of Wales

voluntarily pay tax on income from

the private estates did not stop

calls for greater transparency in

the Royal finances in the wake of

these revelations. In times of

tragedy, it is the role of the

monarch to help console and unite

the nation and sadly, this year, the

Queen and other members of the Royal

Family have been called upon to

perform this duty all too often.

Starting here in Westminster in

March, when five people were killed.

Two days after the terror attack,

Prince Charles met some of the staff

at Kings College Hospital, one of

several places the injured were

treated. Westminster Abbey and the

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and

Prince Harry joined members of the

emergency services and relatives of

those who were killed.

The message from the service was one

of hope, but that proved to be short

lived. In Manchester, just a few

weeks later, 22 people, including

children, were killed and many more

injured as they left a concert by

the pop singer Ariana Grande.

You

had enjoyed the concert? It was

really good. They got to meet before

the concert. E.g.? She won a

competition with her friend to meet

backstage.

The Queen met some of

those recovering in the city's

Children's Hospital.

It is very

interesting how everybody has united

here?

It has been amazing. Really

amazing.

Good.

No one should have to

suffer the losses you have enjoyed

yet know one could have ensured them

with greater fortitude. Even amid

the unimaginable horror of that

attack, with the killing of innocent

children, we saw outstanding

examples of the incredible courage.

Early June and Nell and

all-too-familiar scene. Prince

Charles accompanied by the Duchess

of Cornwall visited the Royal London

Hospital in the aftermath of the

London Bridge attack. They do that

month, a community devastated this

time by fire. -- later that month.

We were evacuated. The flames were

just unbelievable.

You have done a

brilliant job...

Two days after the

Grenfell Tower burned, the Queen and

Prince William listen to some of

those who tried to help. Six months

later, watched by members of the

Royal Family, school children who

lived near the tower scattered green

hearts in memory of those who died.

This was a National Service of

Remembrance, community and hope that

a tragedy such as this would never

be repeated.

Princes William and Harry were just

15 and 12 when their mother, Diana,

Princess of Wells, died. By their

own admission, in the years since

they had spoken very little about

the impact on them off death but

this year, 20 years on, they decided

to open up about their own trauma

and their hope was they could start

a national conversation around the

issue of mental health. This was the

William, Catherine and Harry showed

how persuasive are for secondary.

The initiative was picked as a

London Marathon's the charity. That

high-profile event enabled them to

highlight mental health and the

stigma which can surround it.

It was

the common thread, mental health, it

seemed to run between military with

your self and addiction with me and

bereavement, there was the

underlying threat of mental health.

The pressures on children these days

are more than ask, you have so many

things to worry about, whether it is

struggling with exams or home life

or friends and then the social media

angle. You can understand why that

coupled with staring at the screen

the whole time, that a lot of issues

will build from that.

It is always

sold as if everybody else's life is

perfect and you think, there must be

something wrong with me.

If you can

have a family environment where you

can talk about your issues, that

means working better at your job,

doing better at school, it goes on

and on.

It was a very personal

campaign for the Princes, they took

part in a BBC documentary following

a group of people with mental health

issues as they trained for the

marathon.

The shock is the biggest

thing and 20 years later, I still

have shock within me about my

mother, shock cannot last that long,

people think, but it does. You never

get over that, such a nonbeliever be

big moment in your life and it never

leaves you, you just learn to deal

with it.

It can have been no

coincidence that William and Harry

chose this year to open up about

their mother. In August, just as had

been the case in 1997, the gates

guarding Kensington Palace were

strewn with flowers and other

tributes to Diana, Princess of

Wells. A reminder that memory lives

on in the public consciousness.

Looking at them, it was impossible

not to think back to the young

princes in the days following her

death in a car accident in Paris. 20

years on, Harry spoke of the shock

they both thought. As part of their

mental health campaign, William and

Catherine appeared on radio one.

It

is Friday the 21st of April, it is

4pm and this is very Official Chart.

Between now and 5:45pm we will bring

you the big stories, new entries and

high climbers and the top ten in

full!

In a very informal interview

with DJ Scott Mills, they painted a

picture of life behind the palace

walls.

Are you a Lloyd -- allowed to

order a takeaway if you want to?

Absolutely! Definitely.

Pizza,

Chinese? Curry!

We are finding it so

much! What do you watch on

television? The Crown? Do you think,

it's not like that at all!

People

have asked me about that, we are

both on -- big on box sets, once we

get time in the evening.

Once the

children are in bed. You have to

watch all those children's

programmes as well?

Yes, lots of

children's programmes! Some of them

are really good but you have to

pretend you're interested because

George gets very upset if you're not

showing due diligence to the

characters.

Starting in September,

Prince George would have had less

time to watch television as he

started school. He had to undertake

this rite of passage with only daddy

for company as his mother was

suffering from severe morning

sickness. He is now a reception

pupil at Thomas' Battersea, unmixed

fee-paying school in South London.

His classmates know him simply as

George Cambridge. Looking ahead to

2018, the Royal Family is set to

look a little different. There will

be a new sibling for Prince George

and Princess Charlotte and also

joining their ranks, a Californian

born actress and soon-to-be wife