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Tonight we celebrate 60 years of the Queen's reign. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
We're at Westminster Abbey, the church which has seen | 0:00:04 | 0:00:07 | |
more royal occasions than anywhere else. | 0:00:07 | 0:00:09 | |
Weddings, funerals, coronations, births and deaths, | 0:00:09 | 0:00:13 | |
this place has seen them all over more than 1,000 years. | 0:00:13 | 0:00:17 | |
Welcome to National Treasures Jubilee Special. | 0:00:17 | 0:00:20 | |
Welcome to Westminster Abbey. | 0:00:41 | 0:00:43 | |
Royal church, World Heritage site | 0:00:43 | 0:00:46 | |
and one of the most visited historic buildings in the UK. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:49 | |
Over the next hour we'll be visiting some of the abbey's secret spaces, | 0:00:49 | 0:00:53 | |
talking to the people who keep it looking so beautiful | 0:00:53 | 0:00:56 | |
and revisiting some extraordinary moments from its long history. | 0:00:56 | 0:01:00 | |
Hello, Michael, lovely to meet you. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:05 | |
Coming up, fashion icon, Twiggy, | 0:01:05 | 0:01:07 | |
on the dos and don'ts of dressing the queen. | 0:01:07 | 0:01:10 | |
I was wearing skirts probably up to here then. | 0:01:10 | 0:01:13 | |
EastEnder Larry Lamb | 0:01:13 | 0:01:14 | |
comes face to face with the current craze for '50s nostalgia. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:18 | |
The '50s was a time that people | 0:01:18 | 0:01:19 | |
sort of fantasised as being that perfect time. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:23 | |
And he also joins us here later. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:25 | |
Lucy Worsley gets a bit regal as she retraces | 0:01:26 | 0:01:29 | |
Queen Victoria's 1897 Diamond Jubilee procession. | 0:01:29 | 0:01:34 | |
And Michael Douglas from The One Show joins me | 0:01:35 | 0:01:38 | |
on a royal road trip in search of the origins of our monarchy. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:43 | |
You would sit on here and I would go, | 0:01:43 | 0:01:45 | |
"Oh, by the power of Almighty God, I will be..." | 0:01:45 | 0:01:48 | |
Pretend to put a crown on me. | 0:01:48 | 0:01:51 | |
-I give up. -Put a crown on me. Come on. | 0:01:51 | 0:01:54 | |
I don't know why I bother. | 0:01:57 | 0:01:59 | |
It's fair to say that this place lends itself to superlatives, | 0:01:59 | 0:02:01 | |
and that goes for the fabric of the building, | 0:02:01 | 0:02:04 | |
not just its incredible history. | 0:02:04 | 0:02:06 | |
Most of the abbey dates back to 1245, | 0:02:06 | 0:02:09 | |
when Henry III rebuilt it in grand Gothic style. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:13 | |
He was mainly showing off to the French | 0:02:13 | 0:02:15 | |
so of course he made sure that this was as high as possible. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:19 | |
In fact, it's still the highest church in England. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:23 | |
All of which means from up here in the triforium, | 0:02:23 | 0:02:25 | |
one of the few spaces in the abbey not currently open to the public, | 0:02:25 | 0:02:28 | |
I get a glimpse of what was once called | 0:02:28 | 0:02:31 | |
the best view in Europe. | 0:02:31 | 0:02:33 | |
It's not too bad from down here either, Dan. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:37 | |
This year we're celebrating 60 years of the Queen's reign. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:41 | |
She became queen in February 1952 when her father died, | 0:02:41 | 0:02:45 | |
but her coronation didn't take place until almost 18 months later, | 0:02:45 | 0:02:49 | |
on 2nd June 1953. | 0:02:49 | 0:02:52 | |
The ceremony was held here, like all royal coronations, | 0:02:52 | 0:02:56 | |
and the abbey was closed from the beginning of that year | 0:02:56 | 0:02:59 | |
for the elaborate preparations. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:01 | |
Normally, the abbey can seat around 2,000 people, | 0:03:01 | 0:03:04 | |
but they wanted enough space for 8,000. | 0:03:04 | 0:03:07 | |
Tonnes of steel and wood were brought in | 0:03:07 | 0:03:10 | |
to build seating galleries. | 0:03:10 | 0:03:13 | |
They were stacked up on top of one another, | 0:03:13 | 0:03:15 | |
and it transformed the building. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:17 | |
By the morning of June 2nd, everything was ready. | 0:03:17 | 0:03:19 | |
Everyone taking part had rehearsed | 0:03:19 | 0:03:22 | |
so that the event would go flawlessly. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:24 | |
CHOIR SING NATIONAL ANTHEM | 0:03:24 | 0:03:27 | |
And for the very first time it was televised live | 0:03:30 | 0:03:33 | |
to a fascinated nation, bringing the pomp and ceremony | 0:03:33 | 0:03:37 | |
of the occasion to more than half the population. | 0:03:37 | 0:03:40 | |
Two people who were in the abbey on that very day | 0:03:48 | 0:03:50 | |
are here to share some of their memories. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:52 | |
David Bainbridge and David Overton were part of | 0:03:52 | 0:03:55 | |
the 350-strong choir who sang during the ceremony. | 0:03:55 | 0:03:59 | |
Welcome, gentlemen, thank you for coming back. | 0:03:59 | 0:04:01 | |
You were young boys when you sang here. How old are you? | 0:04:01 | 0:04:04 | |
I was just 12. | 0:04:04 | 0:04:07 | |
12 years old! | 0:04:07 | 0:04:08 | |
-I was only ten. -Gosh! | 0:04:08 | 0:04:10 | |
-Happy memories, I imagine. -Amazing. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
How did you first get involved? | 0:04:13 | 0:04:15 | |
After the late king passed away, the Royal School of Church Music | 0:04:15 | 0:04:19 | |
ran a series of choir festivals throughout the year, | 0:04:19 | 0:04:22 | |
attended by something over 4,000 choristers from around the country. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:27 | |
And the next thing I knew at Christmas time that year, | 0:04:27 | 0:04:29 | |
was that I was going to be singing here in the Abbey. | 0:04:29 | 0:04:32 | |
And you had a lot of rehearsals away from home, spent a month away from home? | 0:04:32 | 0:04:35 | |
Yes, we did. We were told that we would spend a month at Addington Palace near Croydon. | 0:04:35 | 0:04:41 | |
NEWSREEL: They come from all parts of the United Kingdom and tomorrow, | 0:04:41 | 0:04:44 | |
in the Abbey, they will join nearly 400 other choristers. | 0:04:44 | 0:04:48 | |
And the BBC filmed it as well. What's it like when you look back at the footage? | 0:04:49 | 0:04:53 | |
It was amazing. I mean, it was something very special that happened in my life, yes. | 0:04:53 | 0:04:59 | |
# Long live the king! | 0:04:59 | 0:05:01 | |
# Long live the king! # | 0:05:01 | 0:05:03 | |
What about you, David Overton? This place more familiar to you, because you were part of the Abbey choir? | 0:05:03 | 0:05:07 | |
Familiar in the sense that we sang as the Abbey choir every day | 0:05:07 | 0:05:12 | |
in the choir stalls just behind us. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:14 | |
But of course, for the coronation, the whole Abbey had been transformed into a different place. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:20 | |
Were you aware of the significance of the day? | 0:05:20 | 0:05:22 | |
No. | 0:05:22 | 0:05:24 | |
Frankly, for a ten-year-old boy, I was just too young, immature, | 0:05:24 | 0:05:32 | |
to grasp just what a momentous occasion it was. | 0:05:32 | 0:05:36 | |
Were you badly behaved at any stage? | 0:05:36 | 0:05:38 | |
There must have been a lot of hanging around, a lot of waiting. You must have got bored, surely? | 0:05:38 | 0:05:43 | |
Not badly behaved. Good heavens! Abbey choristers?! | 0:05:43 | 0:05:45 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:05:45 | 0:05:47 | |
I do remember that when we got into the Abbey, when we got to our seats, | 0:05:47 | 0:05:52 | |
we found in our cassock pockets ham sandwiches, barley sugars, and an apple. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:59 | |
Which were intended to sustain us for the hours of the day. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:02 | |
But of course, they didn't last long, we soon polished those off! | 0:06:02 | 0:06:06 | |
And I remember dropping the apple cores down the scaffolding poles! | 0:06:06 | 0:06:11 | |
Oooh! You wouldn't have done that, would you?! | 0:06:12 | 0:06:14 | |
No, no, no. Ours was pillow fights at Addington Palace after dark, | 0:06:14 | 0:06:18 | |
it was a lot of fun. | 0:06:18 | 0:06:20 | |
David Overton, give us a sense of how it feels now to have been part of that special day. | 0:06:20 | 0:06:24 | |
Now, the recollections of the event, having listened to the recording, | 0:06:24 | 0:06:30 | |
having seen the filming, | 0:06:30 | 0:06:32 | |
becomes actually even larger than the recollection at the time. | 0:06:32 | 0:06:38 | |
Those are the memories of the pageant, the music, | 0:06:38 | 0:06:43 | |
the spectacle of a unique occasion which you obviously experience once in a lifetime. | 0:06:43 | 0:06:50 | |
We're very pleased to have had you here. Thank you very much, David Bainbridge and David Overton. | 0:06:50 | 0:06:54 | |
-My pleasure, thank you. -Thank you. | 0:06:54 | 0:06:56 | |
Well, the queen's coronation was the 38th to have been held here. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:00 | |
But have you ever wondered why we have kings and queens in the first place? | 0:07:00 | 0:07:04 | |
Michael Douglas from The One Show has, so Dan lured him out | 0:07:04 | 0:07:07 | |
on another of their history road trips to fill him in. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:10 | |
Cue the camper van! | 0:07:10 | 0:07:12 | |
So he's asked me to meet him up here somewhere. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:16 | |
I don't know how I'm supposed to find him with all this fog! | 0:07:16 | 0:07:19 | |
I'm just glad I'm in a van this time, because as ever, | 0:07:19 | 0:07:22 | |
we're meeting at the top of a hill! | 0:07:22 | 0:07:24 | |
I mean, what is it with Dan Snow and hills? | 0:07:24 | 0:07:27 | |
Look at him up there! | 0:07:27 | 0:07:29 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:07:29 | 0:07:31 | |
Look at him up there! | 0:07:31 | 0:07:33 | |
HE GROANS | 0:07:37 | 0:07:38 | |
Oh yeah! I've only got three pairs of shoes, and these ones are knackered! | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
-How are you doing, buddy? -I'm all right. You all right? | 0:07:42 | 0:07:45 | |
-Yeah, good. -So why am I here? Why have you brought me up here? | 0:07:45 | 0:07:47 | |
This story is all about royal history, Michael. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:49 | |
Yeah, I've got a question for you about royal history. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:52 | |
Why have we got a queen? | 0:07:52 | 0:07:53 | |
That's a good question. To answer it, we've come to Edinburgh, | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
which is one of the most important centres of royal power in Britain. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:02 | |
For hundreds of years, our queen's ancestors used to rule Scotland from that castle over there. | 0:08:02 | 0:08:08 | |
And it's still important, not least because it's got the Stone of Destiny. | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
The Stone of... Has it got a sword sticking out of it or something?! | 0:08:11 | 0:08:15 | |
-Different stone. -Yeah? | 0:08:15 | 0:08:17 | |
Right, let's go and see the Stone of Destiny, then. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:19 | |
Yeah, there's a bit of a problem with that actually, Michael. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:22 | |
-No, it's just over there. You said it was in the castle. You said it. -Just get in the car. | 0:08:22 | 0:08:26 | |
So why can't we just go and film the Stone of Destiny at the castle? | 0:08:30 | 0:08:34 | |
Because the Stone of Destiny is such an important national treasure, | 0:08:34 | 0:08:37 | |
it's so precious that people like us just can't come and just film it at random! | 0:08:37 | 0:08:42 | |
Not even Dan Snow can just go, "Oh, I'm going to film that!"? | 0:08:42 | 0:08:45 | |
Well, understandably, they needed a bit more time to arrange it. | 0:08:45 | 0:08:49 | |
Dan No, that's what we'll call you from now on! | 0:08:49 | 0:08:51 | |
To be honest, it's OK, because we're going to a place that's just as interesting, just as important. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:55 | |
Because like the stone, the place we're going to is about the extraordinary tradition | 0:08:55 | 0:08:59 | |
that this country has of monarchy. | 0:08:59 | 0:09:02 | |
Well, this is pretty impressive, is it not? This is Scone Palace, is it? | 0:09:15 | 0:09:19 | |
-Exactly. Looks exactly like a palace should, as well. -It does, yeah! | 0:09:19 | 0:09:22 | |
Even before Edinburgh became this important city, | 0:09:22 | 0:09:25 | |
this was a major centre of royal power in Britain. | 0:09:25 | 0:09:27 | |
This was a time when Britain was divided up into all these tiny little kingdoms. | 0:09:27 | 0:09:31 | |
-They're all over the place? -Yeah. -OK. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:33 | |
All these little kings everywhere and of course, they spent a lot of time fighting each other. | 0:09:33 | 0:09:37 | |
-Yeah, yeah. -Round about the 800s, you get a king up here, | 0:09:37 | 0:09:41 | |
in what is today Scotland, called Kenneth McAlpin. | 0:09:41 | 0:09:43 | |
King Kenneth emerges and he starts - and his descendants - | 0:09:43 | 0:09:47 | |
they start to bring all these little kingdoms together. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:49 | |
They create larger kingdoms, and that's how we get to where we are today. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:53 | |
So what's all that got to do with the Stone of Scone, or the Scone of Destiny, or whatever? | 0:09:53 | 0:09:56 | |
-I'm glad you asked, buddy. Come and look at this. -OK, OK. | 0:09:56 | 0:09:59 | |
-So it's in here, is it? -No, it's there. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:02 | |
-That is the Stone of Scone. -What, they've left it outside?! | 0:10:02 | 0:10:06 | |
-Yeah. -That's not very good, is it?! | 0:10:06 | 0:10:07 | |
-Well, it's a replica. -Oh, so you've brought me to a fake stone? | 0:10:07 | 0:10:10 | |
Well, yes, but it's what it represents, Michael. | 0:10:10 | 0:10:13 | |
This hillock here is where the ancient kings of Scotland were crowned. | 0:10:13 | 0:10:17 | |
This is where they came to and they sat on the Stone of Scone, | 0:10:17 | 0:10:20 | |
and had the crown placed on their heads. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:22 | |
Shift up. Let's have a sit. | 0:10:22 | 0:10:24 | |
But it is just a stone? I mean, it's a fake stone. | 0:10:24 | 0:10:26 | |
Yeah, but Michael, a crown is just a hat that lets the weather in! | 0:10:26 | 0:10:30 | |
-Right? It's all about this hillock, this stone. -This fake stone. | 0:10:30 | 0:10:35 | |
This... the replica, yeah. The crown, taken together, | 0:10:35 | 0:10:39 | |
they create an impression of dominating royal authority | 0:10:39 | 0:10:43 | |
that's very hard to mess with. | 0:10:43 | 0:10:45 | |
-So, you would have been crowned here, would you? You'd sit on this thing... -Yeah. -Shift up. | 0:10:45 | 0:10:49 | |
So, you would sit on here and I would go, "By the power of Almighty God, I will be..." | 0:10:49 | 0:10:56 | |
-Pretend to put a crown on me. I'll hold on to the rings. -I give up. -Put a crown on me! | 0:10:56 | 0:11:00 | |
Come on! King Michael! Of Scone! | 0:11:00 | 0:11:04 | |
Come on! | 0:11:04 | 0:11:06 | |
What are these for, anyway? | 0:11:06 | 0:11:09 | |
So, I get all that, you know, | 0:11:15 | 0:11:16 | |
that there was lots of kings and one thing or another. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:19 | |
But how did it get to a point where there is just one | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
that governs the whole of Great Britain or whatever? | 0:11:22 | 0:11:25 | |
Centuries of warfare. You get these kingdoms slowly emerge, like Scotland, England. | 0:11:25 | 0:11:30 | |
They slowly swallow up all these other kingdoms, and then they fight each other a lot, | 0:11:30 | 0:11:33 | |
and then finally, Henry VIII, you know King Henry VIII of England? | 0:11:33 | 0:11:37 | |
-Yeah, yeah. -His sister marries the king of Scotland and her grandson becomes the Scottish king. | 0:11:37 | 0:11:42 | |
But because he's got English blood in him as well, finally, he becomes king of England as well. | 0:11:42 | 0:11:47 | |
He joins the two crowns together. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:49 | |
So he's King James VI of Scotland, he becomes King James I of England. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:53 | |
And he calls himself the king of Great Britain. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:56 | |
So, since then, that's been it, | 0:11:56 | 0:11:57 | |
-there's just been one kind of ruler or king or queen or whatever for England and Scotland? -Yeah. | 0:11:57 | 0:12:00 | |
Yeah. There's just been one British crown - | 0:12:00 | 0:12:03 | |
-with one brief exception. -And what's that? | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
-I'll tell you about it when we get back on the road. -Yeah? | 0:12:06 | 0:12:09 | |
Can I watch Braveheart in there, in the truck? | 0:12:09 | 0:12:11 | |
-Braveheart...is total nonsense. -All right, what about Rob Roy...? | 0:12:11 | 0:12:15 | |
He didn't get to watch Braveheart, by the way. I wasn't having it. | 0:12:15 | 0:12:18 | |
But despite my best efforts, | 0:12:18 | 0:12:20 | |
Michael was a little underwhelmed by the replica Stone of Destiny. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:24 | |
Of course, the real stone lived here in this abbey | 0:12:24 | 0:12:27 | |
between 1296 and 1996, where it sat in the Coronation Chair. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:34 | |
It's now back in Scotland - | 0:12:34 | 0:12:35 | |
although it will return here next time we crown a new king or queen. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:40 | |
But the chair - just as significant in terms of royal ritual - still here. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:45 | |
At the moment it's tucked away behind glass in a conservation booth, | 0:12:45 | 0:12:49 | |
but you can still get a good look at it. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:52 | |
Staggeringly, it's the oldest piece of furniture in the UK | 0:12:52 | 0:12:55 | |
still used for its original purpose. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:58 | |
More than 700 years old, it's older than the Crown Jewels | 0:12:59 | 0:13:02 | |
and it's been used in the coronation of every English and British monarch since 1399. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:09 | |
Just think about that - Henry VIII, Queen Victoria | 0:13:09 | 0:13:12 | |
and our own Queen - | 0:13:12 | 0:13:14 | |
separated by centuries, | 0:13:14 | 0:13:16 | |
but they all sat in that chair to receive the crown. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:19 | |
But it hasn't had an easy life, and it's covered in scars. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:23 | |
Early last century, the suffragettes hung a bomb on it | 0:13:23 | 0:13:26 | |
and blew off one of the posts from the top. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:28 | |
In the Victorian period, conservators did a slightly ill-advised | 0:13:28 | 0:13:32 | |
Changing Rooms-style makeover, and covered it in thick brown varnish. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:37 | |
And before all that, it was the fashion for boys | 0:13:37 | 0:13:41 | |
from Westminster School to carve their names into it. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
200-year-old graffiti, which proves that small boys | 0:13:44 | 0:13:47 | |
have always liked to make their mark on things. | 0:13:47 | 0:13:50 | |
Most of the Abbey has stayed free from graffiti | 0:13:50 | 0:13:53 | |
and untouched by the vandals of history - | 0:13:53 | 0:13:56 | |
nothing more perhaps than the stunning choir stalls here, | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
and they give you a pretty good indication | 0:13:59 | 0:14:01 | |
of just how important music has been, | 0:14:01 | 0:14:03 | |
and remains, to the services which are held here. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:06 | |
# The Red Sea stayed them not at all | 0:14:07 | 0:14:14 | |
# Nor depths of liquid green | 0:14:14 | 0:14:19 | |
# On either hand a mighty wall... # | 0:14:19 | 0:14:24 | |
Because of the height of the Abbey, which Dan mentioned, | 0:14:24 | 0:14:27 | |
there are particularly beautiful acoustics. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:31 | |
And over the years, composers including Handel | 0:14:31 | 0:14:33 | |
and Elgar have written music just to be performed here. | 0:14:33 | 0:14:37 | |
# ..And they passed through between. # | 0:14:37 | 0:14:41 | |
James, thank you very much, and thank you, boys, that was absolutely stunning. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:48 | |
Omar, you perform, like all the choristers, about eight times a week. | 0:14:48 | 0:14:53 | |
Are there those special occasions you can remember? | 0:14:53 | 0:14:55 | |
Erm, I think the Royal Wedding | 0:14:55 | 0:14:58 | |
was the most memorable occasion we've done. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
We've also done lots of other great services, | 0:15:01 | 0:15:04 | |
like the Papal visits. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:06 | |
Also once when Barack Obama came | 0:15:06 | 0:15:08 | |
and we got to shake his hand. That was just great, | 0:15:08 | 0:15:11 | |
because he's one of the most powerful people in the world. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:15 | |
But I think the Royal Wedding, definitely. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:17 | |
Orlando, because you perform so often in the Abbey, | 0:15:17 | 0:15:20 | |
do you get more nervous when visiting dignitaries or the Queen | 0:15:20 | 0:15:24 | |
or the Royal Family come to listen to you? | 0:15:24 | 0:15:26 | |
It's much more nerve-wracking when royalty are here. | 0:15:26 | 0:15:29 | |
But that adrenaline really keeps everyone concentrating very hard, | 0:15:29 | 0:15:33 | |
and so generally the services come out | 0:15:33 | 0:15:36 | |
just as good if not better. | 0:15:36 | 0:15:37 | |
But we try to be at the top of our game all the time. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:39 | |
Well, you sang beautifully. Thanks once again to you and all the Abbey choristers. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:43 | |
Well, as the choristers said, the Queen does show up here quite a lot | 0:15:45 | 0:15:48 | |
and not just for the big occasions. | 0:15:48 | 0:15:50 | |
That's partly to do with the Abbey's special status. | 0:15:50 | 0:15:53 | |
It's known as a Royal Peculiar, | 0:15:53 | 0:15:55 | |
which is a slightly strange term for a very unusual situation. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:59 | |
It basically means that the Abbey is answerable only to the Queen. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:03 | |
She appoints the Dean, who's basically in charge of the place, | 0:16:03 | 0:16:06 | |
and as a result it's pretty much her church. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:09 | |
And over her lifetime she's come here hundreds of times. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:13 | |
To commemorate those visits, the Abbey has put together | 0:16:14 | 0:16:17 | |
an exhibition of photos here in the Chapter House. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:21 | |
Dating back to the 13th century, this is where the Abbey's monks | 0:16:21 | 0:16:24 | |
met each morning to pray and receive their orders for the day. | 0:16:24 | 0:16:27 | |
And, just for today, it's also home to Victoria Murphy, a Royal correspondent. | 0:16:27 | 0:16:31 | |
-Hi, Victoria. -Hi. | 0:16:31 | 0:16:33 | |
What does this exhibition tell us | 0:16:33 | 0:16:35 | |
about the Queen's relationship with the Abbey? | 0:16:35 | 0:16:37 | |
Well, it tells us that she's been here a lot! | 0:16:37 | 0:16:39 | |
Right from when she was a little girl | 0:16:39 | 0:16:41 | |
right up until very recently, the Queen has a real relationship | 0:16:41 | 0:16:45 | |
with this Abbey that's been built up over many, many years. | 0:16:45 | 0:16:47 | |
Is it just work, or do you think she has a personal connection with this building? | 0:16:47 | 0:16:51 | |
Obviously she does come here for big State occasions, | 0:16:51 | 0:16:54 | |
but I think it is more than that, because so many | 0:16:54 | 0:16:57 | |
personal moments in her life have taken place here - | 0:16:57 | 0:16:59 | |
you've had weddings, funerals, | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
you've had moments of great joy and moments of great sadness - | 0:17:02 | 0:17:04 | |
and she can't come here for all those personal occasions | 0:17:04 | 0:17:08 | |
and not feel a personal closeness to the building itself. | 0:17:08 | 0:17:11 | |
There are many amazing pictures to choose from here, | 0:17:11 | 0:17:13 | |
spreading over a long life. | 0:17:13 | 0:17:16 | |
What are some of your particular favourites you think shine a light on the Queen? | 0:17:16 | 0:17:20 | |
I really like this one, | 0:17:20 | 0:17:21 | |
because I like the fact that it's the Queen and Margaret. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:24 | |
She was 11 in this picture, | 0:17:24 | 0:17:25 | |
and it was just before her dad's coronation. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:28 | |
For the first ten years of her life she had no idea she was going to become Queen, | 0:17:28 | 0:17:32 | |
and so the sense of just this young girl | 0:17:32 | 0:17:34 | |
with no idea of what lies before her I think is a really nice moment. | 0:17:34 | 0:17:38 | |
The other ones I like - | 0:17:38 | 0:17:40 | |
it's got to be this one, her wedding day. | 0:17:40 | 0:17:43 | |
I think it's such an amazing picture, | 0:17:43 | 0:17:46 | |
because you can really get a sense of the nervous bride | 0:17:46 | 0:17:48 | |
on her wedding day, and, you know, she was a princess, | 0:17:48 | 0:17:51 | |
and her father walking her down the aisle was the King, | 0:17:51 | 0:17:54 | |
but they're almost just like any other father and daughter | 0:17:54 | 0:17:57 | |
on a wedding day, and I think that's what's so lovely about it, | 0:17:57 | 0:17:59 | |
you can feel the nervousness in this picture, | 0:17:59 | 0:18:01 | |
you can almost feel King George VI leaning in protectively towards her, | 0:18:01 | 0:18:05 | |
because she is his little girl, and he's giving her away. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:08 | |
On that subject, emotion. | 0:18:08 | 0:18:10 | |
I sometimes think the Queen looks like she's going through the motions | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
at events like this. Are there any pictures | 0:18:13 | 0:18:16 | |
where you get a sense of her personality, her enjoying herself? | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
I think the Queen does often look like she's enjoying herself. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:22 | |
People say sometimes she looks glum | 0:18:22 | 0:18:24 | |
but if you look at some pictures later on in the exhibition, | 0:18:24 | 0:18:27 | |
some of the ones taken more recently, you can see she's smiling | 0:18:27 | 0:18:31 | |
and you've got to be fair to her | 0:18:31 | 0:18:33 | |
because a lot of the occasions she goes to, it's befitting for her | 0:18:33 | 0:18:36 | |
not to be grinning away if she's at a memorial service or something. | 0:18:36 | 0:18:41 | |
So looking back on these photographs, all the outfits, the events, | 0:18:41 | 0:18:44 | |
what's your favourite era of the Queen's reign? | 0:18:44 | 0:18:46 | |
Well, I like... My favourite pictures to look at | 0:18:46 | 0:18:50 | |
are the pictures of the Queen just after she came to the throne | 0:18:50 | 0:18:54 | |
when she was a young Queen in sort of the early mid-'50s | 0:18:54 | 0:18:57 | |
because I think we forget she was once a young, really attractive, | 0:18:57 | 0:19:00 | |
quite glamorous young sovereign | 0:19:00 | 0:19:02 | |
and she was captivating people | 0:19:02 | 0:19:04 | |
in the way that Kate's captivating people now. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:07 | |
Thanks, Victoria. You're not the only one to get nostalgic | 0:19:07 | 0:19:10 | |
about the early years of the Queen's reign. | 0:19:10 | 0:19:12 | |
'50s nostalgia is big business these days | 0:19:12 | 0:19:14 | |
and we've sent Larry Lamb off to investigate. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:17 | |
1953. | 0:19:21 | 0:19:22 | |
The Second World War had been over for eight years. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
Britain was the third richest country in the world. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:29 | |
It had a population of 50 million people | 0:19:29 | 0:19:31 | |
but just 3 million cars. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:33 | |
The average weekly wage was £9 | 0:19:33 | 0:19:36 | |
and a pint of milk would have set you back 9p. | 0:19:36 | 0:19:38 | |
And I was six years old | 0:19:41 | 0:19:43 | |
and a great fan of Muffin the Mule and the Flowerpot Men. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:46 | |
# We want Muffin | 0:19:46 | 0:19:48 | |
# Muffin the Mule... # | 0:19:48 | 0:19:50 | |
60 years have passed since then, but still some people today are obsessed | 0:19:50 | 0:19:55 | |
with the spirit of the good old days. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:57 | |
Polka-dot milk jugs, all sorts of kitsch | 0:19:57 | 0:19:59 | |
or the make-do-and-mend attitude of '50s Britain. | 0:19:59 | 0:20:01 | |
People look back on it with nostalgic affection. | 0:20:01 | 0:20:04 | |
-# "MUSIC: "Rock Around the Clock" -When I think of '50s Britain, | 0:20:04 | 0:20:08 | |
I think of Churchill | 0:20:08 | 0:20:09 | |
and the invasion of rock 'n' roll. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:12 | |
But there is one particular day that sticks out in my mind. | 0:20:12 | 0:20:16 | |
My most vivid memory of Coronation Day was the street party we had | 0:20:16 | 0:20:20 | |
with kids from all around the area sitting at great long tables, | 0:20:20 | 0:20:23 | |
eating cakes and sweets and having the most amazing time. | 0:20:23 | 0:20:27 | |
Now, that one there, if you have a look, they've got the Vimto, | 0:20:27 | 0:20:30 | |
they've all drunk it, all the children. | 0:20:30 | 0:20:32 | |
It wasn't just me. | 0:20:32 | 0:20:34 | |
This was a feeling shared by most of my generation. | 0:20:34 | 0:20:36 | |
I've come to Cardiff to meet Rita and Dal Spinola | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
to share their memories. | 0:20:39 | 0:20:41 | |
I was about 14 | 0:20:41 | 0:20:43 | |
but we had a lovely party. | 0:20:43 | 0:20:45 | |
We had jelly and blancmange, we had Carnation Milk, | 0:20:45 | 0:20:49 | |
-paste sandwiches, not ham. -Paste sandwiches! -Yes. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:52 | |
Lovely Shippam's Paste sandwiches. | 0:20:52 | 0:20:54 | |
You see cakes today | 0:20:54 | 0:20:55 | |
with little coloured speckles thrown all over them. | 0:20:55 | 0:20:58 | |
At the Coronation, that was the first time I ever seen them, | 0:20:58 | 0:21:01 | |
-over the trifle. -Really? | 0:21:01 | 0:21:02 | |
And there were races, yeah, along the street. | 0:21:02 | 0:21:05 | |
That's the men's races there, running down the street. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:08 | |
-We had musical chairs. -Where did you get the music? | 0:21:08 | 0:21:11 | |
-Piano. -You put a piano in the street? | 0:21:11 | 0:21:13 | |
Yes, we always had a piano in the street. | 0:21:13 | 0:21:15 | |
-My father's favourite was The Laughing Policeman. -Oh, yeah. | 0:21:15 | 0:21:19 | |
He always did that and everybody was hysterical. | 0:21:19 | 0:21:22 | |
-He did it? -He did The Laughing Policeman, yes. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:24 | |
-Wa-ha-ha! -That's it! | 0:21:24 | 0:21:26 | |
# Wa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! # | 0:21:26 | 0:21:28 | |
And it's not just the people who were there. | 0:21:28 | 0:21:32 | |
There's a whole new generation who are in love with that era's charm | 0:21:32 | 0:21:36 | |
and look back at that time fondly. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:39 | |
It's the 1953 Coronation. | 0:21:39 | 0:21:42 | |
It just sums up what I'm so proud of. | 0:21:42 | 0:21:45 | |
It's my family there at a street party | 0:21:45 | 0:21:47 | |
and people are really proud to be patriotic. | 0:21:47 | 0:21:50 | |
And it's just a real feeling of unity and hope. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:53 | |
Angel, Rosie and Lauren are in love with all things '50s | 0:21:53 | 0:21:57 | |
and they're not the only ones. | 0:21:57 | 0:22:00 | |
There is a massive movement in vintage right now. | 0:22:00 | 0:22:02 | |
I walked past one of the biggest department stores | 0:22:02 | 0:22:05 | |
and it said, "Have a vintage summer." | 0:22:05 | 0:22:07 | |
It's not just about clothing. It's not just about hairstyles, make-up. | 0:22:07 | 0:22:11 | |
It's infiltrating the mainstream. | 0:22:11 | 0:22:13 | |
This whole word "vintage" is very fashionable and popular right now. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:17 | |
-Why do you think that's happened? -Because there has been | 0:22:17 | 0:22:20 | |
over sort of the '80s and the '90s, early 2000s, | 0:22:20 | 0:22:24 | |
things have been a bit fast for us all | 0:22:24 | 0:22:27 | |
and actually, what we're trying to say now is that, | 0:22:27 | 0:22:31 | |
"Let's slow down a little bit." | 0:22:31 | 0:22:33 | |
People are going back to old-fashioned values | 0:22:33 | 0:22:36 | |
and the '50s was a time that people fantasise | 0:22:36 | 0:22:39 | |
as being that perfect time. | 0:22:39 | 0:22:41 | |
So the '50s has earned itself a reputation | 0:22:42 | 0:22:45 | |
as a simpler, happier time. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:47 | |
Social historian and author Juliet Gardiner | 0:22:47 | 0:22:50 | |
shines some light on why that is. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:52 | |
It's just generally a feeling that it was a gentler kind of society, | 0:22:52 | 0:22:56 | |
you know, that crime was lower, | 0:22:56 | 0:22:58 | |
that people, there wasn't teenage violence, | 0:22:58 | 0:23:01 | |
people could leave their front doors open, everyone was very neighbourly, | 0:23:01 | 0:23:05 | |
popping in for a cup of sugar on a whim, this sort of thing. | 0:23:05 | 0:23:08 | |
I think we've got that sort of picture of the '50s. | 0:23:08 | 0:23:11 | |
And this is the image of the decade that we're in love with. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:16 | |
But it is only a snapshot. | 0:23:16 | 0:23:18 | |
I grew up in the '50s and although there are some lovely memories, | 0:23:19 | 0:23:23 | |
there are also ones that I'm not so fond of. | 0:23:23 | 0:23:26 | |
One of the not-so-glorious things I remember about the '50s | 0:23:26 | 0:23:29 | |
was walking to school in the smog, | 0:23:29 | 0:23:31 | |
so dense at times, you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:35 | |
'Special filtering bunny masks | 0:23:38 | 0:23:39 | |
'are the latest weapons devised to combat smog | 0:23:39 | 0:23:42 | |
'which, last winter, killed 4,000 Londoners in a single week.' | 0:23:42 | 0:23:46 | |
Anyone getting nostalgic about the '50s should have been with me | 0:23:46 | 0:23:50 | |
back in the days when I used to have a 15-minute walk | 0:23:50 | 0:23:53 | |
through these back streets to the town hall | 0:23:53 | 0:23:55 | |
so I could have a bath, because we didn't have one in the house. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:59 | |
The '50s brought some tough times, but don't just take my word for it. | 0:23:59 | 0:24:03 | |
I think there was a sense of disappointment in the early '50s | 0:24:03 | 0:24:06 | |
because of course, people thought, | 0:24:06 | 0:24:08 | |
"The war's over, peace comes, life will get better." | 0:24:08 | 0:24:11 | |
Life took a long time to get better. | 0:24:11 | 0:24:13 | |
The early '50s were in many ways the war without the dangers. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:16 | |
Not only was it an era of considerable poverty | 0:24:16 | 0:24:19 | |
and great overcrowding, | 0:24:19 | 0:24:20 | |
very inadequate housing conditions, | 0:24:20 | 0:24:23 | |
crime rose after the Second World War, not surprisingly, perhaps. | 0:24:23 | 0:24:26 | |
-Did it? -Yes. Think about teenage violence. Think about teddy boys. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:30 | |
Teddy boys used to go around with razors. But also, | 0:24:30 | 0:24:33 | |
I think it was a very tough time for women. | 0:24:33 | 0:24:35 | |
It's all very well to think of mum always at home, | 0:24:35 | 0:24:38 | |
always ready with tea on the table and that sort of thing, | 0:24:38 | 0:24:41 | |
but I think for women, it could be a very lonely and frustrating decade. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:45 | |
It was also, I think, an intolerant decade. If you think about it, | 0:24:45 | 0:24:48 | |
homosexuality was still illegal, | 0:24:48 | 0:24:50 | |
divorced mothers, single parents, | 0:24:50 | 0:24:52 | |
they were still very much stigmatised. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:54 | |
Corporal punishment was still on the law books, wasn't it? | 0:24:54 | 0:24:57 | |
Corporal punishment and capital punishment. | 0:24:57 | 0:24:59 | |
I certainly have no desire to time-travel back to the '50s. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:03 | |
And I was there. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:04 | |
So how about our '50s-obsessed ladies? Do they have any desire | 0:25:06 | 0:25:10 | |
to time-travel back to the good old days? | 0:25:10 | 0:25:12 | |
Angel, would you rather be you now or would you rather be in the '50s? | 0:25:12 | 0:25:16 | |
It's a no-brainer! | 0:25:16 | 0:25:18 | |
I want to be me right now. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:19 | |
And how about you, Rosie? | 0:25:19 | 0:25:21 | |
Oh, absolutely, now. We have the choice to dress this way. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:24 | |
We have the choice to imitate the parts of the '50s we like | 0:25:24 | 0:25:27 | |
without the parts that weren't so great, | 0:25:27 | 0:25:29 | |
that people don't remember so much. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:30 | |
When it comes to the Jubilee, | 0:25:30 | 0:25:33 | |
are you getting involved with parties and other celebrations? | 0:25:33 | 0:25:37 | |
Yeah, we are. We're also doing a local street party. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
It's a role you're recreating, I suppose, | 0:25:40 | 0:25:42 | |
it's something your mothers would have been very much involved in | 0:25:42 | 0:25:46 | |
because presumably your mums are about my age? | 0:25:46 | 0:25:48 | |
I'm 65, so are your mums about my age? | 0:25:48 | 0:25:50 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:25:50 | 0:25:52 | |
A little bit younger, yeah, but she's... | 0:25:52 | 0:25:54 | |
A bit younger? Your mum's a bit younger than me? Lovely. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:58 | |
Thank you very much. I'm glad I came today. Eh? | 0:25:58 | 0:26:01 | |
Wow. They were a bit cheeky | 0:26:08 | 0:26:10 | |
but you were won over by those girls, weren't you, Larry? | 0:26:10 | 0:26:13 | |
-I was. Them and the cakes. -The cakes, that's what did it. | 0:26:13 | 0:26:15 | |
They were quite a bunch, those ones. | 0:26:15 | 0:26:17 | |
Were you surprised at the '50s revival you saw? | 0:26:17 | 0:26:20 | |
Er, I was deeply shocked, I think, | 0:26:20 | 0:26:22 | |
really, I mean, having lived through it, I can't quite figure out | 0:26:22 | 0:26:26 | |
what they get so excited about but, you know, | 0:26:26 | 0:26:29 | |
my memories of it were rather sort of dark and dreary, you know, | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
It never... Every time we went on holiday, | 0:26:32 | 0:26:35 | |
it seemed to rain all the time. | 0:26:35 | 0:26:37 | |
I don't have any super-fond memories of it, | 0:26:37 | 0:26:40 | |
except the Coronation party. That was about it, really. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:44 | |
Yeah. So it was just the parties? | 0:26:44 | 0:26:45 | |
Well, there weren't a lot of parties around. | 0:26:45 | 0:26:48 | |
I mean, the whole post-war austerity thing. | 0:26:48 | 0:26:51 | |
I can still remember having to go to the sweet shop with the little ration card | 0:26:51 | 0:26:55 | |
to get your allocation of sweets | 0:26:55 | 0:26:57 | |
and they were a big deal | 0:26:57 | 0:26:59 | |
so the party was a great, extraordinary thing, | 0:26:59 | 0:27:03 | |
with all those cakes and jellies and blancmange and everything else, | 0:27:03 | 0:27:06 | |
treats that were really something special. | 0:27:06 | 0:27:08 | |
So those of us who weren't there, do you think we're looking back | 0:27:08 | 0:27:12 | |
-with rose-tinted spectacles? -Those of US that were there, then! | 0:27:12 | 0:27:15 | |
We are, though, aren't we? It is a bit rose-tinted, looking back at it? | 0:27:15 | 0:27:19 | |
I think it's all a bit rose-tinted myself. I mean, it's easy... | 0:27:19 | 0:27:22 | |
I mean, me, I'm one for kicking out the kitsch | 0:27:22 | 0:27:25 | |
and in fact, they're in the kitchen getting the kitsch in. You know? | 0:27:25 | 0:27:29 | |
But it's a different sort of mindset. | 0:27:29 | 0:27:31 | |
It's easy to get, you get these people who are sort of | 0:27:31 | 0:27:34 | |
really into Victorian era stuff, but | 0:27:34 | 0:27:37 | |
I'm... I'm certainly post-'50s, myself. Although, you know, | 0:27:37 | 0:27:40 | |
nice to see people enjoying themselves. | 0:27:40 | 0:27:43 | |
And they were choosing the bits. They said they wouldn't go back. | 0:27:43 | 0:27:46 | |
That was the thing, when I posed the question to them, | 0:27:46 | 0:27:49 | |
"Given the choice, where would you be?" | 0:27:49 | 0:27:51 | |
And they all very definitely went, | 0:27:51 | 0:27:53 | |
"Here and now, with the choice to do whatever we want, | 0:27:53 | 0:27:57 | |
"including looking fondly back at the '50s." | 0:27:57 | 0:27:59 | |
-Thanks very much, Larry. -Thank you. | 0:27:59 | 0:28:02 | |
All through the programme, we're marking the Queen's reign | 0:28:02 | 0:28:05 | |
and it struck us, she has a claim | 0:28:05 | 0:28:07 | |
to be the most photographed and recognisable person in the world. | 0:28:07 | 0:28:11 | |
So we asked the fashion icon and the first supermodel Twiggy | 0:28:11 | 0:28:14 | |
to investigate how the Queen gets dressed for her public. | 0:28:14 | 0:28:19 | |
CHEERING | 0:28:21 | 0:28:23 | |
I'm amazed by the Queen. | 0:28:23 | 0:28:24 | |
For 60 years, she's maintained an image | 0:28:24 | 0:28:28 | |
that somehow suited every era and every occasion | 0:28:28 | 0:28:31 | |
but it can't be easy being scrutinised every day. | 0:28:31 | 0:28:34 | |
Over the years, I think I've been photographed | 0:28:35 | 0:28:38 | |
almost as much, although I was wearing the latest fashions. | 0:28:38 | 0:28:41 | |
The rules for the Queen must be very different. | 0:28:41 | 0:28:44 | |
When you might be visiting a hospital one moment | 0:28:44 | 0:28:47 | |
or welcoming a world leader the next, I mean, | 0:28:47 | 0:28:51 | |
where do you start when it comes to getting dressed? | 0:28:51 | 0:28:54 | |
And can you be fashionable? | 0:28:54 | 0:28:56 | |
To find out how the Queen's style was created, | 0:28:58 | 0:29:01 | |
'I need to go right back to the 1940s.' | 0:29:01 | 0:29:03 | |
Hello, Michael. Lovely to meet you. | 0:29:03 | 0:29:05 | |
-Good to see you. -I'm so excited. | 0:29:05 | 0:29:07 | |
'Michael Pick is an expert on two of the earliest designers to the Queen, | 0:29:07 | 0:29:12 | |
'Norman Hartnell and Hardy Amies. | 0:29:12 | 0:29:15 | |
'He's giving me a privileged look at some beautiful sketches of clothes | 0:29:15 | 0:29:19 | |
'for the young Princess Elizabeth.' | 0:29:19 | 0:29:21 | |
-Oh, wow. So these are Norman Hartnell? -These are all Hartnell. | 0:29:21 | 0:29:24 | |
Now this is the earlier look for the Queen, | 0:29:24 | 0:29:27 | |
when she was Princess Elizabeth. | 0:29:27 | 0:29:28 | |
-They are kind of fashionable, aren't they? -I think so, yes. | 0:29:28 | 0:29:31 | |
So what year would this be, do you think? | 0:29:31 | 0:29:33 | |
This is around 1947. | 0:29:33 | 0:29:36 | |
This is so pretty. Look. | 0:29:36 | 0:29:38 | |
You know, it's so on-trend and fashionable. | 0:29:38 | 0:29:41 | |
"Especially designed for HRH the Princess Elizabeth." | 0:29:41 | 0:29:45 | |
-Yes. -So did that mean nobody else got it? | 0:29:45 | 0:29:48 | |
Nobody else got it. They were all designed for her. | 0:29:48 | 0:29:51 | |
-And look at that. -And this one, after she married. | 0:29:51 | 0:29:54 | |
"Specially designed for HRH." | 0:29:54 | 0:29:58 | |
It's gorgeous. That's a real ballgown. | 0:29:58 | 0:30:00 | |
-Absolutely right. -Gorgeous. I want that jacket. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:04 | |
'Looking at these pictures, it's clear to me | 0:30:04 | 0:30:06 | |
'that Princess Elizabeth, like me at her age, | 0:30:06 | 0:30:09 | |
'really loved playing around with fashion. | 0:30:09 | 0:30:11 | |
'But before long, things were going to change.' | 0:30:11 | 0:30:14 | |
So do you think when Elizabeth, | 0:30:14 | 0:30:17 | |
Princess Elizabeth, became Queen, | 0:30:17 | 0:30:20 | |
that had a big influence on | 0:30:20 | 0:30:22 | |
how she felt she should dress? | 0:30:22 | 0:30:25 | |
I think it probably did. | 0:30:25 | 0:30:27 | |
After all, she's Queen of the country, head of the Commonwealth. | 0:30:27 | 0:30:30 | |
So she has to be chic... | 0:30:30 | 0:30:32 | |
Yes, she's on record as having said that it's a job she has to do | 0:30:32 | 0:30:36 | |
and so the clothes have to perform for her. | 0:30:36 | 0:30:39 | |
You don't want something as in this picture | 0:30:39 | 0:30:41 | |
-where the wind suddenly whips your skirt up. -Oh. | 0:30:41 | 0:30:45 | |
-And that shouldn't happen to the Queen. -No, it shouldn't. | 0:30:45 | 0:30:48 | |
The dress is blowing up, you're seeing her knees, | 0:30:48 | 0:30:51 | |
-and seeing her petticoat. -Indeed. | 0:30:51 | 0:30:52 | |
Shouldn't happen to anybody. | 0:30:52 | 0:30:54 | |
No, it shouldn't, but certainly not the Queen. | 0:30:54 | 0:30:56 | |
I think this is rather good, | 0:30:56 | 0:30:58 | |
where Hardy Amies has put in his comment "As short as we dared." | 0:30:58 | 0:31:02 | |
-That's hysterical. -The era of the miniskirt. | 0:31:02 | 0:31:04 | |
But you can actually see her knees. This is 1970. Gosh, when I think, | 0:31:04 | 0:31:08 | |
-I was wearing skirts probably up to here then. -Yes. | 0:31:08 | 0:31:11 | |
Of course, the Queen was 44 years old there, | 0:31:11 | 0:31:14 | |
so you wouldn't expect to see her in a miniskirt anyway. | 0:31:14 | 0:31:17 | |
No, of course not, anyway. | 0:31:17 | 0:31:19 | |
'So I'm wondering, | 0:31:19 | 0:31:20 | |
'if the Queen's style was already fixed by the 1970s, | 0:31:20 | 0:31:24 | |
'has it moved on now that she's 86? | 0:31:24 | 0:31:27 | |
'Stewart Parvin is one of Her Majesty's current designers. | 0:31:27 | 0:31:31 | |
'We're off to meet the Queen in a special 3-D projection studio | 0:31:31 | 0:31:34 | |
'to take a look at some of the outfits.' | 0:31:34 | 0:31:36 | |
Ah. There she is. Doesn't she look sweet? | 0:31:36 | 0:31:39 | |
Designing a dress for the Queen | 0:31:39 | 0:31:41 | |
means you're creating something for the world's most famous woman | 0:31:41 | 0:31:44 | |
who's seen by more people on a daily basis than anyone else. | 0:31:44 | 0:31:47 | |
I know, that's extraordinary. | 0:31:47 | 0:31:49 | |
She also has an image in people's minds that you have to fulfil. | 0:31:49 | 0:31:52 | |
Like all the Queen's designers, Stewart has to work around the rules. | 0:31:54 | 0:31:58 | |
The Queen always wears a two-inch heel, | 0:31:58 | 0:32:01 | |
hemlines must be well below the knee | 0:32:01 | 0:32:04 | |
and she always carries a handbag. | 0:32:04 | 0:32:06 | |
-This was for the Queen to go to Melbourne. -Ah, hot! | 0:32:06 | 0:32:09 | |
Very hot. Wonderful bright colour. | 0:32:09 | 0:32:12 | |
When I called it blancmange pink, she didn't like that, but... | 0:32:12 | 0:32:15 | |
But it is, a bit. | 0:32:15 | 0:32:16 | |
It is a bit blancmange. It's a fantastic strong colour. | 0:32:16 | 0:32:19 | |
It's really important because the Queen's very tiny | 0:32:19 | 0:32:22 | |
and in that sort of block colour with the wonderful hat, | 0:32:22 | 0:32:25 | |
-she's standing out. -Very important. | 0:32:25 | 0:32:28 | |
She's a real focal point. | 0:32:28 | 0:32:30 | |
Talking to Michael and Stewart, it's clear the rules are pretty full-on. | 0:32:30 | 0:32:34 | |
I mean, the Queen can't just step out of the door wearing anything. | 0:32:34 | 0:32:37 | |
Her clothes are her uniform. | 0:32:37 | 0:32:39 | |
But that doesn't mean she has to be conservative with everything. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:44 | |
-Freddie! -Hello. -Hello! | 0:32:44 | 0:32:46 | |
-What a great pleasure. -Lovely to see you. | 0:32:46 | 0:32:49 | |
'I'm really excited to meet Freddie Fox. | 0:32:49 | 0:32:51 | |
'He spent 34 years designing Her Majesty's iconic hats | 0:32:51 | 0:32:54 | |
'and I know he'll give me a real insight into working for the Queen.' | 0:32:54 | 0:32:59 | |
What does the Queen look for in a hat? | 0:32:59 | 0:33:02 | |
-It must be comfortable, first of all. -Ah. Of course. | 0:33:02 | 0:33:05 | |
Comfort is prime importance | 0:33:05 | 0:33:08 | |
in all of her clothing. | 0:33:08 | 0:33:10 | |
So what was the first hat you made for the Queen. Can you remember? | 0:33:10 | 0:33:13 | |
How could I forget? | 0:33:13 | 0:33:14 | |
It was the Royal tour to Chile and Argentina | 0:33:16 | 0:33:21 | |
with six outfits. | 0:33:21 | 0:33:23 | |
-So six hats? -Six hats. | 0:33:23 | 0:33:26 | |
-Do you have a favourite hat that you made for the Queen? -Probably... | 0:33:26 | 0:33:30 | |
the most...memorable for everybody | 0:33:30 | 0:33:34 | |
is the silver jubilee pink one. | 0:33:34 | 0:33:37 | |
-The bells? -With the bells, yes. | 0:33:37 | 0:33:39 | |
It was perfect colour and, you know, turned out to be a memorable outfit. | 0:33:39 | 0:33:43 | |
Freddie we members one very specific request he got from the Queen. | 0:33:43 | 0:33:48 | |
There was a point when I think | 0:33:48 | 0:33:49 | |
maybe I was getting a little bit carried away | 0:33:49 | 0:33:52 | |
about the size of hats that I was doing, | 0:33:52 | 0:33:54 | |
and the Queen said, "I want you to come downstairs with me. | 0:33:54 | 0:33:58 | |
"I've had the car come around. | 0:33:58 | 0:33:59 | |
"And you see, the brims, if they're long at the back, | 0:33:59 | 0:34:03 | |
-"they hit..." -Oh, I see. | 0:34:03 | 0:34:06 | |
-They hit on the back seat. -Of course. | 0:34:06 | 0:34:09 | |
So, you know, you can't actually say, "Well, just buy a new car." | 0:34:09 | 0:34:13 | |
TWIGGY LAUGHS LOUDLY | 0:34:13 | 0:34:16 | |
I did watch the backs of hats after that. | 0:34:16 | 0:34:20 | |
A bit. | 0:34:20 | 0:34:21 | |
'Talking to Michael, Stewart and Freddie, I can tell | 0:34:21 | 0:34:26 | |
'the Queen is meticulous about every aspect of her clothing.' | 0:34:26 | 0:34:29 | |
I've still one burning question, though. | 0:34:29 | 0:34:32 | |
Has the Queen ever been, | 0:34:32 | 0:34:34 | |
or is she now, fashionable? | 0:34:34 | 0:34:36 | |
Well, this is nice, afternoon tea. | 0:34:37 | 0:34:39 | |
'I'm hoping Grazia magazine's style director, Paula Reed, | 0:34:39 | 0:34:42 | |
'will give me her definitive take on the Queen's dress sense.' | 0:34:42 | 0:34:46 | |
I think she's always been stylish. | 0:34:46 | 0:34:49 | |
I really do think she is... | 0:34:49 | 0:34:51 | |
I mean, I think on the Vogue survey, | 0:34:51 | 0:34:54 | |
she was listed as one of the 50 most glamorous women in the world. | 0:34:54 | 0:34:58 | |
The Barbour kind of came into fashion last year. | 0:34:58 | 0:35:01 | |
Do you think people were following her? | 0:35:01 | 0:35:04 | |
There was a moment, kind of six or seven years ago, | 0:35:04 | 0:35:07 | |
when suddenly, the traditional British thing was cool. | 0:35:07 | 0:35:10 | |
And it was on the runways, | 0:35:10 | 0:35:11 | |
I'll never forget the Dolce & Gabbana show, | 0:35:11 | 0:35:14 | |
all the models were wearing skirts just like that | 0:35:14 | 0:35:17 | |
at exactly that length, | 0:35:17 | 0:35:19 | |
-headscarves... -Headscarves, historical. | 0:35:19 | 0:35:21 | |
..and big boxy bags | 0:35:21 | 0:35:23 | |
and the inspiration was so literally the Queen. | 0:35:23 | 0:35:26 | |
'But looking through these photos, | 0:35:26 | 0:35:28 | |
'some might say the Queen could have been more adventurous.' | 0:35:28 | 0:35:31 | |
Do you think she should have been more fashionable | 0:35:31 | 0:35:34 | |
and tried a few more kind of outrageous things? | 0:35:34 | 0:35:37 | |
Goodness me, no! | 0:35:37 | 0:35:38 | |
It would be shocking to see the Queen in a miniskirt, wouldn't it? | 0:35:38 | 0:35:41 | |
-Not that she didn't have the legs to carry it off. -Absolutely. | 0:35:41 | 0:35:44 | |
But clothes are a great communicator. | 0:35:44 | 0:35:46 | |
Clothes actually convey, | 0:35:46 | 0:35:48 | |
in a very subliminal, kind of subconscious way, | 0:35:48 | 0:35:51 | |
exactly to people your position, | 0:35:51 | 0:35:53 | |
your self-confidence. | 0:35:53 | 0:35:55 | |
The clothes are about HER. | 0:35:55 | 0:35:57 | |
It's not the style statement or the fashion statement. | 0:35:57 | 0:36:00 | |
It's very much about her and the dignity of the role, and I think | 0:36:00 | 0:36:04 | |
even as a very young woman, she had that very much front of mind. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:07 | |
Well, it's only tea, but... | 0:36:07 | 0:36:09 | |
to Her Majesty, the Queen. | 0:36:09 | 0:36:12 | |
God bless her. | 0:36:12 | 0:36:14 | |
So the Queen definitely gets the nod from fashion royalty there. | 0:36:14 | 0:36:18 | |
Larry, you, like me - obviously a complete fashion icon. | 0:36:18 | 0:36:21 | |
Everyone has an opinion. What do you make of the Queen? | 0:36:21 | 0:36:25 | |
Well I'm a... | 0:36:25 | 0:36:26 | |
I'm a bona fide baby boomer | 0:36:26 | 0:36:28 | |
so she's been there ever since I was a little baby. | 0:36:28 | 0:36:31 | |
Her reign and my life have sort of run together | 0:36:31 | 0:36:34 | |
and she sort of... | 0:36:34 | 0:36:37 | |
She's been doing things | 0:36:37 | 0:36:39 | |
that I've watched on the television all my life. | 0:36:39 | 0:36:43 | |
The places she's been, the things she's worn, | 0:36:43 | 0:36:46 | |
the horse races, the things she's opened, | 0:36:46 | 0:36:49 | |
the speeches in the House of Lords, opening Parliament, you know, | 0:36:49 | 0:36:53 | |
all these things go on and on and on, right through my life, | 0:36:53 | 0:36:56 | |
and it's what she sort of embodies | 0:36:56 | 0:36:59 | |
and what she sums up | 0:36:59 | 0:37:01 | |
and I'm sort of an amateur history buff, | 0:37:01 | 0:37:03 | |
not like you, the full professional deal, | 0:37:03 | 0:37:06 | |
but to be in a place like this in particular, | 0:37:06 | 0:37:09 | |
this is what she embodies, is the history of this country. | 0:37:09 | 0:37:12 | |
That's a ringing endorsement from Larry. He's more excited than I am | 0:37:12 | 0:37:16 | |
to be in this incredible chapel. I have to hold him into position. | 0:37:16 | 0:37:19 | |
Sian is back in the nave | 0:37:19 | 0:37:21 | |
and she is there recalling a very recent piece of royal history. | 0:37:21 | 0:37:25 | |
The Abbey has such a long connection with the monarchy | 0:37:28 | 0:37:31 | |
that it's easy to forget this is a working church with daily services, | 0:37:31 | 0:37:35 | |
a place of worship as well as a tourist attraction | 0:37:35 | 0:37:38 | |
but it's those big royal moments | 0:37:38 | 0:37:40 | |
like last year's wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, | 0:37:40 | 0:37:43 | |
which really bring the Abbey to the heart of our national life. | 0:37:43 | 0:37:47 | |
It's thought that around 2 billion people | 0:37:47 | 0:37:49 | |
watched the ceremony worldwide | 0:37:49 | 0:37:51 | |
with 25 million watching live in the UK. | 0:37:51 | 0:37:54 | |
The building was rigged with cameras everywhere | 0:37:54 | 0:37:57 | |
in order to capture every moment of the service - | 0:37:57 | 0:38:00 | |
well, almost every moment, | 0:38:00 | 0:38:01 | |
because at the end of the ceremony, the newly married couple, | 0:38:01 | 0:38:05 | |
their parents, Prince Harry and Pippa and James Middleton | 0:38:05 | 0:38:08 | |
disappeared from view for ten minutes. | 0:38:08 | 0:38:11 | |
They exited through one of the doors at the high altar | 0:38:11 | 0:38:14 | |
into one of the few spaces in the Abbey not covered by the cameras. | 0:38:14 | 0:38:18 | |
So, what's behind the door? | 0:38:18 | 0:38:20 | |
Well... | 0:38:20 | 0:38:21 | |
It's this. | 0:38:22 | 0:38:24 | |
One of the most private and spiritually significant | 0:38:24 | 0:38:27 | |
parts of the building - the shrine. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:29 | |
This is the tomb of Edward the Confessor, | 0:38:29 | 0:38:32 | |
the founder of the 11th-century abbey, | 0:38:32 | 0:38:34 | |
and it's ringed by the tombs of the Plantagenet kings - | 0:38:34 | 0:38:37 | |
Henry III, | 0:38:37 | 0:38:39 | |
Edward I and Edward III | 0:38:39 | 0:38:42 | |
and Richard II. | 0:38:42 | 0:38:43 | |
In all, there are five kings and four queens buried here. | 0:38:43 | 0:38:48 | |
There was another witness to events on April 29th last year. | 0:38:49 | 0:38:53 | |
The Royal party were joined by the Dean of Westminster, | 0:38:53 | 0:38:55 | |
the Very Reverend Dr John Hall. | 0:38:55 | 0:38:57 | |
-Hello, Mr Dean. -Hello. | 0:38:57 | 0:38:59 | |
Before we talk about the day itself, | 0:38:59 | 0:39:01 | |
just give us a sense of why this place, the shrine, is so important. | 0:39:01 | 0:39:05 | |
The shrine of St Edward the Confessor - | 0:39:05 | 0:39:07 | |
he's one of the kings who is also a saint, | 0:39:07 | 0:39:09 | |
king from 1042 to 1066. | 0:39:09 | 0:39:11 | |
He rebuilt the abbey here. He built his Palace of Westminster here | 0:39:11 | 0:39:14 | |
so the Houses of Parliament meet in what would've been his palace, | 0:39:14 | 0:39:18 | |
still a royal palace. He was a patron saint of England for many centuries | 0:39:18 | 0:39:21 | |
and other kings and queens wanted to be gathered around him | 0:39:21 | 0:39:24 | |
so it's a very important place. | 0:39:24 | 0:39:26 | |
A very important place, and of course, the place | 0:39:26 | 0:39:29 | |
the Royal party came to for the signing of the registers. | 0:39:29 | 0:39:32 | |
Describe what went on that day. | 0:39:32 | 0:39:33 | |
So, there was, in front of the altar, there was a table with the registers. | 0:39:33 | 0:39:37 | |
There are three registers. | 0:39:37 | 0:39:39 | |
There's a certificate that has to be signed as well | 0:39:39 | 0:39:42 | |
so they signed themselves | 0:39:42 | 0:39:43 | |
and other members of the Royal family signed, their witnesses. | 0:39:43 | 0:39:46 | |
Then the books went to Buckingham Palace | 0:39:46 | 0:39:48 | |
for other members of the Royal family to sign too. | 0:39:48 | 0:39:51 | |
Once they'd all signed, I got them lined up over here | 0:39:51 | 0:39:54 | |
and sent them off. | 0:39:54 | 0:39:56 | |
FANFARE PLAYS | 0:39:56 | 0:39:59 | |
It was such a public ceremony | 0:40:02 | 0:40:04 | |
and as we were saying, watched by 2 billion people worldwide | 0:40:04 | 0:40:08 | |
and this was really the only private moment. | 0:40:08 | 0:40:11 | |
What did it feel like to be part of that, for you? | 0:40:11 | 0:40:14 | |
Well, for me, it was an extraordinary privilege | 0:40:14 | 0:40:16 | |
and wonderful thing, as the whole day had been. | 0:40:16 | 0:40:19 | |
I think for them, it was just a moment apart | 0:40:19 | 0:40:21 | |
when they could reflect on what they'd just done | 0:40:21 | 0:40:23 | |
and also be congratulated, | 0:40:23 | 0:40:25 | |
just as a family would normally at that particular moment, | 0:40:25 | 0:40:28 | |
a moment of relaxation. | 0:40:28 | 0:40:30 | |
What was the mood like? | 0:40:30 | 0:40:31 | |
Oh, very warm, and very supportive, very happy. | 0:40:31 | 0:40:34 | |
The whole day was extraordinarily happy. | 0:40:34 | 0:40:39 | |
You could be terrified, at least I felt I could be terrified | 0:40:39 | 0:40:42 | |
about the thought of all these people around the world... | 0:40:42 | 0:40:45 | |
I wasn't conscious of them at all. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:47 | |
And the atmosphere in the church here was tremendously warm | 0:40:47 | 0:40:51 | |
and supportive and happy. | 0:40:51 | 0:40:53 | |
-Thanks very much. -Thank you. | 0:40:53 | 0:40:55 | |
Well, William and Catherine | 0:40:55 | 0:40:56 | |
are going to be our future king and queen | 0:40:56 | 0:40:58 | |
and last year's wedding was a piece of history we could all share in, | 0:40:58 | 0:41:02 | |
although perhaps not as intimately as the Dean of Westminster. | 0:41:02 | 0:41:06 | |
Their popularity has boosted support in the monarchy, | 0:41:06 | 0:41:09 | |
but Royals haven't always been so popular. | 0:41:09 | 0:41:12 | |
Dan and Michael now continue their royal road trip in the Midlands, | 0:41:12 | 0:41:15 | |
where in the 17th century, people didn't like the monarchy much | 0:41:15 | 0:41:19 | |
and they decided to do something about it. | 0:41:19 | 0:41:21 | |
MICHAEL GROANS | 0:41:21 | 0:41:25 | |
So, that thing you said in Scotland. | 0:41:25 | 0:41:28 | |
There was James VI of Scotland, he became James I of Great Britain, | 0:41:28 | 0:41:32 | |
and we had a king or queen ever since, | 0:41:32 | 0:41:34 | |
apart from this one exception. What was that exception? | 0:41:34 | 0:41:37 | |
You're right. There was an exception. | 0:41:37 | 0:41:39 | |
Just when they'd managed to unite the monarchy, | 0:41:39 | 0:41:42 | |
you had one king of all Great Britain, | 0:41:42 | 0:41:44 | |
James' son Charles I comes along and he made himself so unpopular, | 0:41:44 | 0:41:48 | |
that people chopped his head off. | 0:41:48 | 0:41:51 | |
-They chopped his head off? -Executed him. | 0:41:51 | 0:41:55 | |
That's a bit extreme, isn't it? | 0:41:55 | 0:41:58 | |
He must have been absolutely hated then, Charles. | 0:42:01 | 0:42:04 | |
What did he do that was so bad? | 0:42:04 | 0:42:06 | |
Charles had a habit of making enemies out of nearly everybody. | 0:42:06 | 0:42:10 | |
He alienated everyone | 0:42:10 | 0:42:11 | |
and he was convinced that he was put on the earth by God in order to rule. | 0:42:11 | 0:42:15 | |
He had a divine right to rule and that really put him at loggerheads | 0:42:15 | 0:42:18 | |
with Parliament who were saying, | 0:42:18 | 0:42:20 | |
"No, we have a right to rule as well." | 0:42:20 | 0:42:22 | |
That was a transitional period and the politicians and the King | 0:42:22 | 0:42:25 | |
were jostling for power over who controlled the country. | 0:42:25 | 0:42:28 | |
A massive civil war broke out. Armies marched to and fro. | 0:42:28 | 0:42:32 | |
The population was much smaller back then, | 0:42:32 | 0:42:34 | |
so historians think it was the bloodiest war | 0:42:34 | 0:42:36 | |
-relative to population in the history of Britain. -Wow! | 0:42:36 | 0:42:39 | |
You got one side of Parliament | 0:42:39 | 0:42:41 | |
and the other side supporting the King, or is that too simple? | 0:42:41 | 0:42:44 | |
That's about right | 0:42:44 | 0:42:45 | |
and there is evidence of this war right across the country. | 0:42:45 | 0:42:49 | |
-Look at this, Michael, look at this. -It's a field. | 0:42:49 | 0:42:52 | |
It's exactly what I thought it would be. A big, green field. | 0:42:52 | 0:42:55 | |
It is a stage on which our history was written. | 0:42:55 | 0:42:57 | |
This is one of my favourite battlefields. | 0:42:57 | 0:42:59 | |
You get a great sense of it. | 0:42:59 | 0:43:00 | |
Basically, one side of it are up here on the high ground, | 0:43:00 | 0:43:03 | |
the valley in between, the other side on the high ground there. | 0:43:03 | 0:43:06 | |
-It looks like a battle field should do. -Who's up here? | 0:43:06 | 0:43:08 | |
Over there is King Charles and the Royalists. | 0:43:08 | 0:43:11 | |
This is all the king's horses and all the king's men out there, are they? | 0:43:11 | 0:43:14 | |
Unfortunately, on this ridge here... | 0:43:14 | 0:43:16 | |
Humpty Dumpty is over here, is he? | 0:43:16 | 0:43:18 | |
On this ridge here is King Charles' nemesis. | 0:43:18 | 0:43:22 | |
One of the greatest cavalry commanders | 0:43:22 | 0:43:24 | |
this nation has ever produced. | 0:43:24 | 0:43:26 | |
A man called Oliver Cromwell. This is the point of no return for Charles. | 0:43:26 | 0:43:29 | |
His army is completely annihilated right here on this spot. | 0:43:29 | 0:43:34 | |
This is the moment when Parliament, if you like, the people | 0:43:34 | 0:43:37 | |
stand up to a bad king and say, "No longer can you treat us like this." | 0:43:37 | 0:43:41 | |
He's captured, is he? And then taken back to London? | 0:43:41 | 0:43:44 | |
Actually, he's not captured here. | 0:43:44 | 0:43:45 | |
He just about manages to escape but he loses his Treasury | 0:43:45 | 0:43:48 | |
and all sorts of things. | 0:43:48 | 0:43:49 | |
He just manages to escape | 0:43:49 | 0:43:51 | |
but I'll tell you about what happens next over a pint. | 0:43:51 | 0:43:54 | |
A pint! | 0:43:54 | 0:43:55 | |
Why am I doing all the driving? | 0:44:01 | 0:44:03 | |
-I've driven the whole journey and I'm like your driver. -That's true. | 0:44:03 | 0:44:06 | |
As you visit nice, historical sites. | 0:44:06 | 0:44:08 | |
This is great. A history lesson in a pub. About time and all. | 0:44:16 | 0:44:21 | |
It is not just any old pub, Michael, because this pub is famous. | 0:44:21 | 0:44:24 | |
This is where Charles I, the King spent his last night of freedom. | 0:44:24 | 0:44:28 | |
-Really? In here? -Yes. | 0:44:28 | 0:44:30 | |
Local legend has it that this is the room he slept in | 0:44:30 | 0:44:32 | |
before handing himself over to his enemies. | 0:44:32 | 0:44:34 | |
I bet he got mighty tanked up that night. | 0:44:34 | 0:44:36 | |
-This is a picture of him back here, is it? -That's Charles I. | 0:44:36 | 0:44:39 | |
That's how he wanted to be remembered, in his armour, | 0:44:39 | 0:44:42 | |
looking regal, God's representative on earth, | 0:44:42 | 0:44:44 | |
everyone doing what he tells them. | 0:44:44 | 0:44:46 | |
Eventually, they put him on trial and they executed him. | 0:44:46 | 0:44:49 | |
Did they cut it with an axe or a guillotine? | 0:44:49 | 0:44:52 | |
They would have used an axe. | 0:44:52 | 0:44:54 | |
I always think a saw would be better. Sawing it off. | 0:44:54 | 0:44:57 | |
So, Charles is dead, he's gone, so who's leading the country now then? | 0:45:01 | 0:45:06 | |
Who's the Prime Minister or whatever? | 0:45:06 | 0:45:08 | |
The guy that defeated Charles at the Battle of Naseby, Oliver Cromwell. | 0:45:08 | 0:45:12 | |
He basically becomes a dictator of Britain and Ireland, | 0:45:12 | 0:45:16 | |
a military dictator. | 0:45:16 | 0:45:17 | |
What happened to Cromwell then? Was then nobody like him, or what? | 0:45:17 | 0:45:21 | |
Cromwell was OK while he was alive. | 0:45:21 | 0:45:23 | |
People were glad there was stability and the war had stopped. | 0:45:23 | 0:45:26 | |
When he died, there was a big vacuum of power | 0:45:26 | 0:45:28 | |
and trouble broke out and everyone was like, | 0:45:28 | 0:45:30 | |
"No, we don't want to return to chaos." | 0:45:30 | 0:45:32 | |
They invited Charles I's son, Charles II to come over | 0:45:32 | 0:45:34 | |
and be King again. The monarchy was restored. | 0:45:34 | 0:45:37 | |
I think the best thing that could have happened to the monarchy, | 0:45:37 | 0:45:40 | |
in some ways, is Charles I getting his head chopped off. | 0:45:40 | 0:45:42 | |
It meant that all the future monarchs, | 0:45:42 | 0:45:44 | |
when they got their fight with Parliament about who had more power, | 0:45:44 | 0:45:47 | |
they just thought, hang on, back off a bit here, | 0:45:47 | 0:45:50 | |
because my ancestor got his head chopped off. | 0:45:50 | 0:45:53 | |
Cromwell, did he get his head chopped off? | 0:45:53 | 0:45:56 | |
Cromwell died in his bed, surrounded by his family. | 0:45:56 | 0:45:59 | |
That's a nice, happy ending for him then, isn't it? | 0:45:59 | 0:46:01 | |
Not entirely. | 0:46:01 | 0:46:02 | |
Yes not exactly, because to pick up the story, Cromwell was buried here, | 0:46:04 | 0:46:08 | |
in the Lady Chapel, the Tudor addition to the Abbey. | 0:46:08 | 0:46:11 | |
It's always seemed a bit strange to me | 0:46:11 | 0:46:13 | |
that someone who stood for overturning the status quo | 0:46:13 | 0:46:16 | |
and rejecting the trappings of royalty, | 0:46:16 | 0:46:18 | |
was so keen to be buried here right next to the graves | 0:46:18 | 0:46:22 | |
of Henry VII, Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. | 0:46:22 | 0:46:26 | |
Under his rule as Lord Protector, | 0:46:26 | 0:46:29 | |
the stained glass windows were broken and the place was smashed up a bit, | 0:46:29 | 0:46:33 | |
not exactly evidence that Cromwell was this Abbey's biggest fan. | 0:46:33 | 0:46:37 | |
Yet he was absolutely determined that he should be | 0:46:37 | 0:46:41 | |
in the company of all these royals after his death. | 0:46:41 | 0:46:44 | |
That's the irony with Cromwell. | 0:46:44 | 0:46:46 | |
He thought of himself as just as important as any monarch | 0:46:46 | 0:46:51 | |
in Britain's history and really had the ego of a military dictator. | 0:46:51 | 0:46:54 | |
He definitely had his head turned by the snazzy clothes and ritual. | 0:46:54 | 0:46:58 | |
He insisted on the coronation chair being taken over to Westminster Hall, | 0:46:58 | 0:47:02 | |
where he sat in it, in royal robes to be proclaimed Lord Protector. | 0:47:02 | 0:47:06 | |
When he died, he had a massive state funeral modelled on that of James I, | 0:47:06 | 0:47:10 | |
so I suppose it was logical, at least to him, | 0:47:10 | 0:47:12 | |
that when he died, he should be buried here. | 0:47:12 | 0:47:14 | |
As you hinted in that film, Dan, he wasn't here for long. | 0:47:14 | 0:47:17 | |
This is the stone that commemorates where he was buried. | 0:47:17 | 0:47:21 | |
You can see the inscription says 1658 to 1661. | 0:47:21 | 0:47:26 | |
He was only here three years, probably not what he had in mind. | 0:47:26 | 0:47:31 | |
No, I don't think he imagined he'd be dug up. | 0:47:31 | 0:47:33 | |
Which is what happened. | 0:47:33 | 0:47:35 | |
By 1661, Charles II was on the throne | 0:47:35 | 0:47:38 | |
and furious with the man who had beheaded his father, | 0:47:38 | 0:47:41 | |
he meted out a terrible punishment. | 0:47:41 | 0:47:43 | |
In January of that year, they unearthed Cromwell, | 0:47:43 | 0:47:46 | |
took it to Tyburn - Marble Arch - and then chopped his head off. | 0:47:46 | 0:47:50 | |
Then they stuck the head on a spike as a bit of a reminder | 0:47:50 | 0:47:54 | |
about what happened to people who tried to overthrow the monarchy. | 0:47:54 | 0:47:57 | |
Well, the same treatment was handed out to fellow parliamentarians | 0:47:57 | 0:48:01 | |
who'd also signed the warrant for Charles I's execution, | 0:48:01 | 0:48:04 | |
and the bodies of Cromwell's wife, and other generals | 0:48:04 | 0:48:07 | |
were also removed and reburied elsewhere. | 0:48:07 | 0:48:10 | |
The only member of Cromwell's family who escaped that treatment | 0:48:10 | 0:48:13 | |
was his favourite daughter, Elizabeth. | 0:48:13 | 0:48:16 | |
They couldn't find where she was buried, | 0:48:16 | 0:48:18 | |
so she remains here to this day. | 0:48:18 | 0:48:21 | |
Well, if Charles I, Cromwell and Charles II only ruled | 0:48:21 | 0:48:24 | |
for a few short, brutal and bloody years, | 0:48:24 | 0:48:27 | |
the reign of our own Queen has been long and pretty peaceful. | 0:48:27 | 0:48:30 | |
There's only one other sovereign in the whole of our history | 0:48:30 | 0:48:32 | |
who's held the crown for 60 years and that was Victoria. | 0:48:32 | 0:48:36 | |
Lucy Worsley finds similarities between her Diamond Jubilee in 1897 | 0:48:36 | 0:48:41 | |
and preparations for this year's. | 0:48:41 | 0:48:43 | |
It all sounds a bit familiar, doesn't it? | 0:48:52 | 0:48:54 | |
But those headlines aren't from 2012, they're from 1897, | 0:48:54 | 0:48:58 | |
the last time London hosted a Diamond Jubilee, | 0:48:58 | 0:49:01 | |
for the 78-year-old Queen Victoria. | 0:49:01 | 0:49:04 | |
115 years have passed since then, but not that much has changed. | 0:49:04 | 0:49:09 | |
Just like today, the Victorians were concerned about health and safety, | 0:49:09 | 0:49:13 | |
overcrowding and WHO was going to foot the bill. | 0:49:13 | 0:49:16 | |
The celebrations were going to last ten days, | 0:49:16 | 0:49:19 | |
and the highlight of it all would be the Queen's procession through the city on 22nd June. | 0:49:19 | 0:49:24 | |
On that day, whoever you were, whatever you did, | 0:49:24 | 0:49:28 | |
whether you were a publican or a housewife or a pickpocket, | 0:49:28 | 0:49:31 | |
you would have been swept up in Jubilee mania. | 0:49:31 | 0:49:35 | |
The procession was the showpiece of the festivities. | 0:49:39 | 0:49:43 | |
Without TV, seeing was believing for the Victorians, | 0:49:43 | 0:49:46 | |
and three million of her loyal subjects | 0:49:46 | 0:49:49 | |
travelled from all over the Empire | 0:49:49 | 0:49:51 | |
to catch a rare glimpse of the Queen. | 0:49:51 | 0:49:53 | |
To get the full Victorian Jubilee experience, | 0:49:53 | 0:49:56 | |
I'm recreating the 1897 procession route | 0:49:56 | 0:49:59 | |
with my slightly more modest horse and carriage. | 0:49:59 | 0:50:03 | |
The Queen's was drawn by eight white horses | 0:50:03 | 0:50:06 | |
and set off from Buckingham Palace. | 0:50:06 | 0:50:08 | |
My get-up is a bit less glamorous. | 0:50:08 | 0:50:10 | |
I've just got the two horses | 0:50:10 | 0:50:11 | |
and I'm setting off from the back streets of Vauxhall. | 0:50:11 | 0:50:14 | |
The route covers six miles of the city, | 0:50:21 | 0:50:24 | |
passing all the famous landmarks. | 0:50:24 | 0:50:28 | |
As soon as the route was announced, | 0:50:28 | 0:50:29 | |
the owners of every single house and church and pub | 0:50:29 | 0:50:34 | |
and balcony and window all along the way went, | 0:50:34 | 0:50:37 | |
"Hooray! Now we've got the chance to cash in, | 0:50:37 | 0:50:39 | |
"cos we can sell tickets to spectators." | 0:50:39 | 0:50:42 | |
Ticket sales were big business | 0:50:42 | 0:50:45 | |
and your average seat would have set you back two guineas. | 0:50:45 | 0:50:48 | |
That's around £100 today. | 0:50:48 | 0:50:50 | |
An estimated 25,000 seats were up for grabs. | 0:50:50 | 0:50:53 | |
Number 63 Piccadilly, just about here, | 0:50:54 | 0:50:57 | |
was a jeweller's shop in 1897, | 0:50:57 | 0:51:00 | |
and they'd sold seats in their upstairs front window. | 0:51:00 | 0:51:03 | |
Seat number 15 had been sold to Mrs Curtis. | 0:51:03 | 0:51:07 | |
That's her name, it's been clearly written in on the ticket there. | 0:51:07 | 0:51:10 | |
I bet that cost quite a fair bob or two. | 0:51:10 | 0:51:13 | |
The best seats of all were St Paul's Cathedral, | 0:51:18 | 0:51:20 | |
because here the Queen's carriage stopped for an open-air service. | 0:51:20 | 0:51:25 | |
It was said that some of these went for up to £8,000. | 0:51:25 | 0:51:28 | |
That's around £450,000 today. | 0:51:28 | 0:51:32 | |
Makes the Olympic tickets look like a bit of a bargain. | 0:51:32 | 0:51:35 | |
Queen Victoria even ventured south of the river, | 0:51:35 | 0:51:38 | |
a first for a royal procession. | 0:51:38 | 0:51:41 | |
The church of St George The Martyr in South London | 0:51:41 | 0:51:43 | |
had a prime position on the route | 0:51:43 | 0:51:46 | |
and took full advantage. | 0:51:46 | 0:51:47 | |
-There's a terrific view up Borough High Street. -It's a great view, isn't it? | 0:51:47 | 0:51:50 | |
-That's where she would have come down in her carriage. -It would have been perfect. | 0:51:50 | 0:51:54 | |
'The church made £2,000 from tickets | 0:51:54 | 0:51:56 | |
'and the current Reverend, Father Ray, | 0:51:56 | 0:51:58 | |
'shows me how they splashed the cash.' | 0:51:58 | 0:52:00 | |
-Blimey, look at your ceiling! -Great, isn't it? | 0:52:00 | 0:52:02 | |
So this is what they spent the cash on? This is where they spent the profits of their stand on? | 0:52:02 | 0:52:06 | |
Certainly, a lot of the cash they must have spent on this | 0:52:06 | 0:52:09 | |
and it would have been extremely expensive. | 0:52:09 | 0:52:11 | |
-It's so of its time, it's absolutely 1897. -Yeah. | 0:52:11 | 0:52:15 | |
-It must have been strikingly contemporary. -Yes. | 0:52:15 | 0:52:17 | |
-I congratulate the entrepreneurial spirit of your predecessor... -Absolutely. | 0:52:17 | 0:52:21 | |
..who thought, "We can make some money here out of the Jubilee." | 0:52:21 | 0:52:23 | |
Yeah, yeah, indeed. I wish we could do it this year. | 0:52:23 | 0:52:27 | |
Selling tickets wasn't the only way to profiteer from the Jubilee. | 0:52:27 | 0:52:31 | |
Any item that could incorporate a picture of Queen Victoria | 0:52:31 | 0:52:34 | |
was turned into a souvenir. | 0:52:34 | 0:52:36 | |
At Kensington Palace, | 0:52:36 | 0:52:38 | |
'the curator Alexandra Kim has been busy sourcing Jubilee memorabilia.' | 0:52:38 | 0:52:43 | |
-Today, I guess the classic Jubilee purchase is going to be a tea towel for £2.50. -Yeah. | 0:52:43 | 0:52:47 | |
But the Victorians went way beyond that, didn't they? | 0:52:47 | 0:52:51 | |
-They had way more stuff. -I love how inventive the Victorians were. | 0:52:51 | 0:52:54 | |
They were just happy to turn anything into this wonderful Jubilee opportunity. | 0:52:54 | 0:52:59 | |
You've got everything here from spoons to playing cards. | 0:52:59 | 0:53:02 | |
There was something for every pocket, | 0:53:02 | 0:53:04 | |
whether you had one shilling or 50 shillings. | 0:53:04 | 0:53:07 | |
It meant that even if you were from the poorest community, | 0:53:07 | 0:53:10 | |
-you could have a... -You could get your own bit of kit. -Exactly. | 0:53:10 | 0:53:13 | |
What do you think all this tells us about how the Victorians | 0:53:13 | 0:53:16 | |
felt about Victoria in 1897? | 0:53:16 | 0:53:19 | |
It shows the Victorians were really keen to have something | 0:53:19 | 0:53:22 | |
to remember this incredible event, this kind of idea of Jubilee mania | 0:53:22 | 0:53:27 | |
and the real inventiveness of all of these Victorian entrepreneurs. | 0:53:27 | 0:53:30 | |
I take my hat off to you. | 0:53:30 | 0:53:32 | |
Who would ever have thought of a Jubilee ginger beer bottle? | 0:53:32 | 0:53:34 | |
Well, who knows? we might get one for this year. | 0:53:34 | 0:53:37 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:53:37 | 0:53:38 | |
And the ginger beer would've been flowing. | 0:53:38 | 0:53:40 | |
Eating and drinking were a huge part of the day's celebrations. | 0:53:40 | 0:53:44 | |
The food historian Annie Grey gives me a taste of who was eating what. | 0:53:44 | 0:53:48 | |
What was the definitive food of Jubilee 1897? | 0:53:48 | 0:53:52 | |
It depends who you are. | 0:53:52 | 0:53:54 | |
If you are poor, you probably come along to watch the procession, | 0:53:54 | 0:53:57 | |
you'll probably buy something from a street vendor. | 0:53:57 | 0:53:59 | |
So you might have some jellied eels or some whelks, | 0:53:59 | 0:54:02 | |
or almost certainly soup, because that's the universal street food at the time. | 0:54:02 | 0:54:06 | |
If you are slightly wealthier, | 0:54:06 | 0:54:07 | |
you're probably going to have had your servants pack a hamper for you. | 0:54:07 | 0:54:10 | |
-What might be in that? A game pie? -Game pie, absolutely. | 0:54:10 | 0:54:14 | |
You're going to have lots of cakes, | 0:54:14 | 0:54:15 | |
you're going to have lots of butter, cheeses, fruits. | 0:54:15 | 0:54:18 | |
I think everyone's Jubilee picnic is going to have cupcakes in it this year. | 0:54:18 | 0:54:22 | |
What do you think of them? Did the Victorians have them? | 0:54:22 | 0:54:24 | |
I'm not a fan of the modern cupcake. | 0:54:24 | 0:54:26 | |
-The Victorian cupcake was a little bit more like that. -Is that it? | 0:54:26 | 0:54:29 | |
-That is so disappointing. -They weren't... | 0:54:29 | 0:54:31 | |
It's lovely because it's delicate and sweet and ladylike | 0:54:31 | 0:54:34 | |
and it means you've got room for the gingerbread and pork pie. | 0:54:34 | 0:54:37 | |
What did the Victorians think about eating in public? | 0:54:37 | 0:54:39 | |
-Wasn't it a bit vulgar? -It was a bit vulgar. | 0:54:39 | 0:54:42 | |
The working classes ate on the street because that's where they could get the food, | 0:54:42 | 0:54:45 | |
but the idea of the rich sitting on the street eating was not done. | 0:54:45 | 0:54:49 | |
It's why they were hiring balconies and sitting behind glass, | 0:54:49 | 0:54:52 | |
so that they could have a table and have it staged up properly. | 0:54:52 | 0:54:55 | |
And pretend that they weren't really eating in public. | 0:54:55 | 0:54:58 | |
Yes, very much so, but with a great view of the Queen passing by. | 0:54:58 | 0:55:01 | |
It's clear that Londoners were having the time of their lives. | 0:55:03 | 0:55:07 | |
But what did the party girl at the centre of it all really think? | 0:55:07 | 0:55:11 | |
Well, we think of the elderly Queen as being silent, reclusive, moody, | 0:55:11 | 0:55:16 | |
but actually, Victoria's diary shows that she was genuinely touched by the day's celebrations. | 0:55:16 | 0:55:23 | |
She wrote that the cheers never ceased | 0:55:23 | 0:55:26 | |
and it was a never-to-be-forgotten day. | 0:55:26 | 0:55:28 | |
So despite all the moaning and the profiteering and the naysaying, | 0:55:30 | 0:55:34 | |
the day was a huge success for Victoria and for her subjects. | 0:55:34 | 0:55:39 | |
There was a great surge in affection for Victoria at her Diamond Jubilee, | 0:55:39 | 0:55:42 | |
and I think exactly the same thing is happening again today. | 0:55:42 | 0:55:46 | |
If you fancy finding out more about Queen Victoria's Jubilee, | 0:55:49 | 0:55:52 | |
head over to London's Kensington Palace, for their Jubilee: A View From The Crowd exhibition. | 0:55:52 | 0:55:57 | |
As Lucy observed, 2012 is a pretty big year for London | 0:55:57 | 0:56:01 | |
and for the Abbey. | 0:56:01 | 0:56:02 | |
It has to look its best for the million visitors expected through the doors. | 0:56:02 | 0:56:07 | |
And that is the task of head conservator Vanessa Simeoni, | 0:56:09 | 0:56:12 | |
who's responsible for looking after this incredible place, | 0:56:12 | 0:56:14 | |
including Henry VII's tomb here. | 0:56:14 | 0:56:16 | |
-Vanessa, how are you doing? -All right. -Can I help you in any way? | 0:56:16 | 0:56:19 | |
-Yes, you can help me do some dusting. -Excellent. | 0:56:19 | 0:56:22 | |
What are the biggest challenges when you're dealing with this absolutely priceless historical artefact? | 0:56:22 | 0:56:28 | |
The biggest challenge everywhere in the Abbey is dust | 0:56:28 | 0:56:31 | |
and the impact it has on all the different materials. | 0:56:31 | 0:56:34 | |
There's bits of damage, so you have to be really careful. | 0:56:34 | 0:56:37 | |
You do. You have to have a really good eye | 0:56:37 | 0:56:39 | |
and recognise what you're looking at | 0:56:39 | 0:56:41 | |
and recognise where it is old damage or recent damage, | 0:56:41 | 0:56:44 | |
and also recognise what impact the dust is having on that surface. | 0:56:44 | 0:56:48 | |
-Let's try and go for it. -All right. -I'll try not to break anything. | 0:56:48 | 0:56:51 | |
We want to remove the dust, not just displace it, | 0:56:51 | 0:56:54 | |
so we gently brush the dust off the surface and into the vacuum cleaner. | 0:56:54 | 0:57:00 | |
-It's painstaking, isn't it? -It does take a long time. | 0:57:00 | 0:57:04 | |
It's very satisfying, isn't it? How recently was this cleaned? There's some dust coming off. | 0:57:04 | 0:57:08 | |
-This was cleaned last week. -You're kidding. -Yeah. | 0:57:08 | 0:57:11 | |
Weekly housekeeping timetable, this particular monument. | 0:57:11 | 0:57:14 | |
Where does that dust come from? | 0:57:14 | 0:57:16 | |
That dust comes from the tourists that we get in every year. | 0:57:16 | 0:57:18 | |
This is human dust? | 0:57:18 | 0:57:20 | |
As well as being central London, you get all the dust and the pollution | 0:57:20 | 0:57:23 | |
as well as building works, construction work going on. | 0:57:23 | 0:57:26 | |
All has a major impact. | 0:57:26 | 0:57:28 | |
Dust staying on the surface of, for example, some metal work, | 0:57:28 | 0:57:32 | |
can start off corrosion and things like that, | 0:57:32 | 0:57:34 | |
so you don't want to leave it on the surface for too long. | 0:57:34 | 0:57:37 | |
Are we fighting a losing battle? | 0:57:37 | 0:57:38 | |
Is the stuff eventually going to collapse, or can you keep it in this condition for eternity? | 0:57:38 | 0:57:43 | |
The job of the conservator is to slow down deterioration. | 0:57:43 | 0:57:46 | |
We completely understand that you can't stop things | 0:57:46 | 0:57:49 | |
from deteriorating, especially when you're a public building. | 0:57:49 | 0:57:52 | |
We can't stop it but we can slow it down and we do. | 0:57:52 | 0:57:57 | |
It must be hugely satisfying. | 0:57:57 | 0:57:59 | |
It's the most amazing job in the whole world. I'm very lucky. | 0:57:59 | 0:58:03 | |
-Well, good luck with it. -Thank you. | 0:58:03 | 0:58:06 | |
Thank you for joining us in Westminster Abbey | 0:58:12 | 0:58:15 | |
to help us celebrate the heritage of this beautiful building. | 0:58:15 | 0:58:18 | |
I'll tell you what, now I realise how much hard work | 0:58:18 | 0:58:20 | |
goes into keeping it in this incredible condition. | 0:58:20 | 0:58:22 | |
I hope we've whetted your appetites for exploring more of our history | 0:58:22 | 0:58:25 | |
during this Jubilee year. | 0:58:25 | 0:58:27 | |
-Thank you for watching. -Goodbye. | 0:58:27 | 0:58:29 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:59:00 | 0:59:02 |