A Jubilee Tribute to The Queen by the Prince of Wales The Queen's Diamond Jubilee

# God save our gracious Queen

# Long live our noble Queen

# God save the Queen

# Send her... #

'There's probably no better place to begin

'this rather personal tribute to the Queen than here at Balmoral.

'The castle was built for Queen Victoria,

'the only previous monarch to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee

'in our long history.'

'So many wonderful things have been said about my mama this year,

'but with the aide of cine films

'and photographs that she and my father took

'of my sister and me as children,

'I just wanted to take this opportunity to reflect

'on some of private as well as public moments

'of her memorable reign.'

If I can get it open.

A-ha!

It's a wonderfully battered box.

Oh, do look at all these things.

And you see, I think....

..this one...

Yes.

Funnily enough, I think my mama must have probably inherited the interest

from her father, my grandfather, King George VI,

because he also took quite a lot of film in the '30s.

I think my mama kept up the habit of taking cine films.

Because I remember so well my parents, well, both my parents

seemed to have enjoyed filming things.

There was a lot of things went on, you know, with cine cameras.

I remember when I was young.

But then, obviously I haven't seen a lot of them for years.

That's why, you know, now it's been so interesting and amusing,

and...and touching, actually, to see some of them.

PRINCE CHARLES CHUCKLES

That's my aunt, Princess Margaret. Oh, my sister, Anne.

This must have been 1952, wasn't it?

PRINCE CHARLES CHUCKLES

That was always such fun, doing that.

I remember doing that with my children as well, down that bank.

Endlessly.

Couldn't reach the pedals!

PRINCE CHARLES CHUCKLES

Whoops!

I suspect every generation did this on this bank

and I have a feeling Queen Victoria's children

probably did exactly the same thing.

This was a...electric car.

It was my mama's and she'd had it when she was a child,

I have a feeling.

I'm trying to run my sister down, anyway.

Rather good colour, isn't it?

I must say. They have lasted jolly well, these films.

I can hardly believe how much things have changed,

since the 1950s, in every walk of life.

So, the fact that my mama has been a constant feature on the scene,

has provided that sense, I think, of continuity

in a time of immense change over the last 60 years,

I think is one of the most important things to celebrate,

it seems to me, because perhaps subconsciously people

feel encouraged, perhaps,

reassured by something that's always there.

Your Majesty, I know I speak for all those who have the privilege

to wear your uniform and hold your commission

when I thank you for your dedication to our service and to our country.

Three cheers for Her Majesty the Queen.

-Hip hip!

-Hooray!

-Hip hip!

-Hooray!

-Hip hip!

-Hooray!

Of course, a jubilee now,

a Diamond Jubilee being a pretty unique event, to say the least,

perhaps helps to bring the whole country together,

and provide opportunity for celebration,

remembering the things that help to define us, perhaps.

From the very start,

the Queen had to prepare for the most important event of any reign -

the Coronation.

She has a private memento of that June day

especially filmed behind the scenes at Buckingham Palace.

I suspect this must be getting ready for going out to the coach.

She does look incredibly calm.

I suppose she had a sense

that everything possible had been thought of.

She'd also had several rehearsals.

On such a momentous day, you'd think there might be some nerves

about the need to get everything right,

with everyone watching on the television and so on.

But then my mama does have amazing poise.

These are the last few private moments

before the State Coach comes out into public view.

It has to do a huge semicircle in the inner courtyard

before it emerges through the central arch

on its way to Westminster Abbey.

It was quite a long walk, of course, with...people walking along beside.

-COMMENTATOR:

-'Leaving her home on what must surely be

'the greatest day of her life,

'Queen Elizabeth drives to her coronation.'

'And so on past Admiralty Arch and through Trafalgar Square...'

The extraordinary thing was

the wonderful atmosphere in London and everywhere.

It was, it was palpable.

And all that helps to carry you along,

I'm sure my mama would say now.

But you see, for me, I remember having my hair cut

and all that sort of thing beforehand,

and plastered down with the most frightful stuff,

which annoyed me to such a degree!

And then being strapped into this splendid outfit.

All those sort of preparations are far more vivid, really,

than the actual occasion.

You absolutely do try and get it right.

So anybody would be pretty apprehensive.

You know, hence the practising wearing things

and getting used to what they felt like.

It was...such an enormous occasion.

Will you solemnly promise and swear to govern the peoples

of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,

Canada, Australia, New Zealand,

'the Union of South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon,'

and of your possessions and the other territories

to any of them belonging or pertaining,

according to their respective laws and customs?

I solemnly promise so to do.

'My grandmother used to, you know, lean down

'and explain some of the things that were going on'

or try and get me to notice things, you know,

"This is the moment" and so on.

'ALL: God save the Queen!'

Long live the Queen!

God save the Queen!

FANFARE

-NEWSREADER:

-'The word has gone forth -

'The Queen is crowned!'

# Send her victorious

# Happy and glorious

# Long to reign over us

# God save the Queen. #

'And now we're back inside Buckingham Palace.'

I should think... I should think the crown was rather agony by then.

It's incredibly heavy.

That's why, you know, my mama had to practise so much wearing it.

You had to, you see, to learn how to wear it for longish periods,

because it goes on, the ceremony, for quite a long time,

so you can end up with a terrible headache.

So I remember my mama coming, you know, up,

when we were being bathed as children,

with wearing...wearing the crown, it was quite funny, practising.

That's a vivid memory, I must say.

You can imagine great fascination

with small children looking at the crown,

peering at the jewels.

"Oh, can I take it off?"

Ah, somebody trod on it!

Fascinated by it, you know.

CROWD CHEERS

HER MAJESTY: 'As this day draws to its close,

'I know that my abiding memory of it will be

'not only the solemnity and beauty of the ceremony,

'but the inspiration of your loyalty and affection.'

Look exhausted!

We were in the picture gallery.

We must be waiting for photographs or something, I suppose.

PRINCE CHARLES LAUGHS

So mama's obviously taken the crown off to have a rest.

Here we are, you see, in the throne room. Oh, yes, look.

There's Princess Alexandra in her gold coronet,

and my aunt, Princess Marina, the Duchess of Kent.

A rather wonderful gathering of diamonds, I must say!

It's fantastic, isn't it?

It's all the flashes, I suspect.

Lord Mountbatten, my great uncle.

Frightfully proud I was of my Coronation medal.

Splendid.

'For most of the year, Buckingham Palace is the Queen's main home.

'From my earliest childhood, I was always aware

'that her official engagements were part of the daily rhythm.'

Natural grace is something you're born with, I suspect.

And, of course, she wore such marvellous things, I think.

As children, of course, it was, it was always fascinating to see,

particularly when she was, you know,

wearing a long dress and tiara and jewellery and everything else.

It was rather marvellous, I remember being fascinated by that.

When she would come in occasionally before going to something...

gaze in amazement and always looks marvellous

in those jewels, I think.

This is my great grandmother, Queen Mary, who I,

you know, I do remember when she was in her 80s, I suppose.

But it's intriguing looking at the...some of the jewellery

to see, you know, how...how much is used still.

And the Queen, still, she wears that tiara quite a lot.

And probably the earrings and part of the diamond necklace.

But over the years, things get reset, you know.

My great-great-grandmother, Queen Alexandra, I mean,

she really did go to town, it's absolutely wonderful.

She loved ropes of pearls and isn't it wonderful

the way they were criss-crossed and hung like that.

And again, there are pieces there that,

the tiara is one that my mama wears.

And you'll see that one in the... usually Opening of Parliament.

FANFARE PLAYS ON SOUNDTRACK

COMMENTATOR: 'Through the gates of Buckingham Palace,

'Her Majesty the Queen,

'accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, drives in state

'to open the new session of Parliament.

'Not for 66 years has a reigning queen presided at this ceremony.'

We used to spend a lot of time

with our noses pressed against the window,

watching all sorts of things going on, like this.

'The Queen, wearing a diamond and pearl tiara,

'is a picture of grace and charm to delight the cheering crowds.'

I've always thought that my mama looks absolutely wonderful

in that tiara, the one she wears for the State Opening Of Parliament.

You know it was made for the Prince Regent?

That's the amazing thing when you think about it. But it...

I thought she looked absolutely marvellous in it.

'She's now opened Parliament at Westminster 59 times.

'The first was back in 1952,

'when Sir Winston Churchill was Prime Minister.

'And then, of course, there are all the overseas realms

'in which she is also Queen.'

When I opened Parliament in, in Canada,

then I came here and opened Parliament,

and then in the Virgin Islands, and then in Antigua,

then in Barbados, then I flew home by Concorde, which was the only way

I could get home in time to open Parliament in London.

'All the Queen's British Prime Ministers

'have been invited to Balmoral for the weekend,

'and joined in whatever the family was doing.

'Sir Winston was no exception.'

I suspect she was taking these, look.

Oh, look, there's Lady Churchill, Sir Winston Churchill's wife.

There he is, look. See, I remember this one so well,

I remember him sitting there with...

he'd found a bit of driftwood and said,

"I'm waiting for the Loch Ness Monster," he said.

Don't you love his sort of wonderfully un-Scottish garb?

That hat.

Lady Churchill trying to guard him, I think.

By then, I suppose he was...must've been 80, I suppose, wasn't he?

It's extraordinary when you think he was still the Prime Minister.

PRINCE CHARLES LAUGHS

It must have been, in some ways, quite reassuring

for my mama to have somebody like that when she first started.

I mean, with all that experience going back such a long way to the...

before the First World War and all the way through.

Remarkable when you think about it.

Somebody like that to deal with or to...

to hear his perspective on what was going on.

Well, I sometimes wonder whether Sir Winston wasn't in a way

rather like Lord Melbourne was to Queen Victoria,

you know, when she first came to the throne.

He grew to adore her, and she adored him, of course.

Well, I think my mama, I mean, he was

such an extraordinary character and so amusing, Sir Winston,

he came out with these wonderful remarks, but wonderful.

And you couldn't fail, really, to be intrigued and fascinated by that.

COMMENTATOR: 'Now the man, who through the darkest days of the war,

'would report regularly to the Sovereign

'all the great affairs of state, is no longer Prime Minister.'

'The extraordinary thing now when you think about it is that,

'as prime ministers have come and gone over the past 60 years,

'the boot perhaps is on the other foot.

'It's the Queen who has the equivalent

'of Sir Winston's span of experience.

'Two of her 12 British Prime Ministers

'hadn't even been born when she came to the throne.'

Mr Jim Callaghan,

he used to tell me occasionally that he had

developed an enormous respect for my mama,

an understanding, I think, of the role of the sovereign,

having not really done so before to the same extent.

And he told me then that he realised more and more after,

you know, meetings with my mama, as Prime Minister and so on,

just how important, he said anyway,

he'd realised the... the role of the sovereign was.

This is my mama's album... this must've be when...

must've been the first one, I think, because it actually says in here,

"HRH Prince Charles, his book," it says,

"14th November, 1948," which was when I was born.

There's me here with my mama. This, I suppose,

was September 1949 up in Scotland.

I was nearly one, I suppose, by then.

Now, I think that dog was called Susan, but...

my mama will probably tell me I'm wrong.

Look, sniff, sniff, "Be very careful of dog."

Getting me to stand up, trying to walk, look.

Not very successfully.

Very ticklish.

I sort of vaguely remember those leggings I wore in those days.

PRINCE CHARLES CHUCKLES

Oh, yes, here was an early introduction to Trooping the Colour,

looking over the wall, Clarence House into The Mall.

All the bands coming past and then my grandfather,

King George VI, in his carriage at that stage, this is in 1950,

because he wasn't riding, he was not well enough I think.

There's my grandfather in the carriage all on his own,

King George VI.

Oh, there's my mama.

Yes, you see she's been made Colonel of the Grenadiers, you see.

You see the cap with the Grenadiers' crest.

There's my great-uncle, the Duke of Gloucester.

And it's interesting that in those days there was only

the Duke of Gloucester and my mama who were riding behind the carriage.

Now there's more of us.

The wonderful thing is nothing has changed,

it's still done he same way. So this must have been my father, I think,

taking the film. He'd obviously gone up to the window.

Oh, here we are coming back again, up The Mall.

I shall have to ask my mama which horse that was she was riding.

PRINCE CHARLES LAUGHS

Because it's quite a long sit, you know, on a horse.

It gets quite tiring, amazingly.

Well, into the centre room, which leads onto the balcony.

I remember as a child so often at the Trooping of the Colour,

you know, being fascinated by what appeared to be

frightfully tall gentlemen in uniforms, you know.

Always riveted by the swords and the aiguillettes

and, "What's that?", you know.

Wanting to pull swords out, you know, and push them back in again.

And, of course, you see the Queen always has taken such

a particular interest in all the horses to do with the Trooping,

and all the carriage horses and everything else,

so she knows a huge amount about all of that, all of them.

And, of course, when she used to ride in the Trooping then,

that was marvellous, I always thought.

She used to do quite a lot of practice riding side saddle

beforehand at Windsor, you know, or sometimes in the riding school here,

because otherwise she didn't ride side saddle normally.

That's in the Great Park at Windsor.

This must be in the late 1940s.

For most of her life,

my mama has gone riding there every morning whenever she's at Windsor.

My aunt.

I've never forgotten her endlessly trying to get us to learn

how to do a trot,

which I seem to remember at the beginning was so difficult.

Then suddenly it comes. This splendid pony we had called Fun.

That's at Sandringham.

It's much better to learn all these things when you're young

because, you know, it never seems to be much of an effort.

I remember that jacket of my mama's so well.

Still got the light meter around her neck.

Going backwards and forwards.

Is that my sister in the background? Must be, mustn't it? Yes.

It could have been me, couldn't it, I suppose, taking this film.

The wobbly bits. Yes.

In 60 years, it's extraordinary the number of countries my parents

have managed to visit.

I so admire the way she's helped to hold that unique association,

the Commonwealth, together.

And I think...just the sheer number of heads of state who are

coming to the Jubilee celebrations I think shows the, you know,

the respect and affection which my mama is held all around the world.

Somebody asked me had I been to Africa before,

which was nice of them to ask,

but I did say that I had been everywhere in the Commonwealth,

in Africa, and in other countries in Africa.

I think I've seen more of Africa than almost anybody.

You know, her knowledge and experience

of a lot of these countries and the people involved in them

has been well pretty extensive after 60 years.

Her first tour as Queen, just after the Coronation, took her

to 15 countries around the world,

and she was away from November to May.

She became the first reigning monarch to set foot

in New Zealand, and there was a sort of frenzied excitement in the crowd.

This is the first time that I have spoken to New Zealanders

in their own homeland, and my first words must be to tell you

how happy I am to be amongst you.

I think almost the whole population

turned out to see her during her five weeks there.

I think with the Coronation tour they went away

for something like six months I think, something like that.

It was quite a long time, to say the least.

'With my parents the other side of the world,

'my sister and I were the first ones to sail on the brand new Britannia

'as we set off from Portsmouth to meet them in the Mediterranean.

'My grandmother and my aunt took us on board.'

Oh, look, you see the excitement of exploring.

COMMENTATOR:' This is the first time any of the Royal visitors

'have seen the splendid new yacht.

'The Royal children will soon be on their way

'to join their mother again.

'It has been nearly five months

'since the Queen was with her children,

'though she has kept close contact with them

'throughout her tour by radio telephone.'

And, of course, in those days it took FOREVER to get through,

you know, you'd wait and wait for the connections and clicks

and all this sound, you could just eventually hear

a tiny, tiny voice miles away.

And you'd shout and shout, and you couldn't quite hear.

Finally, we just got the odd little tiny sense of what was being said

and that was the only sort of connection we had on the telephone,

and a little letter every now and then.

But I mean, we used to have great fun.

The sailors built a wonderful sort of Heath Robinson

type of slide that came down the steps with a sea water pump -

you could put the water down and then you'd slide down it

and see how far you could slide along the deck when you got wet,

hoping there weren't any splinters!

These are these wonderful sailors who looked after us,

who had infinite patience and endless, you know,

ideas about how to entertain us.

It was all deck quoits and goodness knows what, and deck hockey.

And we spent a lot of time cleaning and washing down everywhere.

Dress up in the sailors' enormous boots - quite a funny photograph.

Early signs of an interest in joining the Royal Navy there.

Not a very good salute.

You can imagine, you know,

the anticipation mounted as we got nearer and nearer,

past Gibraltar and then Malta and then we reached Tobruk,

where the Queen and Prince Philip were finishing

in Libya of all places.

Extraordinary when you think of it.

Yes, you can imagine, after all these months, it was,

it was very exciting to see them again.

And it must have been exciting for them too, I suspect.

My sister and I must have changed quite a bit while they'd been away,

and it was also their first time on board Britannia.

My mama soon had her camera out.

My great uncle, Lord Mountbatten,

was then the Commander in Chief Mediterranean

and he was leading the whole of the Mediterranean fleet in a sail past.

Really close because he was determined to make it impressive,

which indeed it was, you can imagine, that speed.

Look at it. I've never forgotten this, it was so...

I thought, thrilling to see this.

Oh, there's Lord Mountbatten coming across on the jackstay transfer.

Oh, don't tell me he went down it, did he?

He did!

He couldn't resist it!

PRINCE CHARLES CHUCKLES

And my father.

On the way home we went to Gibraltar.

Of course, you have to go and see the Barbary Apes on the Rock.

Bit of a hazardous experience, particularly for my sister.

PRINCE CHARLES CHUCKLES

COMMENTATOR: 'Down through the narrow winding streets,

'so familiar to generations of British serving men,

'went a Royal Family party.'

Well, I'd forgotten that!

'There was the Britannia with her armada,

'bringing back Queen Elizabeth from her journey round the world.'

This I do remember vividly.

My grandmother running up.

Such a long time. Everybody had been away.

'It was a proud Queen Mother, eager to see her daughter again,

'and Princess Margaret hurried up the gangway to join her sister.

'Then the river procession which all London, all Britain,

'had been waiting to see.'

BELLS PEAL

'As the bells rang out,

'the church bells of all the United Kingdom joined them.

'For it's her presence, wherever she may be that unites us.'

Oh, there we are, are we sitting in a carriage?

Yes, look.

Learning early how to wave.

'It was a grey May afternoon,

'when were those children who'd won all hearts.

'She drove through London to the end of her journey.'

And of course in those days,

it was quite a major expedition to go on these tours.

And each time they came back, they went to the Guildhall

for a welcome back, a lunch and everything else and a drive.

You know, with everything, the Household Cavalry.

And then I remember, always, there were these endless crowds

standing outside, you know,

"We want the Queen, we want the Queen" went on all the time.

I wouldn't do that now!

I suffer from vertigo. It's all right when you're small.

What on Earth did my mama say to me!?

PRINCE CHARLES LAUGHS

Mama fishing...

Extraordinary.

Oh, look, that's the wonderful old head keeper who was here

called Don MaCardy, who took me fishing, aged seven, I think.

I know where that is, that's down from Birkhall.

My mama hasn't fished for a long time.

But in the '40s and '50s, she did a bit.

Oh, I remember that old Ford, it's so wonderful!

That old Ford station wagon, which creaked, all the wood...

I've never... It was such heaven.

Well, that's the first film I've ever seen of my mama fishing,

it's absolutely riveting!

It is a wonderful means of recharging batteries,

Balmoral, I think.

It just has a very special atmosphere

and life's so busy, you know, and it's always in public and so on,

it's just so nice to be able to escape somewhere, like here.

Oh, look, that was trying to make tea.

It was always rather exciting trying to get it going!

No, it's just...vital to... recharge.

And you feel all the sort of concerns

and cares leaving you for a bit.

That must be my pictures again, I think.

Go on, find it!

FANFARE

COMMENTATOR: 'And now begins the ceremony of the Investiture

'of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.'

To think what a long time ago it was, really, this.

I was only 21.

'Charles Phillip Arthur John...'

There had been endless rehearsals that I'd been involved in.

All these people, you see, the great officers of state and so on.

It was quite funny because the Earl Marshall,

who was in charge of all this, was a splendid man, the Duke of Norfolk,

and Garter King of Arms, who was in charge of it...

They used to have endless arguments, it was quite funny.

'Her Majesty, takes the sword.'

I can't remember my mama...

She came to one. I think we did a bit of a rehearsal.

But I remember we stamped about the garden at Buckingham Palace

with people being put in their places!

Everybody forgetting which way round everything was, it was very funny.

Anyway, there we are. It happened on the day, that was the great thing.

'And in a moment, the Prince pays homage to the Queen

'by placing his hands between those of his mother.

My mama busy dressing me,

rather like she did when I was small!

PRINCE CHARLES LAUGHS

With the same expression on the face, if you know what I mean.

Quite funny.

And then you have to swear fealty, you know, your lifelong liegeman.

I, Charles Prince of Wales,

do become your liegeman of life and limb

and of Earthly worship, and faith and truth

I will bear unto thee to live and die against all manner of folks.

It's rather splendid stuff.

I had to remember it.

Easier to do aged 21 than it would be now, I think.

APPLAUSE

This is desperate pedalling!

PRINCE CHARLES LAUGHS

Princess Margaret.

My mama takes a great pride in her family,

from having been a young mother at the start of her reign,

to now being a great-grandmother twice over.

The photographs would pile up around, you know, everywhere.

It was trying to find time, I think, for her to sit

and fit them into the albums.

But over the years, it's amazing how many she's managed to do.

Where did I get this hat?

Oh, there we are, I remember so well that old...

What are they called, Rolleiflexes or something,

weren't they called, those cameras?

I must say they're rather irresistible at that age!

They're basically sort of cattle dogs, you know,

so they would sort of snap at the heels of the cattle

and push them along.

Course the trouble is they... don't just stop at cattle!

At Windsor there were a few anxious sentries in sentry boxes,

I think, from time to time!

After being here at Windsor for so long,

it has, I think, a particular resonance for my mama.

This is the Grand Corridor, Green Corridor, in fact it used to

be red in Queen Victoria's day I think, and now it's gone green.

She was here during the war and come every weekend for 60 years.

And has, I mean, a very great attachment to it I think, you know.

All the horses are in the stables

and she always goes for walks down at the bottom of the hill there.

And of course, you know,

there's such a big community that lives here now at Windsor.

And...very much part of her life.

I mean, who could fail, really, I think, to have their spirits

raised by a place like this, which was built to pray

for the souls of the departed,

and to be a special place of worship for the sovereign.

It always has had this special significance,

which, you know, I think the Queen feels very deeply.

She made a very interesting speech the other day

about how, you know, the Church of England,

the fact that it is an established church, she said,

helps to provide the right kind of protective space

for all the other religions, that's the point.

And I think if you talked to any of the other faiths

in this country, they will all say the same thing.

They all actually appreciate the way things are structured

in this country, which provides them with the freedom to worship

as they wish.

I think, you know, my mama understands all that

as it's part of the make up and nature of this country now.

COMMENTATOR: 'The Queen and her family

'arrive at a sports ground in Chelsea

'for Prince Charles's school field day.'

'Oh, help!'

'And Charles does the honours by introducing his friends.

'First, of course, to his mother and then to his father.

'The boy at the end of the line the Duke has met before.

'Of course Royal encouragement from the sidelines helps a lot,

'and Charles makes a sound contribution to the team's effort.'

My parents were having to sit there watching this.

'The result - a win for Charles's team!'

It was quite a long way.

Being trained early for Gordonstoun, you see!

'After the display,

'the Queen waits for her son to change like any other parent.

'The heir to the throne is learning to mix with other boys,

'and no-one watching him at work and play can doubt that

'the experiment is proving a great success.'

We were away all the time at school.

So it was the holidays that there was, you know,

more opportunity to crash about and do other things.

Then we would see my parents, obviously, a great deal more.

This is down at Holkham beach in Norfolk, near Sandringham.

It was a vast beach.

Goes for miles.

I think the Queen was taking these ones.

Great fun sort of shrimping.

There weren't any shrimps, really.

We used to sometimes go down in the winter as well.

But this is summertime.

PRINCE CHARLES CHUCKLES

Ah, the things parents do for their children.

PRINCE CHARLES LAUGHS

Well, you see, in those days, there was hardly anybody.

It's much busier now - the beach.

PRINCE CHARLES LAUGHS UPROARIOUSLY

One of the highlights of each summer was sailing in Britannia

round the west coast of Scotland.

My mama misses that so much now.

We went every year, you see, every, every...August

for ten days, I think.

And, of course, it, um... it mattered enormously to my mama

because it was a wonderful way, you know,

for her to unwind a bit, you know...

..to have picnics and potter about.

She...she always adored it.

It was very special.

Sometimes when I was quite young, we'd go ashore in Northern Ireland.

Hard to believe it now, but there was no problem.

I remember a visit there, must have been in the '60s, I suppose,

and, you know, we didn't seem to be too difficult

and we drove about and went to visit a great friend of my mama's.

They'd been together in the war, I think, she and this particular lady.

So we spent, I don't know, morning or afternoon visiting,

and it was in a rural area of Northern Ireland.

I've never forgotten.

So before the trouble started, you know, badly

in 1968 or '69 or whatever it was, it was...

I mean, one forgets, in many ways, how much easier it was then.

And then, after that, it became impossible

ever to do anything quite like that until...

Well, at least in 1977, the Queen, my mama, got there.

SOLEMN BAND MUSIC PLAYS

But two years later,

the Troubles came very close to home with that terrible IRA bomb

in the little village of Mullaghmore in County Sligo.

COMMENTATOR: 'Admiral of the Fleet Earl Mountbatten

'is borne in fitting tribute with love and admiration.

'His Admiral's cocked hat,

'the sword of honour

'and his gold stick of office.'

My mama was deeply fond of Lord Mountbatten...

..so was I, I must say, but, anyway, it was...

..one of those, um... desperate things.

'Her Majesty the Queen...'

And, of course, the awful thing was

that he'd been warned not to go to Ireland,

but he always thought everybody around was very friendly,

you know, the...what one thinks.

'The choir will sing the Sentences, I Am The Resurrection And The Life.'

# I am the resurrection

# And the life

# Saith the Lord... #

I think my mama, she...she... she very much valued, you know,

being able to talk to him, having known him for so long.

So we were all left bereft, you know.

But it was wonderfully done - the funeral.

That's the great thing about, I think,

the way things are done in this country, it's, um...

it's very special...

..and as a result, even more meaningful.

BELLS PEAL

Who could ever have guessed then that things would change so much?

The fact that the Queen managed to go to Ireland on a state visit

is a remarkable thing in itself.

And, er...

and in many ways I...I think that's, you know, her greatest achievement -

to have been...which, I mean, after so many years,

a long, long time, no sovereign had ever been there...from here.

A Uachtarain, agus a chairde.

Wow!

APPLAUSE

And it was remarkable, I think, how it has helped to lay so many ghosts.

It is a sad and regrettable reality

that our islands have experienced more than their fair share

of heartache, turbulence and loss.

These events have touched us all, many of us personally,

and are a painful legacy.

With the benefit of historical hindsight

we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently

or not at all.

But it is also true that no-one who looked to the future

over the past centuries could have imagined the strength of the bonds

that are now in place

between the governments and people of our two nations.

Completely transformed the situation and the relationship.

It has really made the difference, I think.

A year on from that visit

and the Diamond Jubilee, I think, gives us a chance

to celebrate with pride all that the Queen means to us...

both as a nation and, indeed, as one of her children.

Looking back to the start of her reign

makes you realise how young she was

when she came to the throne.

She and my father were new parents

just setting up home with their children,

and she can't have expected to be thrown into her new role so soon.

The death of her beloved father at the age of only 57

must have been a terrible shock.

Oh, look how marvellously my grandfather...

-PRINCE CHARLES CHUCKLES

-Oh, it's got caught, you see,

look, on her brooch...my cardigan.

PRINCE CHARLES LAUGHS

I hadn't realised my parents had taken those films

-when

-I

-was very small

and my grandfather was still around because...

I mean, one of my greatest regrets is not having really known him,

and I really mind that.

It says Christmas Day, 1951.

Oh, dear, it was so near to when my grandfather died,

that was the awful thing.

Here we all are - everybody sitting at Christmas.

To think that he only died only a month or two after.

COMMENTATOR: 'To London Airport come the King and Queen

'to speed their daughter and her husband on the first stage

'of their 30,000-mile journey to Australia and New Zealand.

Princess Elizabeth and the Duke are taking the place

'of their Majesties who were to have made the tour.'

'On their way out to Australia,

'my parents stopped over in East Africa.

'It was as far as they were destined to get.'

Well, this obviously must have been a film my father and my mama

must have taken in Kenya.

This, I think, was in that... Treetops, I think it's called.

It was this sort of hotel in the trees, I think.

Amazing, isn't it, to sit right above them like that? Incredible.

It was that night they spent at Treetops

that my grandfather died in his sleep.

But, of course, my parents had no idea,

and even next day when they moved on to this rather lovely game lodge,

it took a while for the news to come through.

Then, of course, they had to pack up and fly back to London.

Oh...must be the aeroplane.

So I presume it's my father taking the photographs.

Never seen this, no, no.

So these must be the first pictures taken of my mama

after she knew she was Queen.

I suppose when you first set out,

you don't think about how long things might go on for,

but the Queen has provided an amazing record of, you know,

devotion and dedication, and commitment.

And each year, you know, doing the same...

..following the same patterns which...which helped to sort of,

I think, anchor things a bit, you know, and give reassurance

that something is there which is perhaps a little more timeless

than other things which are changing all the time, you know.

MUSIC: God Save The Queen

That's the great thing, I think.

# May she defend our laws

# And ever give us cause

# To sing with heart and voice

# God save the Queen

# God save the Queen

# God save the Queen. #

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd