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MAFS' Aleks and Ivan exchange wedding vows
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MAFS' Aleks and Ivan exchange wedding vows

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'The Crown' Recreates Famous Princess Diana Moment In Rare Look At Season 4

'The Crown' Recreates Famous Princess Diana Moment In Rare Look At Season 4

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You Can Now Stay In The Castle Where 'The Crown' Is Filmed

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5 Filming Locations From 'The Crown' You Can Visit In Real Life

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A New Podcast Series Has Arrived For 'The Crown' Devotees

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Buckingham Palace Reveals The History Behind The Opening Scene Of 'The Crown' Season 3

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Inside Princess Margaret And Lord Snowdon's Tumultuous Marriage

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Olivia Colman Has Finally Been Given The Royal Recognition She Deserves

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'The Crown' Has Reportedly Cast The Role Of Margaret Thatcher

'The Crown' Has Reportedly Cast The Role Of Margaret Thatcher

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‘The Crown’ Has Confirmed Season 3’s Prince Philip, And You'll Definitely Recognise Him

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Max Mara’s 70th anniversary show was inspired by the Queen

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The Instagram Account That Documents Princess Diana's Best Post-Divorce Fashion Moments

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Netflix Refuses To Put A Disclaimer On 'The Crown' Citing It As Fiction

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The Queen Has Just Released Her Own Gin And We Suspect It's Top-Notch

Why 'The Crown' Did Not Feature Princess Diana And Prince Charles' Royal Wedding

Why 'The Crown' Did Not Feature Princess Diana And Prince Charles' Royal Wedding

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Before The Kardashians, The Royal Family Made Their Own Reality TV Show

It’s the basis of 'The Crown’s' latest plot - by Chelsea Tromans
  • 29 Nov 2019
Before The Kardashians, The Royal Family Made Their Own Reality TV Show

The third season of The Crown is currently airing and in episode four, they show a dramatised version of the real-life 1969 BBC documentary, Royal Family.

The documentary was essentially an olden-day version of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, where cameras followed the Queen and her family over the course of 75 days in 172 locations. The footage was edited down to a two-hour special that showed major monarchial moments, like the Queen having lunch with US President Richard Nixon, and mundane everyday activities like family dinners and Queen Elizabeth buying her son an ice-cream.

The Royal Family 1969 Documentary

The documentary's intent was to humanise the royal family.

It was watched by 30.6 million people in the United Kingdom - over half of the population - as well as an estimated 350 million around the world.

Surprisingly, the documentary was met with a lot of criticism for hampering the family’s mystique - something The Crown touches upon. One such critic was David Attenborough (who controlled BBC Two at the time). Attenborough told Richard Cawston, who directed the film: “The whole institution depends on mystique and the tribal chief in his hut. If any member of the tribe ever sees inside the hut, then the whole system of tribal chiefdom is damaged and the tribe eventually disintegrates.”

Princess Anne was also against the project. "I never liked the idea of 'Royal Family,' I thought it was a rotten idea," she said in the 2015 book, Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Family. "The attention which had been brought upon one ever since one was a child, you just didn't need any more...I don't remember enjoying any part of that."

Despite the documentary receiving the Queen’s full support and tick of approval before airing, for undisclosed reasons she had the documentary archived shortly after, and it hasn't been broadcast in full since. Until recently, it has been shrouded in secrecy, hidden away from the public and only ever shown to a select few with express permission from Buckingham Palace. However, according to Elle, who spoke with the British Film Institute archivist in charge of Royal Family, non-fiction curator Patrick Russell, it is currently available for anyone to watch for free as part of the Institute's "in venue offerings" at its multimedia library in Southbank in London.

"Royal Family" Documentary 1969
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Chelsea Tromans
Chelsea Tromans
Chelsea Tromans is a fashion, beauty and lifestyle editor whose words can be found on BEAUTYcrew, marie claire, Women’s Health, WHO, Daily Addict, and The Joye…just to name a few. She’s a night owl who’s trying to train herself to be a morning person (coffee helps!) and she recently traded in her hectic Sydney life for a quieter pace in Brisbane.

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