TV reviews: Elizabeth: Unseen Queen and The Crown Jewels

Elizabeth: The Unseen Queen, Sunday 29th May, 7:45pm, BBC One

Diehard republicans might want to look away from this blog now. Actually, bearing in mind what’s happening in this country over the next week or so, diehard republicans might want to go to bed and stick their duvet over their heads for the next ten days. It’s going to be a festival of monarchical worship, a celebration of an extraordinary life of public service by an extraordinary woman.

On Thursday 2nd June, the official celebrations for the Queen’s 70th Jubilee begin in earnest. But the BBC is kicking things off this Sunday evening with a remarkable 75-minute documentary. As is often the case with these films, the whole thing has not been made available to watch, but a chosen few of us have been given special access to some of the film. (By “a chosen few”, I think I probably mean “anyone who asked” and by “some of the film” I mean “3 minutes and 38 seconds” but let’s not quibble).

For almost a century, the royal family have enjoyed shooting each other. I don’t mean in a Roman Empire battle for the top job sort of a way. I mean on cine film. They have been avid home video fans, long, long before all you had to do was whip out your smartphone and start filming your dinner for everyone to see on Instagram.

For decades, hundreds of reels of footage have been kept by the Royal Collection under lock and key in the vaults of the British Film Institute. For this exceptionally personal and intimate film, the Queen allowed the BBC access to these films, most of which have never been seen in public before. Producers have sifted through 400 reels of film to stitch together a comprehensive study of the Queen’s early life. Instead of the normal narration and interviews that pepper most documentaries, in this film, most of the words are spoken by the Queen herself. The production team listened to 300 speeches delivered by the Queen over eight decades, and it is a selection of those words that provide the film’s commentary.

Among the moments featured in the film are shots of the infant Princess Elizabeth in her pram, behind-the-scenes footage at state events, and film of the Queen’s grandfather, who she called Grandpa England, sailing off the Isle of Wight.

The film reveals the warmth of the young Princess’ relationship with her parents, and features footage of her happily showing off her engagement ring during a trip to Balmoral with Prince Philip before their engagement became public. There is also film of her with her young children, Charles and Anne, shown with their doting grandparents.

We all tend to shoot more film when we’re on holiday, and the royals are no different. Well, they’re a bit different, in the sense that they don’t shoot footage of poolside drinking competitions and nights out in Ayia Napa. Instead, much of their home video is shot up in Balmoral, where the family is at its most relaxed. Among the plentiful supply of shots of glorious, heather-clad mountains, there is poignant footage of the family holiday there in 1951, George VI’s last visit there before he died.

As the Queen celebrates an astonishing 70 years on the throne, it is intriguing how little we really know her. Sure, there are Christmas addresses, and The Crown and other dramas have given us a degree of insight into what might have happened behind the scenes. But the Queen has always cultivated a certain air of mystery – which many say is crucial to maintaining the mystique and aura that surrounds the monarch. Now, this immersive and revealing film lifts the curtain, just a smidge, to allow us a riveting look at life behind the scenes.

For enthusiastic royal-watchers, it is an absolute must. For republicans? Enjoy your duvet.

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The Crown Jewels, Friday 3rd June, 7:30pm, BBC One

We all enjoy looking our best, right? Getting jazzed up for a night out? Last weekend I took my wife out to a comedy show and for a meal, and I put on an actual shirt, jeans with no holes in them, and shoes that weren’t trainers. Mrs Goodhart thought it must have been our wedding anniversary.

It turns out, the Queen quite likes getting dressed up, too. It’s just one of the many things we have in common, along with a fondness for dogs and an awe-inspiring sense of self-sacrifice for our country (hers takes the form of dedicating her life to public service, mine involves writing a TV blog…) But one thing we don’t have in common is the resources at our disposal. For a night out, I wear a £20 shirt from Next, while she has, um, the largest private collection of jewellery in the world.

In this fascinating one-off documentary, to coincide with the Platinum Jubilee, the wonderful Clive Myrie has been given unparalleled access to the Crown Jewels, and tells the story of these astonishing objects that symbolise her 70-year reign.

The Tower of London, built in 1066, has housed the Crown Jewels for 600 years. It’s quite the collection – encompassing 13 crowns (I find you can never have enough) and over 23,000 individual diamonds, sapphires and rubies. According to Myrie, the crowns are displayed so that they can be seen from any angle, apart from above, because “only God can look down upon a crown.” I’m not sure this is absolutely true. The Queen is 5’4”, so anyone over about 5’8” will get a good peek from above when she’s blinged up.

First up for examination is the Imperial State Crown, worn by Her Maj once a year, at the State Opening of Parliament. It’s made up of 3,000 precious stones. Alongside it sits the Sovereign Sceptre, which contains the Great Star of Africa, the biggest pure white diamond in the world. It is over 500 carats. Myrie visits the Queen’s jeweller, Josh Collins, who shows him a 10-carat diamond. It’s worth £1.5m, so it’s fair to say, the Great Star of Africa is worth a few bob.

The stone was cut from a 3100-carat diamond – the largest ever found – which was discovered in South Africa in 1905 and gifted to the royal family. In footage from 2017, the Queen talks about how the man charged with cutting the diamond (now there’s some pressure for you!) hit it, breaking it apart. “That’s why these little bits exist,” she says, referring to two vast, egg-sized diamonds on her brooch.

Next up, it’s St Edward’s Crown. It is only ever worn once by the monarch – at their coronation. The Queen is the only person alive ever to have worn it. (I wonder if that’s true… if you were given the task of cleaning it, you would, wouldn’t you?)

The programme skips along, covering the reconstruction of Henry VIII’s lost crown; the destruction of the original Crown Jewels by Oliver Cromwell; and the Scottish Crown Jewels, known as The Honours of Scotland, which were kept hidden from Cromwell by resourceful local Scots.

Finally, there’s a riveting tale of the Koh-i-Noor diamond, which sits, resplendent, in Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother’s crown. Myrie explores the stone’s troubled history, which has led to the belief that it is cursed. Any man who comes into contact with it will meet an untimely death. As a result, it is only ever worn by women. Intriguingly, even when it is cleaned, it is only ever done so by women. I might suggest to my wife that all the toilets in our house are similarly cursed.

This is an absolutely gripping look at the history, beauty and cultural significance of these astonishing artefacts. Myrie doesn’t shy away from some of the more controversial colonial aspects of British history, and the result is a satisfyingly even-handed, yet duly reverent look at the Crown Jewels, and everything they represent.

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The best… and the rest:

Saturday 28th May

The Secrets of the Queen’s Coronation, 9pm, Channel 4: A behind-the-scenes look at that momentous day. From fainting and false starts to coronation chicken and the Queen's secret snack, the documentary shares memories and anecdotes from people who played key roles in the day's celebrations - all of them speaking publicly for the first time.

Sunday 29th May

Midsomer Murders – 25 Years of Mayhem, 7pm, ITV: Ahead of the new series (starting at 8pm) ITV marks 25 years of Midsomer Murders with a landmark documentary celebrating over two decades of one of Britain’s best loved and most enduring crime dramas, featuring contributions from major cast members over the years.

Two Daughters, 9pm, BBC Two: A year after the murders of her daughters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, retired archdeacon Mina Smallman invites Stacey Dooley to help tell her story through both the trial of her daughters' killer, and the trials of two Met police officers who took photographs of their bodies and shared them on WhatsApp.

Monday 30th May

Springwatch, 8pm, BBC Two: Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan are back at Wild Ken Hill in Norfolk to showcase the very best of the season's wildlife across the UK. Iolo Williams returns to the Isle of Mull to view eagles, otters and orca, while Megan McCubbin goes on a spring road trip around the north-east of England. Continues tomorrow.

Britain’s Got Talent, 8pm, ITV: All week, ITV are showing the live semi-finals of this year’s variety talent show competition, culminating in a live final on Saturday.

Wednesday 1st June

The Repair Shop: Jubilee Special, 8pm, BBC One: Jay Blades and the team mark the year of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee by bringing four treasured heirlooms, each with a royal connection, back to life. Amongst the items is an unfinished Pearly Suit belonging to a woman's late father, who was a Pearly King, and a hand-painted commemorative plate made to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887.

Thursday 2nd June

Platinum Jubilee: Trooping the Colour, 10am, BBC One: Coverage of the pageantry and spectacle of the ceremony to mark the official birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, performed by British and Commonwealth army regiments at Horse Guards Parade. Presented by Huw Edwards, Kirsty Young and JJ Chalmers.

Platinum Beacons: Lighting Up the Jubilee, 8pm, BBC One: Around the country communities come together to light more than 1,500 beacons to celebrate the Queen's 70-year reign, with a principal beacon lit at Buckingham Palace. Kirsty Young introduces coverage, with Jermaine Jenas at Buckingham Palace, Gethin Jones in Wales, Carol Kirkwood in Scotland, and Holly Hamilton in Northern Ireland.

Making Sense of Cancer with Hannah Fry, 9pm, BBC Two: Hannah Fry, a professor of maths, is used to investigating the world around her through numbers. When she's diagnosed with cervical cancer at the age of 36, she starts to interrogate the way we diagnose and treat cancer by digging into the statistics to ask whether we are making the right choices in how we treat this disease. At the same time, Hannah records her own cancer journey in raw and emotional personal footage, where the realities of life after a cancer diagnosis are laid bare.

Platinum Jubilee: A Service of Thanksgiving, 9:15am, BBC One: A national service of thanksgiving from St Paul’s Cathedral, in the presence of senior members of the royal family. David Dimbleby will provide expert commentary, Sophie Raworth meets many of the key people taking part, while Kirsty Young will be joined by special guests who share their experiences of spending time with the Queen and reflect on how important her faith has been through the years.

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