Anne :The Princess Royal at 70 - British Royal Documentary

[Music] she never wanted to be a fairy tale princess as a member of the royal family females were tended to be treated as honorary men she loves driving the tanks and firing the guns as the princess royal prepares for her 70th birthday we've had unique access to her family and her world daughter good morning ed windsor wife any husband who makes a comment on his wife's fashion style is a very brave or risky map mother it's unbelievable the information that's stored in her brain it's quite annoying as well it is quite nice yes and grandmother i've offered to try and do some homeschooling haven't seen hiding a hair of them without suggestions we hear from old friends with memories of the young princess she was more determined than most more competitive than most see how she planned her own education i did volunteer to go to school i have to became a trend setting it girl the vocabulary is for extraordinary women and dedicated herself to a life of service becoming one of the hardest working royals she was lovely she really does hold a conversation with you does anyone ever try to tell her to slow down a bit i mean good luck she's in the public eye but has managed to stay intensely private anne doesn't crave the limelight she probably had her filler of being in the newspapers when she was young being royal in the media age can be tough anne was a pioneer the pressure that is applied to the younger members of the family is hard sometimes to deal with the princess royal has always gone her own way the first royal olympian it is probably the most dangerous sport on the planet as fearless in the saddle good evening shots have been fired at princess anne as in the face of a kidnapper i had thought about it before that what would you do if now in close up ann elizabeth alice louise the princess royal as we've never seen her before goldfish in a bowl here [Music] oh there he goes hello big boy summer 2020 and like the rest of the country the princess royal is self-isolating at home in her case gatcom park in gloucestershire we have cattle and sheep here partly because environmentally you're better off if you share the feeding um actually the fertilizing as well thank you dear in any other summer gatcam would be hosting the festival of british eventi a sport where horses and riders undergo timed trials princess iron has been locally their children are on hand to help out their grandmother she loves seeing the ride she loves having them around for sunday lunches and taking them for walks and doing all the stuff that we used to do as kids she now takes them to do those sorts of things yeah we quite like leaving them on sundays i'll say we'll pick them up later see you later and they are off racing off they go around the outside number six is the festival's a family affair but this year kovid19 changed that once it was legal for her grandchildren to approach the princess was ready to play school mom they've got ponies and they come over and they can ride here but they are they they face the same challenges of everybody else in terms of homeschooling and i think that's actually that is a challenge wherever you are i've offered to try and do some outdoor learning but so far it hasn't been taken up on when i was small we had to pick things and then press them and identify them and i don't think anybody does that anymore and i was thinking ah you know might be a good idea if we started doing that again i haven't seen hiding a hair of them at that suggestion [Laughter] it's the longest time i've ever spent uh gakkum in the 40 odd years we've been here it's frustrating i think but look around him is not hard here the idea of being stuck in an um a block of flats with small children and can't imagine how difficult that would be for five decades she's been used to a pact work schedule the princess royal didn't expect to spend her 70th year down on the farm working from home has been a challenge husband vice admiral sir tim lawrence has seen the frustration almost everything that she does in a public way involves people coming together to to to meet her for for some reason or another so that's been extremely difficult the charity work is constant it's tom here i'm just going to introduce her majesty the queen but country broadband isn't these aren't your average conference calls either uh good morning at windsor good morning i'm very glad to be able to join you can you see everybody you should have six people on your screen yes well i can see four anyway okay very well actually don't need me you know what i look like um with online technology being in touch is one thing but it's not quite the same the ability to meet people that's what makes the difference i know what twitter is but i wouldn't go anywhere near it um if you paid me frankly that's slightly different issue so i do feel pretty useless stuck here in relative terms of what i think i should be doing whatever the new normal brings the old normal was a life of duty seasons marked by state events at buckingham palace evenings filled with charity dinners and speeches most mornings involve an early start even before the transport arrives the princess has a daily schedule of public appearances today they're all over kent she's very hardworking is the busiest member of the royal family regularly carrying out over 500 engagements a year well away days each of those will probably be different and different reasons for going many of the voluntary organizations and if you can do anything to raise their profile then you will have achieved something you are reflecting her majesty's position but most of the time you are i think in my case just trying to cover the the bits of the country that most other people won't get to huxley haven't practiced your bower mummy practice the courtesy then ready there we are see it's good isn't it that's my courtesy is that right what to do with your hands today the first organization is english rural near ashford villagers are getting ready for the royal opening of some new homes princess sam is coming to visit my house he's a bit nervous with two young boys but there you go no it's very exciting i hear she's quite a country girl like me we have to send her programs her briefs her speeches and god help me if there was something missing she would read with a really sharp eye and i remember once i've never forgotten it she said private secretary what normally comes after 16 and i knew then that page 17 of the brief was missing the organization has back stories that have got useful to know so that's you know either length of time people involved impact of what it does she's like a sponge it's unbelievable the information that's stored in her brain it's incredible it's quite annoying as well it is quite annoying yes yes i first registered an interest about a year and a half or two years ago but we're very happy and did you have good decorating huxley you're waiting for dreams oh he's been really bad for this morning the first unveiling of the day done then it's back to the helicopter that made stern hospital a new helipad needs opening we've got about 200 people here i don't suppose she'd be able to say hello to every single one of those but anybody she can say hello to i know they'll really appreciate it oh no she's coming sometimes people react in the most extraordinary ways you know they get completely overruled being in front of a princess and thoroughly overdo the curtsies or the bows or don't do it at all or practically shake her hand off which can happen you don't literally work your way through the crowd that's usually left up to other people in some ways it may be just as much fun if you did it all by yourself but that'd be a bit chaotic although hollywood at the garden party i just work up the back of the the border which is where the people who didn't want to be seen went that was they were almost pretending they weren't there so engaging them in conversation was always quite they were always looking around i'm not really here you know i don't really want to talk david and this is lucia nice to meet you so lucia is a senior employee for the whole of the nhs 93 years old and the g now looks after the junior doctors on this site so she keeps their you know everywhere they live is called a mess but actually it's very clean it's not a mess at all it's only because of us very nice to meet you nice thank you the impact of a royal visit it's very hard to quantify but you get back into the car and you see people just beaming it's winter two hours before sundown but the princess royal is only halfway through her day's engagements i always reminded many of our colleagues to the british olympic association that while we've all sort of sauntered into a board meeting at two o'clock that runs till five she's probably open five hospitals by the time that she's even had lunch does anyone ever try to tell her to slow down a bit um i mean good luck we would try and you know and then it would be a very short conversation at gillingham there are hospital building works to inspect and staff at the maternity unit of the year to congratulate two events then coming here is amazing and and i know how demanding it is so really from a hat off to her well she a remarkable hard-working woman i haven't done a courtesy since i did ballet i'm just gonna have to do a little bob she's got so much more energy than anybody that i know is 70. well apart from various members of our family but she there's certainly uh she certainly doesn't act it age is not a thing to her it's you know very much the more she keeps doing the the younger she'll stay yeah she always says she doesn't have very good role models for slowing down no that's true i do remember a day the princess must have met a thousand people on four or five engagements and i remember thinking i'm absolutely wrecked at the end of the day um she was still giving everybody the attention she gave at the beginning of the day so ma'am if i could introduce laura and chris and their new baby nice to see you were you working here yeah this is a laura's third baby early christmas present i think i don't need to wrap it up thank you the princess is scheduled to land at kensington palace helipad at just after four o'clock a cup of tea change of clothes then she'll be off to a charity dinner there may be a change to a formal thing a ball ground or cocktail dress and she's so adept at chopping and changing i've not quite mastered the art myself but the princess royal's presence is requested at charity dinners most nights of the week she has one golden rule i'm very jealous the princess doesn't drink at all it is a busy day for her she does start early and then doesn't really finish until nine o'clock at night maybe if it's after a dinner quite a lot later i just remember when we're living at gatkin that she would come home from engagements and she'd be exactly what she was wearing and her makeup on stuff put her welly boots on a jacket on and then she walks up and goes to do her chickens and get her eggs sitting still really um doesn't happen very much sometimes of course it's unavoidable thinking how could you possibly take that long [Music] prince she's done most of the royal family [Music] she's coming for a second sitting i'd love her to have a tear i'm going to try and persuade her today good morning lovely to meet you again thank you for coming i did the sculpture of your or your mother in 2008 your father in 2000 boris hairdo's tricky princess must now be center is another type of crown to discuss i want people to like us to feel that they know us i know you value your privacy but i think there's a lot about you that they would like to say if they've got a chance the fact that you're you know generally you're good value for money like a pair of long lasting boots actually i read an article the other day about the i don't watch netflix in the crown but no the actress was talking about how long it took them to do their hair like i did really i'm thinking how could you possibly take that long i mean it takes me 10 or 15 minutes you do it so i do it do you do yourself because it's so much quicker i have the idea that they're taking that long don't you think i did that every day i don't think so amazing the early ones were quite interesting when your mom was young making serious about people who still living is always quite a dangerous thing to do the television princess wasn't interested in celebrity not unlike the real one she's not a person that is constantly looking for praise she gets on and does her work regardless because she thinks it's important anne doesn't crave the limelight she probably had her filler of being in the newspapers when she was young so there's a lot of things that she does under the radar [Music] there were no tears when princess anne was first captured on film in september 1950 it's an occasion when we would all wish to share their joy and pride anne was a new princess for a new age the media age she grew up surrounded by cameras in public and at home both the princess's parents were keen home filmmakers [Music] when he was six the earl of caithness was invited to bow moral playdates with the five-year-old princess i was very fortunate to know princess anne she was always a lot of fun she was a very determined person she was not going to get beaten by a situation or by somebody and if somebody could do something she could do it too she was a very imaginative child and curious about everything that happened so she was curious about the environment and of course the duke was very keen on the environment so he was passing that knowledge and interest onto his children too she also was brought up by her father to sail in in dinghies and developed her love of sailing almost her earliest memory is going on board the royale britannia the duke of edinburgh just got on with things didn't suffer fools gladly and i think it's fair to say that the the princess has many of her father's characteristics the duke of edinburgh's home movies capture determination and perhaps more in the child who would become the princess royal she was more determined than most more competitive than most and that was a lovely streak in her anne and her brother charles were first educated together at buckingham palace by miss katherine peebles the school days was governors driven saying that range of what you can do is quite limited my basic skills are okay but we won't go further than that and i did more french than most people did but no maths and no latin a new term at ben school when she was 12 anne took the initiative and asked her mother if she could go to school outside the palace the first princess to do so i didn't volunteer to go to school i have to say and i was thrilled school was much more interesting now she'll live and learn with 300 other girls and be treated at the queen's request exactly the same as any other girl this was a new experience the first time she'd mixed with large groups of other children did you feel you were treated as like one of one of the girls you'd have to ask the other girls that i thought so one of them was classmate sandra hacking already part of a tight friendship group for six years they'd share the princesses hopes dreams and secrets we were given encouragement to be as natural as possible with with the princess the perception was that the princess might be quite shy but we had this group of friends and the princess just rocked up and joined in for me of course it was education at a different level and the fact that you were doing it with a group of people i was amazed how much i enjoyed and i got on very well with our head mysteries miss eb clark but most people were terrified of her we used to have quite interesting conversations and she was fascinated it didn't happen all that often but i i was always intrigued by what people say right now perhaps the head was on best behavior with a pupil who had her own policeman there was a really lovely security officer and we did lead him a bit of a dance it was rather fun to break out of school and go to the fish and chip shop and trying to escape this loyal detective who was supposed to be looking after her and um anyway we did that a few times she was a very normal a teenager she was sensible and fun scotland yard had help anne's classmates also kept an eye on her there was a possibly a general instruction not to talk to the press the paparazzi did exist then i don't recall intrusion at school but on the public road they were quite keen to photograph her so there was a sense of looking after her after a-levels many went on to further education the princess went into the family business so many of my contemporaries when asked why they were going to university would say well because basically because that's what's what you do and i'm thinking that's really that's not a very good reason for going to university so i thought i'd skip that but i also thought that i might have the opportunity to travel with her majesty on her tours i did geography a level so for me it made more sense shortly before her 19th birthday the princess joined her parents on a state visit to austria it was the start of a lifelong career representing the country abroad on early trips the princess was learning the ropes people talk about being trained to become a member of the royal family i'm sorry to disappoint you there is no such thing it's just learning my experience but it's hardly ever does anything go quite according to plan you have to learn that one that sticks in my mind about going up in lift it was the queen of the duke of edinburgh lady waiting me we were all dressed for a quite a smart do somewhere and we went from the ground floor we were only supposed to be going two stories and it went up to about the 19th floor this chap got in thinking he was going for you know a spa treatment he was slightly surprised in australia in 1970 the princess tried out a new approach to royal visits that fleet street dubbed the walkabout i picked a young woman who i thought was sort of my age and she looked at me and she said we met before and i've never been to australia before never done a walk about before and i thought don't be ridiculous and she said i was the floor maid in malta when you came so you learn this is a small world at the time princess anne came of age whatever the young did was news and whenever young royals did was big news today their celebrities like it or not but anne was the pioneer the pressure that is applied to the younger members of the family it's always worse because that's what the media is interested in and that's you know hard sometimes to deal with but there was no social media in my day so it probably has made it more difficult i know there are lots of younger royals sort of who are very glamorous but she was a very modern princess in the relatively short time that anne has been a grown-up fashion conscious young lady she's made herself a name for her choice of hats she was actually rather glamorous in the long hair and she was very much of her time she's the first princess to wear a mini skirt different looks go in out of fashion she's not ahead of it but she's definitely in there and she was on the cover for her 21st birthday there was a landmark portrait to be on the cover of vogue in 1971 i mean the vote cover is for extraordinary women and she was very much her own person not her mother or her aunt princess anne hit planet fashion for six her public wardrobe was bold and blocky she favored bright colors and big hats she's actually really fashionable as a young woman and she's sort of her own person within those parameters the princess turned her visibility to good use backing the textile and fashion industries tonight she is at london fashion week to present a design award so the princess has been our president since 1985 in the 60s and 70s she was known for her very lively interesting fashion the princess has an eye i'm sure she wouldn't mind me saying that she has her preferences on colors i mean we see green quite a lot natural colors in the 80s she she started to wear on public occasions the suit of course emblematic of the working woman she also wears those suits again and again as a normal woman would that's made her be recently hailed as an icon of sustainability i'm probably the very last person to make any comment about fashion and any husband who makes comments on on his wife's fashion style is is is a very brave or risky man what i would say is that she has developed a style of her own and and she sticks to it she's not driven by others to do something that doesn't suit her back in the 1970s if the world's most eligible princess was the party in 1968 three years later the press got their story after weeks of rumors speculation and denials finally but their celebrity fueled royal wedding fever in november 1973 the ceremony was a major television event there'd never been anything like it in terms of television spectacle probably since the coronation which was on tiny black and white sets 500 million people watched around the world with this ring i'd be wed [Music] the wedding made the princess and her new husband the most famous couple on earth it also made them targets good evening the shots have been fired at princess anne and captain phillips least five shots were fired at their car the bullets shat at the windows four months after her dazzling wedding princess anne was the target of would-be kidnapper ian ball what is interesting is what you remember and how you remember it because although i thought i remembered everything that had happened i would never have been able to swear that i could remember in the right order because they were like photos individual snapshots very clearly in march 1974 the royal car was returning from a charity event when ball forced it to stop the mall is completely closed off here tonight now a gunman got out and fired several shots through the windscreen when protection officer jim beaton confronted him he was shot in the shoulder there was a couple of short cracks i took my pistol lifted it up and fired it in his direction but nothing happened and it obviously had jammed i managed to get into the car and there was a yin ball with his gun so i just stuck up my right hand in front of it and he fired and it went through the window obviously and into my hand the driver and princess anne's bodyguard were hurt then a policeman on pawn duty ran up he was turned on by the gunman and shot at at point-blank range strangely i had thought about it before that what would you do if one thing about horses and sport is you have to prepare for the unexpected and you've got to think your way through the sort of problems that are likely to occur and i suppose that was the discipline which to some extent colored my thought processes the princess tried to talk the gunman down insisting she would not leave the car i remember she said to me she said i was so annoyed that he tore the sleeve out of my dress she said and it was a good new dress before he was overpowered ball shot and wounded four people they were all given medals by a grateful queen princess anna because she was so cool calm and collected i think it kept the situation within control three years later came the birth of a son peter and in 1981 baby zara [Music] their mother decided her children should be plain mr and miss [Music] stunning pictures that were in here we were always brought up on the understanding that we were going to have to go to work we were going to have to go out and earn our earn our living regardless of the fact of who our grandmother was or who our mother was i think it made us fight harder as well to try and be as successful as we could be so i definitely you know i'm very we're very grateful to not give this a title anyway as a member of the royal family living with that sort of pressure is is hard and the expectations that come with it is hard and that might have been at the bottom of the list that it may be less difficult for you but actually understanding where they sit within the family and what happens next it made much more sense peter and zara both live with their families close to gatcom park in gloucestershire it was where they grew up a haven for them and their mother it was a sanctuary if you like when you're working you also want to be able to then go home and you know be be a mother no she was taking us out you know onto the farm and helping out on the farm helping with the lambing and all that sort of stuff they didn't give them titles but princess anne and mark phillips did give their children a leg up into the saddle captain phillips was an olympic gold medalist before he and princess anne were married for the whole family horses will work rest and play it was part of our lives we didn't really know anything else we both started off with a little shetland called smokey when we went up to the stables to go and ride it was a working professional yard you know both our parents were riding it was normal especially as our father won olympic medals and been hugely successful in the sport that was just life growing up but the marriage wasn't to last after 19 years the couple were divorced princess anne then married naval commander tim lawrence it's quite amusing that she married first an army officer and then a naval officer so there must be something about the military that that attracts her they met while the up-and-coming officer was an aquari or military assistant to the queen after almost 30 years of marriage the vice admiral and the princess royal make a powerful team they both have the understanding of what being a part of the the wider family means and what is required and through the last 25 years plus that they've been together now and it's it's um he's been a very strong support for her naturally their interests coincide the trafalgar dinner is an annual naval tradition and an enjoyable date for both of them there's a shared love of history duty and much more besides we are both map and chart people we like to know where we are and see where we're going for more than three decades sir tim has been able to observe the royal family close up similarities with her father are much talked about what is less spoken about is the similarities with her mother the queen the uh the common theme is humor fun one of the great surprises for me when i first went to baltimore and to sandringham and windsor was that these places are full of laughter the love of sport is another bond we both follow with great enthusiasm the scottish rugby team as you may have noticed they don't always win there is one area where the couple don't see eye to eye she grew up with horses horses have been part of her life it's not something i share with her and sadly i've i've never been bitten by the horse bug at gakkum that bug draws the crowds to the festival of british eventing jane holdenness rodham is a lady in waiting to the princess and a former olympic gold medalist they first met riding as children even at 9 years old or 10 years old you know when she appeared she had great presence she never pushed herself forward but she just you know you knew she was there sort of thing i started to compete there was an acceptance i'd give that a try and see how it went and then that was more successful than i thought it was going to be well she was obviously very competitive and she had an amazing affinity with her horses you know her and and doublet were just a real partnership they were a pleasure to watch at the age of 21 as a member of the british eventing team princess anne won gold at the 1971 european eventing championships [Applause] well sport is a great leveler it has no respect for who you are it uh it's a question of whether you succeed if you come first in a in a world equestrian games nobody can really accuse you of of having extra favors because you're a member of the royal family you've done it and it's a great thing to achieve also in 1971 there was another trophy for the royal mantle piece just being selected with that group of sports people has to be [Music] significant honor especially from a from the perspective of a sport that doesn't get that level of profile it gives me great pleasure ma'am to present the sports you personality award of 1971. it was a really important moment for olympic sport when she won that seeing off george best at the same time was pretty much up there and of course zara went on to win it many many years later which section of the three-day event do you enjoy best the end it was a slightly novel novel entrance for everybody i was just amazed to be included but the olympics were the pinnacle of the princess's career and brought even more attention to her sport the queen was determined to see the tough 17-mile cross-country course that princess anne will find on saturday i wasn't at the olympics i couldn't go so it was all on the television what we saw what i didn't know at the time was that she had this awful fall i was going very well then i don't remember anything else but she got back on and competed she was that concussed that she couldn't remember and still to this day i believe doesn't remember the rest of the course nothing at all it is probably the most dangerous sport on the planet i've watched a lot of three-day eventing i i know the sort of the competitive granite that those those men and women are made from and she's absolutely hewn from that her mantra for life is very much if you fall get back up and try again get up carry on mind your manners all that early exposure inspired the next generation zara phillips was a gold medalist with the british eventing team and was for four years world champion in 2012 she won silver at the london olympics her mother presented the award to be given your medal by your mother is is pretty special you can't really ever explain that that feeling she very much you know knows what it takes to achieve and to win having the whole family to come and watch was incredible as well all the cousins were there weren't they it was a really um special day special family day for um it's the only competition that everyone's watched me in but if there's gonna be one it's gonna be that one yeah was it very important that you beat your mother's record um it's very important i beat my fathers [Laughter] it was pointed out to me a while ago that um that i'm the only member of my direct family not to have a gold medal um but we moved on from that it was her competitor's understanding of the olympics that made the princess a key player in the bid to bring the games to london in 2012 i really think the team have earned it and they've done a fantastic job she was absolutely integral to uh winning the bid for the olympics in 2005 then did a huge job with the british olympic association the princess raw was on the the big committee and her contribution was seismic and it was always to the point she doesn't always suffer fools gladly she doesn't speak for the sake of speaking i do remember after a rather long-winded interjection by one of the committee members she'd actually forgotten to turn her microphone off and she did manage to utter the immortal words i think this person is probably the most stupid person in world sport and this echoed absolutely around the room and she never flinched it was as though never happened and we just moved on but it is probably one of my favorite moments not flinching is a speciality even in the heat of battle in estonia the king's royal huzzahs are awaiting the princess their colonel in chief she's coming east to observe their maneuvers as part of a nato battle group first time i've driven a member of the royal family i'm buzzy i'm really looking forward to it it's quite an honor to have a member of the royal family on our tank tell the grandkids the monarchy is our guiding light our moral campus having someone like the princess roll who stands for that family and she's the head of our family is incredibly important she's hugely in admiration of what the united kingdom's military does for this country and she wants to support them it's really good she's interested in seeing like variants of what we do it's really nice to see her come out and get amongst all the lads i think it's important that they recognize that there is somebody from outside the military who might understand what they're doing they are working very hard so that's i hope what they feel is is being achieved we all know her and we've all felt that personal touch that she brings and her ability to talk to everyone of any rank of any age is something that we all love about her so as royal engineers we're setting up battlefield simulations for the attack that's going to happen the challenger 2 is a hugely effective piece of equipment there are in life upgrades going on at the moment there's always the technology to catch up on because that's changing all the time [Music] it's quite a full-on environment it's loud it's noisy she loves going in any of her army vehicles she loves driving the tanks firing the guns there's a huge amount going on i was impressed by actually how much she immediately understood right in the middle she got out her phone and started filming which is what people do today she doesn't stand above and beyond it and she's terribly human [Music] at headquarters the officer's mess is a shrine to their royal comrade as a member of the royal family females were tended to be treated as honorary men so you know they would become involved in organizations otherwise men only in 1969 the princess joined up her first rank colonel in chief of the 14th 20th huzzahs as they were then known that was almost the first thing that i did and they were in germany then at the age of 19 she was on exercise in a chieftain tank named after her just perfect for trafalgar square you know that solves all your problems really oh they're fantastic bits of kids commanding officer lieutenant colonel angus tilney is keeper of the regimental scrapbook we've got photos here at the princess roll i'm driving a chieftain with a headscarf on i'd make sure she had a helmet on if she did it today and firing the sterling submachine gun again no air defense uh in those days um but certainly today we'd make sure that she did be the end of me if i had princess royal shooting a sterling submachine gun without ear defenders but she seems pretty easy with it she's actually the longest serving member of the king's rolazars it's a very long association i thought i'd got old when the son of the commanding officer when i met him was in short france in germany became an officer in the regiment i thought i'd been there too long already so we're into grandchildren here when she was very young princess anne would join prince charles watching the queen at the grandest military ceremony of all it's among her first memories well the earliest ones because with the trip in the color the busty parade it was important training for princess anne in the ceremonial role of the monarchy you were allowed to go quite early in your career that was much the earliest of the sort of ceremonial events you were allowed to be part of state visits came much later for today's ceremony the princess will ride behind the queen as a royal colonel right final polish and grooming you get the others out now chap every year royal stud groom terry pendry prepares the family's horses for the ceremony the princess wrote there we have her her saddle she's a fine fine horse woman passed on from her mother a grandmother all the royal children and they learned to walk and straight after walking they were learned to ride of course the princess wrote we just went from strength to strength to strength i did compete against her on the odd occasion i have beaten her but most of the time i would have seen her backside disappearing into she was a lot better than i'll ever be right saddles on i'm pretty certain they know they're going on parade george behind me certainly does yeah they do know i'm certain of it drooping the color is the most astonishing mixture of pageantry military ceremonial horsemanship and horsewomanship but at the heart of it is this family and the family of course are on performance and of course does ray was since she probably rides more than the others trooping the color this is absolutely crucial in terms of what they do as members of that family for me like family occasions were all about hanging out with our cousins and just having as much fun as possible you then get a clip around the ear and say right behave yourself you know we're going out on the balcony don't pick your nose and don't yawn today the princess royal increasingly helps out the queen and not just in military ceremonies she also takes a key role in the most exciting civil event the investitures i didn't think i would ever be asked to do an investiture it's a real pleasure i'm delighted to be able to go on doing those these are british empire that's a cbe and then over there is the sword that the princess roll will be using for the investor today the honor system is a wonderful way of recognizing individual people around the country that makes this country great rather than you know big companies or politicians so this is it journalist brenda imanis is to receive the obe for services to broadcasting and diversity her majesty the queen may be graciously pleased to approve that you be appointed an officer of the order of the british empire it's really quite amazing and quite humbling my mother was so proud the first time i've seen her genuinely bursting with pride choosing what to wear took forever that's the code but i'm not sure what the formality is whether you keep your coat on or take your coat off when you go up to do your fit let's get straight up the stairs today 65 recipients and their families have traveled to buckingham palace linda longstaff has come from sunderland to receive an mbe for her work as a hospital chaplain absolutely overwhelmed what it is and to be with my husband and my two girls it's wonderful for most people this will be their first contact with the royal family brenda's mum has bought a new hat i feel very proud this morning yes i am because of my daughter coming to get this it's quite a thing actually starting to hit me so the princess ronald likes to spend a chunk of time talking to each recipient she's really good at it so you know we tailor the numbers accordingly she does her homework with her staff on each person so that she knows their background story and uh will remember each one as they come up she's exceptional if you get a position where you can see and hear what i have to say please and it's my job to explain how an investigation works turn to face princess royal heck val and from the ladies are much better than i can do it's a cut you're now moving forward towards the diocese receive your reward conversation handshake take it shake it let go go back two or three places neck bowel or a currency turn to your right and pass it in that direction [Music] people whinge about having an award system but actually this one does work and i think on the whole the decisions made have been good and they do reflect i think appropriately the important issues the system itself gets a bit of flack because occasionally somebody controversial gets an honor but the award of an mbe to somebody who's been uh beavering away for for 10 or 20 years supporting some charitable cause is a is a massive important part of our national life i think this is absolutely the the heart of what the monarchy does because the princess has been going around the country for 50 years ish she would give an mbe out to a health worker and the lady would say i remember when you opened the general hospital in north allerton in 1980 and then the conversation would go on from there talking about um we've met before that happens more in investitures than i care to think and then often a bit of a challenge but there you go she was lovely she really does hold a conversation with you because i was really worried what to say and she knows about you as well she asked me if i prefer being in front of the camera or behind she knew a lot about my artwork of the palace authorities thought the princesses investigators went on a bit too long but it gave enormous joy and pride to the recipients which at the end of the day it's what it's all about the royal presence makes all the difference it's the electricity the princess aims to bring to the 300 charities she represents hello hello and that was a preview of princess anna me on our blue peter royal safari the princess royal has spent 50 years bringing the spotlight to the vast array of charities she represents it all began in 1970 when she became president of save the children i don't know why they asked me because peyton lit as a 19 year old um who'd done very little that was quite an interesting risk the princess gets this wonderful new role royal events before that she'd maybe be you know with her mother and father or maybe with prince charles which this time it was you know it was her film do you like time well i wouldn't consider it one of my favorite forms of child's book probably that first interview was a little bit awkward because it was first time she was doing it was the first time i was doing it once we got into kenya it became much more relaxed she's very natural she was very easy with the children i think she was enjoying the film being there and being let's face it she was the center of attention but she absolutely knew all about the save the children fund and she absolutely wasn't going to make any mistakes she'd done her homework she was in charge of save the children when i was a kid as far as i can remember who is this person who wants to save me and all other children at the charities london headquarters they're awaiting her arrival 50 years after she joined them her royal highness is still on the headed note paper and on the board i suppose it took me about 10 years to work out just how say the children functioned so i didn't say much for my ten years it was a good organization to learn from because it if you've got children involved it's about health it's about education it links to all sorts of other things the princess has a really inquisitive mind and a huge knowledge across the workings of all her charities the great advantage of having the princess royal sitting at your boardroom table is that when you have somebody of that bandwidth of experience it allows you to make much better and informed decisions the princess delivers experience and exposure to more than 300 charities and patronages it was the reason that in 1987 the queen made her princess royal one of the things my father said was you know you'll be offered a whole lot of things and the big mistake that was made in the past was just accepting anything that anybody asked you to do and he said you know just be a bit careful and find something that either you're interested in or you think might you might be able to have an impact and for me that was the writing of the disabled association no knowledge of disabilities but some knowledge of ponies in june the charity holds a weekend of competitions and displays it's a fixture in the princess's diary heroic highness it's been involved with writing the disabled for 50 years the fact that she's a horseman makes it much more authentic she's incredibly inspirational have you not competed yet not yet well horses are used as a great therapy in lots of organizations and the princess knows very much the therapeutic use of of riding um to help both physical disabilities and mental the organization has provided support for 17 year old show jumper evie toons she hasn't let the complications of spina bifida dent her paralympic ambitions it's a wonderful association it helped in so many ways daisy recognizes that my legs don't work very well and i'm not very strong she knows when i'm a bit weak and she can kind of look after me that bit more she's very special to me what does it make the world go round at least for everyone here i actually had to ask my sister what is the correct way to address the princess oh yes because i was going to say her royal highness the book princess royal she rides with lincolnshire world's rda she's an amazing show jumper you competed this morning yeah i do a lot of riding and i also visit uh primary schools to educate on hidden illnesses and kind of spread the love for riding so when did you start riding yourself how old were you i was about four years old my mum rides so i'm really lucky in that aspect yeah and got pushed even my neurosurgeon when i had neurosurgery said get her on a horse so actually that was doctor's orders yeah i expected to be a bit like up here in posh and all that but she was nice she's so relaxed though it makes it so enjoyable doesn't it because she's so relaxed she's not bothered and she laughs yeah it's actually really important she invests a huge amount of time in all sorts of charities around this country and sticks up for you know the smallest and most obscure charities you could you could imagine the small organizations who find it more difficult i think raising their profile is no bad thing hearing dogs for deaf people is a small charity with a big profile partly thanks to the princess's patronage hearing dogs came through a chapel i met years ago who blinded in the war was very much part of my father's life he was one of those people who said no he said i'd rather be blind because i if i couldn't hear i couldn't be part of this conversation and suddenly you become aware of the fact that this is an isolation um by being deaf and the dogs helped people get over that the charity trains the puppies and the deaf people they'll live with the princess has been patron since 1992. hello darlings hello michelle jennings is the organization's new chief executive she's getting used to the hands-on royals she does far more than i ever expected a royal patron to do the temperament is crucially important so we breed about 75 of our own dogs she's incredibly engaged in how we're bringing up these animals how we're training them it's very complex what we do the whole working life of the dog is around 45 000 pounds it's a very very costly endeavor but it changes lives people you go and visit and see they're the ones doing the research the development and the work on the ground and being the volunteers who make the difference not me but you can sometimes help other people make an even bigger impact than i'm already doing the team work around the clock to train dogs like scamp who's become the ears of fifteen-year-old amelia price moxen my introduce amelia hello so what have you found has been helpful about skin he made me feel more confident do you go out more yeah with him on buses and trains and things like that he's good at that yeah very good that's crucial yes because media can't really hear behind her or so safety aspect scamp's been a lifesaver for you hasn't they yeah very good and he does school assemblies as well oh really yes yeah does he what about in the house yeah and he like helped me nicely better so i know he's there with me and he does he doesn't sleep on the bed does he yeah like at the end okay she's been supporting a lot of these organizations for many many years she's invested in you know all those things now that's why i think everything that she's involved in has done so well if you've got that much knowledge and association with something you put your passion into it certainly as she's got older she's tried to cut down although she clearly hasn't as the princess enters her eighth decade cutting down is not on the agenda [Music] when trooping the colors over for another year the household cavalry head for the beach it's time for the horse's summer holiday we come out here to get the horses away from london we're really lucky to be able to sit for a couple of beach rides go for a canter slash gallop and we take the horses swimming some of them love it something a bit reluctant to get in the water their colonel also enjoys the seaside today she's dropping in for a private visit horseplay and a spot of lunch every year she comes up party queen's birthday for a drink in the mess and occasionally some dinners um but not to summer camp regularly she came up um when she was juice come up last year but unfortunately her helicopter broke down colonel ann as she's known arrives without fuss or formality and joins in the camp activities it's a bit more of a relaxed environment and it's great to be able to see you know our colonel come along to chat to lots of soldiers and the officers to meet the horses to go for a ride it's just a really good way to do a visit we have oscar for you to write right later major harriet telfer's a regimental vet used to talking horse with the princess i mean clearly her horse knowledge is is outstanding even as a clinician i sort of worry that she knows more than i do about the horses and you'd think that would be intimidating but it isn't because she puts you at ease you seem to have an empty box you see conan go up to soldiers and at first they are really nervous rigidly nervous and as soon as she starts talking and talking about something they know they just instantly relax we've got you on javelin which is the colonel's horse what was oscar um i've taken advice from the old riding master it's not trooping the colour but the day still has some of the ingredients the princess enjoys duty precision and horses twelve months on a virus has made all this a golden memory back at gatkam park the farmer princess has work to do well i don't sit still i mean that's the advantage of being here there's always plenty to do and a lot of it is physical she doesn't go to gym but she is she will always go for a walk or she'll always do something in the day you know she's she's very disciplined in in that kind of thing she still rides every day she's always walking the dogs she's not one of these people to sit down and feel sorry for yourself as soon as travel was legal she was back visiting testing stations in time of crisis representing the queen in this day and age there's still an expectation of the monarch for that kind of overall assistance and i suppose part of it is the experience that we have across the board which gets gives you a better idea of of the impact that these dramas are having and i would argue that that spread of knowledge is important that you're not seen to be a single issue person being seen as a role model was never an ambition one of the oddities about my life is that i've never either felt that or always encouraged to be that maybe because i'd like doing things on my own and i did my own things so nowhere i'm afraid i was a really bad at that sort of role model bit the princess was born as post-war britain was being recast the processes that shaped the nation helped to shape her a royal for the new age she's very uncompromising and she is incredibly loyal i'm sure she would never self-identify as a feminist but you know she's a a working woman and feminism is as feminism does i wish i had her energy there's nothing she's not prepared to tackle she keeps herself very fit and just gets on with it francis segerman petchey has finished her sculpture this is very much like elizabeth the first her hair the way it goes up thanks to covid19 the subject herself hasn't seen it yet we're hoping that princess sam will unveil it for her birthday in august i think it's elegant and i think it's imposing and i think it's her she is a very elegant serene strong lady at the start of her eighth decade the princess royal could just put her feet up she won't be spending her weekends at home with her slippers on she's more likely to be wearing sea boots our ideal of a a break if we have a break is to go up to our boat on the west coast of scotland spend a few days sometimes getting wet and cold it is very nice to be able to do it just together i navigate i know how to get from a to b but she's a better sailor of the boat she she's she's better at setting the sails and that's something i'm sure she tells you about she's also an admiral oh yes she is i think she's slightly more senior than he is as well i'm sure they turn each other luckily you wouldn't go on a boat with them would you for this senior royal senior citizen stopping is clearly out of the question but there is another s word slow down i thought i had slow down um i think that the thing that nags away at you is that after all this time you should have learnt something and there is a an element of responsibility to make sure that you kind of knit that knowledge together and pass that on maybe i could ask you each a word that sums up hrh well she told us at the beginning then we could have thought about it all the way through if you've read your notes you would have known this question was coming well you haven't got one ready what you know what um i know i don't know whether this is the right word um tenacious i think is a is a pretty good word to to to sum her up i don't know if you can summer up in one word you can't really but that's about as good i'll give you three okay professional caring [Music] honest [Music] [Music] [Music] easy to enjoy simple joys no matter the moment is [Music]

Channel: British Documentary

Views: 73,223

Rating: 4.8914571 out of 5

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Id: -QLH4rjVa9c

Length: 67min 26sec (4046 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 15 2021