The Queen: 70 Glorious Years - British Royal Documentary

[Music] on the 6th of february 2022 queen elizabeth ii our longest reigning monarch celebrates her platinum jubilee marking 70 years since she ascended the throne she is the icon of icons the only stable influence in my whole life through good times and bad the queen has been a constant and reassuring presence in all our lives television has made it possible for many of you to see me in your homes on christmas day on this historic occasion some of our best love stars share their memories of the biggest changes they've lived through during the queen's reign are we going we are going oh good from growing up everyone on our street was getting televisions for the coronation and you couldn't be left out so it's like mom dad don't be gonna get a telly [Music] we had to fight for women's rights i wanted to be more than just a housewife earning a living grandfather's no one is more aware of these changes than the queen change has become a constant managing it has become an expanding discipline the way we embrace it defines our future [Music] this is london [Music] the king passed peacefully away in his sleep earlier this morning on the 6th of february 1952 the death of elizabeth's father king george vi shocked the nation at the time princess elizabeth was on holiday in kenya before a planned commonwealth tour [Music] on receiving the news that she was now queen she immediately returned home and was met by the prime minister winston churchill [Music] seen her at that very young age i think that affected all of us she came back all in black and i couldn't help as a little girl of 10 identify with the whole loss of your father thing and what she gave up what she sacrificed she took it on and she has been admirable when queen elizabeth came to the throne britain was a very different place our cities were bomb damaged and the country was deep in debt as kids there was the remnants of the war and we would just play anywhere you could kick a ball so either in the street or in a little uh vacant area and we would call these areas the bombies so let's go down the bombing it was only later you realized it meant bomb site the 40s went on into the middle of the 50s in some respects where rationing was concerned it was much more stringent really if you were lucky you've got a rabbit you know that would last probably all week eggs were at a shortage but i do remember having the odd egg when i was little when i went to school the thing i looked forward to when i was little was the little tiny bottle of milk that they'd give you mid morning i was always hungry i was always hungry as a child in 1950s britain living conditions were basic and for many bathrooms were a luxury there were commonal laboratories in a little yard at the top of the street i think it was being seen to be going to the lab which offended my mother's sense of social proprieties [Music] not only did we have an outside toilet we didn't have proper baths so the old tin bath would come out i would literally have a bath in the front of the fire in a zinc bath once a week and the rest of the time i would like get my legs up over the sink and be washing the we were very poor people lived on top of each other when i was just a little girl every house the door was open every kid when in everybody else's home if mums have a slice of bread and jam or whatever or they'd come to my house we loved it i said we had an out but we were happy and it was true really you know you didn't have much but there's a great community spirit [Music] on the 2nd of june 1953 communities from all over britain came together to watch their young queen being crowned elizabeth ii and so the queen has started on her way to westminster the coronation was a kind of time of celebration a vibrant beautiful queen wonderful handsome husband tremendous atmosphere and we in britain after the war now we wanted to rejoice in this new elizabethan age [Music] [Applause] it was something i will never ever forget this beautiful beautiful young queen and it was like them just a fairytale suddenly there was this idea of a resurgence and leading it all was this young woman she really did convey the impression that she had inherited a duty which was an important not say sacred duty and that she intended to discharge that duty with every fiber of the body the things which i have here before promised i will perform and keep so help me god this age-old ceremony was broadcast live on television it was a memorable moment in which the whole nation shared because of course there was only one network that was the bbc [Music] a lot of people bought their first televisions to watch coronation because it was so important we were the only house in the street that had a telly and we had virtually the whole road in our front room kids on the floor grannies and older people on the settee my mum making tea and out on the balcony of the palace stands the queen crown the televising of the coronation brought the young queen closer to her people than any previous monarch the entire nation was pulled together in a way that they never had been since the end of the war by by such an extraordinary royal event suddenly becoming public property the coronation was a splash of color in a monochrome world [Applause] but the day after the celebrations we all returned to work manchester was a very thriving industrial cities lots of smoking chimneys it looked like ellis lowry the factories were all in full activity and there were cotton mills of course still working it was dirty proud impressive in the first decade of the queen's reign we were the most heavily industrialized country in the world our main source of power was coal an industry which employed nearly 700 000 men my dad provided 18 tons a day on an eight-hour shift it took out 18 tons and they're moving coal and big pieces of coal for eight hours nearly two thousand feet down in the dark and the loneliness grandfathers went down the mine and fathers went down the mine and that industry encompassed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people your parents would say you've got to have a trade so i went into a ship repair as a welder but it was a real physical sort of work labor intensive i used to come home filthy dirty accompanied by the duke the queen came to perform the launching of the vessel whose name until that hour had been kept a close secret in 1953 the queen visited the john brown shipyard on clydebank to christen the new royal yacht i name the ship britannia i wish success [Applause] with a packed program of public engagements the young queen was a rare example of a working mother [Applause] most women were encouraged to stay at home as housewives and that's when the real work began my mother was a housewife my grandmother was a housewife my aunts were housewives a housewife had to run a household you had to keep the house clean spotless from top to bottom it was a matter of social distinction she's not done her step for several days it was a job they weren't washing machines and dishwashers and spin dryers at all they were industrial wash houses you get in there and they're these huge industrial machines where you pile all your washing in you have to pull it out not to have to hang everything in the dryer put it in a way to dry them fold it and it was a routine that monday was wash day ironing on tuesday shopping every day because of course there was no fridges so the food would rot but by the mid-1950s housewives were getting a helping hand mrs harrison what have you bought well there's the mixer the fridge the washing machine the dishwasher and the polisher when white goods came in and you could just put things in a washing machine it liberated women i think i remember them getting a refrigerator because up until then i can remember dad had dug a hole in the garden and keeping milk out there i suppose it kept cold although the war had ended 10 years earlier britain was still a militarized society the queen presided over almost 700 000 regular service personnel and 2 million conscripts national service was compulsory for young men i dreaded it i absolutely dreaded it why the next one and it looked like a terrible ditch at the end of one's schooling the worst thing was the army and because i ended up in the army and in the infantry as well many believe that national service instilled discipline in young men [Music] and discipline started early he would never answer a policeman back guarded but i mean smack you right round the edge quicker than you could say jack robinson serious crimes were rare but public morality was rigidly policed murder still carried the death penalty homosexuality was illegal and divorce was strictly taboo but while most adults were conforming the younger generation were creating their own image and lifestyle we weren't allowed to go into pubs and bars until we were 21 and so there had to be somewhere else for us to go the two eyes coffee bar our coffee bar on the top and then you went down and stepped to what looked like a railway carriage a tunnel and at one end was a small stage and that's where i stood with my two friends and a drummer and we just played so always ready now for the royal variety performance why do you want to dance and hold my hand i liked rock and roll because it was an exciting art form it was a very exciting period i remember the impact of rock around the clock i remember saying to people something's happened something's happened to music [Music] we were the teenagers that was when the word came in there hadn't been a word for us till then a lot of the money teenagers earn goes into buying records a three-minute single costs over seven shillings if it's a hit a record can sell a million copies my first record was the locomotion by little eva and i had a little tiny record player and um it was a little 45 wasn't it anything put the arm across i loved it [Music] if you're going to be a teenager you've got to be a teenager in the 60s the revolution happened in their 60s [Music] it was the decade that gave youth a voice before that youth didn't really have a voice and before that there was the war the ward was your oyster really you really felt you could do anything [Music] it was in the 60s that the queen's two eldest children became teenagers and started public school princess anne went to bender in kent [Music] and prince charles departed for gordon in scotland this is the really modern way to go to school by aeroplane piloted by father gordenston which prince philip had also attended was famous for its strict discipline and tough physical education but life for other young men was about to change the phasing out of conscription would open the doors to a teenage revolution we were in a generation that grew up fully expecting to go in the national service and then the second we qualified it was as if god came down and sort of parted the waters and said you don't have to go in it's like oh thanks and i say without that there wouldn't have been the beatles [Music] the first time i heard of the beatles um was a record that had come out called let me do i just loved that that sound they just caught me as they called everybody when the beatles came out i like every other teenage girl in the world we thought they were the cutest things ever the mersey sound yes liverpool selling pop music liverpool kids are proud of the fact that their city is providing the world with beat music and an offbeat cult of fashion there were great days to be around liverpool it was just been in the right time at the right place and that whole scene that almost the birth of that mersey sound it was such an awakening you were part of a cultural revolution you wouldn't call it that it was just having fun [Applause] while the beatles were conquering the world the queen was visiting the four corners of the commonwealth emphatically it was a royal welcome enjoyed by the queen and duke in kingston [Music] from an early age the queen had been passionately committed to the people of the empire and commonwealth when i was growing up in trinidad every day when we went to school we sang god save the queen because we were brought up to believe that the empire was part of our world but the idea of empire was changing as the queen had reflected in her 1953 christmas broadcast made during her first overseas tour as monik the commonwealth there is no resemblance to the empires of the past it is an entirely new conception built on the highest qualities of the spirit of man friendship loyalty and the desire for freedom and peace i had a whole series of scrap books of lilly bet in every available coronet crown and my mother thought we should get a glimpse of the queen and the duke of edinburgh and he was on my side i saw him quite clearly and i could see the queen's little arm going backwards and forwards the queen is very proud of being head of the commonwealth she wanted to make sure that everyone in the commonwealth felt as if they belonged she wanted to open the doors for them [Music] during the first decades of her reign hundreds of thousands of commonwealth citizens arrived to help rebuild post-war britain my mother came over from jamaica in 1958 there were lots of adverts asking people to come from the commonwealth and help up with the health service when i came over here you didn't expect to get off the boat and walk the street and find gold here then everywhere but the image that i had is somewhere where there are possibilities but many people experienced a hostile reception when my mom first arrived in this country she was followed down the street by young kids who asked her where her tail was because they'd never seen a black person before so they assumed she had a tail and they shouted horrible things that are in the street in 1967 the national front was founded it was horrid the whole atmosphere of this immigration thing the blacks keep britain white it was quite full on and frightening and you could see it seeping in everywhere we had rivers of blood we had the national front we had abuse life changed a little bit from that moment on suddenly you realized you you weren't what you thought you were you weren't british anymore you were actually somebody you were an immigrant [Music] the queen offered a different approach queen elizabeth let everybody know that it's okay look i'm talking to these people they're like us we're all human beings and i think that's why it is that she's held in in the hearts of so many people i think is because she allows people to look at other people and go yeah you are you're just the same by the mid-60s britain was booming leading the way in music fashion and technology the post office tower seems to soar almost 600 feet of it looking as if it were keeping watch over greater london as the queen came to give a royal signature to the visitors book they told her windsor castle was visible from the top but it wasn't only the capital that was being rebuilt across the country inner city slums were being demolished and the people moved to new towns and suburbs there were literally tens of thousands of houses created in liverpool better than anything we'd known they had a little front garden little back garden so our parents were really happy to be relocated into these areas it was a great community spirit suddenly we moved black friend mozart cup kent so we detached all lovely smelt new honestly it was like you'd lived in a tent all your life and suddenly you've gone into buckingham palace it was thrilling for my mom and dad to have a flat that was just theirs with their own bedroom and a separate bedroom for their daughter i mean it was magnificent but while our homes were improving women were no longer willing to be tied to them i wanted to be more than just a housewife people who wanted a career i think at that point we had to fight for it was the beginning of that women's lib aspect and women's rights and one remarkable invention would change women's lives forever millions of words have been written for and against it for this little white tablet is more explosive than dynamite when contraceptive pill came in we thought that was the answer to everything didn't we because we could have our children but then we had to say over how many we were going to have or when we were going to have them god bless the man who invented the pill because he gave us freedom and we're out now we're not going back in the box suddenly there was a kind of a liberation everything was was burgeoning and it was a time i think when women recognized i could do this and they had support from one prominent working mother in the modern world the opportunities for women to give something of value to the human family are greater than ever because through their own efforts they are now beginning to play their full part in public life come and join us by 1970 women were demanding greater equality it was a very positive time i was very keen to be independent to make my own choices to make my own career to be equal the introduction of a sex discrimination act and equal pay act showed there were new possibilities for women when i got married in the 70s it didn't cross my mind that i stopped working i think there were so many chances for so many women and girls thought oh actually i could have a career [Music] in 1971 a new portrait of the queen was being stamped onto billions of coins the old pounds shillings and pennies were consigned to history as our money went decimal my mum was furious when she went shopping she refused to deal in decimalized coins she'd hold out the money and say i don't want to know how much it is in that awful money just take what you need these are the ten penny coins this is the two penny coin how are you getting on with the new coins well it's just terrible i was working in the west country older people said oh not sure about this ira decimalization but the kids all said yeah great because of course they were doing decimalization in schools and so the kids took to it of course like that i remember we used to profiteer after the older people because they couldn't quite get the grasp of how much this was worth compared to that so we used to change coins with with adults we go down scouring anywhere to find old pennies people caught on pretty quick you know once they started realizing what crooks we were cumbernauld is one of scotland's successful new town the queen learned that a sense of community has been preserved here during the 60s and 70s the queen opened new towns and public housing developments across the country do you like this house i love this house yes sharks have had nice neighbors and this is everything's really lovely down here it's a nice place while most people still rented many of us aspire to own our own homes when you do tell people you've got your own house it stays as simple you know you just feel nice you know when we got married we bought a tiny little end of terrace cottage a because we could afford it beyonce had a gun an englishman's home is his castle however tiny it was and this little end of terrace house was tiny we had some friends came round and she walked in the front door i said oh goodness i didn't know they made houses this small you can get it if you really do our first house was a really beautiful american style bungalow it had a rustic brick wall which my mother could never understand she thought when it was finished and cemented over it would be great but we thought it was just magical and for a price 2 800 quid can hardly believe it how about giving your home a new look there's no time like the presents for a coat of paint or a change of interior decor as homeownership increased so did our enthusiasm for diy it was independence for the first time that freedom of having your own house to paint the walls whatever kali wanted the dining room was dark brown the front room was a shocking shade of green it was wonderful i got myself a diy book i ripped up the carpets and i got this old sander and i spent hours sanding up and down and then it finished polishing it loved it and it looked fantastic [Music] on the dance floor teenagers were also finding new ways to express themselves i think it was an amazing time to be a teenager because youth culture gave you an alternative to kind of normal life you know things like david bowie mark bowlen alice cooper all of those things were sort of slightly overworldly and they weren't things that your parents would like it was quite eclectic i think the 70s you had punk rock you had electro and then you had hip hop i mean it was and then you had disco as well going on at the same time [Music] they had these massively wide trousers that could house a family of four um and you had the pockets down here on the side the high waistband you wore a tank top that was usually stripey and you wore a shirt with a collar so larger could land concorde on it and um that's how we roll my mum did buy me a pair of platform shoes i did wear them to school and get sent home immediately [Music] in 1977 the queen celebrated 25 years on the throne and across the uk communities turned out to celebrate at thousands of street parties the great thing about the jubilee is that it gave a whole new generation an opportunity to show how much they appreciated the monarchy in general the queen in particular but apart from the coronation itself when had there been an opportunity for the country to come together and say actually we quite like having a monarchy and we think you're doing a good [Applause] the job showed her how much they loved her by coming out for those great street parties the flags flying and it was almost spontaneous everybody wanted to say long live the queen because she had given so much to her nation we just all had a whale of a time this wonderful feeling that we were celebrating our lives through the lives of the queen and prince philip and that she'd managed 25 years looking back now what a short way into that rain we were the silver jubilee was a moment of joy in a decade of economic turmoil industry needs power at home you could get by with less so switch off some power now [Applause] it was in 1973 that a pay dispute between coal miners and the government combined with petrol shortages plunged the country into an energy crisis prime minister edward heath announced drastic action we are limiting the use of electricity by almost all factories shops and offices to three days a week in terms of comfort we shall have a harder christmas than we have known since the war we are sorry owing to labour difficulties very few trains will leave from waterloo tonight the atmosphere was was quite scary in a sense because you just didn't know what was going to happen it was very volatile but we were doing what we do best in this country is just toughing it out as coal and oil stocks dwindled blackouts became commonplace i remember the electricity going off but when you're a kid that's exciting when all the lights go out and you have to eat by candlelight that's kind of like thrilling when you're a kid we didn't have tv we used to sit there played monopoly and clued or it was great for all that when the telly was on when he did have electric it was just the news and it was one of the what's the prime minister doing about that and what we're going to do now what we're going to do on more more strikes more power cuts more three-day week it was really tough to live through after a snap election the new labour prime minister harold wilson granted the miners a 30 pay rise the crisis was over for now there's someone new on the morning shift at silverwood college a year later the queen paid a visit to a coal mine in yorkshire but the royal standard flying from the pit head queen comes suitably dressed for the occasion before going on to inspect the cold face the queen unveils a plaque commemorating the visit but despite the truce industrial unrest continued into the 1980s when conflict flared between the miners union and the queen's first female prime minister margaret [Applause] in thatcher you had somebody who was determined that she would not be beaten and some of her predecessors had been hammered into the ground by industrial unrest and by the miners trade unions were very active and powerful when thatcher came in she was determined to crack that tree if she could crack the miners union she could crack unions we were watching these horrible news reports from the front line of the minor strike where people being beaten up and baton charges and mounted police and things like that the television pictures of yesterday's battle have left their mark on all of us including it's reported one special and dismayed viewer her majesty the queen margaret thatcher refused to give in to the miners and after a year-long dispute union leader arthur scargill called off the strike strike itself will be over on tuesday and there'll be a discipline i remember the terrible consequences that had on whole communities back home people were betrayed on both sides and families don't talk to each other in wales still and i suspect it's the same in other communities that to me is one of the saddest things to have come out of it [Music] with her victory over the unions mrs thatcher was free to pursue another flagship policy privatization the telecommunications act made it possible for the people of the united kingdom to share in the ownership of british telecom applications to buy shares in formerly nationalized companies poured in from millions of ordinary people there was a real excitement um about joining in it was like you know the national lottery was on permanently and you could get a bit of it you know it could be you these british gashes it couldn't be easier to do because he said tell him won't you privatization was actually pretty revolutionary are you sid yes oh boy have i got a message for you that's it i lent every single member of our virgin staff money so that they could go and buy shares they all made a very good return out of british gasps telecom all these companies even british airways yuppies have come about and you see 18 year olds with red braces and with porsches and give me the money you know [Applause] this is people making money and going on about it i mean it's one of the things you didn't really do in britain i mean it was american it was brash and we're going to make lots of money and we're going to shout about him [Music] what a splendid picture from the royal gallery into the parliament chamber in 1992 the queen marked 40 years on the throne and at the state opening of parliament another woman was taking on an historic role after 600 years it's madam speaker betty boothroyd beats the competition for the commons chair i'd never expected the majority that i got because i didn't want just a handful of votes in a majority i wanted a a comfortable one that like it gave me confidence i think that some of the members when i was elected thought they could roll me over like a pussycat and do their bidding but nowhere i was quite tough with them the honorable gentleman will resume his seat immediately the 90s for me felt that it was just women being promoted to the things that they should be doing so you know you know betsy boother being speakers like well why shouldn't she be speaking as eric morgan would say there's no answer to that but the house of commons wasn't the only boy's club getting a shake-up stella remington was made the head of mi5 and the anglican church voted to ordain its first female priests i just remember being through the 90s thinking i could do anything i want and actually being a woman isn't a barrier we had to work hard and we had to you know be focused but we could achieve anything and as if to prove the point in 1996 five young british women became a global phenomenon the spice girls everybody knew they were going to be huge and they were so not media trained it was brilliant it was like herding cats [Music] dinner please there'd be pictures of the spice girls joshing with prince charles who i think secretly loved it because they were just being themselves i think the spice girls were speaking for a generation of how we were feeling in that era anyway but you're enough you're good enough we need encouragement from each other and rather than a put down a pull-up saying you know what come on girl you can do it the queen is the ultimate you know ambassador of girl power a huge example for all of us throughout the decade our once industrial economy was giving way to the service sector computers and telecommunications almost one in ten of us has one of these and by the end of the century it'll be one in four it was a far cry from 1956 when the queen made the first official long-distance call without an operator speaking this is the queen speaking from bristol good afternoon good afternoon your manchester united bristol subscribers will be able to make tank calls by merely dialing the right number up to a distance of some 300 miles and four decades later i don't remember getting my first mobile it's kind of like feels like i've always just had it gosh time before mobile phones you'd agree to meet somebody probably a week in advance and then you just have to stand there and wait for them to arrive and you stand there for an hour i was one of the last rubber mobile phone i don't want people phoning me up you're forced into having it all now and text me wife to say i'm on my way home put the kippers on by the mid 1990s the world wide web would revolutionize the way we communicate and share information the queen joined the pupils at kingsbury high school to test out the new buckingham palace website i'm sure that some of you have parents who have found the internet on the world wide web to be a bit of a mystery but the internet is rapidly becoming a part of everyday life when the decade starts people are telephoning writing faxing by the end of the decade they're emailing they're zapping texting doing all sorts of things which no one would have thought of the first time i sent an email my son nearly fainted it took me a while it's been a tricky learning process but to be able to google and it's just mind-blowing i love it i remember getting an email address none of my friends had it so i didn't have anybody to email but suddenly being able to take control of booking the competitions i went to that suddenly you could look on online and you go right you know what tomorrow morning i'm gonna go and race in zurich that was amazing when i bet my husband he said you have an email address right and i went yes i didn't even know what that was at the time and i remember coming back to my friend was big in computers here and just going wayne i need an email address what is it where do i buy one [Applause] in 2002 the nation came together to mark the queen's golden jubilee [Applause] in a speech to parliament she reflected on some of the changes she had lived through change has become a constant managing it has become an expanding discipline we also take pride in our tradition of fairness and tolerance the consolidation of our richly multicultural and multi-faith society is being achieved remarkably peacefully and with much good will we are whether some people like it or not a thoroughly multi-ethnic multi-religious country the queen is is terribly aware of that and would be horrified were her jubilees and so on not show pieces which accurately represent that the naughties there was a shift in perception when it came to what is british culture and and what is how do we identify that and actually it's made up of lots of different types of people from different backgrounds and that is the new face of britain during her golden jubilee year the queen ensured her busy itinerary reflected a true picture of modern britain [Music] the call to prayers in scunthorpe's mosque one of more than 600 spread across the uk it was this community though that chose to invite the queen to visit spurred on partly by the anti-muslim backlash after september the 11th when their mosque was dorbed with graffiti i think it was very important for the queen to go to the mosque when times were difficult in working with us muslims it just gave a lot of people confidence that you know the mosque isn't a place that's going to scare people as a place where we go to pray and be close to god the sixth decade of the queen's reign witnessed two historic social changes eight years after princess diana's tragic death prince charles married camilla parker-bowles both were divorcees [Music] 70 years earlier his great uncle edward viii had been forced to abdicate in order to marry a divorcee wallis simpson by the time the queen had been on the throne for several decades the whole country was living living with different models of family and there wasn't a corner of the land that was unaffected by those changes [Music] a few months later another high-profile couple cemented their relationship in windsor so elton john has joined hundreds of same-sex couples across england and wales taking part in the first civil partnership ceremonies i think that from the queen's reign in the 50s where being gay was illegal to civil partnership it was momentous you were accepted and that was a huge deal if you'd told me that by the middle of the 2000s gay relationships could be recognized on a more or less equal footing with straight marriage i would never have believed it the whole civil partnership thing was something that actually put a smile on most people's faces for people to start actually opening their minds a little bit and saying actually maybe the world should be this place where we're going more towards happiness and less towards anger and hatred [Music] in 2010 there was another royal first when prince william became engaged to his long-term girlfriend kate middleton unlike previous royal consorts kate was not an aristocrat she was solidly middle class and her ancestors had even humbler backgrounds this is petten lahole in county durham and for generations kate middleton's ancestors lived here and worked down in the mines she was a commoner which i think was hugely significant because this was the first time that it was happening but she was so beautiful and so gracious she was just princess material what a moment michael middleton and his daughter catherine i remember seeing her dress and the bridesmaids and you just wanted to just be part of it it really brought the whole nation together and it was a great excuse to have a party oh watch the whole day watch the whole day i wasn't going to watch it wasn't interested it just like glued i thought one day william will be king kate will be queen how fortunate to have such a modern couple with tradition lots of shouts from the crowd here and that's the reward as the couple left for their honeymoon the queen returned to work in may 2011 she became the first british monarch to visit the republic of ireland for many irish people the queen symbolized a colonial power they had fought against for centuries and though most of ireland had achieved independence in 1921 the queen's reign had been marked by the troubles in northern ireland which had claimed over three and a half thousand lives to see it happen and the sense of a completely different relationship elaine down of the past and the sense of joy in the country was clear she was welcomed wholeheartedly i think i think it's fantastic i do really and i think it's 2011 1916 and it's trying to move on really uh work to roin argos akosa under her breath the president of ireland had said wow the queen had begun with a greeting in gaelic with the benefit of historical hindsight we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all and 13 months later in belfast the queen and former ira commander martin mcguinness would appear together in a remarkable moment of public and personal reconciliation for her majesty the queen her own cousin had been murdered by the ira for martin mcguinness she was the head of the armed forces who he blamed for killing many of his own and it was that emotional backdrop that made that event completely unforgettable the mcguinness queen handshake was extremely sophisticated and proper and given the great personal cruelties that both suffered i had to stand back from this moment and go wow [Music] 2012 saw celebrations across the uk to mark the queen's diamond jubilee culminating in a star-studded concert everyone in the mail say yeah [Music] i just remember thinking where does this happen this is just this could only happen here 250 000 people in the mall and around the front of buckingham palace it was just the best vibe ever your majesty mommy three resounding cheers for our majesty the queen hip hip hip hip [Applause] just a month later the eyes of the world were on london as we hosted the olympic and paralympic games almost a billion people watched the history of the united kingdom unfold in spectacular style danny boyle's opening ceremony it was so funny and so brilliant i think only britain gets it it was a representation of what it what we are as a nation this reminded me that actually this country has produced so many great things i declare open the games of london celebrating the 30th olympiad of the modern era [Applause] i remember thinking oh please please let us win some medals and then you know as each day went on it's like we've got another game we've got enough to go we've got another five goals [Applause] i just remember thinking to myself like yes like i've done it having my hand raised and the gold medal being put around my neck and just feeling so proud it was the best moment of my life was just pure relief and disbelief that i'd actually you know come to my first olympics in my home country and won as i walked out from the courtroom to the starting block i got a massive roar and cheer normally i like to listen to music and just be in the zone but i took one earphone out so i could just mop it all up and just try and capture it it was crazy and amazing how the british public propelled us into legends and heroes but here he comes it's gonna be a goal for great britain when i watched the london paralympics in all honesty it's the first time that i was proud to be disabled because i was in that club they made disabilities so cool the olympics and paralympics weren't just broadcast on tv they were streamed over the internet and shared on social media around the world what differs our age and this century from everything else that went before was world wide web and that has revolutionized in every single sense the planet we are constantly touching antlers together all the time this thing in our pocket is constantly alerting us to stuff that's going on people spend more of their time interacting with their computers and their tablets they do with other human beings we are all so nosy and i just think we know so much more about each other social media allows us to connect and share at the touch of a button the queen has passed a technological milestone by sending her first tweet signing it elizabeth ark everything has moved exponentially and i think the royal family was certainly on that journey alongside technology that the rest of us were and and i think it made them by implication more accessible and more open when the queen photo bombed the two girls doing the selfie over the shoulder and she just kind of popped and went it shows that she's in tune she obviously knows what a selfie is she obviously knows what a photo bomb is she took to modern technology and secretly rather enjoyed it i think and i'm quite sure her grandchildren help her with it because they know how to do everything so quickly [Music] but through all the advances and innovations of the queen's long reign one change has been constant climate change is a huge issue the science was slowly building up a dossier of evidence it seems to me on the scientific evidence to be beyond any question the environment begins as a concern in the 60s we were never entirely unconscious of it there was always a voice crying in the wilderness but the voices have become louder [Music] [Applause] those voices have also become younger and more urgent it's really important that we make a difference now before it's too late because if we wait too long it's going to become an irreversible change that our generation will be able to stop i think my generation suddenly felt well maybe we've been asleep for a couple of decades because with greta and extinction rebellion taking a very urgent interest in their future it suddenly became at the top of the agenda in a way it had not been [Music] [Applause] when the whole green culture hit first thing was recycling everyone had to do their their recycling i was told very clearly by my little girl no you must do it i think if you're a parent you worry about the future you want to be green for your kids it's a concern the queen and her family have highlighted for decades as she reflected in her message to the recent u.n climate conference in glasgow the impact of the environment on human progress was a subject close to the heart of my dear late husband prince philip the duke of edinburgh i have drawn great comfort and inspiration from the relentless enthusiasm of people of all ages especially the young in calling for everyone to play their part when the queen decides that she thinks something is important enough to support everybody pays attention the queen does not make speeches unless it's a really important national moment and in the spring of 2020 we needed to hear from the queen more than ever we were living through one of the biggest challenges of her reign [Music] when kobe started i was sent home from madrid i was doing the commentating on the olympic qualifiers for the boxing and that's when i realized that this was gonna be quite big it just shocked me really that a virus could bring the whole world to its knees and bring everything to to a standstill the queen addressed the nation i'm speaking to you at what i know is an increasingly challenging time a time of disruption in the life of our country a disruption that has brought grief to some financial difficulties to many and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all for me the queen is always a comforting presence in a world of fear and uncertainty we will be with our friends again we will be with our families again we will meet again the part where she said that we'll meet again it just gave you hope that this was all to end at some point and we could go back to normal [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] as we emerge from the pandemic and look ahead to the platinum jubilee the queen remains dedicated and beautiful just as she has been through seven decades of extraordinary change [Music] it's a long long long time and life changes things change [Music] what has happened over the green terrain is amazing how attitudes have changed [Music] the social fabric of life in this country has evolved queen elizabeth ii's an inspirational woman she's been constant over the 70 years thank you mr prime minister of canada for making me feel so old the queen centers us she has been there throughout all of our lifetimes and the forever changing world all the political turmoil goes around her and she seems to be in the calm of it all mr president i raise my glass to anglo-american friendship she really is serving this country it's quite an emotional thing you know there's a feeling of pride about her she's quite unique the queen represents something very special something that we value and appreciate and respect and she's managed to do that while the world around her in 70 years has changed out of all recognition my platform jubilee will be an opportunity for people everywhere to give thanks for the enormous changes of the last 70 years and also to look ahead with confidence [Applause] [Music] you

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Id: _n22cQYlFHk

Length: 58min 28sec (3508 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 07 2022