2025
Fifty years ago, Princess Anne was one of the most eligible women in the world, but dashing soldier and fellow equestrian Captain Mark Phillips was the one to win her hand. When they tied the knot in a fairy-tale ceremony at Westminster Abbey in November 1973, it would thrust Anne into the limelight like never before and set a precedent for all future royal weddings. Interviewees include former royal reporter Angela Rippon, who talks about the couple's courtship, and the groom's best man Eric Grounds, with detail of the stag do.
1938
Life on the road in India, showing the traffic, people and animals.
Hindu temples at Benares and Belur and the mythologies associated with them.
Filmed in 1938, less than a decade before Indian independence, Delhi has a curious tale to tell. ‘Delhi’, the viewer is informed, ‘is the cockpit of the Indian Empire’, it provides the ‘gateway to the riches of the south’. The opening sections of the film focus upon those who have tried and failed to establish a lasting power in the capital. ‘At Delhi’, the commentator states, ‘successive cities have been built by conquering invaders – each has fallen into disuse and decay’. The camerawork focuses on the ‘impressive ruins’ of these earlier invaders. Although the film also depicts the enduring architecture of Muslim rulers, such as Akbar and Shahjahan, it is stressed that their power has been superseded. Legend has it that it will be the ninth city of Delhi that ‘will endure and will rule forever’. Shahjahan had built the eighth.
2016
A unique celebration of the Queen's ninety years as she reaches her landmark birthday in April. Film-maker John Bridcut has been granted special access to the complete collection of Her Majesty's personal ciné films, shot by the Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen herself, as well as by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Much of it has never been seen publicly before. Various members of the Royal Family are filmed watching this private footage and contributing their own personal insights and their memories of the woman they know both as a member of their own close family and as queen. Among those taking part are the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, Prince Harry, the Princess Royal, the Duke of Kent and his sister Princess Alexandra, who has never before given an interview.
2011
2022
Lady Diana Spencer was one half of the highest-profile courtship the British royal family had seen in decades. The wonder of Diana, and her style, stemmed partially from how noticeable she was from the very beginning.
1906
The coronation of King Håkon (Haakon VII) of Norway in 1905.
2024
Hidden away in the Cotswolds amid ~1000 acres, this once unimpressive country house was purchased by King Charles in 1980 as a fixer-upper and transformed into his favourite getaway and private family home. See what's inside this 18th Century Georgian home, how it's run, and how it's improved.
1903
Film showing the Viceregal party entering Delhi on lavishly decorated elephants, as part of the Coronation durbar of 1903.
1925
Richly detailed amateur ethnographic film on the agrarian economy and society in rural Punjab.
1922
Lord Lytton takes up the post of Governor of Bengal.