The controversial Royal British documentary that you can’t watch anymore
In 1969, the Queen made an oddly rare decision – she allowed cameras inside her home to film the royal family for several months.
It what was meant to be a documentary to introduce Prince Charles, Britain’s future king, to the public. At the time, he was a polite young man attending Cambridge University.
The film, Royal Family, aired to television and was viewers by around 30 million people.
However, the movie has never been seen in its entirety since the palace ordered its removal from public view.
Despite how much information manages to make its way into the media sphere for the consumption of the public, the Royal Family prefer to live an extremely private life inside their palace walls.
So what happens behind closed doors is typically left in the hands of former and current employees, friends of the royals, speculation, tabloids and plain old gossip.
After Royal Family was aired to television on June 21, 1969, it received mixed reviews from the newspapers.
The palace quickly relegated the film to the royal archives after its initial release.
Royal archiving films, propaganda, images and other forms of media means anything inside the vault, including Royal Family could only ever be seen again under the permission of the Queen.
For more than 50 years, the film has been kept from the eyes of the public, however nothing ever really disappears – even in the 60’s – as short clips and stills from the documentary remain on the internet to be found.
Scroll through the gallery to see the Royal Family from the only documentary they let cameras inside palace walls for.