Born To Royalty: Living under the public gaze

Pick of the day: Born To Royalty, UKTV, 8.30pm.

A 1960 portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip with children Andrew (centre), Anne (left) and Charles. Born To Royalty on UKTV.

It’s fascinating the way TV has given the dogged and in recent times scandal-ridden life of the royal family some shape. It frames the Queen’s reign, beginning with her 1953 coronation, an event the media-shy monarch was reluctant to have televised. In Australia, the fact we could only read about the millions who heard the bells peal and cannons fire and watched revellers dance into the night helped hasten the tardy implementation of what was called the magic lantern in our own homes.

Dealing with TV has been a defining challenge of the Queen’s reign. As writer Andrew Crisell suggested: “At the 1953 coronation, TV was a humble supplicant knocking at the door of Westminster Abbey and being allowed to watch discreetly from the loft. By the 1990s it was a monstrous dictator before whom a prince and princess would come to justify their private lives.” Many argue that the royal family was invented by television when the licentious 1960s took flight and presented the world with an alternative model of free love and joint custody. Now the royal documentary, once an international event, is just another reality subgenre. A recorded facsimile of the way royalty lives, shows such as this keep them marketable and visible in a digital environment where the trivial and mundane are a matter of pathology. And to celebrate 90 years of the Queen UKTV presents four special documentaries each Wednesday offering a glimpse of a world few of us, perhaps fortunately, will ever encounter. The first of these, Born to Royalty, is a must-see viewing for royal watchers as it charts the history of the royal babies born in recent times centred on William and Kate’s baby, the great grandchild of Elizabeth 11. Narrated by Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville, it’s a feature-length look at the life that lies ahead for the child who was born to reign with nary a negative voice to be heard. But even if you’re no royalist the archival footage is worth the admission.