Princes of the Palace (2016) - full transcript

It's a wonderful moment for a warm
and loving couple

who have got a brand-new baby boy.

There is blood in their veins
that has been coursing through royal veins

since before 1066.

I mean, can you get Radio 3 on this?

There are not many 90-year-old men
who are still voted as being stylish.

Time hasn't changed him.

Age certainly hasn't changed him,

and in fact if anything else
he's probably become

what we know in Britain
as a grumpy old man.

Charles grew up
always wanting to please his father.



He'd been sent away to school in Scotland,
which he hated.

He was lonely, he was bullied.

Prince Charles gave quite
a number of interviews

and we had never heard him speak before.

I'm very well informed.

I think it literally changed
his image overnight

from this boy with jug ears

into a sort of rather a delightful,
whimsical character.

He had quite
a long period of bachelorhood

where he couldn't seem to settle down

and suddenly this beautiful young girl
came into his life.

When asked whether Diana was
in love with Charles,

she immediately said, "Of course"
and he said, "Whatever love is."

Today's edition of The Sun
dedicates its first five pages



to a story about the prince's alleged
romance with a fellow student.

Prince Harry is more like his mother

and he's probably the most popular member
of the royal family at this moment in time

because people warm to him.

I don't believe there is any such thing
as a private life anymore.

I'm not gonna sit here and whinge,

everyone knows about Twitter
and the internet and stuff like that.

People now regard them as part
of the celebrity culture. They're not.

They think of themselves
as part of history.

Prince Philip
is head of the royal family

and patriarch of the princes,

known as a no-nonsense
and tough gruff military man.

He occasionally oversteps the line
of political correctness with both feet.

His rise from a titled
but unprivileged background

to become the greatest supporter

of the longest reigning monarch
in British history

is the stuff of storybooks,
but Prince Philip's story is true.

He was born famously
on a kitchen table in Corfu

and he was evacuated in an orange box
on-board a British destroyer.

Through the 1920s, Prince Philip lived
in exile with his parents in Paris.

Then at the end of the 1920s,
his parents split up.

His mother had a breakdown
and ended up in an asylum in Switzerland,

and his father floated down
to the South of France where he ended up

with a girlfriend living in a boat.

Following his time
at Gordonstoun,

which specialised in seamanship,

Prince Philip left in 1939 to join
the Royal Navy as a cadet.

He was astonishingly good-looking.

He has always maintained
a very fit profile

and he looked what he was,
a young Greek god.

So he wasn't like anyone else

I think that Princess Elizabeth
would have come up against.

The first notable meeting

was the one when King George VI
and Queen Elizabeth

went with their children,
Elizabeth and Margaret Rose

to see the sailors down at Dartmouth,
and Prince Philip,

because he was their cousin,
was charged with looking after them.

She met Prince Philip of Greece
as he then was in 1939,

when he was a dashing naval cadet
at Dartmouth Naval College.

She'd met him before at family occasions,
but this was the occasion when,

by her own account, the spark was struck.

Very dashing and very handsome
and I mean quite unusually

she actually thought this man
is wonderful, you know,

as 13-year-old could think,
handsome prince

and never really had any affection
for any other man ever since.

After completing
his initial training

at Royal Naval College Dartmouth,

he joined the battleship HMS Ramillies
as a midshipman

during the early stages of World War II.

From that moment on,
as far as I can make out,

Princess Elizabeth kept a photograph
of Prince Philip

on her desk throughout the war.

Prince Philip enjoyed
a glittering war career,

joining the battleship HMS Valiant
in Alexandria in January 1941.

After his promotion to sub-lieutenant,

he was appointed to The Destroyer,
HMS Wallace…

…based at Rosyth for convoy escort duties.

Further promotions meant
that he was appointed second in command

of Wallace at the unusually
early age of 21.

HMS Wallace took part
in the allied invasion of Italy

with the landings on Sicily in July 1943.

Prince Philip
was very alpha male,

quite controlling, but very positive,

and I don't think Princess Elizabeth ever
met a man like that in her life.

She was used to going out with Lord This
and Lord That

and people being very deferential to her,

and suddenly there's someone
that comes along and tells her what to do

and drives too fast,
and does all kinds of things,

and I think he was just so male,
she was so incredibly in love with him.

There wasn't another candidate.

There were various English dukes,
all rather dim,

and there were foreigners,
even more dim or inappropriate

because they'd fought
for the Germans in the war

and Prince Philip had the inestimable
advantage of having fought on our side

in the Royal Navy and therefore was okay.

With news of growing
preparations for the royal wedding,

come these notable pictures
of the royal family

accompanied
by Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten.

People at court weren't sure
who this man was.

Princess Elizabeth was a perfect princess.
She was beautiful,

she was well brought up,
she knew how to behave.

Nobody was quite sure about Prince Philip.
Who was he? Where were his parents?

He always said to me
that he was essentially pan-European.

I don't know what he was.

He's certainly categorised
as being Phil the Greek,

but he doesn't have any Greek blood
in him at all.

The general public thought
that Elizabeth and Philip's marriage

was a fairy tale made in heaven.

Hundreds of thousands of people
gathered outside the palace gates

because it was the one good event
to cap off

what had been quite frankly
a dreadful decade.

Armies in rejoicing
side by side with glowing pageantry,

marks Britain's greatest royal occasion
since the coronation.

The royal wedding was seen
as a sort of new Elizabethan age.

The country was in a terrible state,
it was very austere,

right after the war

and suddenly there's this beautiful bride

because Princess Elizabeth
was incredibly beautiful

and this handsome naval officer

were going to carry the country
out of the doldrums of war

and present them with a golden future.

But the feeling was very much
of their wedding,

it was like a fairy tale.

Before long,
the calls of the people were answered

as onto the famous balcony came
the bride and bridegroom.

At the time of the wedding
of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip,

his sisters were not invited

simply because they were Germans
living in Germany with German husbands,

one of whom was still going through
the de-Nazification process,

so they had to be careful.

I think the British public
on the whole regarded

the marriage of Prince Philip
to the future Queen

as a welcome blessed relief from a time
of considerable austerity and awfulness

and there was more rationing paradoxically
after the war ended

than there had been during the war itself.

And the young princess
gathering up her ration coupons

to buy the lace for her wedding dress.

You've got this wonderful romance,

this dashing naval officer marrying
the girl next door

who was everybody's sweetheart
and who was going to be our Queen.

It's strange that now he's cast
as a cantankerous old crust

and a right winger, et cetera.

Um, when he first sprung upon
an astonished world,

he was regarded as a dangerous leftie.

There were a lot of people
in English society,

and courtiers in particular,
who weren't sure who this man was.

Prince Philip's meteoric rise
in the Royal Navy continued

when he was appointed commander in 1952.

Philip insisted after the marriage
that he should pursue his naval career.

She wanted him very much to do this.

Um, the royal family agreed,
and so he actually went off to Malta

where the British Navy had still
a large contingent in those days.

He was given his own ship.

She went out there not as a princess,
but as the captain's wife,

and for the first
and only time in her life,

she drove her own car,

she went to hairdressing salons,
she met friends in cafes for coffee.

She had something resembling ordinary life

and it had been her wish and hope

that that could continue
for several years.

It was obvious that she meant
to enjoy herself, she had no restrictions.

She could move about on her own in Malta.

It was absolutely novel for her, you know.

I think officially she was the boss.

But in private life,
I think Philip ran the show.

That's my impression, yes.

He seemed to boss her
around most of the time, you know,

and I shouldn't say this, perhaps,
but I've heard him swear at her.

The King's unexpected death
changed everything,

not only for Elizabeth,
but for Philip too.

As a couple, they had enjoyed
a blissful existence in Malta

where the Duke of Edinburgh was then based
as an officer in the Royal Navy,

and their first tour, so to speak,
was brought to an abrupt halt

when they heard news of the King's death
in Kenya of course.

It was the Duke of Edinburgh
that broke the news to Princess Elizabeth,

and understandably she was devastated.

People were bowing to her
and she was the new Queen

and for both of them it really brought
to an abrupt end

what had been as normal a marriage
as possible for a royal couple.

Prince Philip is a military man
through and through.

If he hadn't married the Queen,

he would have been
a highly successful naval officer,

probably would have reached
the rank of admiral.

Suddenly,
the Queen superseded him entirely

and I think for the dynamics
of the relationship

that was quite hard to deal with.

He had the potential of having
a very good naval career ahead of him.

He served with distinction
in the Second World War,

first in the Mediterranean.

The untimely death of the Queen's father,
George VI,

meant that Philip had
to hang up his uniform

and be there just two steps
behind the Queen.

And as anyone who would know
Prince Philip would completely understand,

he likes to earn everything that he does.

He did not like the idea of suddenly
being appointed admiral of the fleet,

field marshal and marshal
of the Royal Air Force

without having done anything to earn it.

When Prince Philip went off
on his solo voyage on Britannia,

it was early in the marriage
and people were saying,

"Is there trouble in the marriage?"

There have always been rumours
about Prince Philip and girls.

I remember Prince Philip saying to me,

"If I'd fathered as many children
as I'm supposed to have fathered,

I wouldn't have had time
for anything else."

The thing about the Queen
and Prince Philip is

they're very, very well-matched.

I mean she took on somebody her own size.

I went to the theatre
with them one evening

and sat in the royal box with them

and the interval came and I stood
at the side of the room

with the Duke of Edinburgh

and he looked across the crowded room
towards the Queen,

it was quite a small room,
and she was surrounded

by people meeting her and bowing
and shaking her hand,

and he leant against the wall,
he was holding a drink

and he caught her eye,

and across the crowded room
she smiled at him,

he merely lifted his glass
and toasted her.

I must confess, my Lord Mayor,
that it came as a bit of a surprise

to realise that we had been married
25 years.

Neither of us are much given
to looking back

and the years have slipped by so quickly.

He always said that his main job

was to make it possible
for his wife to reign.

One of the ways he supports her is
to run all the royal estates for her,

and he's been extremely energetic
at Windsor and Sandringham,

Balmoral and so forth.

The Queen sees it as her duty
to walk at the pace

of the slowest person in the land,

so that nobody in the country
feels left behind.

So there is the Duke of Edinburgh
thrusting, going forward,

trying to do this, trying to do that,
trying to change this,

and there is the Queen
quite steadily walking along.

The Queen is
the head of the state

but Prince Philip
is the head of the household.

He's the head of the family,
so people have to answer to him.

We have the good fortune
to grow up in happy and united families.

We have been fortunate in our children.

Prince Philip did
always have an odd upbringing

and an odd childhood.

He didn't have any serious role models
as far as parenting was concerned.

This later came to be a bit of a handicap

when it came to bringing up Prince Charles
and the other royal children.

The Duke of Edinburgh simply
didn't get his son, he didn't understand.

He had a very difficult relationship
with Charles.

They didn't speak to one another
as normal father and son.

If he's your father,
it must be quite difficult.

There's no doubt that his relationship
with Prince Harry, Prince William,

his grandsons,

they find him helpful and caring,

which is not the impression
you get with his own sons.

Maybe he always found Prince Charles
slightly exasperating,

and the fact that he wasn't able to make
more of a go of his marriage

to Princess Diana was at least as much
his son's fault as his daughter-in-law's.

I think the Queen herself
would be the first to admit

that Prince Philip isn't somebody
who minces his words.

He's got an opinion on everything
and he doesn't mind expressing it.

That's just his style
because he doesn't do small talk

and he doesn't suffer fools

and he likes
having scientific conversations,

he likes having deep conversations.

I've always found him incredibly funny.
I've met him on a number of occasions.

I found him quite sympathetic

and an extremely erudite
and very clever person.

He's very interested
in new technology, new ideas.

I mean, can you get Radio 3 on it?

He's very funny, and very outspoken,
says exactly what he thinks.

If you're Prince Philip,
you feel obliged somehow to break the ice,

and for 60 years he's been going down
receiving lines, shaking hands,

and he has said to me himself,
trying to make people laugh

and he does that with a merry quip.

And just once in a while it goes awry.

Outside the railway station,
he met somebody

and he said, "Where are you from?"
and he said, "Swansea, sir"

and Prince Philip said,
"You're a long way from home."

And the headline the next morning
in the local newspaper was,

"Prince Philip insults Welshman."

He suggested to a chef who was collecting
an award that it was no wonder

he was a good chef
because he was certainly the size for it,

and this man was enormous
and wasn't offended at all,

thought it was hilarious.

I think Prince Philip actually gets a bit
of a raw deal in the way he's presented.

He's seen as this gruff character
that makes comments that he shouldn't say.

This scheme is not a cure,
it's a preventative.

Once you've got a soccer hooligan,
you've got a soccer hooligan

and somebody else is going to have to try
and cure him of that.

The purpose of the scheme
basically is to try and catch people

while they are moderately civilised
and keep them that way.

From the Duke of Edinburgh's
point of view,

he'll suggest that he's only saying
what other people think

and the slitty eyed comment
or even to the Aborigines,

"Do you still throw spears at each other?"

might be a question that others
might wanted to have asked.

I'm frequently accused of meddling
in affairs that are of no concern of mine.

I'm always told I mustn't take sides.

And unlike, not my brother-in-law,
but you know the chap I mean.

I don't even get onto the electoral roll.

And, in fact, to use a currently
okay word with the press,

I must not be controversial.

It's terribly easy for journalists
to latch onto an alleged failing.

I think he's being rather
unfairly treated.

I've discussed Prince Philip's
gaffs with him endlessly,

and he finds it quite depressing
that they are constantly being reported

as he says he sighs sometimes
when he goes on a foreign trip

to find there will be reporters there

because he knows all they're
really waiting for is another gaff.

And I think most of us
with a great deal of sympathy

for those of you who have got to,
at the sharp end who are trying to

do your best to make life civilised
and tolerable for the locals.

He's a straightforward,
old-fashioned military officer

that doesn't suffer fools gladly.

He suffers from foot-in-mouth disease
sometimes when he makes comments

that maybe he shouldn't.

Totally useless
for a lot of well-meaning people

to wring their hands in conference
and to point out the dangers of pollution

or destruction
of the country's countryside

if no one is willing
or capable of taking any action.

But the truth of it is,
he comes from a different age.

He's just a man of his generation

who says what he thinks,
and sometimes people don't like it.

Impassioned speeches will be so much
effluent under the bridge

unless it is followed
by drastic political action.

Also, time is fast running out

and it remains to be seen whether those
in political authority

can shoulder their responsibilities
in time

and act quickly enough
to relieve a situation

which grows more serious every day.

I think the reality is a lot of the time
that time hasn't changed him,

age certainly hasn't changed him

and in fact if anything else,
he's probably become

what we know in Britain
as a grumpy old man.

Despite his advancing years,
Prince Philip is still known

for his tireless work to support the Queen

and his youthful attitude,

which allows him to bridge an age gap
of more than 70 years.

So how would you sum up
the identikit young person you might meet.

Are they enthusiastic, are they lazy,
are the enquiring?

The sum of all.

I don't even want to generalise
about young people.

They're dangerous.

There is no sense you have
that they're less willing

to take risks nowadays?

There's a great danger about even
generalising about young people

because you can find somebody
who's the exception,

or not just somebody, but a whole group
of them who are exceptions.

Uh, I think what happens is that

when a group of young people like
binge drinkers appear, everybody says,

"My God, the young people are terrible.
They've all become binge drinkers."

They haven't, it's that one group

who were mods and rockers
through generations.

You were probably one yourself.

-I mean, people go through...
-Do I look like it?

Well, you never know,

people become quite civilised
when they grow up.

What's very interesting about the Queen
and the Duke of Edinburgh

is they are very consistent people.
What you see is what you get.

They're not performers.

And for the Queen herself,

when you consider that she's surrounded
by a lot of lackies

and perhaps a lot of yes men,
actually having a man in her life

to tell her what he thinks
of what she's doing

is probably a refreshing change.

Prince Philip's personal thoughts
on his family

and on half a century of marriage.

It's been a challenge for us,

but by trial and experience,

I believe we have achieved
a sensible division of labour

and a good balance between
our individual and joint interests.

Of course, after 50 years of experience,

I find there's a great temptation
to give advice.

The trouble is that no two marriages
are quite alike.

However, I think that the main lesson
that we've learned is that tolerance

is the one essential ingredient
of any happy marriage.

It may not be quite so important
when things are going well,

but it is absolutely vital
when things get difficult.

There's been documented rows

that have taken place between
the Queen and Prince Philip.

I think, um, he once suggested
that she wasn't driving well

or he wasn't driving well

and he said that she should get out
of the car and walk.

I think there's been the kind of rows
that you would expect

after 60 years of marriage in any couple.

All too often I fear

Prince Philip has had
to listen to me speaking.

He is someone who doesn't take easily
to compliments,

but he has quite simply been my strength
and stay all these years.

Contrary to an awful lot
of people's predictions,

the monarchy appears to be as strong
as it has ever been,

and I think that has an awful lot
to do with Prince Philip.

I think without him maybe the institution
might have failed altogether.

The Prince of Wales
is heir apparent to the throne,

the first in line to become King,

even though he will probably be amongst
the eldest princes ever to become King.

If the Queen lives as long as her mother,

Prince Charles won't come
to the throne until he's 77.

An extraordinary
Monday morning

and the nation prepares to celebrate.

Prince Charles was born
at Buckingham Palace

on 14th November 1948.

He was taken away from her
when he was only ten days old

because she developed measles
after giving birth to Charles,

and in that crucial bonding period

between mother and child,
they didn't have that.

Following Queen Elizabeth's
succession to the throne in 1952,

he became both heir apparent
and Duke of Cornwall.

He was then very largely looked after
by nannies,

and the Queen had a nanny
who frankly terrified her.

She was called Helen Lightbody
and she was a dragon,

and the Queen really didn't enjoy
going into the nursery.

So that was another factor that kept
the Queen away from Charles.

So Charles grew up really bonding much
more closely with his grandmother,

um, the Queen Mother,
than ever with his mother.

She was, quite simply,
the most magical grandmother

you could possibly have,

and I was utterly devoted to her.

Consigned to
the care of his nanny,

he became more introspective,
welcoming his mother back

with a handshake rather than a hug.

Uh, when the Queen came back
from that long tour

and got off the train
at Paddington Station,

and her son who had been dying
to see her came up to her

she didn't kiss him
or put her arms around him,

she shook his hand.

Now, what does that say?

It says, "Where's my mummy?"

Charles grew up always wanting
to please his father,

always wanting his father's approval
and never quite managing to get it.

The Duke of Edinburgh
simply didn't get his son,

he didn't understand.

He didn't think boys should cry,
it was all stiff upper lip

and manage your emotions,
and Charles didn't do that.

In 1958,

Prince Charles became
the first Prince of Wales since 1936,

after the abdication of King Edward VIII
to marry Wallace Simpson.

Now, Geoff Shelley
reporting on Gordonstoun

as Prince Charles arrives with his father,

the school's most famous old boy.

He'd been sent away to school in Scotland,
which he hated.

He was lonely, he was bullied there.

He would've been much
happier somewhere like Eton

where he would've been close to his family

and close to his grandmother particularly.

He had a miserable time,

miles away from everything
that was familiar to him.

But the general concept was that actually
the press on the whole didn't really know

where Gordonstoun was
and probably in their minds

would have had to clamber over mountains
of heather in order to find this place.

If you're going to send somebody
to Gordonstoun like Prince Charles,

it's going to have an impact on him,
whereas for Prince Philip fantastic,

absolutely loved every minute
of the Spartan,

um, the way that the system
was arranged by Kurt Hahn,

and he loved the whole philosophy.

Charles grew up a very insecure
boy who turned into an insecure man.

He doesn't have a lot of confidence,

and Lord Mountbatten,
who was the Queen's uncle,

recognised that Charles
was slightly adrift as a teenager.

He was not a happy child
and Mountbatten took him under his wing

and started to prepare him for the future

and to give him some confidence
and to make him feel valued.

Prince Charles gave quite
a number of interviews,

and we had never heard him speak before.

And he showed a very engaging
kind of rather dry humour,

and I think it literally changed
his image overnight

from this rather sort of uncomfortable boy
with jug ears,

with his hands behind his back,
trying to imitate his father,

into a sort of rather a delightful
whimsical character of his own.

I do believe I have a bite. I have a bite.

I'm letting out a little slack now,
a little slack.

Yes, taking up the strain,
taking up the strain.

This is most exciting,
most exciting, ladies and gentlemen,

I haven't seen anything
quite like it before.

I think I've got quite a large one here.

It's very, very large indeed, I…

Charles comes forward
to be invested with the name, style,

dignity and honour of the Prince of Wales
and Earl of Chester.

The sword for his earldom.

The investiture
of Prince Charles was a state occasion

before the Welsh people
at Carnarvon Castle on the 1st July, 1969.

I, Charles, Prince of Wales,

do become your liege man of life and limb
and of earthly worship,

and faith and truth I will bear unto thee

to live and die
against all manner of folks.

The acts of investiture,
homage and fealty are complete.

Despite being criticised
by the radical anti-monarchist elements

of the swinging 60s,

Charles spent many months in Wales
trying to win over his critics.

I believe you were stopped
in the street not very long ago

by a group of anarchist students
with a Mr Peter Dawson who said,

"The rich Duke of Cornwall
should give away all his land and money."

How do you react to that sort of thing?

I'm very well-informed.

How do I react to that sort of thing?

Well, I suppose I try and look upon it
with a certain amount of sympathy.

I mean, I think it's wrong to just say,

"You're wrong,
therefore I don't want to listen to you."

I try and understand what they're getting
at and why they're getting at it.

During the 1970s,
Prince Charles became known as a playboy

for his liaisons
with beautiful and eligible women

and his easy charm with music
and movie stars.

Prince Charles was really seen
as a bit of an action man

and having had a string
of beautiful girlfriends.

He had quite a long period of bachelorhood
where he couldn't seem to settle down,

and it was actually attracting
the wrong kind of headlines.

Was he a playboy prince?
Was he not able to make decisions?

Was he not able to commit?

There was always a great fascination,
I suppose inevitably,

in Prince Charles's girlfriends.

And every time Prince Charles went out
with somebody,

the press screamed,
"He's going to marry her, is this it?"

Because everybody knew
she would be the Princess of Wales,

and one day would be Queen if he chose
to marry one of these young ladies.

The obsession with Prince
Charles's girlfriends became a frenzy

when a quiet, demure girl named
Diana Spencer came onto the scene in 1980.

I'm old enough to remember
working on a newspaper

and going one evening to a theatre where
Prince Charles had taken a young lady.

Suddenly, this beautiful young girl
came into his life

and it really improved his PR enormously.

Everybody loved Diana
when they first encountered her.

When she went up to Balmoral
that first time,

the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh
were there,

many members of the family were there,
plus friends,

and they all thought
Diana was absolutely magic.

Although she had some royal connections
in her family,

she wasn't the usual type of girlfriend

that I remember Prince Charles
accompanying to places.

That marriage came about in a strange way.

It came about through granny power.

His grandmother,
the Queen Mother and her grandmother,

Lady Fermoy got together and they agreed
that whoever Charles married

would have to be a virgin,

and lady Fermoy assured the Queen Mother
that Diana was a virgin,

so the Queen Mother said,
"Then that's the one."

The problem for Diana Spencer and what
she really fell victim to was a time warp.

We all like the idea of the royal family
being like everybody else,

but if they get too like everybody else,
then what's special about them?

By the 1970s,
when Diana Spencer appeared on the scene,

most people couldn't care less
whether the bride walking up the aisle

was a virgin or not in ordinary life,

but when it came to the royal family,
we still expected this old-fashioned view.

She was a virgin.

This made her a very prime candidate.

Following
their fairy tale romance,

the Prince of Wales
married Lady Diana Spencer

on 29th July, 1981 in St Paul's Cathedral

and Diana became Her Royal Highness,
the Princess of Wales.

Both the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh
were delighted I think

at the prospect of Diana
marrying Prince Charles when it happened.

She was a beautiful, charming, delightful,

innocent young girl and they had
high hopes for the relationship.

I thought the engagement interview
was terribly sad.

When asked whether Diana was in love
with Charles, she immediately said,

"Of course" and he said,
"Whatever love is."

I'm amazed that she's been brave enough
to take me on.

- And I suppose in love.
- Of course.

Whatever in love means.

It must have hurt her enormously
when he said that

because what would our wives have said

if we'd said on the day of our engagement
publicly that whatever love is?

He was sending a message to Camilla.

But poor Camilla's problem
was sort of catch-22.

When she met Prince Charles,
she fell in love,

they went to bed together,

but that sort of automatically
ruled her out as a future Queen.

Prince Charles and Diana,
Princess of Wales had two sons,

Prince William, born on 21st June, 1982

and Prince Harry,
born on 15th September, 1984.

The cracks in the relationship
of Charles and Diana

began to appear in the late 1980s.

She was troubled
because of her childhood.

At the time,
Charles didn't know what the problem was.

She lived in a kind of romantic world.

She read Barbara Cartland romantic novels,

and I suspect that
she simply thought royal life

would be like something
out of a romantic novel

and she had no support system,

no family around her.

That's what went wrong,
it wasn't anything with Diana.

And nobody tells you anything at all.

One of the astonishing successes

that Prince Philip has been
and has made of his life

is that nobody told him either,
but he instinctively knew how to behave.

Other interlopers aren't told

and I think that was ultimately
the great tragedy of Princess Diana.

Charles simply didn't know
what on earth to do.

He didn't know how to help,
he thought that it was his fault.

He gave up the friends
that Diana said she didn't like,

got rid of stuff that she didn't like,

did everything that he possibly could
to make her happy.

He couldn't make her happy,

nothing could make her happy.

She fed herself emotionally
on the adoration of strangers,

and this caused a huge problem
with Charles

because rather than being a support
to him, she outshone him.

He would make speeches,
and the press ignored his speeches,

and they talked about Diana's hairstyle
or her clothes

and could she perhaps be pregnant again?

Charles found that incredibly frustrating.

The Queen was immensely distressed
by what was happening

in the marriage of Charles and Diana
for a number of reasons

but particularly,
to the happiness of the couple

and their ability to be parents
to William and Harry,

whom she loved dearly as a grandmother,

but also who represented
the future of the royal family.

The Queen is very aware of current trends.

She lives in the world
like the rest of us.

She's not remote in some castle somewhere,

and she knew
that if Diana was that unhappy,

that the marriage
really would have no future.

And nobody sees the Queen
without an appointment,

but Diana used to wait
in the page's vestibule

until the Queen's last visitor,
if you like, had left

and then she'd dash in before the next one

and she'd just cry and say,
"Everybody hates me,

I hate my mother, I hate my sister,

I hate my husband."

And the Queen, not used to
this kind of moral confrontation,

just didn't know how to handle Diana.

It would be a great mistake to think
that she blamed Diana for what went wrong.

If anything, I believe
that she and her husband, Prince Philip,

put more of the blame on Prince Charles,

and Prince Charles of course,
as we since discovered,

was already committed emotionally
to another woman.

The Prince of Wales
and Camilla Parker Bowles

seen together in public quite clearly.

Charles and Diana and Camilla
and Fergie and Andrew.

It's endless how the royals go wild
at bedtime and that creates problems.

When he was interviewed
by Jonathan Dimbleby

and asked whether
he had committed adultery,

he again told the truth,

"Yes, but only when the marriage
had irretrievably broken down",

and for some strange reason,

the Great British public
chooses not to believe him,

but to believe Diana's version
that Camilla was always there,

and that there was no chance
of it ever working.

I have come to the conclusion,
that really, it would have been far easier

to have had two wives…

…to have covered both sides of the street.

At that time,
everybody was saying,

"Good luck" and,
"Hope everything goes well"

and, "How lucky you are to be engaged
to such a lovely lady"

and my goodness I was lucky enough
to marry her.

And we had many, many messages.

It's amazing what ladies do
when your back's turned.

It quickly went wrong.

The first inclination that I got
that the marriage had gone wrong

was a palace maid,
her name was Michelle Riles,

went to their room at Balmoral
one morning to clean it up

and every single thing in it
had been smashed.

It was wrecked.

And Charles had slept on the floor
in his dressing room.

I mean, from that moment on,
it was obvious that...

All couples have rows,
but this one never ended.

Well before the actual breakup
of the marriage,

things were beginning to be said.

I can remember a very senior royal advisor
talking to me about it a bit,

and it wasn't until one particular writer
and the Princess got together,

and she decided
that she wanted her story out there,

that the whole thing exploded.

I wrote a book fourteen years ago
called Charles: Victim or Villain?

and it caused a huge fuss.

I set out to discover whether he had
never stopped loving Camilla

and had used Diana and abused her.

The conclusion I came to
was that there were no villains at all,

they were all victims.

It was not Charles's fault
that it hadn't worked.

He was a needy individual,

she was a desperately needy individual
and they were unable to help each other.

I wish to inform the house
that Buckingham Palace are at this moment,

issuing the following statement.

It reads as follows.

"It is announced
from Buckingham Palace that, with regret,

the Prince and Princess of Wales
have decided to separate.

Their Royal Highnesses
have no plans to divorce

and their constitutional positions
are unaffected.

This decision has been reached amicably,

and they will both continue
to participate fully

in the upbringing of their children."

Diana continued to live
at Kensington Palace

and bring up William and Harry,

but her lifestyle and choice of partners
was beginning to destabilise

not only the family,
but also the monarchy.

We knew she was seeing Dodi Fayed,

the son of Mohammed Fayed,
the owner of Harrods.

And I think a lot of people thought
that was a very strange relationship.

She went with the boys to stay
with the Fayeds in the South of France.

Diana was photographed
cavorting with Dodi.

The boys found that quite uncomfortable
because there was a lot of publicity.

They went back to England
and flew up to Scotland

and joined their father and they started
the family holiday.

I was asleep in bed and the phone rang,
and one of my bosses said,

"Nick, there's been a car crash in Paris.

Dodi Fayed is dead
and we think the Princess is dead too."

So I obviously got up, got dressed,

went straight to the studio
in the middle of the night

and then was really on television,
I have to say, for the next week really.

At first, ambulance crews
managed to keep the Princess alive,

but her heart had stopped beating
by the time she was admitted to hospital.

The surgeons fought for two hours
to re-start her heart.

At three o'clock this morning,
London time,

they admitted defeat

and announced that Diana,
Princess of Wales, was dead.

It was Charles's burden and responsibility
to break the news

that their mother had died
to William and Harry,

which I think must have been
enormously difficult.

The week after Diana died was a long week
from a media point of view.

The Queen was up at Balmoral.

She happened to have staying with her
at the time Prince Charles,

Prince William and Prince Harry.

What she was doing was giving strength
to her grandchildren

so that they were able to come down
to London

and go through the huge ordeal of their
mother's extremely public global funeral.

The one thing that Diana will be praised
for forever more

was giving those children real love
and security in their early days.

The people who loved her
were the staff.

She would often take William and Harry
down to the kitchen

to have their tea and they wanted
fish fingers and things like that,

but if they had it upstairs,
she would bring both boys down

to the kitchen afterwards
to say thank you.

Camilla Parker Bowles
had a longstanding relationship

with Prince Charles.

From being at the Centre
of a bitter marital feud

to gradually increasing her association
with Charles after Diana's death.

She had a grandmother who had been
a mistress of a previous Prince of Wales.

When they first met,
she actually said to Prince Charles,

"My grandmother slept with
your grandfather, how about it?"

And what young man is going
to say no to that?

Prince Charles
and Camilla Parker Bowles

were married on 9th April, 2005.

He was always quite tense
with Diana

because there was always another fight
around the corner,

another intense moment, another drama.

But with Camilla, she understands the man,
having been his mistress,

having been the love of his life
for 50 odd years.

Charles has done
a huge amount in his life.

He has never had any kind of message
of congratulations from his parents.

The Queen, I think, frankly feels
that Charles is a bit too grand

for the rest of the family.

The way in which she intervenes talking
to government ministers,

he's espousing
of quite controversial causes,

he's dangerous for the monarchy.

Prince Charles has not
found it easy bridging the divide

between Prince Philip's
stiff upper lip view of manhood

and his own more sensitive outlook.

As he nears his 70s,

Prince Charles still retains his desire
to assert his individuality.

It's also extremely nice to know
that I share a birthday with a biscuit.

Rather nutty.

He does really care about this country
and its people.

For instance, the Gulf War,

Afghanistan that's why they're always
going and visiting troops.

When I was
a royal correspondent

there was never any doubt that
he knew what my job was,

it wasn't always easy dealing
with Prince Charles

but subsequently, I have come to admire
the fact that we have a Prince of Wales

who is not afraid sometimes
to speak his mind.

The Queen can't do that.

Her opinions on anything have to be very,
very careful and very, very neutral.

Over the past century,
we have made it into a rubbish dump.

The effluents we pour heedlessly
into its waters are a threat

to its delicate ecological balance.

Prince Charles remains
a king in waiting,

ready to make his mark
on the British monarchy.

Whether he will still be willing
to speak out on things, I rather doubt.

I think he knows
that the job of being monarch

is to pursue that strictly neutral line.

Due to the length
of Queen Elizabeth's reign,

Prince Charles is unlikely to evoke
the same sense of anticipation

which greeted the young Queen
at the dawn of the second Elizabethan era.

That honour will likely fall
to his son, Prince William.

Prince William is the eldest son
of the Prince of Wales

and the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

On 29th April, 2011,

following his marriage
to Catherine Middleton,

the title the Duke of Cambridge
was conferred on him by the Queen.

Prince William was born at 9:03 p.m.
on 21st June, 1982

at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London.

Prince Charles came out
and he was so excited.

And I remember climbing over the barrier

and going up and shaking his hand
and saying, "Congratulations."

Can you tell us
how the Princess is?

- She's very well, thank you.
- And your son?

He's in excellent form too,
thank goodness.

Looking a bit more human this morning.

Now who wants in which way first?

That side or that side?

After attending
Mrs Mynors' school,

the Duke became a pupil
at Wetherby School in London

from 15th January 1987
until 5th July 1990.

From a very early age,
William began to realise

the challenges that lay ahead of him.

A kid said to William, "Excuse me,
is it true that you know the Queen?"

And William sort of just looked at him
and said,

"Don't you mean Granny?"

I remember one picture I've got,
in fact, he's going around the polo field,

his nanny's grabbed him and she scolded
him and William's face creases into tears.

And I remember what happened afterwards,

he run to his mother and she sat him
on her lap and she soothed him.

William and Harry grew up
in this very tricky household.

They absolutely adored their mother,
their mother absolutely adored them,

and so did their father.

Prince Charles proved to be a loving,
understanding, caring father

of whom the boys are immensely fond.

Prince Charles would have listened
to Princess Diana,

he would have seen that the characters
of his children were different

and would require
different types of attitude

towards the way they should be raised.

And I think that certainly was reflected
in the way that he raised,

as a father, Princes William and Harry.

She wanted the children raised
a certain way and she got that.

She would take them to McDonald's,

she would take them on the streets
to see homeless people

and to try to wake them up to the fact
that they are special as princes,

but they'd got to appreciate
the other side of life.

The one thing that Diana is praised for
forever more

was giving those children real love
and security.

She wanted them to mix
with other children,

she wanted them to have fun, to be freer.

Prince William looks a lot like
his mother in many respects,

but his character is more Windsor
than Spencer.

From September 1990, the Duke
attended Ludgrove School in Berkshire

for five years until 5th July, 1995.

Over time, Prince William began to show

more of his mother's easy
and warm character.

From July 1995,

William attended Eton College to study
geography, biology and history of art.

For the young prince,
it would be a year to forget.

He'd grown used to his family constantly
being in the media spotlight,

but now they were making headlines
for all the wrong reasons.

The royal family has reflected family life
in general because behind palace gates,

they are a normal family
with normal problems and normal emotions.

In fact, they're under more pressure
really than the rest of us

because their moves are all scrutinised,
and if there's problems in a relationship,

the cameras are there to pick it up

and that very much happened of course
with Prince Charles and Diana.

I asked Prince Philip and he said,
"We're a family.

We are a family.
These things happen in families."

And they coped with it as a family would

and their reaction to it was that
of parents of their particular generation.

It looks as though
the Princess has died about four hours

after the terrible accident
that befell her.

Charles went in in the early hours
of the morning and told them the news.

Who knows what went on in that room?

It must have been utterly,
utterly devastating.

The public pressure for the Queen
to make an appearance

was such that she and the boys
came outside the gates of Balmoral…

and looked at all the flowers
and tributes to Diana,

which must have been devastatingly awful
for those boys.

With Prince William,
I just remember how brave he was

in the subsequent days after she died,

because it was his moving gestures
when he went to shake hands with people

thanking them for their kind words,
was so brave.

Thank you so much.

It showed that he had sort of
a natural grace and nobility about him

to rise above his own personal trauma.

Prince William was only
15 years old when Diana, Princess of Wales

was killed in a car crash
in Paris on 31st August, 1997.

Together with Prince Harry,

he walked behind their mother's cortege
at her funeral,

creating one of the most poignant images
of the 20th century.

Whenever I see an image of the princes
behind Princess Diana's coffin

and I think when any of us
see those images,

I imagine everybody feels just incredibly
protective and devastated

at the level of their loss.

There was a time when Prince William

wasn't terribly keen
to walk in the procession

because he thought the whole thing
had turned into

a terribly ghastly median shenanigans.

But the night before,
Prince Philip said to him,

"I think when you're older,
you would regret it

if you didn't walk
in your mother's procession,

and I will walk with you."

And that's an immensely
supportive grandfather,

I think he got it absolutely right.

And there's a moment
if you look at the footage of that

that they're passing under Whitehall
and they think the camera's aren't on them

and Prince Philip sort of leans over
and says, "How's it going?"

That's what you need from a grandfather
on an occasion of that kind, I think.

I was outside Westminster Abbey
and, um, it was quiet,

it was quiet with thousands
of people there,

and you could just hear the clip-clop
of the hooves of the horses

as the coffin went by.

All you could hear was
the sobbing of people.

I mean, not weeping,
but absolutely sobbing.

Never being able to say
the word mummy again in your life

sounds like a small thing.

However for many, including me,
it is now really just a word,

hollow and evoking only memories.

As soon as the funeral was over,
they went to Highgrove with their father.

Nobody watched television,
nobody read any newspapers.

They just did things with dad.

Suddenly, the world could see
that actually they loved their father,

which they always did,

but it was always this feeling
that maybe he wasn't a very good father,

but he always was a good father.

This summer's photocall
with the princes

is the first at the family's country home,
Highgrove,

cameramen getting a rare glimpse
at such close quarters.

Prince Charles and Prince Harry
waited outside the house

to see Prince William drive up
in a car lent to him for lessons.

Even royalty must use L plates.

His appearances for the press,

such as driving a car for the first time
seemed slightly awkward,

as though he still regarded them
with suspicion

for their hounding of his mother.

The photo-call here at Highgrove
is arranged on the basis

that the princes are then left alone
to enjoy the rest of their summer.

Whilst Prince William grew up
in the grandeur of Kensington Palace,

Kate's childhood home
was this Victorian semi

in the village of Bradfield, Southend.

A red rose
for Prince William tonight,

after a day in which he had captured
the hearts of the Scottish people.

The once media-shy prince found himself
thrust into the limelight as never before.

The things you have to do nowadays.

It's really hard.

"The things you have
to do nowadays" he said,

appearing at a new dance Centre
in Edinburgh.

Earlier in Glasgow,

the 19-year-old was greeted
like a pop star

as he arrived in one of the city's
most deprived housing estates.

Having grown up
with his every move being followed,

Prince William was determined
to spend his student years

away from the media spotlight
and without the trappings of royal life.

Royal by birth
but with the common touch,

he charmed these pensioners,

telling them he was looking forward
to university.

Yeah, I think so too.

It's very nice for you to be here.

Yeah, it's very nice.

It's got a very nice community feel
about it, I think.

- Okay.
- Everyone's been very nice.

After a gap year
in which he visited Chile, Belize,

and African countries,

Prince William chose to study at
St Andrews University in Fife, Scotland.

The ancient town of St Andrews
on the east coast of Scotland

seemed the perfect choice.

Small, remote and with
a close-knit student community.

It also laid claim to being Britain's
top matchmaking university.

The small university town
of St Andrews

had never seen anything like it.

Prince William greeted like a local hero
as he arrived with his father.

Even before he had attended a single
lecture of his art history course,

the student prince was a celebrity.

Before coming to St Andrews,

Prince William said he wanted to be
treated like an ordinary student,

but with half the town
turning out to see him,

that seems a distant prospect
for this rising star of the royal family.

It's nice to meet you.

It's very nice to meet you.

-Welcome.
-Thank you very much.

There was an agreement,

a gentleman's agreement between
the Palace and the press,

that they would leave him alone to study

without endless intrusion
from paparazzi photographers.

When we did this agreement,
I never thought it would stick

because I know the British media
and they can't help themselves.

But I suspect that they did have
the memory of Diana in their minds

and of her tragic end,

and of the way she had been
constantly hounded by the paparazzi,

and I don't think the British media
wanted another Diana on its hands.

This historic agreement
between the Palace and the press

meant that William would have a chance
to spend his university years

as just another student,
albeit a very famous one.

In the ensuing years,
he didn't go off the rails.

He grew up, he went through school,
he got good academic results,

and he found a nice attractive girl
at university.

William would spend
his first year

living at St Salvator's
Halls of Residence,

known locally as Sallies,

and it was here that he and Kate Middleton
would finally meet.

For their second year at university,

William and Kate shared a house

in one of St Andrews's
most exclusive streets,

renting a top floor apartment
with two other friends.

It was here that their romance blossomed,

but it would be another 18 months

before the relationship
was revealed in the press

when the couple were photographed together
on a skiing holiday in the Swiss Alps.

This was Prince William
at the weekend,

enjoying the slopes of Klosters
with his father, the Prince of Wales,

in full view of the photographers.

And in return,
the paparazzi and their clicking shutters

were expected to withdraw,

leaving the royals to enjoy
the rest of their holiday in private.

That's why Prince William is said
to be irritated

and Palace officials furious
about today's edition of The Sun.

Ironically, this dispute comes at a time
when Prince William

appeared to be increasingly relaxed
with the press attention,

happy to joke with the photographers,

many of whom are known
on first name terms.

Did you watch
the rugby last night, Will?

I might have done, Arthur, yes.

What did you think?

Disappointed.
But we're still world champions.

Arthur Edwards,
The Sun'sveteran royal photographer

says he believes Prince William
wasn't necessarily an unwilling victim.

Today's edition of The Sun
dedicates its first five pages

to a story about the Prince's
alleged romance with a fellow student.

The girl, said to be the Prince's first
serious girlfriend, is Kate Middleton.

She is a flatmate
of the Prince at St Andrews.

There wasn't to be any more
denying it after that,

because there was a picture
for everyone to see,

this was a couple
and "Wills gets his girl",

I think, was the headline, and he had,

but the truth was,
he had had her for quite a time.

William Wales.

Kate's life was going
to change unbelievably.

She was a sort of normal girl
who went to Marlborough College.

We knew, even then,
she was going to become

one of the most photographed women
in the world.

I didn't go. Charles was there instead.

I remember the telephone conversation.

They had a few splits along the way,

but they have been a very solid couple
for a very long time,

which is in contrast
to what Charles had to put up with

in terms of the relationship with Diana.

Prince William and his
girlfriend Kate Middleton have split up.

ITV News can reveal
it was a mutual decision,

and although they have broken up before,
this time it is final.

At the time, I wasn't very happy about it,
but actually, it made me a stronger person

and you find out things about yourself.

I really valued that time,
although I didn't think it at the time.

It wasn't all bad.

Phew.

Wembley Stadium, 1st July 2007,

on what would have been
Princess Diana's 46th birthday.

William and Harry hosted a special
tribute concert for their mother.

Backstage, the princes rubbed shoulders
with hip-hop royalty

and the recently reformed Take That.

But rumours were growing
of another eagerly anticipated reunion.

There was a lot of speculation

about whether Kate and William
were back together as an item.

And the day before the concert,

I asked William
whether he would be inviting Kate.

Uh, well…

You can clearly comment on this one.

Wow, I haven't said…

Well, I've got lots of friends coming,
so, everyone's going to be there tonight,

and it's going to be a great night.

That's very well avoided, William.

Very diplomatic.

Rather than the lightning
fairy tale romance

of Prince Charles and Diana,

Prince William enjoyed a more conventional
relationship with Catherine Middleton,

before marrying her on 29th April 2011.

There she was in her beautiful dress,
flashing Diana's ring,

and, um, generally enjoying
every minute of it.

Although there were nerves there,

it was a very happy occasion
in their lives,

and it was the happiest
I'd actually ever seen William.

For the first time since 1660,

a major member of the royal family
who's in line to the throne

is marrying a commoner.

Prince William is now very happily married
to a young lady

who seems absolutely suitable
in every way.

I mean this is the royal family.
It's a fairy story all over again.

There's less sense of the weight
of Burke's Peerage.

What matters, I think,
is that she's capable of becoming Queen.

There had been some serious
training at Sandhurst.

This was the Prince in action in Cyprus.

The 44-week course
is notoriously gruelling,

and William obviously wasn't spared
the heavy lifting.

The Duke of Cambridge joined
the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst,

as an officer cadet and was commissioned
as an army officer in front of the Queen

at Sandhurst in December 2006,

joining the Household Cavalry Blues
and Royals as a second lieutenant.

Unlike so many younger generations

who are at odds with their parents
and grandparents,

you have a couple of young men
who are clearly devoted

not just to Charles,
but to their grandmother.

There's no doubt that the Queen
and Prince William

have a very good relationship.

William, we know,
looks up to her enormously.

Um, when he was at Eton, which was
the school right beside Windsor Castle,

he would regularly go and see
his grandmother and have tea with her,

she would introduce him
to aspects of her work.

Prince William went on to train
as a RAF search and rescue pilot

with the Royal Air Force,

graduating as a fully operational pilot
in September 2010.

Oyez, Oyez, Oyez.

On this day, 22nd July, the year 2013,

we welcome with humble duty
a future king,

the firstborn of His Royal Highness,
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge,

the third in line to the throne.

Two years after their wedding,
the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

were delighted to announce
the birth of their first child,

George Alexander Louis, on 22nd July 2013.

Their second child,
Charlotte Elizabeth Diana,

was born on 2nd May 2015.

Both children followed
a new royal tradition

by being born
at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington.

He's a very loving and happy family man

who adores his little boy George
and daughter Charlotte.

There's no doubt that the whole influence
of Kate has been great.

I think he's divine.

He always smiles. He's so happy.

That's why we love him.

There is no doubt that
Prince Harry has the common touch.

Ever since he was born
on 15th September 1984,

Harry has been known
for his English humour

and ability to live on the wild side.

After attending Mrs Mynors' School,

Prince Harry became a pupil
at Wetherby School in London,

and then joined his older brother William
at Ludgrove School in Berkshire.

A guiding hand
from mum at first,

as Prince Harry in formal blazer
and trousers

help inspect a guard of honour.

Then the transformation
into fatigues and at the double

for a taste of life in the Queen's Army.

Prince Harry, I think, is the probably
the most natural and honestly open person

as a member of the royal family
at this moment in time.

When he meets people they warm to him,
not because he's a prince necessarily,

but because of who he is as a person.

It was his first formal
public engagement,

the first chance to learn
there are some princely perks

when your mother is Commander in Chief
of the Light Dragoons.

While he was off having fun,
the Princess was telling the troops

her son is fascinated
with all things military.

Prince Harry joining in,
too young yet to be joining up.

Prince Harry also followed
his brother William to Eton College.

He's a far more serious thinking guy
than people take him for.

He may not be academically
the most accomplished,

but this is a guy
that can fly helicopters,

he's been to the South Pole.

Eton's most famous pupil
returned to the classroom today,

but Prince Harry may find it a little hard
to concentrate on his studies.

His weekend was spent coming of age
in every sense.

An 18th birthday marked by his emergence

as the protector of his mother's legacy
and as a royal figure in his own right.

It was no coincidence that the Prince's
first solo engagement

should be a visit
to Great Ormond Street in London.

Princess Diana was president
of the children's hospital

until her death
just before Harry's 13th birthday.

Five years on, he has pledged to continue
the charitable work she started.

Harry's decision to take an interest
in his mother's work

has been encouraged
by the Prince of Wales,

no doubt relieved that his younger son's
problems with drink and drugs

seem to be behind him.

He certainly can be, if you
like, a playboy prince if he wants to be.

I think he's more serious than that.

He's had his playboy moments.

I had run-ins with his where he's tried
to tip me off over stories.

You sort of have
the three Harrys, really.

The sensitive little boy,
the fighting man, and the idiot.

And I think people love him
for all three of those things.

He is probably the most popular member of
the royal family at this moment in time.

You wouldn't think it
before going on camera

or before making a public speech,
he's very nervous,

but actually, that adds to his naturalness
and adds to the charm.

Harry has this more difficult
job of defining what a spare should do.

And copying his mother

who had a similar identity problem
next door to Prince Charles,

seems to be very shrewd.

I think it's probably
very difficult being the second son,

because you don't really
have a defined role,

you're just the joker in the pack.

Get this on camera.

You forgot your boots.

Oh, my God. That's another classic.

Here, use my ones, the markers.

The attention is very much focused on
the eldest child, as it was with William,

and Diana made a very conscious effort

not to allow that to happen,
but of course it did.

I'm not just doing it for them.
I always do it.

I always clean them.

I played yesterday.
I didn't have a chance.

If someone else would do it for you.

Another backhand,
riding towards the goal.

And now the horse, Prince Harry.

Prince Harry shoots and it's…

After completing his A Levels,
he took a gap year.

It was during this time that Prince Harry

highlighted the plight of orphans
in Lesotho.

Prince Harry went on to co-found
the charity Sentebale

with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho
in memory of their mothers.

Like all royal princes,
Harry decided to pursue a military career

by entering the Royal Military Academy
in Sandhurst during 2005.

Harry was commissioned in April 2006

as a second lieutenant
in the Household Cavalry Blues and Royals.

We're very lucky indeed
to have so many families,

I know, because I meet them.

For instance, you have two or three sons
in the armed forces versus one,

and that's incredible.
As a parent, you worry the whole time.

I think, if you're out here,
perhaps you're getting on with everything,

it's not the same, but for everybody
left behind, it's ghastly.

Despite his father's
reservations for his safety,

Prince Harry saw active service
during two tours of Afghanistan,

finishing his second assignment

as an Apache helicopter co-pilot
and gunner.

It wasn't done in the wrong way,
but it was just…

I was always hoping to get forward, um,

and I got here on Christmas Eve,

um, and going from bullet magnet
to anti-bullet magnet,

most of the guys were pretty bummed
that I was here

'cause nothing was happening
for the first few days that I was here.

But things are picking up again now.

Presumably, you have
and you will kill the enemy?

Yeah, so lots of people have.
We fire when we have to,

um, take a life to save a life.

But, um, the main thing for us
is the tricky escorts,

if guys get injured, we need
to come straight into the overhead,

puts off any possibility
of an insurgent attack

because they look at us and just go,

"Right, that's an unfair fight.
We're not going to go near them."

Harry became important

by being this big character,
being this brave boy.

This is my bed.

I don't really make it when I'm down here,
which is a joy, that's it made.

Oh, ho, there it is!

Harry is a party creature,
he always will be.

Um, so obviously,
he's going to get caught out.

He has walked out of nightclubs
and smashed photographers.

Drunken escapades at parties

have only made Prince Harry
appear more like one of us,

but is he really more clown prince
than crown prince?

Every misdemeanour that Harry
has had has leaked out to the press

because we all want to see
Harry being Harry,

and then of course
there's the notorious strip at Vegas

which was really, really wild.

It was probably a classic example of me
probably being too much army

and not enough prince.

I don't really want to get into details of
what I think or what other people think.

At the end of the day,

I probably let myself down,
let my family down, a lot of people down,

but at the end of the day,
I was in a private area,

and there should be
a certain amount of privacy

that one should expect.

He's in no hurry to get married.
He doesn't have to.

The heat is off him because
William and Kate have had their babies,

and that whole situation is now resolved
in terms of the line of succession.

I'm sure that he would want
to find someone,

but he's equally aware of how difficult
that role will be,

because she'll be under the spotlight
every second of the day.

Chelsy and Cressida
both loved him very much,

and they both probably felt differently
about it,

but neither of them fancied
that kind of life.

The more family and children
that William and Kate have,

the more people are going
to want naughty Harry.

I can't wait to get back
and just sit on a sofa.

It's going to be,
it's going to be ridiculous,

after bouncing around in a turret,
um, my hips are bruised,

and my arse is bruised, um,
because of the turret, obviously.

So I don't see any respite for him,
I really don't.

I think people are going to want
more of Harry

because he's still the bachelor prince.

Prince Harry rose
to the rank of captain

before leaving the armed forces
in June 2015.

In a statement issued
through Kensington Palace,

Prince Harry emphasises
how hard a decision it has been

to move on from the army.

When I've spoken to him,
he was saying quite clearly,

"I'm 30, I've reached my time
when most of my peers

who joined the army have already gone.

It's probably time for me
to try and do other things."

He has often spoken
of the deep bonds forged in the services,

such as with Corporal Ben McBean.

He was badly injured when serving
on the same tour of Afghanistan.

He's done really well with helping out
all the charities as well,

obviously with the guys
that have been injured.

We don't want pity,
but we do want the opportunity to grow

and to overcome our illness.

You've spent a lot of time
with these guys,

I get a sense that you're
at your most relaxed with them,

and that they make you feel
a little humble maybe sometimes?

No, completely.
I love spending time with these guys,

and I like to think that I know roughly
what they're going through as well.

Do you miss the army?

Um, I miss parts of it.

But there's another reason
why I'm going to be involved

with these guys for the rest of my life,

because that military banter never goes,

that dark sense of humour
will always be there.

Prince Harry
may well never be King,

but he is more Spencer than Windsor,

more likely to wear his heart
on his sleeve,

and more likely to be taken
to other people's hearts.

Prince Harry's life may well be
at a crossroads now,

but he is unlikely to ever fade
into the background.

For over 60 years, the Queen has reigned
over Britain and its commonwealth.

Elizabeth II is the matriarch
to the princes of the palace.

As wife, mother, grandmother,
and now great-grandmother,

she has provided a sense of duty
that binds the Windsors together.

The Duke of Edinburgh said to me once,

you know when the Queen first became Queen
and went on tours in the early 1950s,

millions and millions of people came out
into the streets and cheered,

and if the Queen had taken that attention
for herself, it would have been corrosive.

She knew the attention,
the adulation, was not for her,

it was for the position of being Queen.

When she became Queen,

there was still a large percentage
of people who do believe

that she was anointed by God.
There was a very different class system.

The establishment was all-powerful.
Royalty did not give interviews.

There's sometimes
a perception of aloofness, and distance,

which was certainly bridged.

I think I would twist that slightly
and say to you that perhaps that's the way

that other people think we want to be…

rather than necessarily the way
that we would choose to be.

The Queen's lesson
to the royal princes

is that public duty must always come
before personal pleasure.

I don't think she has yet
seen the film called The Queen,

because she's not interested in herself.
She doesn't read about herself.

She is not preoccupied with herself.

She doesn't belong
to the me-me-me generation.

She isn't touchy-feely as a human being.
She is discreet, she does her duty.

There are two big influences.

One was the example of what happened
with her uncle, Edward VIII,

King for such a short time,
never even crowned,

that would have instilled in her the idea

that you do not walk away
from what is your duty.

What her father had done she carried on.

She was even more taken to people's
hearts than her father had been.

The ability to sacrifice
for the nation

is what separates a future king
from a prince.

You've seen what Prince William was doing
in Australia and New Zealand.

I, for one, think that the royal family
is relevant,

I think it's relevant,
probably more so in the 21st century

than we really either want to or realise.

Four generations
of the House of Windsor.

Prince Philip, Prince Charles,

Prince William, Prince Harry,
and Prince George.

He's a character,

and clearly is winning the hearts
and minds of people.

It's difficult to know
what type of king he will be.

Will there even be a monarchy? Who knows?

And I personally think
there probably will be.

As the elder generation
of princes hands over

to the younger generation,

they can be satisfied that
the princes of the palace

have upheld the essence
of what monarchy is,

to unite the people.