The BBC Broadcasts Part One Of Its Monarchy Documentary That Proved How Silly And Stupid All That False Hype Was That Cost The Jobs Of the BBC1 Controller And A Senior Production Company Executive

Philip M. Stone November 28, 2007

The BBC showed on Monday the first part of its documentary series about the British monarchy at work and the message that flowed was how utterly stupid that whole hype mess for the series was that brought down the BBC 1 Controller and a senior executive at the production company.

For those interested in the royal family it was a riveting 90 minutes with very high production values. It proved just how unnecessary all that nonsense was in a publicity trailer purportedly showing the queen storming out of a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz because she was angry at being asked to remove her stately robes – “I’m not changing anything. I’ve done enough, dressing like this, thank-you very much!”  and she wasn’t about to remove her tiara because that would mess her hair was about as far as it got. She didn’t stomp out; in fact the trailer video was actually of her walking to the shoot although the voiceover said otherwise.

Leibovitz said on camera she appreciated the queen’s “feistiness”. This American photographer was obviously used to having her subjects do what she commands but in the queen she had found one subject who was not about to obey, and she wasn’t about to argue the point.

Watching all of that showed just how unnecessary all that trailer hype had been. This documentary stands on its own two feet without the need of false hype. It’s very sad that such an unnecessary stupid act led to the falling on swords of Peter Fincham, controller of BBC 1, and Stephen Lambert, creative director of RDF Media, the independent company that made the film. Lambert admitted he incorrectly edited the trailer footage.

The BBC had made clear if he stayed at RDF then the company could expect no further BBC commissions, and ITV, the commercial network, also suspended commissions. That resulted in the company reporting at the end of October that because of the suspensions lasting longer than first envisaged “the group will not make up sufficient ground to fulfill expectations for this year within its UK production division."

As it is, the program did so-so in the overnight ratings averaging a 25% share, but it came second to an ITV soap opera followed by a jungle reality program, “I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here”.

The BBC seemingly did all it could to make one forget the program that was hyped and that this was something brand new. It changed the name from “A Year With The Queen” to “Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work”. And the BBC assigned its own production team to complete the editing.

So, assuming you’re into royalty, it was a thoroughly agreeable 90 minutes. It concentrated on the Queen’s state visit to the US in May and all of the preparations beforehand on the receiving end.  The White House opened itself up to a film team with President and Laura Bush commenting several times through the program at how the preparations were going which really added to the program’s value, White House staff were made available for interviews, and there was even a sneak view of the Oval Office while the President was out. How serious was the White House taking the visit? The interviewer was told not to stand too long in one place because “If it doesn’t move, it gets painted.”

Continuity was a bit of a problem. The program seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time showing the Bush dogs playing in the garden and that they would be bathed that  afternoon in preparation for possibly meeting the Queen that evening, but we never were told if the queen, lover of Corgis, got to meet the Scottish Terriers.

The film showed the preparations, too, at the British Embassy, and in Virginia where the queen began her visit for two days. We learned for instance that the hotel in Wilmington had instructions to install a new toilet seat in the queen’s suite, and it was to use only new bed linen and towels that had to be washed four times and hand-ironed. When this reviewer suggested to the Mrs. that if that was good enough for the Windsors then how about the Stones it was met with a quick and firm, “Be quiet and watch the TV.”

And to its credit it showed the slip-ups. The queen’s British Airways flight from London landed at Richmond Airport in Virginia, and yet for all the planning either the red carpet ended up in the wrong place or the plane did. The film showed the hurried difficult effort to move the heavy carpet – the plane apparently wasn’t going to back up! If that wasn’t bad enough the stairs driven up to the plane weren’t the right height and that kept the royal party aboard for a while. For those who might believe in omens it was a cinch these were bad signs of worse to come, but in fact from that point onwards all went pretty well.

And the queen is savvy when it comes to the media. She was visiting the Kentucky Derby and a photo shoot had been set up for her to stand next to the trophy. But instead she and her hosts entered the room and walked straight through to the veranda to watch the races which did not exactly make the day for the waiting photographers or for the palace press officer. But she scurried onto the veranda to discuss a Plan B with courtiers, and sure enough after the first race the queen came back inside for a few minutes to stand next to the trophy and Fleet Street got its pictures.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable documentary, made even more so because of the showing of what it took on the receiving end to make such a state visit a success. This program, unlike a similar documentary some 40 years ago, was not about the Queen choosing her outfits for every public occasion, but rather what each public occasion meant to those there.

And perhaps the most poignant moment came at the College of William and Mary, chartered February 8, 1693, by King William III and Queen Mary II as the second college in the American colonies, when the class of 2007 told her they were making her an honorary member and presented her with a graduation certificate.  She seemed genuinely chuffed at that.

It’s the type of documentary series that the BBC should have made a fortune on with foreign sales. But it won’t. As part of its penance for the trailer fiasco it has agreed with the palace that all profits will be handed over to charities nominated by the royal household and approved by the BBC.

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