This June marks Her Majesty The Queen becoming the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, which recognises 70 years of service.
In commemoration of The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, BBC has lined up a slate of fascinating shows leading up to the historic occasion. The latter culminated yesterday, June 2, in a four-day holiday of activities and public events in the UK.
In Elizabeth: The Unseen Queen, never before seen home movies filmed by the Royal Family unveil the real story of the monarch’s life as a Princess. Unlike other documentaries, the 75-minute special features The Queen’s own voice and words as it takes viewers behind the scenes of her upbringing and other rare moments throughout her life.
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Since the 1920s, the Royal Family have always filmed each other, but for decades hundreds of these reels of home-made recordings have been held privately by the Royal Collection in the vaults of the British Film Institute (BFI).
The Queen has now granted the BBC unprecedented access to the footage, offering an insight to Her Majesty’s life as never before through home movies shot by her, her parents, Prince Philip, and others. Elizabeth: The Unseen Queen premieres Sunday, 5 June at 9pm on BBC Lifestyle, available on Astro channel 717 and BBC Player.
BBC World News, BBC World Service and BBC.com will also be broadcasting extensive coverage of The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations for its global audiences. Join the Platinum Jubilee celebrations with BBC World News from June 2-5, available on Astro channel 512.
Here’s the list of specials celebrating The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee on BBC:
Platinum Party at the Palace
Platform: BBC Lifestyle Asia & BBC Player
Air date: Sunday 5th June, 6pm
An eclectic evening of entertainment to celebrate The Queen’s 70-year reign will feature global stars Alicia Keys, Duran Duran, Sam Ryder, Sir Rod Steward, Hans Zimmer, Celeste, Sir Elton John and more.
Platinum Jubilee: A Service of Thanksgiving
Platform: BBC World News
Air date: Friday 3rd June, 5:00-7:30pm
A service of Thanksgiving will be held at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. BBC will be broadcasting outside of Saint Paul’s in the morning, moving back to Buckingham Palace in the afternoon.
The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee: BBC News Special
Platform: BBC World News
Air date: Saturday 4th June, 12:00-1:00am
An hour long special presented by Katty Kay, looking back at all of the day’s highlights.
The Big Jubilee Lunch
Platform: BBC World News
Air date: Sunday 5th June
The focus of the final day of celebrations is on The Big Jubilee Lunch. Over 10 million people in the UK are expected to join the celebrations, with events including world record attempts for the longest street party. The occasion will be marked internationally too, with over 600 lunches planned throughout the Commonwealth and beyond – from South Africa to Canada. As part of the events, BBC World News will be coming to you live from street parties around the UK.
The Platinum Pageant
Platform: BBC World News
Air date: Sunday 5th June
BBC World News will be broadcasting from the street as The Platinum Pageant brings together artistic performers, dancers, musicians, military personnel, key workers and volunteers who will unite to tell the story of The Queen’s 70 year reign in an awe-inspiring festival of creativity.
Insights On The Queen’s Jubilee On BBC.COM
There will be an extensive variety of Jubilee pieces in a special section on the news front page of BBC.com over four days from 1-4 June, along with a range of in-depth analysis pieces from the BBC’s world-class correspondents.
These will include a visual journey through the Queen’s time on the throne, a deep appraisal of her reign and an appreciation of her loyal companions, the corgis. There will also be a number of featured pieces on BBC Culture including:
Why the Queen is the last royal icon
A written feature about how Her Majesty The Queen is represented in art, and why she is probably the last royal who will ever be able to be so well-recognised yet so inscrutable.
The imaginary lives of the Queen
A feature exploring the idea of how fiction (plus some film and TV) depicts various interpretations of the Queen, since her actual self is largely hidden and unknown. The piece will look at how these depictions reflect our own feelings about the monarch and the monarchy.
The Queen’s iconic style moments
A piece structured around eight outfits from the past eight decades with one photo per decade which is particularly iconic, from the 1950s onwards. The piece will look at the outfit and analyse what it signifies, what the Queen is aiming to achieve with it, what it says about her, and what it says about royalty and society in that moment of time.
(Images: BBC)
This story first appeared on Augustman Singapore
