It's hard to believe that much can embarrass Queen Elizabeth. After all, the ups and downs of her life and the lives of her loved ones being incredibly public has been essentially all she's ever known.
Still, there are a few choice moments Her Majesty would rather not relive, especially publicly. One of those is the 1969 BBC docu-film Royal Family. The creation of it was famously poked fun at by The Crown. It was Prince Philip's idea to give a behind-the-scenes look at the royal family's everyday life. Television viewing was common by then, and he felt it would endear the family to the public.
The documentary missed the mark, to put it politely. The family looked out of touch at a time when much of the UK was struggling economically. The Queen allegedly found it cringey, and after its one airing, it was never seen again. That is, until now, according to CNN, which shared news of the video's online leak on Thursday.
The royal family has lived a lot of moments publicly they probably would have preferred not to. None was more embarrassing to Queen Elizabeth personally than the 1969 BBC Royal Family documentary. She found the fly-on-the-wall documentary about the family's day-to-day lives super cringeworthy.
The public pretty much agreed. The documentary aired only once, but it was slammed. The royals seemed out of touch with the world around them. Aside from that, the documentary came out during a time of economic struggle. People didn't respond well to their lavish lifestyle.
Indeed, the documentary does capture some pretty awkward moments. Queen Elizabeth is overheard likening the US ambassador to a gorilla because he was short with long arms.
In another scene, the Queen buys a young Prince Edward a candy, then is every mom on earth and complains about it. "This disgusting gooey mess is going to be in the car, isn't it?" she sighs, according to the PA Media news agency.
Prince Philip, who hoped the documentary would reveal the royals were normal, didn't come across in the best light, either. He's seen demanding to fly between two appointments, despite it being just a three-hour drive.
In another scene, he sees a pin on a Buckingham Palace visitor's tie and asks, "What's on your tie? Alcoholics Anonymous?"
Princess Anne wasn't thrilled with the documentary either, according to PA.
"I never liked the idea of the royal family film. I always thought it was a rotten idea," she remarked.
"The attention that had been brought on one ever since one was a child, you just didn't want anymore. The last thing you needed was greater access."
The filming of the documentary was made fun of in season three of The Crown. Olivia Colman's Queen Elizabeth captures Her Majesty's distaste during the process perfectly. You can tell every member of the royal family is against the idea, but they ultimately bend to Philip's will.
More than 30 million people saw the documentary when it first aired. It's lived in the BBC archives since the 1970s, but that changed on Thursday when the documentary appeared on YouTube. Tens of thousands of people took up the chance to watch the unearthed footage.
As quickly as the documentary appeared, it disappeared. Both the BBC and Buckingham Palace reportedly made moves to have it taken down. The BBC submitted a copyright claim to YouTube to have it removed.
