THE Queen’s home movies showing her as a young mother were screened for her today as it was announced that the films and others are to be digitised for posterity.
Moving images of the Prince of Wales as a baby being played with by his grandparents, George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and footage of him as a small boy learning to ride were featured during the Queen’s visit to the British Film Institute (BFI) Southbank in central London.
In the colour film shot in 1949 by Charles’s proud father, the Duke of Edinburgh, the royal baby is held by Queen Elizabeth and in another scene the King gently flicks his right ear to get his attention.
The Queen, then Princess Elizabeth, is also seen in the footage before a clip from 1952 was played showing young Charles learning to ride on a white pony with the Princess Royal as a toddler walking into shot.
BFI chairman Greg Dyke hosted the Queen’s visit and, speaking about the royal home movies, said: “It was moving, it was no different from looking at pictures of your own kids.
“We’ve got the whole collection – we look after it for the Royal Family - some of which has never been seen, they are very personal films.
“A lot of it was shot by the Duke of Edinburgh with a movie camera in the early ’50s and in the next year or so we will be digitising it.
“I think she was very interested to see this film of her children, of her life as a young mother. I think she seemed to enjoy it.”
Earlier in the day The Queen formally opened the Jubilee Gardens, which were created to mark her 60-year reign on the site of the former Festival of Britain.
The open space on London’s Southbank, in the shadow of the London Eye, has undergone a £5 million transformation with flowerbeds planted, new grass laid and granite paths completed.
The re-landscaping of Jubilee Gardens transforms what was once a flat and featureless patch of grass into a lush, green space featuring geraniums and lilies among other plants and flowers.
