| The Images Which Left The Royals Spitting Mad |
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| Written by Joanne Leyland | |
| Wednesday, 29 March 2006 | |
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Page 1 of 5 Visitors to London are often attracted to the city by the chance to see the rich and famous, from celebrities to politicians or even, if they're lucky, members of the Royal Family.For the next few months, however, a very different view of the Windsors and members of the political and social establishment is on show at the Museum of London in an extensive and colourful new exhibition, Satirical London: 300 Years of Irreverent Images. The exhibition aims to show how our propensity for poking fun at the rich and famous is nothing new, having truly taken hold in the latter years of the reign of King George III when media and public alike mocked the lazy, slovenly and womanising Prince of Wales, 'Prinny' (the future King George IV).  The Queen Mother famously believed that the monarchy should never allow (to paraphrase Bagehot) daylight in upon the magic, vehemently opposing as she did the 1969 fly-on-the-wall documentary Royal Family.The brainchild of the often egoistical Lord Louis Mountbatten, the BBC film saw the Queen and her family shown as never before, a camera crew having been allowed to film the Windsors in close proximity for a full year. The result? Shock, horror: the Queen, her husband and her children were, well.....normal! Although a PR success at the time, this very innocent documentary has long been pinpointed as the catalyst to the spiral into decline suffered by the monarchy, the complaint being, quite simply, that we the public know too much about life behind Palace doors. (By the way, if like me you've long held out the hope that you will one day see the 1969 documentary, give up now: the Queen herself, who retains copyright, long ago deigned that it will never again be broadcast). 
The harsh reality is that it was during this period that the Royal Family came under vicious attack like never before. |
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