THE QUEEN'S NOT AMUSED Infamous royal doco leaked

THE BANNED FILM IS CAUSING CONTROVERSY ONCE AGAIN

- Judy Kean

It was a case of now you see it, now you don’t. For 48 whole hours, a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the royal family was available to view on YouTube, despite having been banned almost 50 years ago by the Queen.

It hasn’t been revealed who leaked it or how they obtained the 1969 programme, called Royal Family. But what is known is that a few thousand people managed to watch it before royal aides cottoned on and swiftly had it pulled.

A Buckingham Palace source is quoted as saying, “It should not be on YouTube and if it does appear, we would expect it to be taken down.”

The BBC declined to comment about how the film, which has been locked away in the archives since 1972, saw the light of day.

But why the fuss? What’s so controversial about the 110-minute documentary that the Queen refuses to let anyone watch it, and that heads are likely to roll if it’s found out who posted it?

According to palace insiders, Her Majesty didn’t want the film made public again because it revealed too much about her and her family, removing some of the mystique surrounding royalty. And when it copped flak from one of Britain’s most respected TV legends, Sir David Attenborough, that sealed the deal – it could not be seen again.

That’s a shame, say those who’ve seen the documentary, because it was an eye-opening and insightful glimpse into the real people behind royalty, and humanises a family who had been seen as stuffy and out-of-touch.