‘Mischievous’ Queen documentary to air for Jubilee celebrations

A “mischievous, witty and affectionate” documentary about the life and times of the Queen is to air to coincide with the monarch’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

Elizabeth: A Portrait In Parts uses archive footage to show a side to the Queen that the public rarely gets to see and explores her glamorous role as the “uber-princess”.

It will be screened in cinemas and on Amazon Prime Video from June 3 to coincide with the national Platinum Jubilee festivities.

It also shows a jubilant Queen shouting and cheering on horses at the races, a young Princess Elizabeth in her 20s playing tag with midshipmen onboard HMS Vanguard, and the monarch steadying her horse after blank shots were fired at her during Trooping the Colour in 1981.

Producer Kevin Loader said: “She was so glamorous. She was a babe as Sir Paul says … there are sequences in the film comparing the fact that they used Elizabeth’s look back then for Audrey Hepburn.

“There was a sense that she was the uber-princess – the princess and then the queen that was the inspiration for all those archetypes.”

The documentary was directed by the late Roger Michell, best known for the hit movie Notting Hill.

He died in September just as the film was being completed.

Mr Loader told BBC Breakfast: “He (Roger Michell) had a very clear vision and he’d always wanted to make a documentary about the Queen that would be mischievous and witty and affectionate and warm and surprising, and for everybody, all ages to watch.”

He added: “I hope there’s some wit and mischief in it, but it’s all done in the spirit of huge admiration and affection for Her Majesty.”

The film draws from more than 500 different archive sources including the 1992 Elizabeth R documentary and the Queen at 90 programmes.

The Queen, 95, is set to reach 70 years on the throne on her Accession Day this Sunday, when she will become the first British monarch ever to mark a Platinum Jubilee.