margaret s extravagant behavior, the queen faces a serious problem. in the 1960s, the royal family are funded through a public payment, essentially tax pair money that is reallocated to the royals. and they start wondering, are we getting value from money to the royal familiar. the royal family is having some image problems. by 1968, the queen understands she needs to transform public perception of the monarchy. she approves the filming of a documentary about her family. elizabeth, phillip, charles, and andrew and edward will be the subject of a television special following them over the course of a year. the idea of a fly on the wall documentary is seen as a good way for the royal family to demonstrate they are an ordinary
cut at the root of the people s loyalty to the crown. so once that image of perfect family life becomes tarnished, can we justify all that taxpayers money? margaret s fate lies in her sister s hands. the queen decided to say i m not saying no, that you can t marry him, but i d like you to wait. on the advice of her courtiers the queen agrees to banish the man her sister loves. the british embassy in brussels recently attracted a number of cameras, which focused on the arrival of group captain peter townsend. having driven his own car to take up his new appointment as air attache. peter townsend is exiled to belgium for two years. it s a case of getting rid of townsend, getting him out of the way. my father was asked to leave
it means that the queen is very conflicted. the royal court reacts very badly to the news of a romance between margaret and townsend. but a lot of ordinary people very much sympathized with margaret and townsend. and i do think that the senior courtiers were really rather out of step with the mood of the nation. so when the press does stop talking about it, there s a great divide between those who think divorce is unacceptable and those who feel let love prevail. margaret s profile in the 1950s is of a beautiful, iconic princess. she was a real star, really almost like the hollywood stars. she s very beautiful. she photographs marvelously. she s always in the papers. and there is constant speculation who is the
and her advisers as well as the british government are still opposed to margaret marrying peter townsend. the prime minister said if you marry townsend you ve got to abandon your royal status. people of the city were thrilled and delighted. margaret will become mrs. peter townsend, for someone who s been brought up like she s been brought up this is not an alluring prospect. for three weeks they re harried by the press. they go from place to place agonizingly trying to make up their minds. frantic sensationalism, and the whole thing turned into a circus. wherever princess margaret went, people in the crowd shouted go on maggie, marry him anyway. at this stage it was still asked will they become engaged? royal duty and consideration
princess s favorite suitor. peter townsend was a war hero, very good-looking. he was known as this dashing air force pilot. his reputation was a wonderful one. margaret desperately wants to marry townsend. but the problem is that she is 22 and any member of the royal family under the age of 25 needs to have the consent of the ruling monarch. the decision is not in margaret s hands. it s in the hands of her sister, the queen. the queen is in a terrible bind really over this because she loves her sister. she would like her to be happy. but the queen s instincts were not to do anything that would undermine the monarchy. the royal family traditionally was supposed to be an image of ourselves behaving well. and if the royal family started to behave badly, then it could