Royals lucky to have had Duke of Edinburgh for nearly 100 years

The Prince of Wales says the royal family were “lucky” to have had the Duke of Edinburgh for nearly 100 years in a trailer for a new TV tribute.

Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers will air later this month on BBC One and will include interviews filmed both before and after Philip’s death in April aged 99.

The Duke of Cambridge describes his grandfather as “a huge presence” while the Duke of Sussex says he was “unapologetically him”.

The short trailer shows Charles, William, Harry and the duke’s granddaughter Zara Tindall talking about Philip over a montage of family pictures and video clips.

One video shows Philip riding bicycles with his children as the Queen runs behind them and another shows him drinking from a trophy and laughing.

The trailer begins with William saying: “He’s always been a huge presence behind everything we have done really.”

Harry follows, saying: “What you see is what you got with my grandfather. He was unapologetically him.”

Zara, whose mother is Philip’s only daughter the Princess Royal, says: “You never really prepare yourself for losing him because he was always there.”

The clip ends with a quote from Philip’s eldest son Charles who says: “We were lucky to have him for nearly a hundred years.”

More than a dozen royals including all of the Queen and Philip’s children – the Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex – and their adult grandchildren, the dukes of Cambridge and Sussex, princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, have taken part in the one-hour programme.

The Queen has not been interviewed for the programme but granted special access to her private cine-film collection.

The documentary-makers went inside Buckingham Palace to meet the duke’s long-serving staff and to capture his study, private office and library as they were during his seven decades of public service.

The programme, which will air on Wednesday September 22 at 9pm on BBC One, was originally conceived to mark the duke’s 100th birthday in June, but the nation’s longest-serving consort died two months before his centenary.

The BBC said it will be “an unrivalled portrait of a man with a unique place in royal history – by those who knew him best”.

Neither the Duchess of Sussex, who has accused the royal family of racism, nor the Duchess of Cambridge nor any other spouses of the Queen and Philip’s grandchildren will appear.

The BBC said last month that it was looking at “lessons to be learned” after its coverage of Philip’s death drew a record number of complaints.

Nearly 110,000 people objected to the corporation’s decision to clear its schedules across both channels to run a series of mirrored special programmes, making it the most complained-about piece of programming in its history.

Earlier this year, the BBC also wrote to the royal family to apologise for the circumstances surrounding Diana’s famous Panorama interview in 1995.

Lord Dyson’s inquiry found the BBC covered up “deceitful behaviour” used by journalist Martin Bashir to secure his headline-making world exclusive, and that he faked bank statements.

The trailer’s release comes as lawyers for Virginia Giuffre, who is suing the Duke of York over sexual assault allegations, claimed to have served legal papers on him.

Ms Giuffre claims she was trafficked by Andrew’s former friend and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with the duke, when she was aged 17 and a minor under US law.

Andrew has vehemently denied all the allegations and legal firm Blackfords, who said they represent the duke “in certain UK matters”, has raised questions about how the papers were served.

Published: 11/09/2021 by Radio NewsHub