Queen reveals passion for home movies
4th April 2006
She's featured in countless portraits, photographs and amateur footage during her 80 years in the limelight, but the Queen apparently also likes to turn the tables - and get behind a movie camera.
Not content with being one of the most filmed women on the planet, the Queen, who celebrates her 80th birthday on April 21, also seems to have enjoyed a lifelong passion for taking footage herself.
In a revealing insight into her pastimes, which famously include horseriding and walking her beloved corgis, journalist Andrew Marr discovered she also made her own home movies.
Writing in the Radio Times, Mr Marr said a BBC documentary recorded the life of the monarch for 12 months, and uncovered a private side of the nation's figurehead: "There are wonderful home movies, taken by the Queen and for her, which have not been seen publicly before.
"What is moving is that they look so much like other people's home movies - it's just that the worried-looking toddler might be Prince Charles, and the exhausted young woman on the sofa has just yanked off a crown."
He said the footage reveals the young Princess, just after her marriage: "We see her in Malta when, just married, she and Price Philip had about the only almost-ordinary time of their lives, mostly away from the media.
"She's given a movie camera and begins what seems to have been a lifelong habit of making films.
"We see her as a small girl with her father and, in the war, learning to strip engines and drive an ambulance."
The Queen's love of getting behind the lens of a movie camera is mirrored by her keen interest in photography.
Prince Philip is also said to be an avid snapper, while Queen Victoria and her children took a pioneering interest in the new medium in the 19th century.
The Royal Photographic Collection contains some 350,000 images collected or taken by members of the Royal Family since the invention of photography.
Intimate and relaxed photographs charting the life of the Queen and her family are now on public display at Windsor Castle to celebrate her 80th birthday.
dailymail.co.uk
4th April 2006
She's featured in countless portraits, photographs and amateur footage during her 80 years in the limelight, but the Queen apparently also likes to turn the tables - and get behind a movie camera.
Not content with being one of the most filmed women on the planet, the Queen, who celebrates her 80th birthday on April 21, also seems to have enjoyed a lifelong passion for taking footage herself.
In a revealing insight into her pastimes, which famously include horseriding and walking her beloved corgis, journalist Andrew Marr discovered she also made her own home movies.
Writing in the Radio Times, Mr Marr said a BBC documentary recorded the life of the monarch for 12 months, and uncovered a private side of the nation's figurehead: "There are wonderful home movies, taken by the Queen and for her, which have not been seen publicly before.
"What is moving is that they look so much like other people's home movies - it's just that the worried-looking toddler might be Prince Charles, and the exhausted young woman on the sofa has just yanked off a crown."
He said the footage reveals the young Princess, just after her marriage: "We see her in Malta when, just married, she and Price Philip had about the only almost-ordinary time of their lives, mostly away from the media.
"She's given a movie camera and begins what seems to have been a lifelong habit of making films.
"We see her as a small girl with her father and, in the war, learning to strip engines and drive an ambulance."
The Queen's love of getting behind the lens of a movie camera is mirrored by her keen interest in photography.
Prince Philip is also said to be an avid snapper, while Queen Victoria and her children took a pioneering interest in the new medium in the 19th century.
The Royal Photographic Collection contains some 350,000 images collected or taken by members of the Royal Family since the invention of photography.
Intimate and relaxed photographs charting the life of the Queen and her family are now on public display at Windsor Castle to celebrate her 80th birthday.
dailymail.co.uk
