What is it? “The Royal Collection,” more than seven hours on four discs from BBC
When? Now
How much? $24.99
Royal? As in kings and crowns and thrones and stuff? Yes indeed. This month marks 60 years since Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. With that and the impending birth of another heir to the throne, now’s as good a time as any to dive into full-on Anglophilia. The BBC, naturally, is here to help you with that.
Witness “The Royal Collection” DVD set.
This one doesn’t go all the way back to Edward the Confessor or William the Conqueror or even those rascally Tudors. Instead, it starts with Queen Victoria and works forward, skimming over some of her descendants and focusing on others.
There are four documentaries in the collection:
Queen Victoria’s Children: Victoria was a complicated woman, and while she could rightly be called the “grandmother of Europe,” and put out the image of a perfect, happy family, she was also tyrannical, controlling, bad-tempered and would have made an excellent candidate for intense psychotherapy. Her children, of course, bore the brunt and this three-part documentary explains how.
King George and Queen Mary: The Royals Who Rescued the Monarchy: George V was king at a very dangerous time for England, through World War I, the rise of socialism, revolutions in Europe and the worldwide depression. But tradition-bound George and Mary were able to modernize and be innovative by going directly to the people and creating a bond that carried the monarchy through the rough patches.
The two-hour documentary is split in half, one hour for George and one for Mary, and there is some information overlap, naturally. But it does a good job of showing how these events of almost a century ago are still influencing England.
The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II: A coronation is a huge undertaking and this one-hour program shows how and why. It documents the lead-up to one of the biggest state events of 20th-century England through rehearsal footage, old news conferences and interviews, as well as current interviews and anecdotes from people who were involved in the 1953 ceremony.
It’s more an overview than a detailed, intensive look, but it’s certainly enough to give you a taste and to explain the various parts and significance of the ceremony.
How to Be a Prince: This final entry focuses on the future of the monarchy and the queen’s grandson, Prince William, charting William’s past and possible future, while also looking at the paths chosen by previous heirs to the throne. Some are examples. Some are cautionary tales. This documentary was made in 2003 and some of it’s very obviously out of date, since some of the questions the experts address and speculate about have already been answered. Will William serve in the armed forces? When will he marry and what sort of girl will he choose? You’d have to have lived under a rock in the remote Himalayas to not know the answer to that last one.
The set comes in an attractive, but not terribly sturdy, cardboard box and it includes a lovely replica of a booklet about the queen’s coronation.
Is it worth getting? If you love royals and recent (as in, the past 200 years or so) British royal history, then, yes. These documentaries are entertaining and informative.
They’re not puff pieces. If you’re looking for glowing, worshipful accounts of these people’s lives, you won’t find them here. For the most part, they’re respectful, but honest.
New this week: C.S.I.: NY, Season 9; Inspector Lewis, Season 6; Peter Gunn, Season 2.
Next week: The Dick Van Dyke Show, Season 4 (Blu-ray); The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Complete Series.
Style, Pages 46 on 06/23/2013