Product Description

Monarchy: The Royal Family At Work is a ground-breaking television production filmed in HD and is a must for any follower of the Royal Family.

Monarchy: The Royal Family At Work offers a compelling and unique insight into the work of the Queen and the other members of her family through a year that includes over 4,000 official engagements, ranging from the State Opening of Parliament to a visit with schoolchildren on the outskirts of Brighton. The production also gains exceptional access to other members of the Royal Family, including Princes Charles, William and Harry, uncovering their lives away from the glare of the public eye.

Following the Royal Family’s work abroad, Monarchy: The Royal Family At Work goes behind-the-scenes of the Queen’s Royal Tour of the United States and includes an exclusive interview with President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush who reveal personal anecdotes from the Queen’s visits, past and present.

The 2-DVD Set also includes an additional exclusive 30 minutes of previously unseen footage.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21404 in DVD
• Brand: Koch International
• Released on: 2008-09-02
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 330 minutes

Customer Reviews

A greater understanding...
Let me preface this review with the fact that I have never really understood the level of fascination that some folks have for 'the royal family'. Let me then say that having watched the abridged version of this on ABC earlier in the year (Feb 08 I believe) really took me by surprise, as I found myself totally riveted to the goings on... the pomp of it all... the wondrous ceremony of everything.

The abridged version was entitled "The Royal Family" and ran some 90 minutes with Barbara Walters slipped in as narrator. This DVD version will be released in its full-length original glory as created for the BBC and while I would never have predicted it about myself, I am totally looking forward to seeing it. Original British narration should lend more credence to a program that takes the viewer inside royal life in epic proportion.

If I were king of the forest.....

Great Insight
This is illuminating five part series which was originally broadcasted on ABC as the abridged special "The Royal Family" provides great insight into the work of the Queen and the other members of her family throughout the span of one year. It shows exclusive access to other members of the royal family, including Prince William, Prince Charles and Prince Harry.

If I'm not mistaken in November 2008 this series will be broadcasted nationally on PBS, adding to the already 14.2 million viewers who have watched it on ABC. Unlike any other dvd about the royal family, this one surely uncovers their lives away from the glare of the public eye.

The Queen At Her Best
Since 1969 The Queen has allowed cameras to film her and her family's private lives for documentaries several times. I've watched all of these and found them fairly interesting, but none really gave me the sense that I was really watching the Windsors "behind the scenes". There was always the feeling that they were posing for the camera and on their best behavior, as indeed they have to be most of the time. But in Monarchy: The Royal Family At Work"I really felt for the first time that I was seeing the Royal Family as they truly are: a rather ordinary group of people required by the circumstance of their birth to be placed on a pedestal, but who don't really take themselves all that seriously. I saw this particularly with The Queen herself. Now that she's in her 80s, and after going through what must have been a pretty rotten time of it for the last twenty five years or so, she seems more relaxed and informal than I've ever seen her. She smiles at the camera, makes little asides from time to time, and generally seems to be enjoying herself. I particularly liked the scenes showing a State Visit to Buckingham Palace when an elevator had broken down, and The Queen was shown scurrying around and actually hanging over a bannister to see how her guests were going to get upstairs (eventually she laughed and told us "they're coming up in the staff lift!") I also enjoyed another scene where The Queen reminded us of how regal she can be when the photographer Annie Liebowitz had the temerity to ask her to take off her tiara because it was too dressy. The Queen snorted and said "What do you think this is?" gesturing at her Garter robes.

Another appealing aspect of this series is its focus on the preparations others make for The Queen when she makes an appearance, and how every detail is meticulously taken care of. Other segments deal with the servants who wait on The Queen, allowing us more insight into the running of a palace and how humdrum it can be, no matter how glamourous the settings may be.

Queen Elizabeth II's public life has been exhaustively chronicled almost from the moment of her birth. Now in this series we can get, for possibly the first time, a real sense of her as a private person.