The coronation of Charles III it was watched by more than 20 million viewers in the UK according to figures from the BBC, Channel 5, ITV and Sky News. The ceremony on Saturday the 6th was thus below the average audience of 26.5 million that the funeral of Elizabeth II registered last September. But the world echo of it was superior: more than 200 million would have seen it around the planet.
the coronation Isabel II in 1953, it is precisely the event that marked the beginning of television in the United Kingdom. And since then the future of the Windsors, the British royal house, has been tied to the small screen like that of their predecessors to the radio: George VI’s battles to speak publicly won the Oscar with the film “The King’s Speech ” (2011).
With Isabel II, Carlos or Lady DiHarry or William as protagonists, the royal family scores twenty titles between fiction and documentaries, to which are added dozens of biographical books that break down the countless intimate and public scandals of the court, a reality that today is intrinsic to the own crown.
drama
Programs like “The Crown” and the show about the dramatic departure of Prince Harry, have brought the British royal family back into focus in recent years. A cycle that began in 2006 with “The Queen”, the film focused on the resurgence of Elizabeth II ( earned actress Helen Mirren an Academy Award), following the tragic death of Princess Diana in 1997, when the British’s anger at the monarch peaked.
The film came for the tenth anniversary of the death of Lady Diana, and another decade would take Carlos to turn the page on the death of his ex-wife to put yourself in the public eye with the memoirs written by Sally Bedell Smith. 2017’s “Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life” offers an intimate look at the life of the then-Prince of Wales, from his youth to his marriage to Princess Diana and his relationship with the now Queen Consort Camilla Parker Bowles.
A year later (2018) Elizabeth II would do the same with “Queen of the World” (HBO), where a film crew was given “unprecedented” access inside Buckingham Palace to portray the corridors of British power, and see the Queen and her role in preserving the monarchy throughout of the 20th century and well into the 21st.
A job that now falls to Charles III who assumes not without scandals: to the investigations and trials that surround his brother Andrew (splashed by the case of Jeffrey Epstein), are added the revelations of the book “Courtesans” (by Valentine Low), a look behind the curtain of secrecy surrounding the operation of the Windsors, and “The Palace Papers” (from 2022, written by British reporter Tina Brown), and the feuds with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, revealed in “Harry and Megan”, the six-part documentary for Netflix (2022), and the bestseller “Replacement” (2023), in which the Prince recounts the inmates with his father and brother, after marrying Markle.
stars
The royal affair with Hollywood has been a fact since Ranier III of Monaco married Grace Kelly. A story that the world revived with the marriage in 2018 of the prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Although it would quickly turn into countless scandals that would lead to the Sussexes’ break with the crown, to seek new directions in Los Angeles, and a reign in the media with its own producer and Oprah Winfrey as the fairy godmother. The Susana Giménez of American television that Markle now seeks to emulate with her own talk show. Prince Harry’s wife has already launched a Spotify podcast and a Netflix series, but now she is preparing to take a leap in her career.
“She has a sizeable chunk of the viewing public in her corner. Once all the controversy surrounding the enmity of the Sussexes with the rest of the royal family, assuming she ever does, she’ll launch a talk show,” explained royal insider Christopher Andersen. “She wants to pursue an Oprah-like career in media. And Meghan has a knack for to get what he wants,” he added.
Variety magazine reported that Markle and his team would be looking for a property to expand the film and television production business. And funds are not lacking: the couple pocketed $100 million in their agreement with Netflix, and according to The New York they have an agreement with the Harry Walker agency to give conferences, with fees estimated at 1 million dollars. In addition, Harry received a US$20 million advance from Penguin Random House for his memoir, a fortune that guarantees them independence.
eclipsed
Aware of the battles no longer fought between castles but streaming, Prince William produced first”William and Kate: Into the Future”, a documentary that offers a look at the future kings (can be seen on Amazon Prime Video), and now works with the consent of his father Carlos in a new television series that they will film with the ITV production company, and that will follow the prince while he works in homeless shelters. William wants to modernize the relationship between the public and the monarchy, and according to the British tabloid The Sun, he will break with tradition and give access to his private life.
The prince has been a patron of the Centrepoint homeless youth charity since 2005, following the legacy of his mother, who has been a godmother to the NGO since 1992. “This is quite extraordinary, it has never been done before, but William clearly wants to change that.”, The Sun published.
The last time the cameras had such an insight was in the ill-fated 1969 BBC documentary called “royal family”, which had a phenomenal audience but was later buried in the television archive by royal decree: Elizabeth II repented. Something that her son Carlos will not do, knowing that the power of television today is greater than that of the crown.
by RN
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