ITV Documentaries

Our Queen at War (2020x11)

Air date: Apr 22, 2020

"War made her, it made her closer to people and it made us closer to her because she’s one of us." - Ron Batchelor, Wartime evacuee This new documentary explores how the Queen - yet to be crowned Britain's monarch - was shaped by the events of the Second World War. Drawing on interviews with a childhood friend, people who shared her experiences, and royal experts, this programme looks at how what she called, 'The terrible and glorious years of World War Two,' transformed a teenage princess into the country's longest-reigning monarch. Marking 75 years since the end of the war, the programme chronicles how from meeting the man she would later marry at the age of just 13, to the demands of making a radio broadcast to the Empire, to experiencing the terror of a V-1 bomb, Princess Elizabeth had to grow up fast. Unlike many of her peers who were evacuated abroad, Elizabeth remained in Britain. She was prepared for the throne by studying the British constitution at Eton College, while putting on fund-raising pantomimes at Windsor Castle and worrying about the safety of her parents who remained at Buckingham Palace. By the time she was 16, Princess Elizabeth was inspecting the troops and launching ships while living in a secret location and keeping up with developments in the war by watching weekly newsreels. At the age of 18 the Princess joined the women’s arm of the British Army, the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), and became the first female member of the royal family to serve in the armed forces. Royal biographer Jane Dismore says: "The war gave Princess Elizabeth a humanity that she might have taken longer to discover she shared a lot in common with ordinary people in that she saw their suffering, she knew about it. She knew that people looked to her as that new generation, that new generation of hope. " When the end of the War came, on VE day in May 1945, she mingled with the crowds outside Buckingham Palace incognito in her ATS uniform