On Tour with The Queen

Kwame Kwei-Armah visits Bermuda, Jamaica and Tonga as he begins to retrace Queen Elizabeth's 1953 Commonwealth Tour. In Tonga he meets King George Tupou V, who was five at the time of the Queen's visit and remembers it well. As a self-proclaimed 'Child of Empire', whose parents came to the UK from the West Indies, Kwame examines not just the enduring significance of the tour for those in the Colonies, but the critical importance it played in shaping the multi-cultural country we live in today.

Kwame Kwei-Armah visits Australia and New Zealand as he retraces the Queen's 1953 Commonwealth Tour. Australia was the biggest stage of all: the largest, richest, most demanding nation of the Queen's tour. By the end of her gruelling two-month transcontinental charm offensive, she'd have been seen by an estimated 75% of the population. Australia today is known for its growing republican sentiment, but Australians have yet to make the break: did the Queen have a longer-lasting effect back then than we realise? In New Zealand, Kwame discovers how Elizabeth negotiated a critical path between the Maori people and the Government, re-shaping the nation's destiny, and how she also began to discover her own diplomatic strength.

Kwame Kwei-Armah visits Fiji, Sri Lanka and Uganda as he continues to retrace the Queen's 1953 Commonwealth Tour. Fiji has now dispensed with the Queen as head of state and, after numerous military coups, was suspended from the Commonwealth in 2006. Kwame meets General Rabuka, the military coup leader who became the first man to oust a British monarch since Oliver Cromwell. Sri Lanka was granted independence six years before the Queen's tour, but kept her as Head of State. It was a link Britain was keen to maintain, but her visit was contentious. Kwame discovers that many arrests were made before the Queen's arrival to prevent protests. In 1953 a demand for independence was sweeping through East Africa. Of the 21 African countries under British rule at the time, Uganda was the only one included on the Queen's tour. Kwame discovers how anger about British rule in Uganda resulted in the cancellation of the Queen's visit to the capital, Kampala.

Kwame Kwei-Armah visits Libya, Malta and Gibraltar before returning to London as he retraces the final leg of the Queen's 1953 Commonwealth Tour. The Queen visited Libya to honour the war dead buried in Tobruk and meet briefly with King Idris, who had been hand picked to serve British interests following Libya's independence in 1951. But Britain's efforts to maintain its influence over Libya would later come to an abrupt end with the emergence of a young Colonel Gaddafi. As the Queen left Libya, she was reunited with young Prince Charles and Princess Anne after six months of separation. Together they sailed to Malta to honour the sacrifices it had made during the war. But the Maltese soon began pushing hard for independence and, later, turned its back totally on the Queen by becoming a republic. Spain saw the Queen's visit to Gibraltar as a deliberate provocation and the trip sparked anti-British riots in Spain and the closure of their border with Gibraltar for 16 years. It's an issue that remains sensitive today. Finally, Kwame returns to London to attend the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Commonwealth at Westminster Abbey, where he gets to speak in front of - and meet - the Queen.