HULTON DEUTSCH/GETTY IMAGESRADIO & PODCASTS
Unravelled, Elizabeth
The Coronation of Queen
Elizabeth was a watershed
moment. At the 27-year-old’s
insistence — overriding
objections from her prime
minister, Winston Churchill
— television cameras were
allowed into Westminster
Abbey to record all but the
most sacred moments of the
ceremony on June 2, 1953.
This queen of a media age
has rarely escaped the
spotlight since — but has
somehow contrived to retain
some mystery. Before her
Platinum Jubilee celebrations
a slew of podcasts and radio
documentaries — new and
from the archive — offer real
insight into the Queen
throughout her 70-year reign.
FAMILY AND FRIENDS
The India Hicks Podcast has
the verve of The Crown, but
with added authenticity
thanks to an insider who was
actually there. The format is a
series of looping, occasionally
loopy, conversations between
the aristo podcaster and her
formidable 93-year-old
mother, Lady Pamela Hicks.
A first cousin of Prince
Philip via her father, Lord
Mountbatten, Lady P was
a bridesmaid to Princess
Elizabeth and then a lady-in-
waiting. She describes initial
opposition to Prince Philip
(“Anyone rather than a Greek
prince with no money and
sisters married to Germans”),
is gossipy about the wedding
(missing pearls, a shattered
tiara, the Queen of the
Netherlands complaining
about how filthy everyone’s
war-weary jewels were) and
describes, poignantly, being
with the princess in KenyaRhodes, the queen’s first
cousin. With a polite but
probing Kirsty Young, Rhodes
recalls childhood holidays on
the Balmoral estate, wartime
work for MI6 while lodged at
Buckingham Palace, then
service to the Queen Mother.
The Queen is “a very
pragmatic person... who has
overseen a gentle change in
the monarchy, bringing it a
little bit nearer the people”.
As revealing is a 1981
episode with Princess
Margaret. Never mind the
deferential manner of Roy
Plomley, you’ll recoil at the
clipped tones of his imperious
interviewee, who is so stern
about her martial musical
choices: “Scotland the Brave,
please. I hope recorded by
the pipes and drums of my
regiment, the Royal
Highland Fusiliers.”
Sue Lawley’s 1991 interview
with the Queen’s former
longstanding private secretaryLord Charteris is touching in
his honest affection for his
former boss. “Well, I love her
very much: a buck-you-up
person.” The Sun’s royal
photographer Arthur
Edwards is another goodie.THE BLUEBLOOD
SERVANTS
In 2013 Sue MacGregor
brought together five of the
six young blue-blooded
women who had served as
maids of honour at the
Coronation for The Reunion:
Coronation Maids (BBC
Sounds). “Are you ready,
girls?” the Queen asked as
they entered Westminster
Abbey. Decades later the
women still sound awestruck
by the Queen’s anointment,
the portion of the ceremony
deemed too sacred to be
filmed. Dressed in a simplePATRICIA
NICOL
when her father, George VI,
died. After the Coronation
she was aboard Britannia for
the famous Commonwealth
tour. But what are truly
jaw-dropping are Lady P’s
recollections of being the
daughter of the morally
limber socialites Dicky and
Edwina Mountbatten —
Edwina and her lover once
left her in lodgings near
Budapest for months after
losing the hotel’s address.
The episodes to catch
about the Queen are A
Royal Love Story, The
Commonwealth Tour and
The Royal Wedding.Desert Island Discs Revisited
(BBC Sounds) Royal souvenir
editions of the castaway
show being replayed on
Radio 4 Extra include Princess
Michael of Kent (today), the
Duchess of Kent and Viscount
Linley. Most captivating is a
2012 interview with MargaretYou can discover
much about the
monarch by
listening to the
memories of
those who have
known her best,
from ladies-in-
waiting to her
own sister
In doing that
job you have
to squash
the self out
of you
New wave The Queen on
the balcony of Buckingham
Palace after her Coronation20 29 May 2022