Created at the behest of Queen Elizabeth, eager to humanize the Royal Family at a time of social upheaval, it only aired twice. The Queen concluded that it demystified them too much. For decades, no publicly available recordings existed, except for a few short clips, until the entire film was leaked to YouTube in January 2021. It was eventually taken down but is still available on other websites.
This is the third most watched broadcast in the history of British television, attracting 30.69 million viewers. It was shown on BBC1 on June 21, 1969 and on ITV one week later.
The programme was broadcast again by the BBC, in September 2022, to mark the death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.