The Royal Collection 4-DVD Set
(Main Feature: 467 min)
Released by BBC Home Entertainment on May 21, 2013. SRP $24.99 (DVD)
Subtitles: English SDH 16:9 Stereo
I think I have more than a passing
interest in the Royal family. No, I don’t have a ton of collector plates around
my house with pictures of Queen Elizabeth II on it nor did I tune into Prince
William’s and Kate Middleton’s wedding but I have to admit I enjoy a good documentary
on the Royal family if I can find one. I have been watching this type of documentary
for a number of years but wasn’t sure what I would get with this new set.
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titles from the links above directly helps my site!
This is an interesting title to
release as I would have thought something like this would have been more
appropriate last year with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee but I have to say that
this is a very welcome title. The Royal
Collection is a collection of BBC documentaries made over the last few
years and it is broken across four discs. The
Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, King
George and Queen Mary: The Royals Who Rescued the Monarchy, Queen Victoria’s Children, and How To Be a Prince. One thing that immediately grabbed my
attention was that the price is very reasonable for 4 DVDs. It reminds me of
those DVD sets you buy in Walmart that has something like 12 discs for $20 but
the difference here is that it is released by a very reputable organization and
the documentaries are made by the BBC which is one of the best documentary
makers in the world plus who would know British royalty better than the BBC?
Here is a breakdown of what you get on the set.
Queen Victoria’s Children 180 min
I will go through this set in chronological order. This documentary is
broken up into 3 parts: Best Laid Plans,
A Domestic Tyrant, Princes Will Be Princes. We start out
with the arranged marriage between Prince Albert and Queen Victoria. Queen
Victoria had a rapturous appetite for intimacy and because of it had 9
children. The documentary tells us how cold Queen Victoria could be to her
children but how hands on Albert was towards them.
One thing I didn’t know was that
not only was Prince Albert very involved with his children’s upbringing but he
was ridiculously strict with them, especially the boys. It makes for an
interesting story about how the children were raised but it still didn’t stop
some of the children from having a scandalous life of their own. Especially as
one of the scandalous children was none other than the heir to the thrown
Edward VII.
King George and Queen Mary: The Royals Who Rescued The Monarchy 116
min
This is a very interesting program.
It is broken up in two parts: King George
V and Queen Mary. It is a great
look at their lives and how they brought up their children. A big part of what
George needed to do was to bring the monarchy back to have moral values than it
did while Edward VII was on the throne but that was just a small part of what
King George needed to accomplish.
What surprised me was that I never
really thought how World War I really decimated the royal landscape in Europe.
Up until then, Royalty in Europe would marry royalty in Europe. Once World War
I broke out that would change. Kaiser Wilhelm II was cousins to both George V
and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. The UK Royal Family was face with a real
problem. King George was afraid that the people of England would turn on him
and his monarchy since there is German in them. The Royal Family changed a lot
about themselves including changing the name of the royal house from House of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the House of Windsor which is more British sounding.
The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II 50 min
This is the shortest of the
documentaries but I think it is the best. It may be worth the entire price of
the set by itself. It talks about the coronation but it is incredibly in-depth.
There are a lot of behind-the-scenes anecdotes from Maids of Honors who were in
the ceremony. There is a lot of background information. It really goes into
detail of how engaged Queen Elizabeth II was in being a part of the coronation
and how uninvolved the Duke of Edinburgh sometime was during the planning of
this event.
It covers a ton of stuff that is
really interesting including the way rows of bleachers were built into
Westminster Abbey to accommodate all of the people who needed to be there. One
of my favorite moments was when one of the Maids of Honors were talking about
how Queen Elizabeth II would watch someone else at rehearsals for the
coronation to play Queen so she could see how she might look and there are
pictures to back that up! This is one I will easily go back to again and again.
How To Be A Prince 116 min
Produced in 2003, this documentary
focuses on Prince William turning 21. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to like
this one because the subject matter isn’t really that interesting to me but I
was wrong. It doesn’t just cover Prince William but also looks back at other
Princes such as Charles. Not only was it interesting but it gave me a lot more
respect for Prince William. He was not just a playboy who travels the world but
has done a lot of good thing and has gone on some great goodwill missions to underprivileged
countries.
Over the course of two episodes it
looks at the upbringing of the Prince and then in the second episode asks the question
about how will the prince help the monarchy of the future. I was surprised to
see a young Piers Morgan, now at CNN, interviewed. It seems like most people interviewed
agreed that if William has to wait until 50 to become king, there will be no
monarchy.
Packaging:
I think the packaging for this is
really quite good. Each documentary is in its own amary case and all housed in
a sleek red box that is tastefully designed. Each of these DVD is available
separately but when this collection is bought, it also includes a replica of a
booklet for Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation, featuring original photography
from the ceremony. It is a really nice and sturdy book that is 32 pages and is
a reproduction of the photographs and print. I think it’s a wonderful extra for
this set.
I am really happy with this 4-disc
set. It has amazing documentaries that I plan to watch more than once and the
nice replica book of the coronation. The price is right and it is all produced
by the BBC which is really good enough for me. If you have an interest in the
Royal Family, the price is right, why not check it out?
Next review: Up on deck for reviews: Blu ray release of Series 1-5
of George Gently released by Acorn
Media plus some Doctor Who Blu Rays:
The Snowmen and Series 7 Part 2.
Have a great week!
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