Unseen home movies will show Her Majesty's story through her own eyes'

THE Queen will mark her Platinum Jubilee by telling the story of her early life in a documentary using previously unseen family home movies and speeches from her reign.

- Richard Palmer

She has given the BBC access to more than 400 reels of behind-the-scenes film that will be used in a 75-minute programme about her life up until her Coronation at the age of 27 in 1953.

The 96-year-old monarch, who acceded to the throne at 25 in February 1952, has not given an interview to the documentary but the makers have used her speeches from across her 70-year reign to accompany the footage.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said Elizabeth: The Unseen Queen, which is due to air on BBC One on May 29, would tell “the story of her own life as a Princess through her own eyes and in her own words in speeches from across her reign”.