Rare footage of Queen’s engagement to air in new documentary

The documentary will show the Queen wearing her engagement ring months before the engagement was announced

Princess Elizabeth with her new engagement ring in 1946 (PA)

A new documentary sharing unseen footage of the Queen will include a then-Princess Elizabeth wearing her engagement ring months before her engagement to Prince Philip was announced.

The BBC has been granted “unprecedented” access to hundreds of home-made recordings shot by the Queen, her parents and the Duke of Edinburgh to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee.

The home movies had previously been held by the Royal Collection in the vaults of the British Film Institute (BFI).

One of the tapes see the Queen being pushed in a pram by her mother, while another is of the 1953 Coronation.

The 75-minute documentary will air on BBC One on 29 May. It is titled: Elizabeth: The Unseen Queen.

Princess Margaret and Princess Elizabeth with their father King George VI onboard HMS Vanguard in 1947 (PA)

Part of the documentary will show the first extended visit of Philip to Balmoral in 1946 while his and the Queen’s engagement was still not public.

It depicts a beaming Princess Elizabeth showing the camera her engagement ring.

The official engagement announcement occurred almost one year later, on 9 July 1947. It’s said the engagement announcement was delayed until after Princess Elizabeth reached the age of 21, and had returned from a royal tour of South Africa.

Philip and the Queen married in November 1947, a marriage which lasted 73 years before the Duke died at the age of 99 on 9 April 2021.

Other footage shown in the documentary will include the Queen’s father’s last visit to Balmoral in 1951 before he died in 1952, and the Queen as a young mother to Prince Charles and Princess Anne.

The film will be narrated by the Queen’s own voice and newsreel audio, after filmmakers listened to more than 300 of the Queen’s speeches.

20-year-old Princess Elizabeth enjoying a visit to South Africa in 1947 (PA)

Simon Young, the BBC’s commissioning editor for history, said: “We are honoured that the Queen has entrusted the BBC with such unprecedented access to her personal film collection.

“This documentary is an extraordinary glimpse into a deeply personal side of the royal family that is rarely seen, and it’s wonderful to be able to share it with the nation as we mark her Platinum Jubilee.”

Claire Popplewell, creative director for BBC Studios Productions, said: “As programme-makers who have previously worked closely with the Royal Household on ceremonial and celebratory broadcast events and programmes, the production team were under no illusion quite how special having access to this very personal archive was.

“Being able to draw upon the self-recorded history of a young Princess Elizabeth and her wider family - and allowing the Queen to tell us her own story - is the very heart of this film.”

Elizabeth: The Unseen Queen will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on 29 May.

Additional reporting by PA.