Secrets Of The Royal Palaces - Ep4 - Sandringham -British Royal Documentary

Britain's royal palaces

Majestic. It's absolutely dripping in history. Luxurious. The white drawing room at Buckingham Palace is like a scene from a Disney film

And packed to the rathners with incredible secrets. Secrets that the royal family would much prefer not to be made public

From royal courtship to royal births to royal marriages and scandals, the palaces have played host to all of that

This series goes behind palace walls. The royal palaces represent the monarchy and have incredible history

We'll learn how these iconic creations were built. 16th century kings built with brick in a way that we wouldn't recognize today

This is George IV leaving his mark on the center of London

Uncover the spectacular palace art housed within. The royal collection is vast, and I mean vast

It has more than a million objects spread across all of the royal palaces. Just imagine what has been collected over centuries

So this collection is unlike any other collection in the world. Discover their gruesome stories

It's an amazing insight into the royal's history, but also our common history

Frankly, we're going to cut the head off a king. It's got to be done in a palace. And relive the recent events that shaped the modern royal family

The whole case was an absolute fiasco and a huge embarrassment. The Queen was particularly aggrieved that Harry had done it in the way that he had

This is The Secrets of the Royal Palaces. This time, a palace security breach puts the Queen in peril

To wake up to find a complete stranger standing over your bedside must be terrifying

We reveal Sandringham's scandalous past as a playboy prince creates the ultimate party palace

He was a gambler, he was a bit of a drinker, and he was constantly at it

and the world's most iconic palace suffers a plumbing problem. She had this handkerchief in perfume

to put to her nose so she wouldn't smell it. We reveal the secrets of Leonardo da Vinci's drawings

hidden within the royal collection. Can you imagine the changes in the course of modern science

that might have come about? Have we discovered them earlier? And we glimpse inside Windsor's coronavirus bubble

Like everybody, the Queen has had to make sacrifices during lockdown. like the monarchs who have gone before her the queen has a range of spectacular palaces to enjoy

but she doesn't visit them on a whim the royal year runs like clockwork the queen's calendar

doesn't change every summer is at valmoral and every easter is always spent at windsor and for

christmas there can only be one location sandringham in norfolk we think of sandringham

as all the royals getting together for their Christmas Day service and getting those iconic shots

In the 12th century, monarchs had spent the festive season at Windsor Castle

But things all changed when the royals put down roots at this much-loved family home

Set in 20,000 acres of Norfolk countryside, this mini-kingdom has been the private home

of four generations of British monarchs. Sandringham's not an obvious regal property

It's often criticised for just being a country house and not a necessarily very distinguished one either

But the point of it is that it is comfortable. I think Sandringham occupies a unique position

among the royal residences and each succeeding generation of royals has loved it

Sandringham is about the private person. It's about the family life behind the image of the throne

Prince Philip has retired there. So in many ways a kind of wholesome royal family house

but indeed its history was rather different. In 1862, Queen Victoria acquired the Sandring Estate

for her somewhat wayward son and heir, Edward. Edward was notorious. As much as his parents were sort of chintzy and conservative

and domestic and dull, Edward was revolting libidinous. He was a gambler, he was a bit of a drinker

And he was constantly at it. He had a voracious appetite for women

Marlborough House, Edward's London home, was notorious. Sandringham would be a sobering retreat

where he could grow into the role of king. Get him back on track, stick him in an off-path, off-beater state

and see if we can't improve his behaviour somewhat. Edward threw himself into the project

demolishing the original Georgian house to make way for a new retro house

Sandringham was a style which some people call Jacobeytham. It's a generic 16th into 17th century revival

It talks about an age of historical confidence. It's youthful, it's a bit extravagant, but by no means too extravagant

The new Sandringham looked sensible on the outside, but inside it was a palatial party house

You wonder what the architect's brief was for Sandringham. If you have a checklist for the racy young monarch-to-be of the 1860s and 70s

you might want a bowling alley or billiard tables. But you've got to have the space to entertain people

and to get engaged in country pursuits. And if you are a Prince of Wales, you've got to do it in style

Edward also made the most of Sandringham's vast estate, turning it into a shooting paradise

complete with Europe's largest game larder. It was less in many respects about the house and more about the grounds

this kind of playboy park, for want of a better expression, which is where a lot of Edward's attention went

They planted thickets and they imported literally bags of this, the very best shoot in England, and that really, really mattered at the time

They say time waits for no man, but at Sandringham, even the clocks were subject to royal whims

Edward was absolutely determined to try and cramming as much hunting each day as he could

And indeed, he changed the clocks to created Sandringham time to give him more daylight hours to hunt in

Sandringham time, 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, was the official time on the estate from 1901 until 1936

and eventually Edward's mother got her wish as he and his country house settled down somewhat

The thing about Sandringham is that like its inhabitants it grew up. It went from being a

place of billiards and bowling to more cultured pursuits as Edward VII and Queen Alexandra and

their children all evolved and grew up and so the old bowling alley became the long library and

And that's where the Queen is shown when she gave her first televised address to the nation

So it's not a fixed thing. It shows a life lived. The royal palaces serve as homes, as offices and as bolt holds away from it all

But they all share a common purpose, to keep the royal family safe

Some were built with security in mind. Windsor is a castle. It was built to do battle

It was built to house armies. It was built to protect a royal family But the Pathosists are not always as secure as they seem

At 6.45am on the 9th of July 1982, unemployed labourer Michael an approached Buckingham Palace

His actions over the next 45 minutes would uncover a series of shocking weaknesses

in the palace's security systems. He managed to climb this 14-foot high wall

Then he climbed up a drainpipe into a window and found himself roaming free in the corridors of Buckingham Palace

It's the most extraordinary breach of security. For 15 minutes, an wandered around the palace

A cleaner said, good morning. I think he sat on the throne

He had taken his shoes off and had no socks, so he must have looked quite a sight

But clearly, nobody took any notice. But exactly how had an evaded palace security

Apparently an alarm sensor had detected his movements, but police dismissed it

The officers in that control room had been desensitised to the alarms because there was ongoing problems by them giving..

..to the palace, and no-one would have known. But his early-morning jaunt didn't end there

He entered a room that would turn his trespass into a worldwide scandal

At 7.15am, he found the door to the Queen's bedroom unprotected. Her security detail had gone off the night duty at six o'clock, and nobody else was in place

And the next line of defence, her footman, was nowhere to be seen

The footman had taken the dogs for a walk, so the Queen was there on her own

Inside the bedroom, in opened the curtains and woke the Queen. The sight of this slightly dishevelled man wandering into her bedroom

must have been really, really terrifying for the Queen. To wake up to find a complete stranger standing over your bedside

must be terrifying. The Queen pressed the alarm bell in her bedroom

But no-one came. The Queen was incredibly composed. She kept an talking. She remained incredibly calm

The Queen clearly got the measure of Michael an, engaged him in conversation

In fact, an asked for some cigarettes. Luckily, a maid who'd been cleaning nearby

entered the Queen's bedroom. The maid went to get cigarettes and returned with police officers

an was marched out of the palace, with everyone realising the Queen had been very lucky

It was a complete and utter disaster from a protection point of view

I mean, by very good luck, Michael an did not go there with the intention of harming the Queen

But it could have turned out really badly. The impact of this break-in went much further than the Queen's bedroom

The commander of A Division was forced to resign and several other junior officers were actually disciplined as a consequence

Changes to palace security were made with more armed police officers and upgraded security systems

And it seemed to do the trick. Buckingham Palace remained watertight for 20 years

But in 2003, tight insecurity was breached to an even more terrifying degree

when an undercover journalist revealed how easy it was to get to the very heart of the royal palace

He even served the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh their breakfast. coming up in secrets of the royal palaces we learn how a king lost his head in front of his palace

one moment you're decorating your palace next moment you're executed outside it and we uncover

the groundbreaking leonardo da vinci drawings that lay hidden inside windsor castle for about

250 years these discoveries lay secret hiding in the royal collection In joy and celebration

But they have also been the site of the royal's darkest days. In January 1649, the monarchy was in peril

And so was King Charles I. he'd lost the english civil war against oliver cromwell as parliamentarians and now he was on

trial he was essentially put on trial for not doing the job of king in the way he should have

done for really taking too many powers and parliament and proroguing parliament too much

so don't do that he defended himself quite valiantly and said he shouldn't be on trial at

all because he was king and only answerable to him up there but it was a foregone conclusion

open and shut case to the Cromwellians, he was found guilty and sentenced to be executed

Having been tried at the Palace of Westminster, the king was sent to St. James's Palace to await

his death. He had a lot of palaces to look at when he was suffering his final awful days

On the 30th of January 1649, Charles was marched across St. James's Park

not to Tower Hill, the traditional execution site but to the palace of Whitehall

because frankly, if you're going to cut the head off a king it's got to be done in a palace

and this wasn't just any palace Whitehall was probably the largest palace in Europe

and the centre of English royal power it was also beautiful at the vanquering house of Whitehall

Charles I actually decorated the roof with these incredible Rubens paintings as he's going to be executed for being too divine right, too power hungry as a king

He sees over his head these murals, these beautiful paintings of kingly divine right

Charles I is taken outside Whitehall Palace, outside the banqueting house, on a scaffold

He gives a very brave and valiant speech, but unfortunately it's a bit windy and no one really can hear it

but he submits very bravely he tucks his hair into a cap so that they can get a nice

clean blade and he raises his arm as a signal so you know that's quite significant isn't it

that actually he gets to raise his arm most people who are executed have no choice when

the axe comes down but he has that moment of grace and he was finally executed in front of

everyone outside Whitehall Palace so you have to watch out if you're a king one moment you're

decorating your palace, next moment you're executed outside it. Charles I lost his throne

and his head but he left an incredible legacy, a collection of artworks that would become the

basis of the royal collection. Charles I was a great lover of the arts. He recognised the power

of collecting, the power of art to showcase the strength of the monarchy and of the court

When the monarchy was restored, the collection was boasting over one million items

Some are proudly displayed on palace walls and others are carefully archived and rarely seen

Windsor Castle's print room is home to an extraordinary collection of some 600 drawings by Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci has rightly been recognised as one of the most incredible minds of all time

This collection was acquired by Charles II, who came to the throne nearly 150 years after Leonardo's death

Both men shed a passion for the arts and science. Charles II was known as the Merry monarch

He had spent years in exile after the beheading of his father, Charles I

And when he came back, he was absolutely determined to invest in the arts and in the sciences

That was going to be his legacy. He founded the Royal Observatory

He sponsored the Royal Society, which was the oldest scientific institute anywhere in the world

For hundreds of years, this collection of drawings has been kept hidden at Windsor

where only a privileged few could view them, including a young Prince Charles

As a boy, Prince Charles was rather taken by these drawings and spent some time with archivists looking at them

And when he later told the family what he'd been doing, they thought he was all rather strange because, of course

they'd all been outside messing around on horses and he had been locked inside looking at the drawings of da Vinci

In 2019, the public were allowed a glimpse of this rare collection

as hundreds of them went on display at Buckingham Palace's Queen's Gallery

2019 was a mesmerising moment. They'd always been lent in small numbers to individual exhibitions

but there was a huge exhibition at the Queen's Gallery. Actually, these drawings were never intended to be seen at all

Leonardo used them as his laboratory to explore new ideas, particularly in the field of human anatomy

The things he discovered were revolutionary, really minute anatomical drawings that can still help anatomists today

For about 250 years, these discoveries lay secret, hiding in the royal collection

But can you imagine the changes in the course of modern science that might have come about had we discovered them earlier

But the drawings had still more secrets to reveal. Secrets that would lie hidden to the naked eye

Royal palaces house not only priceless treasures and centuries of history, but also the royals themselves

Keeping the palaces safe and secure is of paramount importance. In 1982, Michael an's intrusion into the Queen's bedroom

revealed the cracks in Buckingham Palace's defences. Twenty years later, they would be tested again

But this time, the intrusion would go unnoticed. In 2003, Daymira journalist Ryan Parry

decided to put royal security to the test. Could he get into Buckingham Palace by applying for a job there

The application process was surprisingly straightforward. Parry gave the pub where he'd grown up in Wales as a reference

When the palace phoned, the barmaid apparently on the phone yells out to the pub

does anyone know this Ryan Parry bloke? And a regular who's sitting at the bar said

ooh, I know him, I know that Ryan Parry. Ooh, I know him, he's a good bloke. And on that basis, the personnel of the royal household employed him

Ryan Parry started work as a royal footman. To expose the access he had, a covert daily mirror photographer was positioned to snap him

These images showed he was at the heart of the royal household, with no proper security checks

He was shown riding on a state coach, and even stepping out onto the famous Buckingham Palace balcony

I just had to kind of myself and think, I can't believe I'm actually standing at this very spot

The distinctive uniform was his past. Once he'd got the uniform, there seemed to be a trust

He used his access to all areas, nose around the whole palace

He even served the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh their breakfast, and he took photographs

It was the most extraordinary scene. They had their cornflakes and cereals in Tupperware boxes

We imagine perhaps that the Queen eats off silver salvers on a daily basis

but actually she doesn't. She eats just like the rest of us. parry's unlimited access to the palace even coincided with a presidential visit by george

w bush there is no state visit more important or frankly more crawling with security than an

american president visits to the queen of the united kingdom and parry had all of the details

visit it was shocking that he could get a job that easily with so little security checks and

clearance. He could have been someone who was looking to kidnap and hold ransom for financial

gain as senior member of the royal family, or even for whatever means, perform an assassination

on a senior member of the royal family. And just as the president was settling into his suite at

the palace amidst some of the tightest of the Buckingham Palace gates. He'd finished his duties

at 11pm, put up his uniform, packed his bags and just walked out. The next day, the Mirror published

his story. 15 pages of detailed insights into life at Buckingham Palace. My brief was particularly to

look at the security procedures in place. But a lot of what you wrote, obviously, was more kind of

below stairs, tittle tattle, wasn't it? Sure. I mean, that was all part of my information gathering

The palace were furious because, of course, Ryan Parry was undiscovered. They only knew about it

when they saw the front page the following day. This wasn't just a breach of security

They'd had an intruder who had taken photographs of their space, their private life

The Mirror claimed the undercover operation exposed Laps's insecurity rather than in invading royal privacy

You have to look at how those flaws are exposed and how, in fact, you make sure you deal with them

So that shouldn't be allowed to happen again. An inquiry into the incident, to a new vetting procedure being introduced to ensure the palace is kept watertight

But for those tasks with keeping the royal palaces secure, the challenges remain

Palaces and castles are not prisons. You don't have hack-ack guns. You don't have huge amounts of barbed wire

And the royals themselves do not want the intrusion. So you have to balance their homes with security, and it's not an easy job

Still to come on Secrets of the Royal Palaces, we reveal Windsor Castle's invisible Leonardo da Vinci drawings

It's an incredibly rare privilege to be able to see them in the flesh. They're not normally able to be on display

And we glimpse inside Sandringham's most private of rooms, where one Thomas Crapper spared the blushes of the prince's mistresses

They would have had to part with gross, handsy Edward, but they could have at least flushed away their own detritus

The Royal Palaces are home not only to the Royal Family but to some of the most important artworks on the planet All of this stuff is the Queen but it also the country

The Royal Collection looks after all of this priceless furniture, all of these priceless paintings, on behalf of the nation

Amongst the collection is this rarely seen set of some 600 drawings by Leonardo da Vinci

Acquired by King Charles II over 350 years ago, they're still revealing their secrets today

One of the things that would have really appealed to Charles II as both a collector and someone with quite a scientifically inclined mind

was Leonardo's mirror writing. Many of the drawings are covered in a strange handwriting

and this was Leonardo's secret shorthand. It was also mirrored, so it only reads properly from right to left

if you hold it up in front of a mirror. We're not entirely sure why he did it

Why not he wouldn't be smudging his own ink as he went? To me, it really looks like it's coded

so perhaps he used mirror writing in order to protect his ideas from people that might want to steal them

But these weren't the only secrets the collection was concealing. Among Leonardo's most beautiful sketches are pieces of paper that seem like they are completely blank

Over the centuries, the drawings had faded. But under UV light, they are revealed

These scans show some colour that has faded away, sketch lines that we didn't know existed

There's one particular image of a horse that we didn't know da Vinci had done

because it faded so badly no one could see it until it was scanned

Over 500 years after they were drawn, these treasures of the royal collection are still disclosing new information

There is an intimacy, an immediacy, a modernity about them that looks to me like they could have been drawn just yesterday or today

The drawings he created are extraordinary. There's nothing else like them. The royal palaces and the artworks they contain

celebrate the nation's history. But there are some moments in the past

that the royals would rather forget. Buckingham Palace hosts over 50,000 visitors a year

and everything must be just so. that during the reign of Queen Victoria

the usually fragrant air was fouled by the greatest stink. A visitor to Buckingham Palace in the 19th century

would have come near to fainting from the smell. It was disgusting. It was awful

And that was because the sewers, they were completely overloaded, so they leaked, and they leaked human waste all over the floor

particularly all over the floor of the kitchens. Yes, very, very hygienic. And so there's Victoria, the most powerful woman in the world

and she is living in a palace full of leaked human waste

It's completely disgusting. But it's not just Buckingham Palace that's the smelliest

perhaps least hygienic palace in the world. The whole of London is really very bad smelling

And that was literally because the sewage system wasn't up to it. And people at the time said that the Thames was actually black

And all this reached her head. in the summer of 1858, which is known as the Great Stink

And Queen Victoria herself, well, she soldered on. But there was steamer that was really one of the sights of London at the time

And Victoria was ready. She was a prepared kind of queen. She had this handkerchief covered in perfume to put to her nose so she wouldn't smell it

But even, she said, after two minutes, she couldn't cope. So she had to say to the boat, go back to Buckingham Palace

She really felt she was about to faint. She said to her daughter, Vicky, that she'd been half poisoned by the smell of the Thames

The royals might have hoped this was the end of their toilet troubles. But 13 years after the Great Stink, they faced a new sanitation issue

This time, the problem wasn't at Buckingham Palace, but at Sandringham. Queen Victoria bought the Sandring estate for her 21-year-old son Edward

in the hopes that it would offer a calmer, healthier lifestyle. But at this idyllic country residence, a deadly threat lay undetected

and the heir to the throne was left fighting for his life

In 1871, Edward the Prince of Wales got really sick with typhoid fever

and it created a huge national moment of emergency. The press reported daily Edward's battle for survival

Tensions were raised because his father, Prince Albert, had died of typhoid only 10 years earlier

The great inquest was undertaken about where he might have got typhoid from

And so the issue of how to create a clean, safe, sanitary environment

was something taken with the utmost seriousness. As part of the investigation into how the prince might have got typhoid

It was thought that contaminated water at Sandrugan might have been the cause

The solution was for a 60-foot high tower. It had on the top of it a 32,000-gallon iron tank

which contained the water from a new spring which had been drilled

And all that fresh water then would be enough to power the taps and the toilets down in the house

but was also strong enough for four fire hoses to be sprayed over the roof of the place

Seven years after Edward survived typhoid, the Appleton Water Tower was completed

Built in a Byzantine brick style, it sits on the highest point of the Sandringham Estate

There's an extra benefit to that because a royal viewing gallery was set underneath the tank

which gave sweeping views across North Norfolk. They must have had their fingers crossed

that the tank held over the royal family. And works were carried on inside the building too

For the palace loos, Edward brought in the best. Thomas Crapper's name echoes down the ages

He was celebrated for being a great sanitation engineer. He went from toilets being bog standard

to creating a new standard for bogs. He's not the inventor of the flushing loo

but he's one of the men who patented there. He created all of the sanitation for this new house

including 30 cedar-seated toilets, and they were things of great beauty. For Edward, such pretty porcelain was certainly an added attraction

He was well known for keeping a string of pampered mistresses. So for his mistresses that are allowed to come to Sandringham

and they weren't all, but certainly Lily Langtree did, and we know that in the latter years Alice Keppel came to Sandringham

they would have enjoyed a flushing loon. They would have had to have put up with gross, handsy Edward

but they could have at least flushed away their own detritus. So there is always an advantage to being the lover of royalty

throughout history the british royal palaces have withstood wars floods and fires but in 2020

the world faced an unprecedented threat as the deadly coronavirus pandemic took hold

palace officials scrambled to protect the queen it's probably more important that the queen is

isolated than anybody else. The government depends upon her. So were she to succumb to the pandemic

it would be an extra crisis. Then aged 93, the Queen and Prince Philip, almost 99

were considered at extreme risk. Four days before the rest of the country officially locked down

the Queen left the capital and was whisked away to Windsor Castle. Having a castle like Windsor

Castle to lock down in is almost ideal. It's built as a fortress. But even Windsor Castle

would need an extra line of defence against this new enemy. So the royal household set up something

known as HMS Bubble, sort of a social bubble, if you like, within Windsor Castle. HMS Bubble

consists of a team of 22 loyal staff members who supported the Queen and Luke through lockdown

Like everybody, the Queen has had to make sacrifices during lockdown and she's managed

to pair her staff down to just the basic 22. You know, a couple of chefs, an army of gardeners

a valet or two, some housemates, housekeepers. I don't think she'll be making her own dinner quite yet

but it's definitely a stripped-down version of the huge amount of staff and quarters she normally has

Before entering Windsor for their three-week shift, every member of staff would have to undergo

a worse quarantine and Covid testing. You're dealing with an invisible enemy

with the virus, it only has to come in in that secure bubble that you've created

Getting it wrong is not an option. Despite the strict new measures, spirits in Windsor remained high

Prince Philip was particularly amused by the use of the phrase bubble because back in the 50s and 60s

he was referred to in some quarters as the big bubble, which was, of course, Cockney rhyming slang

bubble and squeak for Greek. So the first number... But even with palace doors firmly shut

the world was allowed a rare glimpse inside Windsor and the other royal homes

I'm very glad to be able to join you today. One of the big revelations of lockdown

has been being able to see into everyone's homes. The Queen on the phone to Boris Johnson

during one of her weekly audiences using the old-fashioned 1970s telephone surrounded by corgi ornaments

Every surface that is flat in their homes is covered in clutter

These are homes of people who never do their own dusting. She may not do her own dusting, but the Queen and her team have successfully managed to keep her palace Covid free

Coming up on Secrets of the Royal Palaces. Prince Philip's controversial plans for Sandringham cause a royal family feud

The Queen Mother, she was horrified that a house that she loved might be threatened with demolition

And we reveal the strict protocol surrounding the Royal Tartan. It is the most exclusive fabric that anyone could wear in the world Sandringham This traditional country house is much loved by the royal family and by one senior royal in particular Sandringham Estate is really the kingdom of Prince Philip It

was given to Prince Philip by the Queen after her accession and the fact that he's retired there

really shows that it's there that he feels most at home. But the old house hasn't always enjoyed

universal acclaim. If you look at the critiques of Sandringham, it's never held up as a fine

piece of architecture. In fact, it was said under George V that there wasn't one fine stick of

furniture or bit of art in the place with the exception of some tapestries

Philip had his sights set on a rather radical makeover. It might surprise us to think of the Duke of Edinburgh suggesting that Sandringham should be

demolished but once upon a time he did that in 1960. If Sandringham needed to be swept with a

new broom the Duke of Edinburgh was the man to wield. Philip carved out this role as a bit of a

moderniser now that's not how it seemed today but give the guy a break he's in his hundredth year

Prince Philip proposed that it should be pulled down and the dusty old rooms might be replaced

with something altogether more modern and befitting of a 20th century monarchy. He looked

to an architect called David Roberts who used a brick modernism, large windows and open planning

to create new types of space and lots of light. Amidst an atmosphere of post-war optimism

the Queen was sympathetic to Philip's modern ideas. But then the Duke came up against a formidable

opponent. The Queen Mother hadn't really bought into that whole picture and she was horrified

that a house that she loved might be threatened with demolition. Queen Elizabeth faced a dilemma

Back her beloved Philip or put family and tradition first. This isn't just a royal residence

It's somewhere that the Queen hugely emotionally invested in. Her grandfather and her father adored Sandringer

Ultimately, the Queen Mum got her way. The Queen rejected Philip's plans and the nation was spared the 1960s concrete palace

So Sandringham stayed there since the interiors are still largely as they were in the 19th century

The sitting room is kind of full of knick-knacks. There's the feeling that Queen Alexandra or Queen Mary have sort of just left the room

So not necessarily everybody's taste, some might say a bit over the top, but actually very, very intermittent, warm and cosy

Sandringham isn't the only much-loved private royal home. Balmoral is set amongst the locks and mountains of the Scottish Highlands

Its beauty inspired one royal to turn fashion designer. At Balmoral, the royal family loved to embrace the island life

particularly when it comes to their attire. The family take their Scottishness very seriously and they wear tartan a lot when they're in Scotland

For centuries tartan has been worn by Highlanders as a symbol of clan identity

Each clan in Scotland has its own tartan It represents the family the lineage the history of that particular clan So it about as Scottish as you can get

When Victoria and Albert bought Balmoral, they were keen to look the part

But as a non-Scot, Albert had no tartan. So he decided to design his own

the Balmoral tartan that was designed by Prince Albert, and it's grey and red and black

It's quite distinctive. The mottled grey background of the Balmoral tartan is supposed to represent the granite that can be found locally around Balmoral

It was slightly amended by Edward VIII, so now the version we have today is similar but slightly softer in tone

But what makes the Balmoral tartan so unique? is its exclusivity. The use of the fabric has for many years been strictly controlled

The Queen is the person who has to decide if anyone else is allowed to wear it

so even those in the royal family have to get her permission. But there are a few chosen non-royals who are permitted to wear the title

Bagpipe players on the Balmoral Estate and also the Queen's personal piper

are the only non-royals who are allowed to wear this tartan. So, unless you're on first-name terms with the Queen

you're going to have to take up the pipes and move to Balmoral if you want a chance to wear this unique royal tartan

It is the most exclusive fabric that anyone could wear in the world. Next time, at Highgrove, Prince Charles turns his country residence into Fort Knox

If you ever go to Highgrove, you won't see the security. It's invisible

At Kensington Palace, battle of wills between the Duchess and Conroy on one side and Victoria on the other

And at Sandringham, a witness from Prince Philip's crash reveals what really happened

The driver couldn't move. It was quite obvious it was Prince Philip. Thank you

Thank you

Thank you

Thank you

Thank you

It's not an obvious regal property. It's often criticised for just being a country house

and not a necessarily very distinguished one either. But the point of it is that it is comfortable

I think Sandringham occupies a unique position among the royal residences, and each succeeding generation of royals has loved it

Sandringham is about the private person. It's about the family life behind the image of the throne

Prince Philip has retired there. So in many ways, a kind of wholesome royal family house

but indeed its history was rather different. In 1862, Queen Victoria acquired the Sandring Estate

for her somewhat wayward son and heir, Edward. Edward was notorious. As much as his parents were sort of chintzy and conservative

and domestic and dull, Edward was revolting libidinous. He was a gambler, he was a bit of a drinker

and he was constantly trying to get