"Over the course of a whole year, we have been given exclusive access to the hidden world behind the scenes of Windsor Castle, the queen's favorite home. A world of royal ceremony, pomp, history, and tradition, but also of fun, excitement, and color." - Opening narration
Windsor Castle: A Royal Year DVD Review
By A.J. Carson
Ozzy Osbourne had one. So did Anna Nicole Smith. Chuck Woolery had his own reality show, for God's sake, so why shouldn't the Queen of England? In 2005, Queen Elizabeth granted permission for TV producers to film a year in the life of Windsor Castle for the BBC. The castle, whose location was chosen by William the Conqueror, is the oldest and largest continuously occupied castle in the world. The 900 room castle and its employees are the true stars of this reality show, so don't expect to see the queen trading in her sensible shoes and gigantic spectacles for the kind of hoochie mama clothing worn on The Real World. She does appear every now and then, but rarely speaks on camera. The genial Prince Philip, on the other hand, is irrepressible. He sits for an extended interview, allows the crew to ride along on his inspections of the grounds, and complains that they're getting too many shots of him climbing into and out of the car.
The first episode centers on preparations for a state dinner in honor of French President Jacques Chirac and the anniversary of peace between England and France. Planning begins six months before the event, but as the dinner draws nearer, preparations increase exponentially. Housekeeping is in charge of packing and unpacking for overnight guests, and they practice just to make sure they can do it quickly and efficiently. The artwork in the room where the reception will be held is changed and rearranged so that it can be a little more Franco-centric. A table with enough leaves to comfortably sit 136 guests is erected. One employee wears British Airways socks as he scuttles across the tabletop adjusting the candelabras and flowers. The "stick and chair" method is employed to make sure that each chair is equidistant from the table.
The West End company of Les Miserables serves as the evening's entertainment, bringing along four tons of theater equipment. The epic musical is partially about the oppression of the poor and the working class during the French Revolution. Windsor Castle's producers cleverly use one of the musical's songs - "At the End of the Day" - to provide a bit of social commentary on the castle's 300 employees:
At the end of the day you're another day older
And that's all you can say for the life of the poor
It's a struggle
It's a war
And there's nothing that anyone's giving
One more day standing about
What is it for?
One day less to be living!
This is juxtaposed with images of the staff scurrying about making last minute adjustments.
The employees are the castle's true heroes, mopping the hallway floors at 6:15 each morning so as not to disturb the royal family and its guests. As the head of housekeeping points out, "it's a bit like looking after your own home, but on a massive, massive scale." Of course as she says this, we see footage of a maid dusting a side table with a small paintbrush so as not to damage its delicate gold filigree. Then there's Tony the flagman, whose sole job is to run the Queen's royal flag up the flagpole the moment she enters the castle, and then take it down the moment she leaves. Sure, they're being filmed for a reality series, but the staff seems genuinely happy. They also prove to be loyal. When a protest outside of the castle throws the dinner completely off schedule, they rally, helping to make the dinner a success.
The second episode follows a year of celebrations and events at Windsor, from holidays like Easter and Christmas to ceremonial events like Garter Day. The Queen even attends the Royal Ascot horse race. Highlights include the retired guards who lead the Garter Day parade, and the clockmaker who spends sixteen hours changing all of the castle's clocks from British Summer Time.
Episode three is less cohesive than the first two, but is just as entertaining. We join an extremely personable Prince Philip on his daily rounds as Ranger of Windsor's 15,000 acre Great Park and go behind the scenes of St. George's Chapel. Both the chapel and the park desperately need funds to stay open. Prince Philip has opened a green grocer selling items grown in the park. The staff at St. George's hires a manager to relocate and supervise a new gift shop, a process fully documented here. The episode ends with the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles, a wedding that features 19,000 canapés and 35,000 daffodils.
The three episodes that make up Windsor Castle: A Royal Year are divided onto two discs. The discs are housed in a standard-sized keepcase with an interior swinging arm to hold the second disc. An insert included inside the DVD case includes a guide to the scene index for each of the series' episodes.
The static menus are simple and functional. Viewers can choose to watch an entire episode or can jump directly to a scene using the "Scene Selection" menu. There is no "Play All" feature.
