Royal footage to be given online airing
ITV 1 · TV Week · 06 Nov 2008 · by: ITV Press Centre
Archive footage of key royals and their visits to ITV Local regions over the past 50 years is to be shown on ITV’s network of local websites.
The historic ITV footage, which includes visits by Queen Elizabeth, Prince Phillip, Prince Charles, Diana, Princes William and Harry and the Queen Mother, is being made available to the public on ITV Local from today and is being promoted on the royal family’s official website.
Some 320 packages, more than 100 hours of royal coverage including contemporary news reports and some never-before-seen rushes, will be added to by the ITV Local teams until every royal visit filmed by the ITV regions is online.
The earliest film being made available shows the Queen’s visit to Llanelli in 1953 following her coronation.
The films, from the archives of ITV Anglia, ITV Border, ITV Central, ITV Granada, ITV Meridian, ITV Tyne Tees, ITV Wales, ITV West and ITV West Country, also include:
• The Duke of Edinburgh answering frank questions in a ten-minute interview on current affairs programme Face the Press in 1966.
• The Queen’s Silver and Golden Jubilee tours of England and Wales.
• A visit by Prince Charles to the set of Coronation Street.
• The Queen meeting Sir Paul McCartney and encountering hippy protestors in Manchester.
• Footage of the Queen’s visit to Aberfan in South Wales shortly after the mining disaster.
• Footage of Princess Diana including tributes and news programmes.
• Prince Charles’ investiture as the Prince of Wales and early film showing him as a boy and young man.
The online archive has been built following the success of a pilot project using the archive of ITV Local Wales.
ITV Local's Director of Content, Lindsay Charlton, said: “Royal visits have always been big events for local news reporting teams. Their visits to the regions generate enormous interest both locally and on the world stage, so we’re delighted to launch this new content in line with our ambition to make the best ITV local content available to anyone who wants to see it.”
