After relinquishing his Greek and Danish titles, the newly renamed  Lt. Philip Mountbatten (Matt Smith), 26, marries 21-year-old Princess Elizabeth (Claire Foy) at Westminster Abbey in front of their nearest and dearest — plus 2,000 guests and 200 million BBC Radio listeners. Ever the attention seeker, former (but soon to return) prime minister Winston Churchill (John Lithgow) threatens to steal Elizabeth’s thunder by parading down the aisle just before she processes in with her father, King George VI (Jared Harris). A year later, Princess Elizabeth gives birth to Prince Charles, and nearly two years after that, her first and only daughter, Princess Anne, is born. 

On Set: teams of six people worked for six weeks at a time embroidering Elizabeth’s wedding train and dress.

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by federica dal zotto

Elizabeth’s big day arrives and  for the first time ever during a coronation cameras film inside Westminster Abbey as she’s crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Her wedding to the Duke of Edinburgh might’ve drawn a big crowd, but the queen’s crowning moment brings 96,000 people out in the streets, while roughly 277 million people watch the broadcast around the world. 

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by federica dal zotto

When a mining disaster in a Welsh village leaves 116 children and 28 adults dead, the monarch hesitates to travel to the town, aware her presence might disrupt the rescue operation. Though she shows up in Wales eight days later to offer her sympathies, her failure to act quickly is a decision she regrets for the rest of her life.

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by federica dal zotto

After successfully breaking into Buckingham Palace earlier that month by shimmying up a drainpipe and helping himself to half a bottle of white wine before having to abruptly leave after he spooks a chambermaid, unemployed laborer Michael Fagan — who’s disillusioned with the government’s lack of assistance and the state of the nation — returns on the morning of July 9, 1982. Fagan slips past security once again and this time enters the queen’s bedroom, waking her only when he disturbs the curtains. After his arrest, Fagan spends the next three months undergoing psychiatric evaluation.

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by federica dal zotto

Three months after Charles and Princess Diana had formally separated in 1993, a full transcript of a telephone call between Charles and Camilla (that took place in 1989) was printed in the press. There was full audio to accompany it too, thanks to a rogue radio enthusiast who had stumbled upon the chat using a hi-tech scanning device.

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by federica dal zotto