Banned Royal family documentary leaked on YouTube 50 years later
Washington (US), Jan 31: An infamous documentary on the royal family that was said to have been banned by Queen Elizabeth decades ago was mysteriously leaked onto YouTube this week.
People Magazine reported that the fly-on-the-wall BBC documentary, titled ‘Royal Family’, aired in 1969 and offered an unprecedented look inside the life of Queen Elizabeth and her family. Prince Philip thought it would open the doors to what being a member of the royal family was all about, but the Queen was said to have regretted the decision to film the documentary and it has largely been locked away ever since.
That is until this week when someone uploaded the film onto YouTube. It was swiftly taken down on Thursday before appearing again briefly on Friday morning.
The often-charming video charts Queen Elizabeth’s working life and her home life over the course of a year and could be a real-life version of ‘Netflix’s The Crown’.
For millions of her subjects, ‘Royal Family’ was a unique insight into Her Majesty’s life and work – from diplomatic functions to greeting ambassadors to travel to places like Chile and rides on the Royal Train. Viewers got to see her awakened every morning by the sound of bagpipes — something that continues to this day at Windsor, or wherever she is staying.
An intimate family moment around the barbecue on the grounds of Balmoral Castle in Scotland is also shown. (ANI)
NASA’s Perseverance rover to land on Mars next month
Washington, Jan 31: NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission is set to complete a 470.8-million-kilometre next month as it is scheduled to land on Mars on February 18.
Launched on July 30 last year, the rover is currently closing that distance at 2.5 kilometres per second, NASA said. Once at the top of the Red Planet’s atmosphere, an action-packed seven minutes of descent awaits — complete with temperatures equivalent to the surface of the Sun, a supersonic parachute inflation, and the first ever autonomous guided landing on Mars.
Only then can the rover search Jezero Crater for signs of ancient life and collect samples that will eventually be returned to Earth.
“NASA has been exploring Mars since Mariner 4 performed a flyby in July of 1965, with two more flybys, seven successful orbiters, and eight landers since then,” Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington,” said in a statement.
“Perseverance, which was built from the collective knowledge gleaned from such trailblazers, has the opportunity to not only expand our knowledge of the Red Planet, but to investigate one of the most important and exciting questions of humanity about the origin of life both on Earth and also on other planets.” Jezero Crater is believed to be the perfect place to search for signs of ancient microbial life. (IANS)