The film offered an unprecedented look at royal families and was watched by millions when it first aired on the BBC. But it was later stored in the company’s archives, allegedly at the request of Buckingham Palace, and has not been on air since the 1970s.
It is not known how the program, entitled “Royal Family”, was discovered or who posted it on YouTube. The video was quickly removed from the video sharing platform after a copyright request was made.
In the film, the monarch likens the United States ambassador to a gorilla. “There was a gorilla. I had a terrible problem … he had a short body, long arms,” she told the news agency PA Media.
Other more mundane scenes, showing royalty eating together and the Queen rummaging in her bag to buy six-year-old Prince Edward’s sweets in a store, were considered innovative in showing the famous and opaque family in a new light.
“This sticky disgusting mess will stay in the car, won’t it?” the Queen declares, according to PA.
The 110-minute film was watched by 30 million people in 1969 and remains one of the UK’s most watched television broadcasts. The BBC estimates that more than 350 million have watched the film worldwide.
A BBC spokesman declined to comment to CNN about the video’s sudden reappearance, but the corporation did not contest reports that it had filed the copyright claim that led to its removal from YouTube.
“When a copyright claim is filed, we remove the content immediately, as is the case with this upload,” YouTube told CNN.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
The film was made after royalty granted the BBC exclusive access to film their daily lives. The family was increasingly seen as out of touch with regular society in the 1960s, and the program was seen as an attempt to regain relevance.
Princess Anne, daughter of the Queen, later spoke of her unhappiness with the program. “I never liked the idea of the royal family film. I always thought it was a bad idea, ”she said, according to PA.
“The attention you’ve received since you were a child, you just didn’t want it anymore. The last thing you needed was more access,” added Anne.