Louise Bernard, with Alexis Patri
From June 2 to 5, the United Kingdom will celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II. The event will mark the 70th anniversary of the reign of the Queen, who ascended the British throne on February 6, 1952. The BFMTV channel is getting a little ahead of the game, with the broadcast on Monday of a three-part documentary entitled “Elizabeth II, the crossing of the century”.
The Queen of England’s Jubilee officially takes place on Thursday, but the festivities start a little early on BFMTV. The channel broadcasts a documentary in three episodes of about twenty minutes each on Monday evening. They allow us to immerse ourselves in the 70 years of reign of Elizabeth II that the jubilee celebrates. The opportunity to relive the great personal upheavals of the royal family, but also those of history in England and the world.
No other reign has seen so many changes, as Dominique Fargues, the director of the documentary, explains at the microphone of Europe 1. “Nobody knows what the queen thinks, nobody really knows her. In fact, she is a kind of mystery incarnate”, she recalls. “But it is precisely this ability to play its role and to maintain this silence and this neutrality makes it a kind of rock, a beacon for the British people. And even for the world. Everything has moved, everything has changed, except her, who is still there.”
A queen symbol of modernity
Through the history of the Queen’s reign, it is also the history of the media that we can follow. In 70 years, Elizabeth II has indeed experienced technological changes. “She went from the press and radio to television, then to the smartphone. At 14, she made her first speech on the radio, which was the means of communication at the time. At 26, she was the first to have her coronation broadcast on television”, explains Dominique Fargues. “It was she who brought the advent of television into homes: the British bought television sets to be able to attend this event. They therefore also associated this queen with incredible technological modernity for the time.”
The documentary in three episodes by Dominique Fargues, Elizabeth II, the crossing of the centuryis to discover Monday evening at 8:50 p.m. on BFMTV.