After 200 years under lock and key, all the personal papers of one of our most important monarchs are for the first time seeing the light of day. In the first documentary to gain extensive access to the Royal Archives, Robert Hardman sheds fascinating new light on George III, Britain's longest reigning king. George III may be chiefly remembered for his madness, but these private documents reveal a monarch who was a political micromanager and a restless patron of science and the arts, an obsessive traveller who never left southern England yet toured the world in his mind and a man who was driven (sometimes to distraction) by his sense of duty to his family and his country. Featuring Simon Callow and Sian Thomas as the voices of King George and Queen Charlotte.
Production
First-ever access to 200 years of sealed Royal Archives.
Acting
Simon Callow's voice work brings George's letters to vivid life.
Director
John Bridcut
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 33,000 papers had been literally locked in Windsor Castle since George's death, unseen even by most royal archivists.
Bridcut deliberately avoided Alan Bennett's beloved 'Madness of King George' portrayal to excavate the actual man beneath the myth.
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