Secrets of the Royal Palaces - Season 4

The return of the programme that features behind-the-scenes tales of royal residences, beginning with stories of love and marriage from within palaces' walls. There is a look at the scandal caused by Princess Diana's intimate phone conversations with James Gilbey after recordings of them were sold to the Sun newspaper, while the programme also shines a light on the joyous time Elizabeth II spent with Prince Phillip at their palace of Villa Guardamangia on Malta, shortly after their marriage. Plus, Kate Williams reveals the extraordinary story of Prince Albert's erotic gift to his wife Queen Victoria.

Stories of palace private life - and the moments the royals wish were private - beginning with the royal family's race to be by Elizabeth II's side in her final moments at Balmoral. The programme forensically examines that day and uncovers how the deep family rift between Prince Harry and the rest potentially caused a tragic delay. Kate Williams shines a light on some of the most remarkable private tales from palace history, including the messy end of William the Conqueror's life when he was buried by a band of hapless monks.

This time, we uncover secret stories of palace scandal, as Diana confesses all to one of her closest member of staff, King Charles tries to move out his scandal-hit brother and we reveal the shocking link between Queen Victoria's favourite lapdog and a palace massacre.

We start with Princess Diana on holiday at Marivent, the Spanish royal family's summer palace on Mallorca. Diana spent four summers here with Charles, Wills and Harry as her marriage began to disintegrate. We hear first-hand from Royal Protection officer Ken Wharfe about an extraordinary pool-side confession that Diana made to him revealing that her marriage was "a sham" and that both parties were in the midst of secret affairs. It was a confession that marked a turning point as the scandalous secrets of their marriage began to seep-out…

Royal affairs are nothing new of course. Prof Kate Williams tells the remarkable story of George III's six unmarried daughters whose illicit affairs with servants and numerous illegitimate children at Frogmore House were kept hushed up by any means necessary. When one writer drafted an explosive tell-all memoir, and then attempted to blackmail the Princesses, he found his manuscript mysteriously stolen.

Of course, scandals aren't restricted to affairs of the heart. We investigate the murky story of how King Charles, when Prince of Wales, ended up with four priceless masterpieces from Picasso, Monet and Salvador Dali proudly displayed on his walls, before discovering his new pictures were all fakes. How did it happen?
At Windsor Castle, the most formidable of all royal residences, we discover that appearances can be deceptive, as we expose two scandalous security failures, the most serious leaving an armed assailant loose on palace grounds on a mission to kill the monarch.

We tell the surprising story of Queen Victoria's beloved little Pekingese Looty, one of the first Chinese lap dogs ever seen in this country and memorialised in a very cute oil painting. But the dog's appearance belied a shocking story. Looty, as the name implies, had been looted by the British after they had razed China's summer palace to the ground, destroying priceless works of art and massacring the staff in what would now be called a war crime.

Finally we tell the story of one of the most secret, desirable and scandal-hit of all the royal residences: The Royal Lodge. Once a symbol of the excess of George IV, and bulldozed and rebuilit by his son, in recent years it has been a home to Prince Andrew. We explore how his older brother King Charles has attempted to get the place renovated while moving out his scandal-hit brother, and why he has (so far) failed.

We uncover secret stories of palace duty: including Queen Elizabeth II's final balcony appearance; how not to look after the Crown Jewels; and Kate's first palace assignment abroad.

This time, we uncover secret stories of palace retreats, as Sandringham is rocked by a mysterious shooting, we unearth the secrets of the ultimate seaside palace and we reveal how the late Queen's war-time escape led to one of Windsor's best kept secrets.

But first we tell the story of the royal retreat that made the Queen cry: her floating palace, Britannia. It was the only home the Queen ever chose for herself and its loss prompted the only public tears most royal watchers ever saw Her Majesty shed. We explore the yacht's hidden history and unravel why its loss caused such public sorrow on its decommissioning at Portsmouth dockyard.

Staying by the sea, we reveal the secrets of George IV's magnificently weird seaside palace, Brighton Pavilion, including how it was inspired by a stable-block in the garden and why the palace's finest showpiece room was reserved for the servants.

Historian Prof Kate Williams reveals some of the darkest secrets of the royal retreats including the astonishing story of how King George V's doctor hurried the dying monarch to his death at Sandringham without consulting the King, in order that his death could be reported in the morning's Times rather than (heaven forbid!) in a lower-class evening paper.

Still at Sandringham, we investigate another mysterious death, or rather deaths, after the shooting of two highly endangered Hen Harriers, a crime carrying a six-month prison sentence. The police officially named Prince Harry a suspect, to huge royal embarrassment, yet with no carcasses recovered no charges were ever brought and the crime remains unsolved…

Finally we tell the story of one of Windsor's best-kept secrets, prompted by the future Queen Elizabeth II's escape to the palace during the second world war. With the historic paintings cleared from the walls for fear of bombing, a local teenage student was called on to create some decoration for the Waterloo Chamber – all to fit with the pantomimes the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret staged there. To this day the charming pantomime pictures hide behind the grand oil-paintings in this grandest of rooms.