Prince Philip: The Plot to Make a King

Prince Philip: The Plot to Make a King reveals the inside story of the dynastic tensions that were unleashed when the Queen fell in love with Prince Philip – tensions that would place huge strain on the royal marriage, and would shape the future of Elizabeth’s reign. The film, made for Channel 4 by Blakeway, will expose the extent to which the royal and political elite disliked Philip for his German connections, looked down on him for his lack of education, and questioned whether he would be faithful to Elizabeth. Moreover they disliked his larger than life, ferociously ambitious uncle, Lord Louis Mountbatten. Drawing on unpublished memoirs and candid interviews with Lord Mountbatten’s daughters, the film will show how Philip and Mountbatten were manoeuvring for a royal marriage as early as the winter of 1939-40, when the Queen was just 13 years old. The film also features an interview with Philip’s nephew Prince Rainer von Hessen who shares the unpublished memoirs of his mother – Philip’s sister. In them she describes a private lunch with Hitler and her initial admiration for him. Her husband would become an SS colonel, and the head of one of the Nazi intelligence agencies – explaining much of the hostility Philip would suffer in Britain. The film will lay bare the difficulties and frustrations of the Royal marriage as the Queen struggled to reconcile the love of her husband with the suspicions of her family and her government.