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Princess Margaret: The Rebel Royal

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Factual: Life Stories

Intimate series profiling Princess Margaret.

Intimate series profiling Princess Margaret, whose life and loves reflected the social and sexual revolution that transformed Britain during the 20th century.

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Princess Margaret: The Rebel Royal: Series 1: Episode 2: Castaway

Castaway

Episode 2

Episode 2: Castaway

Series 1

BBC Two - Princess Margaret: The Rebel Royal, Series 1, Castaway

Following Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong-Jones at the start of their married life

Intimate series profiling Princess Margaret. The second film finds Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong-Jones at the start of their married life in the early 1960s.

The second film in this intimate portrait finds Princess Margaret and her husband Anthony Armstrong-Jones at the start of their married life in the early 1960s. At home with celebrities and artists, they are riding the wave of a cultural and sexual revolution that is transforming Britain.

In 1965, they set off on an official royal tour of the United States. From California to small-town Arizona, the royal couple promote Britain by day and party by night. They attend a dinner with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in a world where Hollywood royalty increasingly competes with the real thing. In Britain, the press starts to ask if the extravagant royal tour is a good way to spend public money. The mystique of monarchy is being increasingly undermined by the emergence of a more open and egalitarian society.

In the years that follow, Anthony Armstrong-Jones begins to withdraw from royal duties and the couple lead increasingly separate lives. Press speculation about the state of their marriage intensifies. In the 1970s Margaret retreats more and more to the Caribbean island of Mustique in an attempt to secure a private life. In an era of celebrity gossip and the telephoto lens, her relationship with a younger man and beach parties with rock stars like Mick Jagger lead to ever more press interest. As Britain lurches from one economic crisis to the next, Margaret's Caribbean lifestyle becomes the lightning rod for republican attacks on the monarchy.

In 1978, Margaret reflects changing attitudes sweeping the country and gets a divorce. The rebel royal is now increasingly eclipsed by a new generation of princesses. But in her own way, Princess Margaret helped pave the way for them and for the monarchy of the 21st century.

Contributors include Lady Anne Glenconner, a childhood friend who became her lady-in-waiting, Jane Stevens, one of her closest friends, Basil Charles, the owner of a bar on the Caribbean island of Mustique, David Griffin, Princess Margaret's chauffeur, and Craig Brown, her unofficial biographer.

Princess Margaret: The Rebel Royal: Series 1

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Princess Margaret: The Rebel Royal

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Episode 2: Castaway

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