(MOMENTOUS MUSIC) Through all their years together, the Queen and Prince Philip would always look forward to returning to Windsor ` to the castle they called home. As the world reflects on the extraordinary life of the Duke of Edinburgh, we remember him in the place which meant more to him than anywhere. For you, is this place home? Yeah, for most of the time. Yes. I mean, don't forget, no one has lived here ` for goodness knows how long ` until we decided that we would use this. And so we've lived here as in a home very much more so than everybody since, perhaps, Queen Victoria. Well, in fact, since Queen Victoria. (MOMENTOUS MUSIC) Filming for more than a year at Windsor, we had the unique opportunity to see the Duke in his own domain. On his rounds of the great park,... Morning. ...through the castle's ancient rituals,... Rationally, it's lunatic. Morning. ...even as a royal retailer. Any good, are they? Beautiful. Absolutely excellent. Organic, surely? (CHUCKLES) Yes. The Duke would be the perfect guide to a world he knew better than anyone. Through it all, he brought a quick wit to royal occasions... Well, I'm glad you noticed. ...and was always ready to speak his mind. Well, a mausoleum is a mausoleum. There's not much you can say about it. Windsor would also reveal his creative side. The idea was that the bottom would be the fire, and then show the castle, in a sense, re-emerging in the sunlight. And it would bring back memories too. We Seddon to have Christmas here. It was very popular with all the young. (CHUCKLES) With his unrelenting drive and energy, the Duke will be remembered not just for what he achieved, but for the way he did it. Fair to say, in a way, sir, you're a bit of a royal rebel. No, I'm not a rebel. No, I wouldn't call that. Innovator, perhaps. (CHUCKLES) www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2019 (EXPECTANT MUSIC) (EXCITED CHATTER) Windsor Castle has stood here for nearly 1000 years. The ancestral seat of the monarchy and a thriving estate, it's a home and workplace for hundreds of people. But no one in modern times has had more impact on Windsor than this man. To most of the world, he was known as Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. But here, he had another, more ancient title ` Ranger of Windsor Great Park. And for the first time, he's taking a film crew with him on his rounds. Are you all right there? Yeah, I'm all right actually. In a way, it's easier if I go forward. Royal salute. Present... arms. The Queen put the Duke in charge of all of this in 1952 when she came to the throne. This is going to work. Is it? Oh, there we go. Before then, he'd been a rising star in the Royal Navy. At Windsor, he had to adapt quickly to a very different role. Where did you learn all about` I mean, to be Ranger, you've got to know a fair bit about forestry and farming and... Well, you pick it up as you go along. In fact, I did. You didn't go on any, sort of, crash-course in agriculture? No, no. I think` It sounds crazy, but I think 13 years in the Navy teaches you quite a bit about administration and coping with curious things. This is where the Head Keeper lives. This is ` up here ` is where George IV kept his menagerie. He had giraffes and various animals that he was given and they all were all accommodated up here, and I think that went with it. Never thought about bringing the giraffes back, sir? Nope. (CHUCKLES) The Duke might not have shared the exotic tastes of his predecessors, but he would revive and transform much of the estate. I was looking for, but I can't see any of the deer. They're on the left. Oh, they're down there, are they? When he first arrived here with the Queen, the priority was still growing crops for a ration-book nation. This used to be arable all through here. During the war it was all ploughed up. But it's lousy. I mean, most of it's clay. It's almost impossible to do... And then we had cattle on it, and it was all fenced-in. We came to the conclusion that it was a very messy business, and it wasn't profitable. And so we decided to put it back to a deer park. The last lot of deer were taken out of here during the war and sent up to Balmoral. But there have always been deer here, so at least we brought back their descendants. So that all this is now open park, which is think is a very much better arrangement than it was before. I mean, looking at this, though, surely it was the right thing to bring back the deer park` Well, I'm glad you agree. (CHUCKLES) Before we go, sir, just because we've got the Copper Horse there, I just wondered if you could briefly explain to us, sir, what's going on over there. There's the sun and there's the Copper Horse. What do you mean? Well, do you want to tell us about the Copper Horse? I don't know anything about the Copper Horse, except it's George III. And why it's called the Copper Horse, I haven't a clue. The statue of George III may command the Windsor landscape, but it was another royal ranger who really inspired the Duke ` Prince Albert, husband and consort to Queen Victoria. This is the Prince Consort's farm. It was designed by him and is a dairy farm. We got about 200 Jersey cattle in here. Prince Albert revolutionised farming at Windsor. And his ground-breaking dairy was nothing less than a work of art. As Albert's great-great grandson, the Duke was keenly aware of his legacy. Do you feel that, personally, given that Prince Albert and Queen Victoria were descendants of yours, as well as the Queen's? No, we are descendants of theirs. Sorry. (CHUCKLES) You're right. They're ancestors of yours. Does that give you` Does that make you feel a particular attachment to the place? Given that the Prince Consort did so much for this place, as you've done. Well, that's, in a sense, almost a burden because I would try and live up to it. To live up to his abilities, which is pretty difficult. But one thing he did share with his royal ancestor was an eye for detail. The great thing about these is they live a long time. They're quite small. They're very efficient. I mean, they're not as productive as the normal Friesians, but I think they're more thrifty, in a way. In Albert's day, all the food for the castle would have been produced on the estate. Times have changed. The difficulty is that we're either here by ourselves or we've got 100 people living in the place. You know, if you've got a green house, you need to have a sort of constant production. It's much more expensive growing our own stuff than getting it from Tesco or whatever it is. But the Duke realised that there were lessons to be learned from the supermarkets. He opened a shop of his own. Are you going to the farm shop now? Do you want to do that? Yeah, I think that would be good. We'll try and get there, but I don't know whether we can. Yeah, we'll go. Years ago` Oh, it must of been 30 years ago, I suggested that we ought to have a plucking and packing... facility somewhere in one of these buildings for the game that comes off here and also for the other properties. And I thought that we'd be able to develop a market for oven-ready pheasants, partridges, grouse, duck, whatever. So we converted the potting sheds here into a farm shop. This is quite funny. This pub here is now called the British Raj` I think, isn't it? I mean, it's still got Lord Nelson's` Yes, British Raj. It used to be called the Lord Nelson. It's now called the British Raj. Good idea. You can see there's quite a lot of people using it. The Duke's farm shop sells produce from across the Windsor Estate. Great Park venison, grass-fed beef, even ice-cream from the dairy. Look what's happened. It's full now. (CHUCKLES) Morning. Morning. Is he going to stop? Oh, all right. Most of this stuff comes either from the Crown Estate or from local producers. Morning. Morning. Any good, are they? Beautiful. Absolutely excellent. Organic, surely? Yes. Yes, they are. Very tasty. All the butchering is done at the back there or right here in front of everybody. And the majority of this comes from off the estate, but a lot of it comes from other local producers. And then there's quite a lot of stuff over there which comes from the Duchy Originals. I think we're going to, sort of, clog up the system if we stay in here much longer. (CHUCKLES) Morning. And then we also produce apple juice at Sandringham and that gets sold here as well as there as well as goes to... I think to Waitrose. I think they take it as well. The art, I've discovered, is that you can get lots of customers, but if you don't get the pricing right, you lose money. If you can get the pricing right without hurting anybody's feelings, you make a certain amount of money. (UPBEAT MUSIC) Like the farm shop, the castle must get its pricing right too. It's tourism which pays the bills and maintains the treasures of the Royal Collection. And when the Queen and the Duke moved in here, they wanted the public to feel more at home too. '52 is fairly soon after the war, and nothing much had been done to the castle, as you can imagine, on a major scale. The first things that we did were to redecorate most of the public rooms. What tended to happen because the people who put them on display were, in a sense, curators, they tended to put all the Holbeins in one room and all the, whatever it was, you know, Gainsboroughs in another. And I said, 'Well, I didn't think that suited a house.' You didn't normally in a house` You wouldn't normally have a kind of gallery display. I mean, at one stage the State Bedchamber or something, I forget what it was called, I mean, had about 30 or 40 Canalettos ` all like a stamp collection, you know. Anyway, so we dispersed them and made it completely different collection. So less of a museum and more of a home? Well, that was the intention, yeah. * (WHIMSICAL MUSIC) While visitors fill Windsor every day, the castle remains a family home too. And the Duke was always adding personal touches. Friends had some of these parakeets or budgerigars as so we thought we got some of those. And then I thought it would be rather fun to have some doves floating about. Problem is they get nicked by sparrowhawks and things, but on the whole, they exceeded their` Their breeding seems to keep up. He even designed a new water feature for the garden. The East Terrace, I thought originally was rather... elaborate and confusing, and there used to be a bronze, sort of, figure of a chap strangling a snake or something in the middle of the thing. So I took it away and designed that thing ` the fountain. It's rather nice. Well, I think it's rather nice, anyway. As well as a new fountain, the Duke felt that the layout of garden needed attention too. The original beds were rather, sort of, complicated, and they didn't seem to fit very well. So I got an artist friend of mine, and together we made a model of this ` of the whole of this ` and tried various arrangements of it, and eventually settled on this sort of cartwheel thing. These are all rose beds, which makes it, in a sense, relatively easy to manage. And they're, sort of,... different colours, but they match each other. And then the Orangery, which was unused, we've made a swimming pool in it. We used to have Christmas here. It was very popular with all the young. Still gets used. Do you ever use it yourself, sir? Yes, I use it. Yeah. (CHUCKLES) (TRANQUIL MUSIC) Long after the children had grown up and had children of their own, they would always return to Windsor for Easter, a tradition the Queen and Prince Philip maintained throughout their life together. In our early years, the whole of the year was dominated by school holidays. So, in practice, what we did was we came here for the Easter holidays, and we still do. And in many ways, it works quite well because our children, knowing the routine, tend to come back for part of the holidays. And the grandchildren get brought with them. And so it forms a nice, kind of, annual structure. For the Duke, Windsor was full of memories. And some of the most precious are stored safely away in the very heart of castle ` the Round Tower. Tell us a little about what goes on in the Round Tower cos it is the most prominent bit and yet it's the most protected bit. It's the, sort of, the centre of the castle. Well, no, because it's a working establishment. It's got the photographic collection, it's got the archives. I mean, the accumulation of material is phenomenal. (STIRRING MUSIC) So much of the Duke's life is remembered here ` the Queen's too. Photographs of a growing family, the Duke's royal tours around the world, memories of wartime Windsor, when a young Prince Philip dropped in on leave from the Navy while Princess Elizabeth starred in the Christmas pantomime. But this family home, with its treasured contents, came dangerously close to disaster one cold November day in 1992. The Duke keeps a memento, salvaged from the ashes. I thought it was rather fun. A reminder of the` Because it finished` It stopped here, at the end of this room, the fire. If you look carefully, you can see that the gilding there is slightly brighter than it is down there. That's new and that's old. And it came to about here. (SOMBRE MUSIC) The Windsor fire raged day and night, devouring one great room after another. The blaze had swept through the public part of the castle, but there would be no public money for repairs. In spite of this being a state property and this part of it is not inhabited by us anyway ` It's all public. It's all open to the public. The House of Commons decided they weren't going to spend any money on its restoration, so we were rather stuck with it. In a way, it was a blessing because from then onwards, we didn't have to content with a paymaster and having to satisfy anybody else. There would still be battles ahead. The Duke tried to pre-empt them. I was pretty sure that there would be a lot of establishments that would be expected to take an interest in it, and I thought that it was better to get them in on the decision side, rather than let them criticise the decisions afterwards. Hence the Restoration Committee, which included anybody I thought that might be involved or might be able to voice criticism. I said, 'Well, let's get them on-side.' There was certainly no shortage of opinions. Some even proposed that the damaged part of the castle should remain a ruin. By great good luck, I think it was Country Life, sponsored a kind of public competition for redesigning the place. The designs were so awful that everybody was quite convinced that the best thing to do was to restore it to where it had been before. Frightful designs, coming in the early days` Suggestions, yeah. I mean, there was one where they were going to leave the roof open` Yeah, and grow mushrooms in it or something. Yeah. Tell me about some of the worst ones. Oh, I don't know. You go and look at it. I don't know... (CHUCKLES) They were universally ghastly. There was one unexpected benefit. The fire revealed long lost parts of the castle. This... was cut off here, and all this was found, in a sense, as a result of the fire. Because this was the kitchen entrance here, until they built this bit on. And, of course, about a third of the roof in the kitchen was damaged or destroyed. During the repair work, much of the original great kitchen was revealed and restored to its medieval glory. And this was` Nobody knew this was here. These slots were for a portcullis to come down. But did you want to go into the chapel? Yes, we'd love to. A new private chapel now commemorates the blaze. When I got back after the fire, and looking at all this destruction, it struck me that you could just fit a chapel into here because before that the chapel was also a passageway. And obviously, the most striking thing in here, sir, is your stained-glass window. Well, it's not mine. Well, I've seen your original design for it. Well, I suggested this sort of general idea. Well, the idea was that the bottom would be the fire ` and show the firefighters. And then the idea was that the smoke would turn into the trees, and then show the castle, in a sense, re-emerging in the sunlight. (STIRRING MUSIC) That St. Michael was there, but he'd lost his arm. He's literally the only survivor, but he looks a little uncomfortable without any arms. (CHUCKLES) The restoration not only came in under budget, it also captured the public's imagination. The castle emerged from the fire more popular than ever. Visitor numbers soon exceeded a million a year, with millions more enjoying the park. It wasn't like this in years gone by. George IV, believe it or not, would not allow anybody into the Great Park at all ` not even his household. Nobody else was allowed in. And how many people come today into the Great Park? God knows. I mean, you saw them all. You saw them all wandering around here. And we're delighted to share it with` I mean, the community shares it. They share the golf course, and they can take their dogs for a walk and that sort of thing. People come from all over to walk about in it. Good heavens, I mean, compared to most people we're extremely fortunate to have any open space at all. The Duke may not have been as protective about the park as his predecessors, but as Ranger, he did lay down one or two new rules. The sign saying the speed limit is 38mph. (CHUCKLES) I haven't seen those anywhere else. Well, I'm glad you noticed. Well, when there was... I forget. I suppose it must've been the European Union. I thought that sooner or later we'd be going into kilometres. And I thought that ` what is the likely speed limit going to be in kilometres? And I thought it might be 50 or something like that. So I said, 'Well, let's put it into miles.' And I said, in any case, if we say the equivalent, which was 38, people will actually say, '38?' (CHUCKLES) Because if you just put up 30 or 40, people just take it for granted, and I thought 38 might just... It was just a joke, obviously. Has it worked, do you think? No, I don't think so. (CHUCKLES) Well, he noticed it anyway, which is something. * The speed limit wasn't the Duke's only bright idea for curbing the traffic. This area here used to be very popular for pop concerts. And this is a sort of picnic area. People used to drive all over the place. And when you had a pop concert, all the... pushers and everybody drove on to the grounds. So one of the things we tried to` tried to keep people from driving on to this ground. And I suggested we put up these rails. Low enough to discourage drivers but quite easy to step over. So that's why they're here. The interesting thing is the other day they wanted to replace them with wooden ones. I said, 'Well, these things have lasted for 30 years. Why do you want to change them?' And you can't barely see these, anyway. But that's why they're here. And this is where they had the pop concerts. Do you remember which bands came? No, I don't. The pop concerts are long gone. But the Duke would introduce a different sort of outdoor entertainment. On the other side of the Great Park is Smith's Lawn. * The speed limit wasn't the Duke's only bright idea for curbing the traffic. This area here used to be very popular for pop concerts. And this is a sort of picnic area. People used to drive all over the place. And when you had a pop concert, all the... pushers and everybody drove on to the grounds. So one of the things we tried to` tried to keep people from driving on to this ground. And I suggested we put up these rails. Low enough to discourage drivers but quite easy to step over. So that's why they're here. The interesting thing is the other day they wanted to replace them with wooden ones. I said, 'Well, these things have lasted for 30 years. Why do you want to change them?' And you can't barely see these, anyway. But that's why they're here. And this is where they had the pop concerts. Do you remember which bands came? No, I don't. The pop concerts are long gone. But the Duke would introduce a different sort of outdoor entertainment. On the other side of the Great Park is Smith's Lawn. Once an old airfield, it now stages international polo. (WHISTLE TRILLS) It's a sport the Duke fell in love with during his Navy days. I was sent out to Malta when I was still in the Navy, so I did most of my initial polo playing in Malta. When I came back, the nearest club was Cowdray, so I played there. But I found going to-and-fro to Cowdray once or sometimes twice took and awful lot of time out of the weekend when,... you know, miss the children and that sort of thing. So eventually I thought it might be an idea to start a polo club here somewhere and hit on this place. (PLAYERS SHOUT, COMMENTATOR SPEAKS) Today, Smith's Lawn is one of the most prestigious polo grounds in the world, hosting hundreds of matches every year. It's actually quite popular. And when there's a polo tournament going on here, there's the Windsor Park Equestrian Club going on here, there's probably 1000 horses on Smith's Lawn. In time, the younger royal generations would come to enjoy Smith's Lawn too. COMMENTATOR: Lucky, from Prince Harry. And polo now has its own place in Windsor's long equestrian tradition. (WHOOPS) (AUDIENCE APPLAUDS) Windsor, horses and the Royal Family have been part of local life for centuries. 300 years ago, Queen Anne was riding not far from the Castle when she came across a heath near the village of Ascot. Perfect, she thought, for racing horses. CHANTING: We want the Queen. We want the Queen. The Royal Family have enjoyed racing at Ascot ever since. And the local community have always enjoyed the procession through the park, pulled by the famous Windsor Greys. For the Queen, racing would always be a highlight in the calendar. For the Duke, it had a more practical appeal. The racing gives all the guests something to do. Because, you know what it's like. If you have a weekend or a week, people, if they wander about with nothing to do, they become a nuisance. But that forms the kind of bones on which the whole of the rest of the entertainment takes place. (HORSES THUNDER, ANNOUNCER SHOUTS) Royal Ascot has always been about dressing up, as well as enjoying racing of the highest calibre. (AUDIENCE APPLAUDS) The Duke was happy to play his part. But it was no secret that he preferred an event where anyone could compete. The Duke was a long-serving president of the Royal Windsor Horse Show, and always enjoyed its family atmosphere. Like his Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme, the show has always given the younger generation a chance to prove themselves. It features top international competition too. And a sport for which the Duke himself became famous. He even wrote the rulebook. I was president of the International Equestrian Federation back in the '60s. And there was some carriage driving competitions in Europe. But there were no international rules. So I got involved in writing those and it was just the time that I was giving up polo. And so when I was looking around at what else to do, I thought I might as well have a go at this driving business as we had horses and carriages and things in London. So I found myself competing under a set of rules for which I'd been largely responsible. And also the whole, sort of, organisation of the` That's the water splash for the drive over there. And so I took it up and much to my surprise, it not only became popular, but we had international competitions almost at once. And I found myself being selected for the British team. Long after his international days were over, the Duke was still competing against drivers half his age. It wasn't easy viewing for some spectators. The Horse Show was also a chance for the Duke to bring his side of the family to Windsor too. Rather than just being here on our own and just going to the Horse Show of our own interest, we gradually built up a habit of inviting guests and usually` it always included members of my family. All came from Germany or wherever. We sometimes had other guests who would also be competing. I mean, quite frequently people, their daughters or something, are riding in the Horse Show. And then people would come ` they're judges ` and get involved. So it's now quite a major kind of social event within the Castle, which I think everybody enjoys. I know from time to time people have sort of said the Duke will soon be retiring from carriage driving. No indication` No. He will be, yes. But I don't know when yet. Do other members of your family keep pressing you to retire? No, no, no. No, no. I think we` (CHUCKLES) We tend to let each member of the family get on with whatever lunacy they feel like indulging in. (CLEARS THROAT) A couple of herons sitting there. There's a heronry in this field here. They come in large numbers, as you can see. Would this be a good point, sir, just for 30 seconds just to continue talking about your carriage driving, about the Show here outside the car? Outside the car? Yes, it's just that` He's getting cramped is he? (CREW LAUGH) This will all be the new area of the new Show? No. On that net side there. The far end of that. Well, there's no good doing it with that over the top, anyway, is there? One of the problems when they try and do the Christmas broadcast here, is that they have to do it in little 30 second slots. (AEROPLANE ROARS OVERHEAD) You must get used to it. Well, the` Well, you don't, really. It's too bloody racket. More than nine centuries after a castle appeared at Windsor, Heathrow Airport was built next door. At least 1200 aircraft come and go each day. If the wind's from the east, then all the landing aircraft go over, so in fact it's noisier if they're landing. If they're taking off, they disperse before they get here. The famous story, of course, is that the passengers are shown Windsor Castle as they go in. An American tourist was heard to say, 'Well, why did they build the castle so close to London Airport?' But planes mean visitors. It's places like Windsor with their history and tradition which help draw the world to Britain. Windsor Castle Guard! By the left! Quick march! One of the most popular spectacles here, as it is as Buckingham Palace, is changing the guard. And the Duke would bring another palace tradition to the Castle too. Now, from time to time, Windsor's grandest rooms are transformed. The longest table in Britain takes shape in St George's Hall. Guest suites are made spotless. When world leaders fly in, Windsor is ready to welcome them. We have coming up a major state visit, but in general terms` Well, we've had state visits here. Absolutely. I mean, many. And` I initiated that idea. There was absolute hell to pay when I first started it. Oh yes, they all fainted dead away. They couldn't conceive of transferring the pattern of state visits in London to Windsor. Remember the first one? How did you explain the first one? With difficulty. (CHUCKLES) What was the main objection to moving? There wasn't objection. It was just the, 'Ye gods, how are we going to organise it?', you know ` 'What are we going to do about the Household Cavalry?' 'Where's the Guard of Honour going to be?' 'Where's the procession going to go?' 'Where are we'` You know, there's a sort of, 'ye gods, now what?', you know? The palace traditionalists might have needed some persuading. Not so, the Queen. No monarch in history has hosted more state banquets. Or inspected more table arrangements. HM the Queen: I think it's all right. Mm. Ma'am, it looks lovely. So, I sit here and he sits there. Is that right? Yes, ma'am. And this you can see round? Yes, ma'am. If you can't see around it, you can't see what's happening on the other side of the table. And also we can read. Good luck. (CHUCKLES) It's quite, um` When people come in, it's quite something, isn't it? It is, ma'am. It's absolutely gorgeous. CHEF: Nice and hot. Keep the door closed. For all the grandeur, state occasions are about the personal touch. (GRAND VIOLIN MUSIC) There were state visits here before. I mean Napoleon III came here, the king of Portugal came here. So going that far back, it was used for state visits. But the pattern was rather different in those days. Windsor has since worked its charm on many world leaders. But it wouldn't have happened without the Duke taking on the old guard. It would be fair to say in ways, though, you were a bit of a royal rebel. No, not a rebel. No. I wouldn't call it that. Innovator, perhaps. (CHUCKLES) * (BRIGHT MUSIC) The Duke's innovations are everywhere at Windsor. He was one of the first to install solar panels in the 1960s, and the castle is now powered by hydroelectricity from the River Thames. He even hatched a scheme to generate power from his Windsor cows. That great tank there is the remains of an attempt to have a... biogas plant. We thought we'd, um, try and put all the manure in from these two farms, and then it went through a digester,... and, uh, it comes out as, sort of, fertiliser and produces some gas as well. Um... Unfortunately, the digester blew up, so we had to get rid of it. (CHUCKLES) It's quite difficult to get it right. (PLEASANT MUSIC) But the pioneering Duke drew the line at drilling for oil below the East Terrace. Talking of other ventures ` I mean, another one that was mentioned a few years ago was the possibility of oil. Is there any oil under Windsor? Well, yes, it's true. It all seemed to be absolutely dotted, and somebody wanted to put an oil rig on the East Terrace ` well, not on the East Terrace but the east slopes ` because there was suspicion there might be some oil down below. But that seemed to be nonsense, because you don't have to drill straight down anyway. They could've put the thing anywhere if they wanted to drill sideways. But, um, the idea that we'd have an oil rig actually on the east slopes seemed to be so ludicrous that (CHUCKLES) it eventually died a death. A more recent idea which would bear fruit was the new vineyard. The Duke invited one of Britain's top growers to produce Windsor's answer to champagne. 16,000 vines were planted in the Great Park. (PLEASANT MUSIC) But it was planting trees which excited the Duke most of all, and he had very particular views on how it should be done. If you don't have them all the same age, you know, you're constantly fiddling with... You never... You get a few trees that are mature in one place, and then you get a whole lot of young trees somewhere else. And the difficulty is unless you do it all together, you can't be sure` or at least it... it seems that the next generation forget or don't bother to see what the interval is so that the next lot they plant are not at regular` at the same interval. So it all looks rather messy. Now, uh,... how am I... You get a lot of interference? Yes. Endlessly. Bug hunters... or whatever you like to call them. They descended on us some time ago and made the most appalling fuss, to the extent that it's been almost impossible to take down dead trees or even to remove dead branches. One avenue named after Queen Anne would prove particularly controversial. I got a bloody nose by suggesting replanting Queen Anne's Ride. Uh, all hell broke loose amongst the tree huggers and all the people who thought we were destroying the oak trees. I mean, can you imagine? There were a few decrepit old things and a few that were planted in the wrong place. It seemed absolutely crazy not to straighten it out and... As I say, we planted a thousand oaks, so what was wrong with that? Trees would not be the only controversial subject discussed at Windsor. Next to St George's chapel, the Duke helped to establish St George's House, a centre dedicated to debating society's greatest challenges. The plan was to use the prestige and privacy of Windsor to bring together people who might not ordinarily meet. The Duke imposed just one condition; all conversations at St George's House would remain private under what's known as Chatham House Rules. It's very difficult to... persuade people... persuade` to allow people to say what they think if they're going to be published, because the trouble is that if you speak in public, you're always speaking... with the media in mind, with critics in mind, with people with other points of view in mind, so you tend to tone it down. The great advantage of Chatham House Rules is people can speak their minds, which is very important, because very often, it's only when people hear what they say that they know what they're thinking. Can you give us an example, perhaps, of a conference or a seminar there that somehow changed the way we think on a particular contemporary matter? Who's we? Uh... (CHUCKLES) You? (CHUCKLES) Well... Do you mean to say that you think anybody can influence how the media thinks? (LAUGHS) You must be joking. (CHUCKLES) St George's House has gone on to organise consultations on every pressing topic, from climate change to disease. I mean, it's a very dynamic body in a very ancient setting. How do you think being inside a castle...? I mean, the two seem slightly at odds, and yet it seems to work very well, but maybe these old walls, you know... Well... Yeah, but walls don't dominate the inhabitants. You just live in what you've got. (CHUCKLES) You know? I mean, I... When I come here, I don't become a medieval... It's ridiculous. I'm still who I am living in the 20th century` or the 21st century. The fact that we live in old walls doesn't make a blind bit of difference. (GENTLE PIANO MUSIC) Towering above St George's House is St George's Chapel, the spiritual heart of the castle. Built in the days of knights in shining armour, St George's has been a place of royal worship for centuries. Many monarchs have been buried beneath these flagstones, and the Duke chose this as his final resting place. Beside the chapel live a band of retired soldiers who have a unique responsibility. Let's have a look at you, Peter. Yep, smart as a button. Known as the Military Knights of Windsor, their role through the ages has been to pray for the Royal Family and for the Monarch's most trusty supporters ` the Knights of the Order of the Garter. The Duke himself was part of the Order. The Military Knights ` what do they bring to the Windsor tapestry? Oh, a bit of pageantry, and of course, they live in the Lower Ward, which means they bring life to that. And they` What they're supposed to do, of course, is to pray for the Knights of the Garter. Whether they actually do that or not, I'm not so sure. They used to have Naval Knights, but they behaved so badly that they were virtually closed down. (CHUCKLES) When was that? Oh, about the 18th century sometime. Do you feel well prayed for by the Knights? Oh, quite adequately, yes. (CHUCKLES SOFTLY) (BAGPIPE MUSIC PLAYS) As well as daily public worship, St George's Chapel is the setting for private royal occasions too. During our filming at Windsor, there was a family funeral here ` that of the Queen's aunt Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester. The funeral of Princess Alice ` that brought to mind the way in which it is for all the... the full panoply here. It's also very much a family place. Do you feel that makes it more of a spiritual home than anything else, that family funerals tend to happen down here? They don't happen all that often. (CHUCKLES) I know, but, well... No, it's part of the... the whole ethos of the place. I mean, we have christenings in the chapel, for instance, as well. We haven't had... Yes, we had a wedding not very long ago. These are the elements of the family corporate existence, if you know what I mean. And I think that's what gives it its attraction and its strength, which is a community, and it's a living organism inhabiting this ancient establishment. You know, William the Conqueror built his castle up here, and it's been occupied virtually ever since. (MELANCHOLIC STRING MUSIC) The whole Windsor community comes together for these royal occasions. And everyone, both family and staff, play a part in the grandest event of the year. Each June, the Knights of the Garter gather at Windsor. Their ranks include former politicians, diplomats, admirals, generals and explorers,... Good morning, Sir Edmund. How are you? ...all chosen personally by the Sovereign. The Knights and Ladies of the Garter are all invited to a special lunch. We put the white wine, the red wine in all the tables, with the water jugs, and the beers` we only put the beers on the Duke's table,... Righty-ho. ...because it's only the Duke who's going to have one. Afterwards, the Military Knights begin the procession down the hill to the Chapel. And in their velvet robes and plumed hats, the Garter Knights and the Sovereign join the parade. (GENTLE PIANO MUSIC) It was the Queen's father, King George VI, who resurrected this medieval tradition. That was the initiative of King George VI, who, um,... took a very keen interest in the Garter, which had slightly lost` Yes, it was an order, but there was nothing associated with it. And so he decided to reinstate the whole business of the Garter procession and the Garter service. King George made Prince Philip a Royal Knight of the Garter in 1947, just before his marriage to Princess Elizabeth, and he would take part in more Garter ceremonies than any knight in history. Royal salute! Present... arms! It's a nice piece of... pageantry which I think a lot of people enjoy. It looks... I mean, rationally, it's lunatic, but in practice, everybody enjoys it, I think. (GENTLE PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES) Wherever the Duke went at Windsor, he was surrounded by tradition and history. That was` That was a present to Queen Victoria by the Maharaja of somewhere, but I can't remember which one it was. Is that a dog grave there? Dog grave? Just there. Yes, looks like it. (CHUCKLES) They're dotted about all over the place. Depends where they die, I think. In one corner of the estate stands Frogmore House and its gardens ` a royal retreat since Georgian times. Do you come down here very often, to these gardens? Um,... I drive the... ponies around here, yeah. And, yes, it's used quite a lot, because when the Queen comes down here, she takes the dogs out here, because it's enclosed anyway so... to keep` well, hopefully to keep the rabbits out, which is not very successful. It's easy enough to drive a team of horses or ponies around here. It's not so easy to drive a car round. That's Queen Victoria's... mausoleum. This is the sort of family burial plot. You can see where the Duchess of Gloucester was buried the other day, here. Maybe we can stop here, sir. With what end in view? To talk about the mausoleum and... (CHUCKLES) A mausoleum's a mausoleum. There's not much you can say about it. It'd be much easier to take a picture of it. Well, I just think it would be a good way to take a picture of it and you. Would that be all right, sir, very quickly? (CHUCKLES) All right. (GENTLE PIANO MUSIC) The... Well, it was built in the Prince Consort's day, and he was put in there, and then she was added much later. (GENTLE PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES) There was one last monument that the Duke did want to visit. He'd chosen the spot himself, overlooking the grounds where the Queen had learnt to ride as a child. The location, he felt, was perfect. Once again, though, he had a few things to say about the trees. This is a circle of limes which I want to take down, which everybody tries to... they want to keep. I can't understand why. You'd like to get them to remove the limes? Well, I'd like to start again, but, you know... (INTERVIEWER CHUCKLES) Well, one's gone, and I think it's too small anyway. They could make it a bit bigger. And you're never` That one's never going to catch up with these. And tell us about the statue there. Was that a long process, getting that...? Well, the Crown Estate decided they wanted to do it, and then, of course, the question was ` where did they want to put it? I had no difficulty... in deciding where I wanted to put it. It was here. But it took some time to persuade them. (CHUCKLES) Have you always thought of having it here? Well, it's a good place, don't you think? Very. It's... Does it have an exact distance from the castle...? No, no, no. No, no. It's just on a hub. But it's... You can see it from down that way, and it's a bit higher than down` Where else would you put it? (GENTLE PIANO MUSIC) Through the centuries, few have been quite as devoted to Windsor as the Duke ` or left such a lasting impression. Thanks to the longest-serving Ranger in its history, Windsor Castle and its community can look to a future that is solid and secure. What are you proudest of, that you've achieved here? Well, I think, in modern terms, the fact that it's still going. I mean, people forget how much any organism needs to be kept going. The fact that it is going, still, after 50 years ` that's not bad going, because if you hadn't done it, something worse might have occurred. Great place for crows, this. (CHUCKLES SOFTLY) Windsor and the House of Windsor will never again have anyone quite like the Duke,... What are you doing about lunch? ...not that he sees it that way. I'll ask again in another way ` what would you like to be your lasting legacy? (SIGHS) Would you go through life trying to make a legacy? (CHUCKLES) No, I mean, I think to try and create a memorial to yourself while you're alive is slightly indecent, I think. I'd rather other people decided what legacy I'd left. I'm not trying to create one. (CHUCKLES) I mean, life's going to go on after me. If I can make life marginally more tolerable for people who come afterwards or even of the time, I'd be delighted. (HAND BRAKE CLICKS) Thank you very much indeed. See you later. (PLEASANT MUSIC) Captions by Ella Wheeler, Joshua Tait and Alex Walker. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2019