Unofficial Royalty

Few royal documentaries achieve a high viewing standard, perhaps because rarely do we actually hear royalty themselves do the talking. Narrated entirely in English, the Danish produced six-part series, A Royal Family, is the exception – and what a brilliant exception it is! From the story line to the music score, A Royal Family is a superbly produced and not-to-be-missed documentary.

Following the remarkable family of King Christian IX and his consort, Queen Louise, A Royal Family takes viewers on a journey back through history and, through the Danish monarchs’ children, we travel across Europe, as each of their progeny make poignant impressions in a number of countries on the Continent.

For those presently unfamiliar with the Danish monarchs, King Christian IX and Queen Louise had six children – Frederik, Alexandra, Wilhelm, Dagmar, Thyra and Valdemar. Denmark, at the time, was not one of Europe’s power-houses but the marriages of these royal Danish children earned their father another title, “The Father-in-Law of Europe”. In the ilk of his British counterpart, Victoria, Christian’s children and their descendants linked the Danish Royal House to most Royal Houses in Europe.

Today, the tiny future monarchs of Europe - Prince Christian of Denmark, Princess Elisabeth of Belgium and Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway - as well as Prince William of Wales, Guillaume, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and the Prince of Asturias can all trace their family back to King Christian and Queen Louise.

Not only is A Royal Family a fascinating story, it is an astounding accomplishment for its creator, Anna Lerche, who managed to convince 29 members of Europe’s royal houses to participate in the series. And, unlike any royal documentary before, apart from the narrator of the story, only descendants of King Christian and Queen Louise tell the story.

Anna Lerche herself has an interesting background. She was born in Lerchenborg Castle in Denmark in 1961. http://www.lerchenborg.dk/ Her brother, Christian Lerche-Lerchenborg, now runs the Castle and Anna, married to a lawyer, Klavs von Lowzow, works for the Nordisk Film in Copenhagen.

She and her husband live much of the time on their family estate, Estruplund, in Jylland (Jutland). Her current project is an international documentary on the life of Danish writer, Karen Blixen (once portrayed by Hollywood’s Meryl Streep in Out of Africa). Anna has been kind enough to give us some insight into the making of “A Royal Family”

Anna, thank you so much for taking the time to talk about the series.

Christian IX. How did your interest in him and Queen Louise begin?

I’ve always liked biographies. The story of “The Father-in-law of Europe” has fascinated me since I read the books “House of Glücksborg” written by Bo Bramsen. It is an amazing story, telling European history through one Royal Family and that gave me the idea of producing an international documentary series which has never been done before.

You certainly aimed high in deciding to make the series with the cooperation of Christian IX’s descendants – almost dauntingly so! Of the twenty-nine who agreed to participate, who and when was the first royal to agreed to collaborate on the project?

HM the Queen of Denmark was the first one to convince that the project was a good idea. Without the Queen supporting the project there was no way we could continue asking the rest of the European Royal Families. They would all have said no as they would ask the Danish Queen first.

We were very proud when we received her acceptance. It was also necessary for us to have Royal participants who could tell family anecdotes and, most importantly; European history - as there are no journalists or historians appearing in the series.

The only ‘disappointing’ note – and I say that lightly - about the series is that it didn’t feature King Carl Gustav of Sweden or his children, Queen Elizabeth II or Prince Philip. Were they asked if they would like to participate?

The Swedes do not descend from Christian IX and as for the British Royal Family, we did ask the Queen and the Prince Consort. The Queen never participates in documentaries, however the Prince Consort was very helpful answering questions - but not in front of the camera.

We choose HRH Prince Michael of Kent as he has great knowledge about the British and the Russian part of the family. We also spoke with Lord Harewood as he was the oldest grandson of King George V and therefore able to tell us about the king whom he remembered very well.

Had you met any of these famous faces before?

Yes, I have met the Danish Royal Family several times.

There were so many interesting characters - past and present - studied in the series. (Personally, I loved the fire-fighting French princess, Marie; Queen Alexandra of Great Britain’s account of her sister, Princess Thrya’s proposal to Prince Ernst August and Grand Duchess Josephine Charlotte of Luxembourg recounting some of her life as a royal princess). Are there any particular stories of the family that amused you?

Well, I knew many of the stories from my research but it was wonderful to talk to Grand Duchess Josephine Charlotte as she had so many wonderful stories to tell.

She had never before in her life been interviewed – not even by a newspaper or magazine - and we got three hours on tape with her! That was a very special treat for all of us. She got very ill shortly after and we are pleased she managed to see the part about Frederik VIII from whom she descends, before she passed away. She was very satisfied with the result.

How long did you spend interviewing Queen Margarethe II?

A total of two days. The Queen also followed the project through the four years it took to produce. I interviewed her one day and a week after we did the pictures of Her Majesty and the Prince Consort. Those things took a long time as we wanted to assure the best quality every time we started filming.

Did you get any feedback from Her Majesty once the series was completed?

Yes indeed! The whole Danish Royal family were very pleased by the result. And I understand from the Queen that the whole of Europe spoke - and still speaks about the series - every time they meet for a wedding, an anniversary or a funeral.

A Royal Family is unique, in that apart from the narrator, only members of Europe’s royal families speak during the programme. You undoubtedly became quite an expert at handling protocol over the production time! Nevertheless, there must have been some stressful moments in such a huge production. Can you share any personal anecdotes with us?

Actually, there weren’t really any stressful moments. The crew were all well-educated in the Royal protocol. We all knew how to address the Royal members. For some of the crew it became easier, of course, after having met a few of the Royal Family members. With most of the participants we did have a meeting the day before the filming. This was necessary as we wanted them to talk about all the branches of Christian IX’s descendants and we needed to know what they could tell. In that way, we could get the family members in all six programmes and this would show that they are one big family.

To be able to produce such a series, I needed to know about all the Royal stories much better than the family so I could follow their answers. Therefore, the (pre-filming) meetings were very good, as they all felt secure and this eased-up the atmosphere. We always used several hours talking family history. Consequently, the day after – when we were filming – they were all very relaxed and obviously trusted me to handle the situation properly. I could even ask them to tell the story again if I needed for instance a shorter version.

Today, the Danish royal family appears to have mastered the art of being royal in modern times. (Perhaps I’m biased, being Australian!) Looking at King Christian IX’s immediate family, it seems that even that far back, the Danish family was comparatively relaxed, appeared less detached and shared a warm rapport with the people. How do you feel the Danish royal family has managed to remain so popular for so long?

Probably because we have a very intelligent Queen, a very warm-hearted Consort, a down-to-earth Crown Prince and a very knowledgeable Prince Joachim. Crown Princess Mary and Princess Alexandra are both very respected by the Danish people and they do a lot of work representing the Royal Family. Most importantly, they have both produced successors!

Surprisingly, given that matched marriages were popular in the past, countless love stories unfold during the series. Do any, to you, stand out?

Well, I am fascinated by the fact the Princess Dagmar is taken over by the next in line when her fiancée and heir to the Russian throne Nixa dies in Cannes. You can learn to love. And that she did with Nixa’s little brother, Alexander (III) of Russia.

Then there is also the story of Princess Thyra and her staging of the meeting with Ernest August. The times were different from today and royalty at that time simply had to accept what was arranged. That didn’t mean they did not have another life beside their marriage. This counts for both men and women!

Speaking of royal marriages, was there some kind of scandal when the present Queen of Denmark’s father called off his engagement to Princess Olga of Greece to marry Princess Ingrid of Sweden?

I am afraid I really don’t know about this. As far as I remember, the engagement was called off a long time before Queen Ingrid came into the picture.

Christian IX’s youngest daughter, Thyra, had a particularly interesting relationship that produced an illegitimate daughter. Does anyone know what became of this baby girl when she was adopted in Greece?

No not really. After Bo Bramsen’s books were published in 1975, several people claimed to be descendants of Thyra’s daughter. We decided not to go into this matter as we would never get to know the truth and, mind you, in our series we mention that the story tells this…

Some members of the family were dethroned and exiled, others met unusual deaths and some were even assassinated. Is there someone in the family who stands out as having a particularly unfortunate life?

I believe the Greek Royal Family. They were dethroned not by the Greek people but by the Great Powers, as they did not want to take part in the wars around Greece. Prince Philip – for example - cannot have had a wonderful childhood always on a forced run-away from his home…

A Royal Family is full of never-before seen home movie clips and photographs. These offered a rather fascinating insight into how the royal families of Europe lived in private. Were they something you hoped to include from the beginning or were they offered for inclusion along the way?

We asked the Royal Families if they had private films and photographs. They were all very helpful and we were lucky that so many Royals through time had found it interesting to make films. The result made the series extraordinary.

Both Queen Victoria of Great Britain and King Christian IX of Denmark managed to marry off their progeny far and wide. What was the relationship like between the two monarchs?

Well, there wasn’t much of a relationship. Actually the Danes hoped to marry-off Christian (IX) – at that time he was only a Prince and not heir to the Danish throne – to Queen Victoria. And, to be honest, I believe she was not interested at all. She didn’t count Denmark for anything and she only took Princess Alexandra as a daughter-in-law because the selection of German Princesses at that time was very poor. Besides that, Alexandra was beautiful and she came from a country with no political influence what so ever.

Finally, thank you for the chance to learn more about A Royal Family. Can we expect to see any more royal documentaries from you in the future?

A very good question! It’s very expensive producing a series like this and we need foundations to help pay for it. The story of Christian IX and his descendants is extraordinary and, if we do another series, the story has to be as good as this. But you never know. We could do the story of Queen Victoria and her descendants if the British Royal Family will participate – which probably will only remain a dream.

- Gioffredo Godenzi
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Readers who would like to purchase the six-part series can do so at: http://www.moviezoo.dk under the title 'En Kongelig Familie'.
Everything is in English except from the cover of the DVD.

The following descendents of Christian IX and Queen Louise participated in the series:

Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia
Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, Prince of Savoy (Italy)
Anne, Former Queen of Romania
Anne-Marie, Former Queen of Greece and youngest sister of the current Queen of Denmark
Benedikte, Princess of Denmark (Sister to the current Queen)
Dimitri Romanov, Prince of Russia
Donata Mecklenburg-Solodkoff, Duchess (Germany)
Elisabeth, Princess of Ysenburg und Büdingen (Germany)
Fleming, Count of Rosenborg(Denmark)
Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark
Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway
The Earl of Harewood, (United Kingdom)
Harald, King of Norway
Heinrich, Prince of Hanover (Germany)[Brother of Ernst August]
Joachim, Prince of Denmark
Joséphine-Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (Born Princess of Belgium)
Constantine II, Former King of Greece
Margrethe II, Queen of Denmark
Margarita, Princess of Romania (Eldest child of King Michael and Queen Anne)
Michael, Former King of Romania
Michael, Prince of Greece
Michael, Prince of Kent
Nikolai Romanov, Prince of Russia
Paul Kulikovsky, (Descendent of Empress Marie of Russia) [Lives in Denmark]
Louise, Princess of Prussia (Germany)
Olga Romaoff, Princess [Lives United Kingdom]
Sonja, Queen of Norway
Valdemar, Count of Rosenborg(Denmark)
Xenia Kulikovsky, (Descendant of Empress Marie of Russia) [Lives in Denmark]