The Way Ahead group: Modernising the Royal Family

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2020

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

Prince Harry and Meghan’s announcement that they will step back from their royal duties is not the first time the British royal family has tried to reform itself from within. In 1992 Queen Elizabeth had what she called her “annus horribilis” . It was the year that her sons Prince Charles and Prince Andrew both separated from their wives, while her daughter Princess Anne got divorced - and it was also the year that Windsor Castle caught fire. The Way Ahead group was set up by senior members of the royal family and some of their closest advisors to make sure that Britain’s monarchy stayed relevant in the modern age. Lucy Burns speaks to Charles Anson, who was the Queen’s press secretary at the time.

(Photo: Queen Elizabeth II makes her "annus horribilis" speech at London's Guildhall, November 1992. Credit: Anwar Hussein/Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
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1:14.0	history told by the people who were there.
1:16.0	I'm Lucy Burns and today as the British Royal Family
1:19.0	continue to deal with the fallout of Prince Harry and Megan's decision to step back from
1:24.2	royal duties, we're looking back at a previous attempt by the monarchy to reform
1:28.8	itself from within in the 1990s, when beset by scandal and struggling to remain relevant in the modern world,
1:36.2	senior members of the Royal Family and their advisors set up the Way Ahead Group to plan for the future.
	...

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