Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images
MARGARET: THE REBEL PRINCESS
Director:
Hannah Berryman
Premiere:
BBC (September 2018)
About:
A two-part docuseries exploring the rebellious life of Queen Elizabeth’s younger sister, Princess Margaret.
Popularized for a modern-day audience by the series THE CROWN, Margaret Rose Windsor was a boundary-pushing public figure at a time of great change in Britain. Hannah Berryman’s two-part biography draws from an extensive archive as well as the reflections of close friends and associates, plus appealing animation, to offer an entertaining and illuminating sense of the ever-unpredictable iconoclast who transformed the public’s idea of what a royal should or shouldn’t do. Taking a strictly chronological approach, the first part briefly sketches out Elizabeth’s path to the throne, and the resultant impact on her sister Margaret, who dutifully fulfills royal obligations but eventually attracts media attention for her affair with the older, married Peter Townsend, and later due to her romance with the womanizing commoner Antony Armstrong-Jones. The second part follows the troubled path of that marriage, her sensational trip to America, divorce, and further scandals, as Margaret rides the wave of societal changes that bring more and more scrutiny to the monarchy.
what (not) to doc 