The Queen Launches YouTube Channel

Posted on December 23, 2007

The Queen of England and the British Monarchy have launched a YouTube Channel. The Channel will features The Queen's Christmas message as well as current and historical footage of the monarch and other members of the Royal Family. The site contains a number of videos already including this video clip of the Queen's Christmas broadcast from 1957.

Among the older clips is footage from a film by Lord Wakehurst called Long to Reign Over Us, which has never been released to the public.
The former Tory MP, who died in 1970, was a keen amateur film maker and charted many key royal events, including the death of King George VI, the Queen's accession and her coronation.
The site also has footage of Queen Alexandra's West End tour among the rose-sellers in 1917, and silent newsreel of the 1923 wedding of the Duke of York and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon - the Queen's parents.
Announcing the launch of the channel, a spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace said the Queen "always keeps abreast with new ways of communicating with people".
"She has always been aware of reaching more people and adapting the communication to suit," she said.
"This will make the Christmas message more accessible to younger people and those in other countries."

The BBC says this year's holiday address will appear on the site at about 1500 GMT on Christmas Day.