The Real Prince Philip: A Royal Officer

NARRATOR: For over seven decades, as husband to the queen, Prince Philip stood center stage in our national story.

Since joining the British royal family right up until he retired in 2017, he has been cast in many roles.

Rebel.

He just couldn't quite resist breaking the rules a bit.

NARRATOR: Modernizer.

Prince Philip pushed the royal family into the 21st century.

NARRATOR: And campaigner.

Millions of people will go without water.

NARRATOR: But how well did we really know Prince Philip?

With access to unseen archive, the places that shaped him, and rarely seen footage-- And suddenly you realize that life is for real.

NARRATOR: --we'll unlock the truth of this most misunderstood of royals and reveal that his extraordinary early years in the Navy laid the foundations of every later achievement.

Exceptionally strong personality.

NARRATOR: From the childhood tragedies-- That was the end of Prince Philip's normal family life.

NARRATOR: --to the private triumphs.

The queen knows he had her back all the time.

Never a question.

NARRATOR: The heartbreaks.

Prince Philip's own early years did echo those of his grandsons.

NARRATOR: To the wartime heroics.

He could so easily have been killed.

NARRATOR: This is the story of the real Philip, an officer and a prince.

On June the 10th, 1921, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark was born on the island of Corfu.

He was sixth in line to the Greek throne.

His mother was 36 at the time, and the local doctor was concerned as much as anything about her age and where was the most suitable place for her to-- to give birth.

He decided, for reasons best known to himself, that the place to do it was the dining room table.

NARRATOR: At the time of his birth, Greece was at war with Turkey.

After the Greek army was finally defeated, the monarchy was deposed, and Philip's family were forced to flee the country.

When the family went into exile, it was a British warship that carried them away from Greece, that picked up the 18-month-old old Philip.

NARRATOR: After a brief stint in Great Britain, the family relocated to Paris.

When they were living in Paris in exile, of course, they had to depend upon richer relations.

They had no money at all.

That was an unhappy phase.

NARRATOR: Philip was the youngest of five children, with four older sisters in their late teens and 20s.

But even as the baby of the family, he proved to be a strong personality.

SARAH GRISTWOOD: Philip was meant to be a playful, quite tough-minded, a very physically beautiful child, those Viking looks that were remarked on later in his life.

The young Prince Philip had sort of showed all the drive and energy and enthusiasm that the later Prince Philip had.

NARRATOR: At the age of eight, he was sent away to boarding school in Surrey, England.

Soon after he started, his mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, fell ill with a serious psychiatric condition.

She was speaking of herself as the bride of Christ, believing she had connections also with other spiritual leaders like the Buddha.

And then one day, come 1930, Prince Philip's grandmother takes him out for a picnic, and when he comes back, the men in white coats have taken Princess Alice away.

And fundamentally, he has no contact with her, or very, very minimal contact with her for, really, about eight years.

There were various theories about, you know, what had caused all this.

But, I mean, I think at this distance, one can't be absolutely sure what it was, whether it was some kind of bipolar illness or just a sort of accumulation of life's pressures.

NARRATOR: Shortly after Alice was admitted to hospital, Philip's father, Prince Andrew of Greece, moved away from the family home.

He'd spend a lot of his later life living on the French Riviera with a mistress, living the life of a playboy.

Prince Philip held his father in very high esteem, and, in fact, when I wrote a book, he bridled at every point that I mentioned his father.

He thought his father was a good father, but he didn't actually convince me that he was a good father.

He said, for example, I had a holiday of three days with him every summer.

Well, that's not really my idea of being a good father.

That was the end of Prince Philip's normal family life, and from there on, he didn't really have a home.

And Prince Philip was basically effectively orphaned at that time.

NARRATOR: When Philip was 13, he was sent to the newly established Gordonstoun school in Scotland.

With an unconventional curriculum and ethos, it had been set up by German educationalist Kurt Hahn.

Kurt Hahn was a maverick, very enlightened in many ways, very tough in others.

He believed in breeding self-reliance.

He believed in a physically quite demanding regime.

The dormitories were incredibly spartan.

They had to sleep with the windows open during the winter so that snow would come in the windows.

NARRATOR: Reports on Philip's time at the school show he thrived under the Gordonstoun regime.

LISA KERR: One of the real things you can see in his life that began at Gordonstoun was his love of the sea, and he was involved in sailing locally, but also in more adventurous activities, including sailing to Norway.

In this, Prince Philip's seamanship instructor says, "He proved himself to be a cheerful shipmate.

He is thoroughly trustworthy and not afraid of dirty and arduous work."

NARRATOR: In his final year at the school, Philip was given the highest responsibility possible for a student.

We see the list of helpers and captains for the Easter term, 1939.

And guardian is Prince Philip of Greece, guardian being the head boy.

So he's made his way right to the top.

You wouldn't have got to be guardian without being a real leader, someone who, through leadership, demonstrates compassion, kindness, caring, service, support.

I would say a really rounded kind of leader.

NARRATOR: It was at Gordonstoun that Philip would suffer one of the greatest tragedies of his early life.

On the 16th of November, 1937, his sister Cecilie was flying from Germany to England with her husband and children.

Over Belgium there was a lot of fog, and the pilot decided he needed to land, and when he came down, he hit a brickworks chimney, and everyone onboard was killed.

One thing you should know about Prince Philip is that the worst moment in his life was when he was called into his headmaster's study at Gordonstoun to be told that his sister had been killed in a plane crash.

NARRATOR: Philip's biographers have come to believe the emotional upheavals of his childhood left a lasting impact on his personality.

The traumas of his early life surely would have made Prince Philip learn to keep a lot of things inside, a lot of things to himself.

One psychiatrist has said that for someone with that background is likely to have become a highly defended personality.

It's very obvious in interviews, for example, that Prince Philip doesn't really do feelings.

NARRATOR: In 1995, journalist Richard Astbury interviewed Prince Philip about his war experiences for the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.

RICHARD ASTBURY: I think the minute we walked into Buckingham Palace, he definitely wanted to rule the roost.

I'd heard that he'd been a bit curt and abrasive with journalists.

I was a little bit nervous at first because I wondered how he would treat me.

NARRATOR: Parts of this interview have never been broadcast before.

For Richard, the encounter was an unexpected insight into Prince Philip's personality.

I felt very much all the way through the interview that he wanted to be in charge.

How did the war years shape your character?

No idea.

No idea.

He doesn't like self-analysis, does he, at all?

Is it possible to recall any of the emotions that were felt when you were under attack?

[laughs] No, I don't think so.

I mean, there's so much to do.

You know, you're so occupied that you-- and everybody knows what they're doing.

It's very difficult.

You can't sort of sit back and say, well, what do I feel like today?

RICHARD ASTBURY: No, no.

I know it's a favorite question.

Everybody says, what does it feel like to do this?

What does it feel like to do that?

I mean, what does it feel like to do this?

[laughs] RICHARD ASTBURY: I don't know.

I wonder whether I'll be asked in many, many years' time.

And now I am being asked.

[laughs] When we were talking about emotions, he didn't go that extra mile because I don't think he really wanted to.

Prince Philip goes to a lot of trouble to hide what he's feeling.

He learned to keep things inside when he was young.

NARRATOR: In spite of all the challenges of his school days, when he came to leave Gordonstoun, the headmaster was confident Philip was heading for success.

The report that is written about Prince Philip, and it says that Prince Philip had, "The greatest sense of service of all the boys in the school.

Prince Philip is a born leader, but he will need the exacting demands of a great service to do justice to himself."

If you test young people, if you challenge them, then you will discover the truth in our motto, which is plus est en vous.

It means, there is more in you.

And it's really clear from this that Prince Philip really rose to that challenge and shone as a result of it.

NARRATOR: At the start of 1939, Prince Philip enrolled at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth.

He was following in the footsteps of his uncle, Louis Mountbatten.

Also known as Dickie, Mountbatten would go on to be the first sea lord of the Navy.

His Uncle Dickie took him under his wing and said, we're going to make something of you my boy.

And the most obvious thing for him to do is to do what the family had done for generations, and that is go to sea.

Join the Navy.

NARRATOR: Louis Mountbatten had high expectations of his nephew Philip.

Lord Mountbatten was a controversial personality, to put it mildly.

He was openly, nakedly ambitious for his family, and at Dartmouth, Prince Philip had a very successful career.

He was built for it.

He took charge.

He took charge even when he wasn't supposed to take charge, which was the story of his-- lot of his life, anyway.

He excelled at Dartmouth, rising to be top cadet in his year.

NARRATOR: In July 1939, the Naval college hosted some high profile visitors, the royal family.

And guess which cadet was appointed to look after them?

It was Prince Philip, and there's not much doubt that one can detect the hand of Lord Mountbatten there.

NARRATOR: At the time, Louis Mountbatten was a captain in the Navy.

He was also a royal aide-de-camp, making him a personal assistant to King George VI.

He certainly decided that he would like his nephew to marry the future queen of England, but he knew he had to be very careful and not too pushy.

But, of course, naturally being a sort of flamboyant character that he was, he got quite carried away and really pushed hard.

NARRATOR: Philip was given the task of chaperoning the two young princesses, eight-year-old Margaret and 13-year-old Elizabeth.

Prince Philip was detailed to show the young princesses around, have tea with them, entertain them, and there's a photograph of Philip and Elizabeth talking together on a croquet lawn.

Her governess, Nanny Crawfie, reported how the young Princess Elizabeth had obviously been all of a glow about her cousin.

You know, this-- this wonderful, tall Viking god of a young man.

NARRATOR: As the royal party left, Philip made one final impression on the princess.

Mountbatten said to him, now, you get in that skiff, which is a light rowing boat, and when the royal yacht leaves, you row after her and you wave like a loony until you can't see her anymore.

And he rowed after the royal yacht, you see.

And the two princesses were on the stern of the royal yacht, and he waved, and they waved.

And these royal waves, they cemented something which was going to last 70 years.

NARRATOR: Six months after this first meeting, 18-year-old Philip joined the war effort.

By the start of 1941, he was serving on a battleship in the Mediterranean, HMS Valiant, where he would come face to face with the realities of war.

A lot of 15 inch guns going off, which I hadn't heard before, and the whole-- I mean, it made even big ships like that rock about of it.

And then the Italians had the effrontery to shoot back.

So it's quite interesting to hear these things whistling over and landing in the water with a great splash beside you.

You suddenly realized that life was for real.

He could so easily have been killed.

It was an appallingly dangerous situation.

NARRATOR: In March 1941, Philip was involved in the Battle of Cape Matapan on the southwest coast of Greece.

After nightfall, his ship came upon the Italian Mediterranean fleet.

And it's in the dark, and then you've got the two fleets coming together, not quite knowing where they are, and they gave him a searchlight.

NARRATOR: Philip's operation of the searchlight would turn the course of the battle.

Philip turns his searchlights onto the side of another ship.

So he calls up to the bridge, I think we've got a ship, sir.

Can't have been more than about 2,000 yards or something.

The beam wasn't big enough to-- to cover the whole cruiser, really.

And so somebody said, train right or something, because-- and there was another cruiser and so on.

And with that, everybody started shooting, whereupon they didn't really need much illumination after that.

[booming] NARRATOR: Government documents held in the National Archives reveal how crucial Philip's contribution was to the British victory at the Battle of Cape Matapan.

The documents that sits alongside the log is the recommendation for Prince Philip to be mentioned in dispatches.

"His Royal Highness Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, a midshipman in the Royal Navy, was searchlight control midshipman during the Battle of Cape Matapan.

The successful and continuous illumination of the enemy greatly contributed to the devastating results achieved in the gun action."

This isn't just going about your day job.

This is a significant observation about his-- his character.

NARRATOR: After their first meeting at Dartmouth Naval College, and throughout the war, Philip and Princess Elizabeth wrote to each other.

The princess must have written to Philip to thank him for looking after them and being so charming and showing them around, and I think that he probably then wrote back to her, and that's how they built up this correspondence.

NARRATOR: When Philip returned from war in 1945, the relationship gathered pace.

There is evidence that Philip was beginning to have real feelings for her as well.

The butler at his uncle's house noticed that he had a photograph of Princess Elizabeth in his travel luggage.

NARRATOR: But the king and queen viewed their daughter's new relationship with suspicion.

Philip's family background in particular was an issue.

His mother, Alice of Battenberg, was established German aristocracy.

His four sisters had married Germans before the war broke out, three to members of the Nazi party.

I think his German connection certainly did not appeal to the queen mother, because she did not like the Germans at all, and she had actually lost a brother in the First World War to the Germans.

She used to call Philip the Hun.

Anyone that had any German connotation was disliked.

So Philip was just-- couldn't have been more wrong.

NARRATOR: As Philip was seen by Elizabeth's side with increasing regularity, speculation began in the press.

He's seen putting a coat over Princess Elizabeth, and, you know, the press are terribly romantic people, as you know, and they thought that was very significant, and they weren't wrong on this occasion.

NARRATOR: The engagement was announced on the 9th of July, 1947.

And just shortly before the wedding, he drove his car.

I think he hit a tree and went into a hedge, and there was huge press reports, and he suddenly couldn't believe it.

Why is anyone interested that I dented my car and put it in-- into a hedge?

This was the beginning of the-- the sort of media war, if you like, with Philip, which has lasted his entire life.

It's ironic that one of the last moments that he had a very hard time was when he crashed his car at Sandringham.

NARRATOR: Before he could marry Elizabeth, Philip needed to be given a royal title.

George VI chose one that Philip became known by for the rest of his life.

He had to have a standing, and he had to have a standing that was a royal standing.

There was one which was the most important.

That's the Duke of Edinburgh.

NARRATOR: The wedding between Philip and Elizabeth was scheduled for November 1947.

At the time, Britain was still recovering from the war.

Bread was being rationed.

Sugar was rationed.

It was all miserable.

And what they really, really, really needed was a good royal wedding.

And, indeed, the nation totally got behind the wedding.

NARRATOR: Crowds packed the streets of London to watch Princess Elizabeth arrive at Westminster Abbey.

[majestic music] 200 million more around the world listened to the radio broadcast.

People loved it, and the princess had a beautiful dress, and Prince Philip looked wonderful in his Naval uniform, so it really caught the imagination of the nation.

The wedding day put Prince Philip on the grand national and international stage, where he would remain for the rest of his life.

NARRATOR: Although Philip was now the most famous newlywed in the country, he continued to move in the same social circles.

He kept up his attendance at what was known as the Thursday Club in London's Soho.

The press, I think, used to sort of describe these events as rip roaring stag parties.

At that young age, he probably would have been fooling around anyway.

But you can't do that if you're now the new royalty.

There were sort of all stories about certain actresses.

There's always been speculation as to whether anything more went on than, you know, conversation.

Perhaps a little flirting, a little fun.

And he wasn't going to turn around and say, no, that's not true.

Because to deny rumors was to take part in the rumoring.

NARRATOR: Two years after the wedding, Philip got the career break he'd been waiting for.

He was given command of a ship in Malta, HMS Magpie.

The men on HMS Magpie, they really liked Philip.

They called him Dukie.

I mean, he was a hard taskmaster, and his ship had to be the best.

That was, really, the motto of his life.

I must be the best at everything I do.

I think Malta must have been a wonderful phase for them, a relaxed form of life, really, and-- and everything that he-- he would have enjoyed.

And Princess Elizabeth probably led the most normal life that she ever has done, in that she could drive her own little car around the place.

She could go shopping.

She could go to the cinema by her-- with her friends.

She could go to polo matches, and-- and they would dance together in the evenings and have a lovely time.

NARRATOR: The royal couple's Mediterranean life was not to last long.

King George VI had been unwell for some time with a smoking-related disease, and they returned to Britain so Elizabeth could take on his public duties.

Their 1952 tour to Africa would be Elizabeth's last as a princess.

There's very poignant images of him saying goodbye to his daughter and son-in-law, because there must have been a suspicion on both sides that they might not meet again.

NARRATOR: Philip and Elizabeth were in a Kenyan national park, spending the night in a treetop lodge, when the king died.

She didn't, as she came down the tree, realize that, in fact, by then she was queen.

But what an extraordinary way to start a reign, if you think about it.

Prince Philip just put a newspaper over his head.

Well, I mean, it was a monumental shock to him.

He knew his life as he knew it was over.

NARRATOR: The change to Philip's relationship with Elizabeth was apparent from the moment they returned to Britain.

HUGO VICKERS: There are very, very dramatic images, symbolic in a way, of the queen coming down the steps of that plane, dressed in black, to be met by gnarled old ministers like Churchill and Eden and Attlee and others at the foot of the steps.

Philip loitered for a moment behind, and that is the way it would be for the future, life several steps behind his wife, the queen.

[somber music] NARRATOR: In 2012, the queen celebrated her Diamond Jubilee.

Speaking to a packed Westminster Hall, she made special reference to her husband, Prince Philip.

QUEEN ELIZABETH: Prince Philip is, I believe, well-known for declining compliments of any kind.

But throughout, he has been a constant strength and guide.

NARRATOR: In the audience was former Naval captain Christopher Lee.

CHRISTOPHER LEE: It sort of had that look about it.

I've been meaning to say this for a long time, and I thought, yes, there is the truth of him, the queen's most loyal subject-- always had been, in spite of the difficulties.

NARRATOR: Philip's position as the queen's most valued supporter was hard won.

When Elizabeth acceded to the throne in 1952, he had no clear role.

At the palace, there was great suspicion of him.

He wasn't someone who'd gone through all the aristocratic rituals.

He came from a very different place, and a lot of the courtiers didn't like that.

He had a sports car and his Naval pay.

He didn't have a home.

He didn't have anything to which he could bring to the marriage apart from himself.

NARRATOR: Philip set about finding ways that his new home, Buckingham Palace, could be run more or efficiently.

SARAH GRISTWOOD: You know, he went around asking everyone what their function was, suggesting that it was no longer practical or, indeed, hygienic for footmen to powder their wigs, and sending a footman with messages from one room to another was not necessarily, in the age of the telephone, the best way to go.

NARRATOR: Philip's ideas on how to reform and modernize the royal family put backs up in government.

SARAH GRISTWOOD: Winston Churchill, who was re-elected into power, did not see the point of Philip at all.

He was very suspicious of him.

NARRATOR: Philip soon found himself shut out from much of palace business.

He was asked once, were people telling him what to do?

And he said, no.

All he was being told was what not to do.

NARRATOR: To add insult to injury, Philip was soon to learn that his children would not take his name, Mountbatten.

The whole point is Mountbatten becomes a family name, but it's not the household name.

It's not the-- it's not the crown name, and the crown name remains Windsor.

NARRATOR: Philip argued that his children could take both names, Mountbatten and Windsor.

Previously undisclosed documents revealed this issue was being discussed at the highest level, Prime Minister Churchill's cabinet meetings.

The first item on the agenda, which is connected to the name of the royal family.

So you see here, the cabinet was strongly of the opinion that the family name of Windsor should be retained, and they invited the prime minister to take a suitable opportunity to make their views known to Her Majesty.

NARRATOR: Shortly after, the queen declared that her and Philip's children would take the name Windsor.

This is effectively the final word in that story.

This is Churchill and the cabinet getting their own way.

Prince Philip famously said that he was the only man in the country who couldn't give his name to his children, saying, what am I, just a bloody amoeba?

NARRATOR: Soon after Philip had been rebuffed over the naming of his children, he was finally given an official project.

He was appointed head of the Coronation Commission.

Perhaps Philip's biggest contribution to the coronation was his part in deciding that television cameras, for the first time, should be allowed inside the abbey to watch the ceremony.

NARRATOR: Philip's role in the coronation symbolized his standing as the queen's servant.

SARAH GRISTWOOD: He rode with the queen in the great gold coach to Westminster Abbey, but there he did not walk alongside her.

She entered.

She possessed up to her coronation alone.

NARRATOR: Philip was the first of the senior peers to pay homage to the queen after her crowning with the words, "I, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, do become your liege man of life and limb."

He was no longer in the Navy, but his role was to support the queen and the institution which she represented.

NARRATOR: In the years following the coronation, Philip still struggled to find a purpose for himself within the royal family.

But in 1956, he founded an organization that has made a significant contribution to the social fabric of Britain, the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme.

It was inspired by his school days at Gordonstoun and the ideas of his childhood mentor, headmaster Kurt Hahn.

I think Kurt Hahn really believed that young people were capable of great things.

He believed that young people thrived through responsibility, through being of service to others, and through being challenged.

Gordonstoun students were recognized for their contribution across a whole range of areas.

NARRATOR: In collaboration with Kurt Hahn, Philip devised a scheme that challenged young people to volunteer in their communities, learn new skills, and undertake expeditions.

18-year-old Georgina Horwich used the skills learnt through the Duke of Edinburgh Awards to overcome a potentially life-changing injury.

GEORGINA HORWICH: I was horse riding, and I got chucked off a horse and landed slightly awkwardly and damaged the lower bit of my spine, which then caused me to be in, like, excruciating pain all the time.

And then, by the end of it, I wasn't walking.

NARRATOR: The lessons learned from the Duke of Edinburgh Awards helped Georgina through 12 weeks of hospital treatment.

GEORGINA HORWICH: People do approach challenges differently once they've done DofE.

Come back and you go, right, this is tough, but I've done something harder, so I can just push through this.

NARRATOR: Georgina recovered and went on to win the highest award on the scheme before going on to university.

The Duke of Edinburgh Awards have helped 8 million youngsters across the UK and Commonwealth achieve their potential.

LISA KERR: So it's a really great example of how Gordonstoun impacted Prince Philip, and through that, how Prince Philip had gone on to influence young people all around the world.

NARRATOR: Philip used his global public profile to champion causes close to his heart.

In particular, he has been a passionate advocate for conservation, and in 1961 became president of the UK branch of the World Wildlife Fund.

He was very aware of the dangers to the planet very, very early on, and I think that he was very much ahead of his time.

There is a point at which the world will not support the major species like ourselves.

I mean, it simply, it will collapse.

And what will happen, I imagine, I don't know.

It's a terrible thought that people, millions of people, will go without food.

Millions of people will go without water.

Some of the things he said, especially about conservation and what's going to happen to our planet, are literally just being repeated by his-- you know, repeated by his children and his grandchildren and other people today.

I name the ship Britannia.

[cheering] NARRATOR: Philip's modern outlook was soon put to good use on a major project, the royal yacht Britannia.

I often think that Prince Philip enjoyed himself far more when he was at sea, when he was in a ship.

NARRATOR: Philip became responsible for the layout of Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia.

He employed modernist architect Hugh Casson to design the interiors.

In Philip's study, a telling detail harked back to his happiest days in the Navy.

On the wall was a model of HMS Magpie, which he obviously treasured greatly.

NARRATOR: The Magpie was the ship Philip had commanded in Malta.

Prince Philip was always a Naval man at heart, and he-- he missed that role desperately.

If you talk to a sailor, he will tell you the best ship that he was ever in was his last ship, and it becomes the most important ship in his life.

That was the Magpie.

NARRATOR: Philip took the royal yacht Britannia on a tour of the Commonwealth in 1956.

He stopped at countries that had never been visited by royalty.

SARAH GRISTWOOD: It showed how Philip could be an arm of Elizabeth's queenship, how he could represent her, how he could extend her reach farther than-- further than she was able to do herself.

NARRATOR: As the royal yacht made its way back home after four months away, press speculation began as to why Philip had been away from the queen for so long.

INGRID SEWARD: People couldn't understand why the queen wasn't in Gibraltar to meet him after he'd been away for four months, and that's when all the stories blew up about Prince Philip having a woman in every port.

SARAH GRISTWOOD: Buckingham Palace, most unusually, had to take the step of actually denying reports that there was any rift.

So then the papers really ran with it.

NARRATOR: The royal family's relationship with the press became increasingly strained.

But far from shutting them out, Philip believed the media could be used to build more openness between the royals and the British public.

In 1957, he even presented BBC program The Restless Sphere to engage the public in one of his personal passions, science and technology.

Radio engineers aim their transmissions in such a way that it bounces off this ionized layer back to the receiving station, rather like a billiard ball bounces off a cushion into a pocket.

Philip was a modernist, so he saw the advent of television as being a positive thing and to be embraced.

CHILD: Mummy, may I have my puppy?

Well, we'll see if she's allowed out in the snow.

NARRATOR: It was Philip's idea to make a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the royal family, showing them going about their everyday lives and revealing the intimate details of their family relationships.

HUGO VICKERS: I think they had to accept that television was very much a part of people's lives and they would want to see a little bit about what went on behind the scenes.

Certainly very popular at the time.

NARRATOR: Philip was seen at his most honest and natural as both a father and a husband, making jokes at the family table.

I asked when I arrived, and I said, where's the king?

And they said, oh, he's-- he's in the garden.

And I went out and there was nothing to be seen except a lot of terribly rude words and language coming out of a rhododendron bush.

So I eventually found him there, hacking away, wearing a bearskin cap.

You know, he was getting ready.

NARRATOR: The documentary, broadcast on both BBC and ITV, was watched by over 30 million people in 1969.

In spite of its success, Philip's idea for a TV program was controversial.

SARAH GRISTWOOD: The jury is still out on whether the documentary Royal Family was really a good idea or a bad one.

I mean, in a sense it let the genie out of the bottle, but the queen then ordered it should be locked in the vaults, and has not been seen in its entirety since.

NARRATOR: In 2006, Prince Philip visited British troops serving in Iraq.

For the soldiers he met, it was a welcome morale boost in the middle of a difficult campaign.

As you can imagine, everybody at home, as you know perfectly well, has been following what's been going on in this part of the world.

NARRATOR: His sense of duty, that had carried him through nearly six decades of service to the queen and the nation, grew out of his own extraordinary experiences in war.

In the summer of 1945, Philip sailed to the Pacific Rim to join the Allied effort against Japan.

It was here that he witnessed British ships attacked by kamikaze pilots.

PRINCE PHILIP: A kamikaze hit right where the island meets the flight deck, and there was a terrific crump, and bits went up in smoke all over the place.

We weren't very far away watching this with binoculars.

Smoke cleared and the bits fell into the sea, and the next thing that happened was about 20 sailors came out with brooms and swept the rubbish over the side.

The British carriers had armored flight decks.

They had sort of four inches of armor.

They were absolutely amazed to discover that one of these carriers could be hit by a kamikaze in the most vulnerable place, and nothing happened.

NARRATOR: Shortly after America dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Philip's ship anchored in Tokyo Bay, where he was an eyewitness to history.

Being in Tokyo Bay, with the surrender ceremony taking place in battleship, which was, what, 200 yards away, and you could see what was going on with a pair of binoculars, it was a great relief.

I mean, it was a wonderful feeling that when we sailed, we suddenly realized we didn't have to darken ship anymore.

We didn't have to close all the scuttles.

We didn't have to turn the lights out.

All these little things built up to suddenly feeling that life was different.

NARRATOR: But the war was not over for Philip.

One final and moving task lay ahead, the liberation of prisoners of war.

PRINCE PHILIP: Well, that was very emotional, of course, because these people were emaciated.

When they sat down in the mess, they were suddenly in an atmosphere which they recognized.

They were back in the mess, and the people, our ship's company recognized that they were also fellow sailors.

And so we gave them a cup of tea.

But, I mean, it was extraordinary sensation, because they just sat there.

And both sides, I mean, our own and them, I mean, just tears pouring down their cheeks.

I mean, they just drank their tea.

They really couldn't speak.

It was a most extraordinary sensation.

NARRATOR: In this rarely-seen clip from this 1995 interview, Philip reveals how he and fellow servicemen of the '40s coped with the traumas of war.

It was a completely different atmosphere in those days, because people accepted that sort of loss.

It was part of the fortunes of war.

I mean, we didn't all have counselors rushing around every time somebody let off a gun, you know.

Oh, are you all right?

Are you sure you haven't got some ghastly phobia?

You just got on with it.

And he's-- what he's really talking about, I think, is PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder.

There's no time for any of that sort of stuff, you know.

NARRATOR: Philip's sons and grandsons also served in the military.

But the latest generation of royal servicemen, Princes William and Harry, have been more willing to talk about their private feelings than their grandfather Philip ever was.

Harry, in particular, has openly addressed his mental health, and after his experience in Afghanistan, he set up the Invictus Games to veterans.

PRINCE HARRY: There were many times in my early life, and also many times in Afghan, and then coming back from Afghan, where you actually feel helpless.

Being in the position that I'm in, I've always thought, if you can put your name to anything and you've got a following and you've got that belief and you've got that credibility, let's say, then you can-- then you can make anything happen for the greater good, for-- for a wider audience of people.

And once I plucked my head out of the sand post-Afghan, so, yes, it had a huge-- a huge life-changing moment for me as well.

It's like, right, you are-- you are Prince Harry.

You can do this as long as you're not a complete tit, because you've got the credibility of 10 years' service, and therefore you can really make a difference.

NARRATOR: Harry's mother, Princess Diana, had also been known for speaking very openly in interviews.

You feel very wounded, and if it comes out, you think, oh, gosh, I don't want to go out and do my engagement this morning.

Nobody wants to see me hold panic.

But you've got to push yourself out and remember some people hopefully won't believe everything they read about you, because there's far too much about me in the newspapers, far too much.

Horrifies me.

NARRATOR: Philip had initially been sympathetic towards Diana when she joined the royal family in 1981 by marrying his son, Prince Charles, but her willingness to share her personal life troubled him.

SARAH GRISTWOOD: And, of course, the way that she was speaking about emotion in public, making it personal, would have been anathema to him.

She did not put the monarchy first.

She did not fulfill what he would have seen as-- as the contract to which she'd signed up.

NARRATOR: When Diana and Charles's marriage struggled, Philip tried to help by entering into a long correspondence with Diana.

HUGO VICKERS: I was allowed to read both sides of this correspondence, and it was very interesting, because he certainly empathized with her as somebody who had married into the family and the various problems that she might have, but he was also trying to find any possible way that the marriage could be kept alive.

And, of course, it's very sad reading, because, of course, we know that it didn't work out.

NARRATOR: When Diana, Princess of Wales, died in 1997, the world lost one of its most loved public figures.

But for Philip, his two grandsons had lost a mother.

SARAH GRISTWOOD: Prince Philip's own early years did echo those of his grandsons in a way we slightly forget.

When Prince William and Prince Harry lost their mother so early, so tragically, and so publicly, Prince Philip would have been the one best placed to empathize with them.

NARRATOR: When it came to William and Harry's role in the funeral, Philip's view was clear.

SARAH GRISTWOOD: When the question came up of whether the two young princes would walk in the cortege behind their mother's coffin, Prince Philip said to Harry, if you walk, I'll walk.

NARRATOR: In the years since, Harry and William have questioned the wisdom of Philip's advice to walk behind their mother's funeral cortege.

SARAH GRISTWOOD: More recently, Prince Harry has spoken about, was that the right thing?

But I'm sure it was Prince Philip trying to be supportive, that emphasis on support, but also on duty again.

Both Prince William and Prince Harry have struck a happy halfway between their mother Diana's way of doing things and what you might call Prince Philip's way.

NARRATOR: The royal family changed dramatically across Philip's life.

The British people expected much more openness from their public figures than he had been used to.

But Philip remained reassuringly himself throughout.

By the time he retired from royal duties in 2017, he was estimated to have carried out over 32,000 solo public engagements since 1952.

It was a remarkable life of service to the nation that began in the 1940s with his promising Naval career.

He's a very, very committed person, and he considers duty as all important.

Duty was all important in the Navy, and duty was equally important in his royal life.

NARRATOR: As Philip entered his late 90s, one by one, he said farewell to the 800 charities he had founded or was associated with.

One of them was the Maritime charity Trinity House.

CHRISTOPHER LEE: Now, Trinity House is the organization for 400 or 500 years which has kept the lighthouses going.

On the night that he was retiring, after 42 years, we gave a dinner for him.

The whole of Trinity House was banging with, "For he's a jolly good fellow."

And there were-- there were quite senior Naval officers, including, I'll tell you, two admirals, who were crying.

This man who had held the great offices, the offices that had been held by kings, was leaving them, and he was irreplaceable.

And that's the story of Prince Philip, irreplaceable in royal and public Life.

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