Princess Margaret, pictured in 1955. Getty
The private life of Princess Margaret will be the focus of a new two-part BBC documentary, after Vanessa Kirby’s starring role in The Crown piqued interest in Queen Elizabeth II’s younger sister. The program, which will air later this year, will be a “deeply personal account” of a woman “whose life and loves reflected the social… revolution that transformed Britain during the 20th century,” according to the broadcaster. Interviews with Lady Anne Glenconner, a childhood friend and later lady-in-waiting, and Basil Charles, the former owner of Basil’s Bar on Mustique, where the princess had a holiday home, will both feature.
“She was a trailblazer, she was a little bit of a rebel. She wanted to have the [royal] life but she also wanted to have a normal life,” Charles explains in the upcoming show. It is this inner turmoil, which the BBC describes as “a rebellious force of modernity [combined with] a deep respect for tradition” that commanded the global audience of The Crown’s attention. From her scandalous relationship with her father’s former equerry, Group Captain Peter Townsend, when she was 22, to her marriage to photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1960, Kirby’s sympathetic portrayal of this headstrong young woman fueled viewers to binge-watch the first two Netflix series.
Season three, which will see Helena Bonham Carter succeed Kirby as the princess, will likely shift the focus to the younger members of the royal family, including Prince Charles‘s movement to the public eye. Thus, the new BBC package will satisfy the nation’s appetite for the wilful, working royal, whose personal life was embroiled in scandal, for now.
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This article first appeared on Vogue.co.uk
