Secrets of the Royals: Births, Marriages and Deaths

The story of a thousand years of monarchy told through milestones of royal families through the ages, beginning by looking at the death and funeral of Queen Victoria, with biographer Shrabani Basu, author Stewart Richards and historian Lisa Hilton piecing together what went on behind palace walls. Historian Kate Williams tells the story of George IV, whose catastrophic wedding to Caroline of Brunswick went ahead even though he'd already illegally 'married' his mistress a decade before.

A look at the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip in 1947, which lifted spirits in bleak post-war Britain, with historian Lisa Hilton delving into the royal archives to dig out the wedding menu. Biographers Andrew Morton and Andrew Lownie take viewers through the birth and christening of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's son Prince Archie, while Kate Williams examines the life of Mary, Queen of Scots.

A look at the secrets sewn into the Duchess of Sussex's wedding gown, the shocking death of George V at the hands of his own doctor, the trial of Anne Boleyn that led to her execution, and the birth of Prince Philip on a dining table in Corfu in the middle of an uprising.

A look at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, with eyewitness accounts detailing how the press had to wear crosses on their backs or risk being a target for police snipers, but they peeled off in the baking heat. The programme also reveals why Princess Margaret's favourite dress designer Norman Hartnell nearly lost his precious royal patent over news he had tried to insure himself against potential cancellation, and how the court sitting in judgement of Charles I was packed with anti-royalists.

The story of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson's relationship, and a look at the radical choices of Princess Anne, who was the first royal to give birth in hospital and to choose that her children should have no title. There is also the grisly history of Catherine of Valois's corspe, left exposed in her tomb in Westminster Abbey for more than 100 years, and how Henry VIII sent his court painter Hans Holbein around Europe to paint likely brides so that he could choose who his fourth wife would be.

A look at the craftswomen from the Royal School of Needlework who made the lace for Catherine, Princess of Wales's wedding dress, but did not know who it was for until the day of the event. Tudor historian Jackson van Uden explores the suite in Hampton Court Palace where Jane Seymour gave birth to the future Edward VI - and died just 12 days later.

A look at the bond between monarchs and their military forces, a link that has shaped the very history of Britain as for centuries kings traditionally led their armies into battle. The programme also examines the rituals and customs the royals must perform all the time, from the weekly meetings between the monarch and the prime minister, to the Tudor roots of the royals' traditional obsession with grand garden designs.