Famous the world over and as much a part of festive tradition as roast turkey and crackers, the televised Queen’s Christmas message – or the Queen’s speech as it’s become known – is 50 years old this year.

To mark the anniversary, and providing a unique perspective on changes to the life of the Royal Family, protocol and presentation, as well as the political and social change in Britain over the past half century, this hour long special programme has gained exclusive access to the Royal archive to show again a selection of the Queen’s most memorable Christmas messages.

While celebrities and royal commentators reflect on their memories of the Queen’s speech and the part it played in their families’ Christmas celebrations, HRH The Duke of York reveals what it was like actually to be part of the Christmas message as a young boy, and he recalls how one particular message meant so much to troops in the Falklands during his service in the Royal Navy.

Originally broadcast over the radio, in 1957 the Queen’s Christmas message was beamed live in to homes across the country thanks to the dawn of the TV era. Until then, the British public had seen their monarch primarily in old movie reels or in photographs.

Sharon Osborne recalls her memories of the Queen’s early speeches:
“I was brought up listening to the Queen’s speech every year, and I can remember we had this little tiny black and white TV and it had an aerial, and it would go snowy and fuzzy, and we’d move the aerial until ‘yeah we got it we can see her now’,” says Sharon.

By the 1960s the Queen’s message was firmly established as the family focal point of Christmas Day. As the swinging sixties took hold, the Queen was resistant to the fashionable changes of the decade and remained consistent in her own style.

Linda Barker says: “She looked almost Audrey Hepburnish. It was the little black dress and the cute little diamond broach, and the pearls which are kind of ubiquitous; I think they’ve always been there. This was the sixties and she looked so perfect, it didn’t reflect the times.”

The arrival of glorious technicolor in 1967 enhanced the Queen’s speech even further as finally the nation saw her in colour. Former editor of The Sun Kelvin McKenzie recalls the vibrant outfit she chose for the occasion.

“She chose, unbelievably, or was chosen for her, a yellow outfit. She looked like a rather beautiful canary. And on top of that she had a dress that just about came to the top of her knee, so we were getting two for the price of one – a little bit of royal leg and a rather large dollop of yellow.”

In 1968, while young people took on the establishment in political protest, the Queen herself thought change was in order, and for the first time she scripted the speech herself which caused considerable disquiet in Downing Street.

As a matter of courtesy the speech is always sent to Downing Street, but her reference this year to ‘serious economic issues facing the country’ did not please the then Prime Minister Harold Wilson and the wording of the speech was changed to make it less negative.

Sir Trevor McDonald explains: “There will always be a little bit of tension when the Queen mentions something about economic difficulties and so on, about which prime ministers tend to be very, very sensitive. Prime ministers, by the very nature of what they do, would like us to believe there are never any economic difficulties.”

By 1971 the Queen had begun to include more of her home and family life during the speeches, and that year she was joined by two of her sons – the young Princes Andrew and Edward.

HRH The Duke of York says: “I think all of us have taken part in one form or another over the years. My first performance was in 1961, and I was one and I don’t remember that.”

Keen always to try and empathise with her country, the Queen began to use the speeches to greater reflect on highs, lows or turbulent times during the previous twelve months. As trouble grew in early 70s Britain with strikes and food shortages, the rise of an even greater concern – terrorism – gripped Northern Ireland, something the Queen could not ignore.

As Kelvin McKenzie explains: “The Queen knows she can’t be political with a big P, but she says they’re my people just the same and I want them to know that I’m thinking about them during these difficult times.”
And the speech has often reflected the mood of the nation since. Alan Titchmarsh describes it as ‘a bit of stability in a fragile world’.

At the turn of the 80s the Christmas message was dedicated to someone the nation held dear in their hearts– the Queen Mother. 1980 marked the Queen Mother’s 80th birthday, and that year 28 million people tuned in to see the nation’s favourite Grandma on Christmas day.

Throughout the 80s, the Royal family became the focus of the world’s media as Lady Diana Spencer married the Prince of Wales. Fashions become bigger and bolder than ever, and in 1982 the Queen discarded her traditional twin set and pearls and embraced the flamboyant new styles.

“She gives the speech in the most fabulous big blouse with the big bow,“ says Linda Barker. “So 80s, she could have just stepped out of Falcon Crest or Dynasty.”

But the speech that she delivered focused on something much more serious than fashion: the Falklands war, in which her son HRH The Duke of York was a helicopter pilot.

HRH The Duke of York says: “The fact that the Queen, their Commander-in-chief, has a concern and is thinking about what they’re doing and is, as it were, with them for those few minutes gives you a tremendous buzz and a feel of ‘oh, we’ve been mentioned, we’ve been thought about’.”

In 1984 viewers were treated to another insight into the life of the Royal Family, with footage of her grandchildren Zara, Peter, William and a new born Harry.

But in 1987 the Palace was far from happy when the contents of the Queen’s speech was leaked to the press after indiscretion by a BBC journalist at a Christmas party.

Ironically, despite almost 40 years of her Christmas messages, the Queen’s most famous speech occurred in 1992 during her annual address at London’s Guildhall when she referred to the past twelve months as ‘annus horribilius’ – after the Windsor fire, the separation of Charles and Diana and the exposure of Sarah Ferguson’s affair.

Later that year, two days before Christmas, the speech was leaked again, this time in full by The Sun. Kelvin McKenzie was editor at the time, and the Palace threatened to sue the paper.

“She went absolutely barking,” says Kelvin. “I helped her out, she got rather grumpy about it, Mr Murdoch paid a £100,000 cheque [to charity] – next!”

What happened later that decade was to change the public’s perception of the Queen and marked a big turning point for the monarchy. The death of Diana sent shockwaves all around the world, and the Queen was forced to break her usual protocol and deliver a televised speech the day before her funeral.

In the same year the Queen was to see a change to her Christmas message, as for the first time it was to be produced by ITV. Since it has been produced alternately every two years between the two broadcasters.

ITV’s Sir Trevor McDonald elaborates: “The BBC had been around for very, very much longer and had an enormous reputation which stretches back to many, many ages before we were born, but why couldn’t we have a go at this? And I think there’s a bit of pride in it.”
ITV filmed its first Christmas message from the newly restored Windsor Castle.

Kevin O’Sullivan says: “The consensus was that ITV’s first speech was a superior product.”

The turn of the millennium brought untold horrors in to the nation’s living rooms as terrorism gripped the globe. Al Qaida’s 9/11 attack sparked an international crack down on terrorists and raised the question as to whether different religions could ever peacefully live together, and 2004 the Queen used her Christmas message to appeal for tolerance in the UK and the Commonwealth.

Fifty years on the message is still something that is eagerly anticipated each year across the world.

Eve Pollard says: “I think it would be mad for Prince Charles not to take it on when he becomes King. It’s one of those things, solid, its like ‘Jerusalem’, ‘Land of Hope and Glory’, its part of being British. Why would we want to let it go?”

Tuesday 25 December 2007 3:10pm - 4:10pm on ITV1.