What do we know of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations so far?

Trooping the Colour, the customary birthday procession will kick off the Platinum Jubilee celebrations on Thursday, June 2. Kate Middleton and Prince William will lead Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations across the United Kingdom.

The Cambridge couple leads

During the monarch’s festive weekend next month, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will be the most senior members of the royal family to travel outside of London.

The royal pair will visit Wales, where they resided for a short years after their marriage more than a decade ago, while Princess Anne will visit Scotland, and Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex will visit Northern Ireland.

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“Over the course of the Central Weekend, Members of the Royal Family will visit the Nations of the United Kingdom to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee. Members of the Royal Family will attend engagements in each nation, including public events marking the occasion,” the palace made the announcement in a statement.

According to royal insiders, the monarch and her late husband Prince Philip visited several areas around Britain during the Queen’s Golden and Diamond Jubilees, touring aboard the royal train in the run-up to the Jubilee weekend celebrations.

Because the Queen is now 96 and mostly restricted to less strenuous tasks at Windsor Castle, the family, and their advisers believed it would be fitting to have some of the senior royal family members represent Her Majesty outside of London and around the country.

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There are no established dates or locations for the away days, which will take place during the central weekend in early June.

The absentees

While Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have confirmed that they will visit the United Kingdom next month, they will not be appearing on the Buckingham Palace balcony at the end of the parade, it was reported on Friday.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were left out of the lineup because they are not working members of the royal family, according to a palace spokesman.

Prince Andrew, who is no longer a working royal due to his involvement with convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, will also not be on the balcony for Trooping the Colour, which marks the Queen’s official birthday each year.

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“After careful consideration, the Queen has decided that this year’s traditional Trooping the Colour balcony appearance on Thursday 2nd of June will be limited to Her Majesty and those members of the Royal Family who are currently undertaking official public duties on behalf of the Queen,” a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said. 

The balcony view 

The Queen, Prince Charles, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, William and Kate, and their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, will therefore emerge on the balcony. There will also be Princess Anne and her husband, Prince Edward, as well as Sophie, Countess of Wessex, and their two children, as well as the Queen’s cousins, the Duke of Kent, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, and Princess Alexandra.

A spokesperson for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle said in a statement announcing their visit to the United Kingdom with their two children, Archie Harrison and Lilibet Diana, that “Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are excited and honored to attend The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations this June with their children.”

Also read: Unseen home recordings of young Queen Elizabeth to be aired at the end of May

Home theatre

To begin off the week of commemorations, a one-of-a-kind documentary containing never-before-seen home movies of the monarch — including a sweet moment when she proposed to Prince Philip — will air. The then-Princess Elizabeth can be seen gazing at her engagement ring during a visit to Scotland’s Balmoral Castle in 1946, long before her imminent wedding was publicised.

The film draws on rare home videos, most of which was filmed by members of the royal family in the 1920s. The British Film Institute has kept them confidential for decades on behalf of the Royal Collection Trust.

The programme will premiere on the BBC and its streaming iPlayer service on May 29 and will depict the Queen’s journey from being pushed in a pram by her mother as a baby to her Coronation at the age of 27 in 1953. Following the death of her father, George VI, Elizabeth ascended to the throne in February 1952.