I wonder if HRH Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, is mad about having to make a big deal about her 70th birthday. Anne turns 70 in August, and she was already forced (!!) to participate in a Vanity Fair cover profile, and now it looks like she’s also had to do a documentary about her life and work. One wonders if she’ll find a way to be slightly shady about the “younger royals” again. And for the record, I still believe Anne was being shady about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as much as the Sussexes. Anne has been around a long time and she doesn’t care for any of the youths. Anyway, about this documentary…

Princess Anne is opening up about the highs and lows of her royal life, including the dramatic failed kidnapping attempt she endured and becoming the first royal Olympian. Queen Elizabeth’s only daughter of her four children has cooperated in what’s being called a “landmark” documentary that will chart her life, talk with her children — Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall — and those who have worked alongside her. The 90-minute film is to mark her 70th birthday on August 15.

Using her formal title, Princess Royal: Anne at 70 airs on ITV in the U.K. in the coming weeks, it was confirmed on Thursday. In it, Anne talks “frankly” about the failed kidnap attempt in 1974 and, a press release said, producers have sourced previously-unseen family footage. As well as conversations with her two children, the makers talk with her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence. “She was the first daughter of a monarch to go to school, the first royal Olympian and the first child of a monarch to insist her children were called ‘Mr,’ and ‘Miss,’ ” the press release adds, referring to Peter and Zara’s lack of royal titles.

School friends tell the program of Anne’s “desire to be ‘one of the girls’ before she came of age as the swinging ’60s made way for the turbulent ’70s.” Viewers will see and hear “how she relaxes with her children, her grandchildren and her animals at her Gloucestershire estate while Sir Tim reflects on a shared love of the sea and much else,” the press release adds.

The documentary, which followed Princess Anne for around a year, also looks at her famous no-nonsense approach and work ethic. “Her Ladies in Waiting admit that they struggle to keep up with her relentless pace while her charities reveal a passionate patron who keeps everyone on their toes.”

[From People]

I’ve spoke about this before, but did you guys watch Prince Charles at 70, the documentary made around his 70th birthday? It was a truly great glimpse at Charles’ life and passions, and the documentary crew followed him during many of his events around the UK. He actually showed a really funny side of himself – he flirted with younger working class women, he yelled at farm animals, he did an impromptu prayer with some Christian youths. I hope that’s what Anne’s documentary is like – I hope it shows her working and interacting with people, because I feel like Anne probably does have a spicy personality which she rarely shows publicly. And yes, everyone will check to see if Anne has anything to say about the “younger royals.”

Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red.