Incredible unseen footage showing King Charles III as a lonesome toddler trying to reach his mother has emerged ahead of the Coronation.
A very young King is seen trying to call his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, as she partakes in an overseas tour, miles away, with the King reflecting in a voice over that becoming a sovereign so young must have been a ‘terrible shock’ for the late Monarch, and she might have preferred to be with her family instead.
Further never-before-seen footage shows the King as a young Prince of Wales, deflating a pressure diving suit after taking a dip in icy arctic waters.
The archival footage has come out in a new documentary, Charles R: The Making of a Monarch, being released by the BBC this weekend ahead of the Coronation.
The momentous documentary charts Charles’ life and is ‘narrated’ by the King himself, using snippets from previous speeches and interviews.
In the home video, a very young King is seen trying to call his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, as she partakes in an overseas tour
Black and white footage shows the King as a toddler, wandering around and cooing.
He can be seen plucking up a telephone and playing with it in hopes of talking to his mother, who was absent on royal duties.
In a voice over played over the clip, the King reflects on these moments of his childhood where his mother was far away.
Due to the late Queen’s busy schedule when the then Prince was young, it is well known that the mother and son often had to spend time apart.
He says: ‘My mama inevitably was so busy having to do all the tours abroad. I remember when I was quite young, trying to talk on the telephone, when she was miles away.’
Reflecting on this in the clip, Charles says his mother’s accession to the throne at such a young age must have been a ‘terrible shock’, as she would have ‘presumably hoped to do other things [like] bring up her family’.
More unseen film includes a hilarious scene in which the then-Prince deflates a puffed-up diving pressure suit.
He emerges from an igloo-style tent in the bright red suit and a hat to the amusement of his friends.
He then whips off the hat and remarks amid the snowy conditions ‘bloody cold!’.
The King then chuckles and lets the air out of the suit, pretending to deflate along with it before bowing for his chuckling audience.
After taking an icy dip under arctic ice at Resolute Bay, Canada, in 1975, the King can be seen emerging and playfully showing off his diving suit.
Prince Charles at Clarence House, 1950, being read to by his mother
Charles as a young boy during a family holiday at Balmoral in 1957
A young Charles aboard HMS Britannia. The new BBC documentary charts the life of the new King, who spent seven decades as heir to the throne
Charles R: The Making of a Monarch airs on Sunday on BBC One at 8pm. Pictured: The Prince of Wales being interviewed by the BBC before his Investiture in Wales, 12th June 1969
His voice over the tape of his intrepid dive can be heard saying ‘I like to see if I can challenge myself to do something which is potentially hazardous.
‘Just to see whether, mentally, I can accept that challenge and carry it out.’
All of the clips can be seen in the forthcoming sixty-minute BBC documentary, released to mark the Coronation on May 6.
The show will tell the story of King Charles III’s more than seven decades as heir to the throne.
Charles R: The Making of a Monarch airs on Sunday on BBC One at 8pm.
