On Royalty · A Very Polite Inquiry Into Some Strangely Related Families

Jeremy Paxman examines the role of the British monarchy in an age when divine right no longer prevails and governing powers fall to the country's elected leaders. He scrutinizes every aspect of the monarchy and how it has related to politics, religion, the military and the law. He takes us inside Buckingham Palace and illuminates the lives of the monarchs, at once mundane, absurd and magical. What Desmond Morris did for apes, Paxman has done for the royal families. Gilded history, weird anthropology and surreal reportage of the royals up close combine to show how an ancient institution struggles for meaning in a modern country.