Ever wondered who films the Queen for TV on her official engagements? Fiona Adams meets Peter Wilkinson, Her Majesty’s official cameraman for the past 18 years
Credit: Courtesy of ITV
His portfolio is a catalogue of modern history; a televisual chronicle of triumph, disaster and despair. From the Troubles in Northern Ireland to turmoil in the Middle East; from exhilarating victory in the Falkands to the ignominious Fall of Saigon that marked the end of the Vietnam War: one man has captured it all.
He has trained with Chris Bonnington on Mont Blanc, lived among the Xingu Indians of Brazil and been lowered beneath the Antarctic ice in a diving bell. For nine weeks he was a hostage in Ethiopia; and when Neil Kinnock marked his accession to the Labour crown with an inelegant slip on Brighton beach, it was this master of the lens who brought the moment to an unforgiving world.
But in 1998, Peter Wilkinson MVO swapped his flak jacket for a suit and tie and a second career-defining role, this time as the Queen’s official cameraman. Working for the BBC, ITN and Sky, who share the footage, Peter documents all Her Majesty’s official engagements, both at home and abroad: a role celebrated in a recent ITV documentary, Cameraman to the Queen, which was broadcast on Christmas Day.
The son of a piano maker from Clapham, who bought his first Pentax from his sister’s Freemans catalogue, he joined ITN in 1965, aged 18, as a cutting room assistant, just after the death of Winston Churchill. Two years later he became an assistant film editor and then, at 22, a trainee cameraman. The rest, as they say, is history.
Credit: Courtesy of ITV
Peter in his early career
Today, at the pretty house outside Reigate he shares with wife Linda, the March weather is as cold as the welcome is warm. The cosy sitting room is filled with pictures and family photos – the couple have two daughters and four grandchildren. And though Peter boasts three Royal Television Society awards – including, uniquely among cameramen, one for lifetime achievement – it soon becomes clear that the limelight is not his habitat of choice. In Cameraman to the Queen he was interviewed, followed around and eulogized by admiring colleagues. But this role reversal, which made Peter himself the object of scrutiny, left him distinctly unenthused.
“I hated every moment of it!” he laughs. “In the interview at home, I felt like I was about to be executed. There was one cameraman filming me from the hall, and another in this room doing a side shot. I’d never been filmed like that before and I didn’t feel relaxed at all.
“In fact, during the documentary there is a shot of the Queen stopping to speak to me at a Palace garden party. She asks if they are ‘still making a film of me’, and I say: ‘Yes, ma’am, they are and I know how it feels now. It’s not very nice, is it?’ She roared with laughter!”
Her Majesty’s relaxed manner is testament not just to Peter’s calm, discreet approach, but to a professional relationship that he has worked hard to construct. It was for services to the Queen that he was made a Member of the Royal Victorian Order in 2005.
Eighteen years ago, however, in the unhappy aftermath of Princess Diana’s death, the Royal Family’s relationship with the media was at an all-time low. For Peter, taking up his new post, it must have felt like stepping once more unto the breach.
“The first two years were hard,” he admits. “There was an old school press office that wasn’t particularly pleasant to me. But I stuck it out; I wasn’t going to let them beat me! I had to prove to the Queen that I could be trusted; that I was really on the family’s side.
“I had covered about 10 royal tours prior to my appointment, including quite a long one to Tanzania, Malawi, Botswana and Zambia in 1979, so I’d already met the Queen many times. I knew the etiquette.”
Peter’s increasingly assured position of trust is reflected in his filming style.
“I used to do only distance work, but now I move in a lot closer,” he explains. “Early on I would have discussed with the Queen whether to get a shot of her shaking hands, or being seated with a guest, but now she is very aware of what’s required. If she’s visiting a school, say, I will set up near a desk and she will come over to talk to the children. There’s more natural sound and atmosphere now, but as long as the Queen knows I’m recording, she’s happy with it.”
The Queen and Prince Philip attend up to three engagements in a day, and a glance at Peter’s royal diary for 2015 reveals an incredible diversity of events – from hospital visits to Royal Navy functions on board ship.
“The Queen has a smile for everyone. This year it’s been a little quieter, but there’s a lot coming up. I can’t tell you where we’re going, but we will be travelling the country and the Queen plans to spend a lot of time in Scotland. She really is amazing. Sometimes I get home and I’m exhausted!”
Peter has an office in Buckingham Palace and meeting members of the Royal Family is just part of daily life.
“I quite often see the Princess Royal and occasionally bump into the Duke of York. The Queen I see most days at work. My family are completely used to it now – no one even asks if I’ve seen her!”
Official visits and on-duty filming aside, there are quiet moments in which Peter gets to chat with his monarch and the Duke of Edinburgh, whom he credits with an enduring sense of humour.
“My main job is to film Her Majesty, but I really look forward to working with the Duke as well. He is a great guy who puts everyone at their ease. No matter who they are, he asks what they’re doing and is genuinely interested in them, which for a man of his generation is incredible.
“Once we went to see some new stamps being printed and the Duke, as an aside, said: ‘She doesn’t look like that, does she?!’ The Queen thought it was hilarious.”
Peter, it is abundantly clear, is a man who loves his job. As with his sovereign, retirement is an alien idea.
“I haven’t considered it,” he insists. “I’ve just turned 70 and I’d like to stay with the Queen as long as I can – and I think she knows that. To use a term of the Duke’s, I want to carry on until something drops off!”
As Peter pauses briefly from showing me photos of his family with the Queen – “I think everyone has met her now,” he says – I grab a few moments with Linda. The couple have known each other since childhood, when they lived next door to one another in Clapham. How does Linda feel about sharing her husband with the world’s most famous lady?
“This job is really nice for Peter and a lot less stressful,” she smiles. “I don’t think he would be working still if he’d been doing his old job – he wouldn’t have been able to keep up! This is different every day. He loves it.”
Time to depart. The next time I see Her Majesty on TV, however, I will think of the man filming her. No longer in the heat of battle, but still following in the footsteps of history, trying desperately to keep up with a queen.
If you enjoyed this piece, why not check out another of our royally inspired articles? Like Emma Pritchard's collection of stories from local people about their encounters with The Queen.
