Two unseen photos of King Charles with Prince George and Princess Charlotte have been released in a new BBC documentary about the monarch.
Charles R: The Making of a Monarch, which aired last night, featured the adorable collection of photos, believed to have been taken in 2016.
One of the photos shows the then Prince of Wales pointing at something of interest while sitting next to a young Prince George.
The duo sit at a picnic table, while the little royal holds a glass of juice. He wears a navy T-shirt, while his grandfather looks smart in a pinstripe suit and teal tie.
The second image shows a smiling Princess Charlotte, dressed in a lovely blue dress with a matching bow in her hair, being entertained by Charles. He appears to be holding something in his hand while spending time with his granddaughter.
Two unseen photos of King Charles with Prince George and Princess Charlotte have been released in a new BBC documentary about the monarch
The adorable photos were shown during a previous interview with Charles, where he explained how his grandchildren motivate him to care for the environment.
“I’m so sorry about the future, what we’re going to leave to our children and grandchildren,” he said. “That’s what really gets me going.”
Royal fans were delighted to see the previously unseen footage in the documentary, which charted the king’s journey from prince to monarch.
“Grandpa King is adorable!” one person wrote on Twitter. “It’s very precious,” they added.
A second said on Instagram, “Look how cute they are. He’s such a great grandpa! So glad they have him around and vice versa.”
Elsewhere, in footage shot when he was just 18, Charles says, “I’d rather think of us as a family than a company. I tend to think of my family as very special people.
“And in that sense, I’m just now starting to see my parents and the rest of my family as different people, you know what I mean? That you regard them as having their own distinct characteristics.’
He made the candid remarks in Royal Family, the 1969 behind-the-scenes film commissioned by the late Queen that hasn’t been broadcast in over 45 years. But they feature in the new documentary.
Charles R: The Making of a Monarch, which aired last night, featured the adorable collection of photos, believed to have been taken in 2016
Response: Royal fans were delighted to see the documentary’s never-before-seen footage, which charted the king’s journey from prince to monarch
Spanning seven decades, the film featured archived and never-before-seen footage of the king as a young man, displaying an early passion for nature, gardening and animals.
An intimate sequence showed a Christmas family gathering at Windsor Castle, where teenage Charles and his sister Princess Anne decorated the tree with their mother.
Elsewhere, James and Marina Ogilvy, the children of Princess Alexandra, were seen enjoying a corridor full of extravagant gifts, including a race car, a huge blue giraffe and red space hoppers.
But being a prince didn’t save Charles from a rebuke from his mother, with the late Queen shouting, “Charles, come on!” as he happily started throwing sticks at a bonfire in the woods.
In another fragment from early adulthood, the king was seen accompanying his mother on one of his first engagements, to see how coins were made at the Royal Mint.
Charles reflected on how he learned the work of a working Royal from his family and said, ‘It helps a lot if a lot of people are all doing the same thing because you can talk to them about it.
“You know, your own experiences and the fun things that happened. And you can learn a lot from each other.’
A younger Charles decorates Windsor Castle’s Christmas tree with Anne, pictured
Among the previously unseen images in the documentary is a fragment in which Charles (right) and the Queen (left) visit the Royal Mint
In the documentary, Charles talks about his childhood, including his memories of the Queen’s coronation (pictured here flying solo in a plane in 1968 Malta)
Simon Young, the BBC’s head of history, said the 60-minute program offered “new insight into”. [Charles’s] remarkable life,” adding, “It is a real privilege to be entrusted with such rare, unseen archival material to create a new and distinctive portrait of someone so famous and photographed.”
It comes as royal superfans continue to camp out at The Mall as they try to snag front row seats for the coronation procession of King Charles.
A number of royal supporters have erected temporary tarpaulin houses along the iconic road less than a week before the big day on May 6.
As the procession itself passes by on Saturday, taking the King and Queen to Westminster Abbey and back to Buckingham Palace, the stretch of road is expected to be packed with thousands of people.
So perhaps it comes as no surprise that some of the Monarchy’s biggest fans got there early in an effort to beat the last-minute rush to the top spots along The Mall.
Among those who got in early is John Loughrey – a royal devotee who is no stranger to standing in front of the crowd at major royal events.
Mr Loughrey, who lives in South London, gained a reputation as Princess Diana’s biggest fan after quitting his job in a kitchen so he could attend every court hearing of the inquest into her 2008 death.
He spent days on a couch outside the hospital where Prince George was born in 2013 and did it again for Princess Charlotte in 2015 and Prince Louis in 2018. He also goes to Westminster Abbey every week to pray for Diana.
And after the Queen’s death, he tried to camp outside Buckingham Palace for the full 10-day mourning period – only to be told to pitch his tent for “security reasons” when the crowd descended.
King Charles III will be crowned the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom on Saturday, May 6.
While she was previously known as Queen Consort, Camilla will also be crowned Queen at the ceremony.
In keeping with an age-old tradition, King Charles III’s coronation ceremony will take place in Westminster Abbey.
The ceremony will begin at 11am, once the royals have completed their arrival procession from Buckingham Palace.
People can walk the streets of London to catch a glimpse of the royals, huge crowds are expected given the significance of the event.
The ceremony – which will be broadcast on the BBC – is expected to last about an hour, although exact details about the times of the service and its duration remain unclear. Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953 lasted three hours.
After the ceremony, a return procession begins, following the same route back.
In the afternoon, 15 members of the royal family gather on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for the traditional fly-past to pay tribute to Charles and Camilla.
It comes as members of the Household Division rehearse the coronation military accompaniment at Aldershot Barracks.
About 700 Guardsmen, officers and bands from the Household Division took part in the rehearsal leading up to the big day.
The coronation will be the largest military ceremonial operation in 70 years, with more than 6,000 men and women from the British armed forces taking part in the historic royal event.
Sailors, soldiers and airmen from across the UK and the width of the Commonwealth will accompany Charles and Camilla to and from Westminster Abbey.
Later in the day, military personnel conduct a six-minute flypast of more than 60 Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force aircraft.
Gun salutes will take place in all corners of the Union – including at firing stations in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast – to announce the moment when the King will be crowned.
The ceremony will also be the first major ceremonial occasion since the late Queen’s funeral in September.
With over 400 personnel across 13 sites and Royal Navy ships deployed, 21 shots will be fired to mark the coronation, with the exception of the Tower of London and Horse Guards Parade, where a 62-gun salute and a salvo of six guns will be fired respectively.