British Royal Weddings of the 20th Century   Strike Force Entertainment / Cherry Red Records RRP: £13.99 SN6695 Certificate: E Available 04 April 2011

Throughout the twentieth century, Royal Weddings were events of majestic splendour.  People would camp out overnight in the streets of London to get a prime location for the procession the next day. They would gather in their thousands to garner a glimpse of the newly married couple on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. Street parties were held up and down the country in celebration - the extravagance, the splendour, the sheer pomp and pageantry all combined to make for extraordinary scenes of patriotic pride and national unity...

British Royal Weddings of the 20th Century collects together edited highlights of thirteen British royal weddings - from Princess Mary and Viscount Lascelles (1922) to Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson (1986).

For lovers of the Royal Family, it doesn't come much better than this... This is an essential purchase and will act as a handy reminder of the pomp and ceremony that is the heart of a good old fashioned Royal Wedding. It's funny to think how people lined the streets the night before in order to get a good view of the carriage as it thundered past and I'm wondering whether those days are behind us, or whether the wedding of HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton later this year (2011) will see people turning out in their thousands too.

The weddings can be watched as one long feature, or as individual segments. Most of the weddings here you'll probably have no clue who's getting married (unless you're a true Royal Family fanatic. But it's interesting to see that very little has changed over the years - they've even used the same carriage for decades (how many of us get married in the same car our great grand parents did?)

Extras on the DVD include additional footage for:

The marriage of Lady Pamela Mountbatten to Mr David Wickes (1960); George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood to Miss Marion Stein (1949); Alternative report on Princess Margaret’s Wedding (1960); and additional silent camera rushes of the 1947 wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh.

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Nick Smithson