3 Reasons You’ll Fall in Love With ‘Lucy Worsley’s Royal Palace Secrets’ (VIDEO)
Preview
If you’re looking for the definition of quirky charm, you’ll find it in historian and chief curator of England’s historic royal palaces Lucy Worsley.
In this latest of her delightful specials, which always feel like an outing with a smart, slightly eccentric friend who does “proper” with a wink, she gives a private tour of three London landmarks: Hampton Court Palace, the Tower of London and Kensington Palace.
Here’s why we love Lucy, and catch an exclusive sneak peek at the show with a special clip, below.
She brings history to life
“I’m always keen to get my hands on the dressing-up box or anything that makes history more than me just telling you stuff,” Worsley says. Hence, this getup as Anne Boleyn (above), second wife of Henry VIII, beheaded at the Tower of London. “I was trying to imagine what it must have been like for her to face her unjust death with such dignity,” Worsley says of her walk in Anne’s doomed footsteps across Tower Green.
She’s the ultimate insider
When Worsley started working at the charity Historic Royal Palaces, she lived at 16th-century-built Hampton Court, sleeping in a room once occupied by King Henry VIII’s confectioner in the large Tudor kitchen complex. “I spent my first night lying awake in fear of ghosts,” she says. “All I could see from my windows were fog-filled ancient courtyards with not a soul in sight…spooky!”
(Credit: PBS)
She gets access to very personal artifacts
At Kensington Palace, Worsley shows us the velvet dress Princess Diana wore to dance with John Travolta at the White House in 1982. She was also surprised to be allowed to see the scrapbook of Princess (later Queen) Victoria’s governess. “That was a privilege,” she says. “It was such a moving expression of love.”
Lucy Worsley’s Royal Palace Secrets, Sunday, September 13, 7:30/6:30c, PBS (check local listings at pbs.org)
