(narrator) At the heart of the British establishment are the royal palaces.

Imposing... (Dr. Ramirez) They encapsulate the very finest architecture, art, design.

(narrator) Lavish... (Professor Whitelock) It was deliberately grand, this most ostentatious statement of absolute power.

(narrator) ...and brimming with hidden gems.

(Lisa) You always feel like there's something new to discover.

(narrator) They're the backdrop to every royal event.

(Susie) Every celebration, birth, death, crisis for a thousand years.

(narrator) In this all new Secrets of the Royal Palaces, we gain exclusive access to these illustrious buildings and uncover their private parts... (Dr. Foyle) The regal bog, that would be used by Queen Victoria herself.

(narrator) ...reveal the extraordinary royal art hidden within... (Dr. Ramirez) The Queen's stamp collection is worth 100 million pounds.

Not a bad return on loads of pictures of yourself really, is it?

(narrator) ...dig up the royal palaces' dark history... (Professor Williams) George builds secret tunnels so no one could ever see him.

(narrator) ...and share fresh revelations about the royal dramas that are gripping the nation.

(Colin) Not a soul got anywhere near that island.

I loved it a bit.

(narrator) This is the Secrets of the Royal Palaces.

(dramatic music) ♪ (peppy music) In this episode: A freak snow storm forces the Queen to seek shelter between palaces in a pub.

She's known to like a gin and Dubonnet, but we've never known her to be shut in at a pub, before now.

(narrator) We discover the secret behind Brighton's magnificent domes.

(Dr. Foyle) His trick was to cover this wooden structure with what looked like stone, whereas in fact they're much, much lighter.

(narrator) And a palace's royal pop art with a sparkling secret.

The screen prints are dusted with diamond dust that just glitter in the light.

(narrator) And we reveal that one of the greatest palaces of them all forgot that people needed somewhere to go.

The majority of people who come to Versailles, they will simply pretty much relieve themselves in the corner.

(regal music) The historic royal palaces have stood the test of time as generations of royals have lived, loved, and died behind their walls.

(Julie) These royal palaces have seen, you know, huge defining events.

Tragedies, loss, scandal, you name it, these walls have seen it all.

But every now and then a scandal explodes that their palace walls can't protect them from.

(peppy music) In July 1986, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson were married.

Their first kiss was shared with the nation on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, and his young bride was embraced by the nation.

♪ The marriage of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson was welcomed as a good match right from the beginning.

They married in the mid-1980s.

Lots of public interest and affection is on their side.

They want this to be a successful marriage.

She was bouncy, she was boisterous, she was great fun.

A friend of Princess Diana who was a breath of fresh air.

(narrator) A brand new royal residence, Sunninghill Park is Ascot, was built for Andrew and Fergie to start their married life, where they raised their two young daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.

Fergie was at home, you know, with two children.

Andrew was traveling quite a bit.

I think she felt very trapped inside the palace walls, if you like, and that's when the cracks really started to show.

(narrator) After only six years of marriage, the couple announced their separation.

(Bidisha) Once Fergie and Andrew were separated, it was as if Fergie lost the special protection you get from the royal family.

She was subjected to all kinds of rumors, particularly in the tabloid press about basically being a floozy.

I mean, it was very sexist, because I'm sure that Andrew was as much of a floozy as Fergie was, but she was made into a figure of fun.

(narrator) Rumors started circulating about a relationship between Fergie and her so-called financial advisor, John Bryan.

There was even talk of compromising photographs being touted to the newspapers.

Journalist Richard Kay witnesses the events firsthand after he received a secret tip-off from Princess Diana.

Well, the message from Diana simply said, "The redhead's in trouble."

I knew John Bryan very well and I knew that he was in London.

I went to see him, and by this stage I knew that one of the newspapers, The Daily Mirror, had purchased the photographs.

We managed to get hold of the copy of the very early edition.

I returned to--to Bryan's flat in--in--in Chelsea, went up to his second-floor flat and gave him a copy of the picture, and the the color sort of drained from his face.

(pensive music) (Bidisha) The photographs were shocking because they were overtly sexual.

They were overtly erotic.

They were a little bit tacky.

(Julie) Here is Fergie on holiday outside the palaces with her two children, Prince Andrew's children, the grandchildren of the Queen, and Fergie is having her toes sucked by "a male companion."

Enough said.

♪ (narrator) Outside the safety of the palace walls, these shocking pictures splashed across the tabloids with the final proof that John Bryan was indeed more than Fergie's financial advisor.

He was supposed to be helping her with the cash, and was obviously helping with a few other things as well.

The pictures were incredibly scandalous, because although they were separated, Fergie had not yet formally divorced Andrew.

It was also seen as in poor taste that this had all happened when she was on holiday with her two daughters.

Fergie is away from royal protection and the palaces, she's on her own, she's in a Spanish villa with an unknown man and her daughter, and the long lenses are focused on them.

(narrator) Richard was still in the flat when John Bryan broke the news to Fergie about tomorrow's headlines.

(Richard) I could hear some of the conversation and one of the phrases which stuck with me over the years was, "It's much worse than we thought."

(melancholic music) There's no doubt that Fergie was gonna be in big trouble because the photographs were gonna be there for everyone to see the following morning.

(dramatic music) (narrator) But what made this situation worse was the fact that Fergie was currently staying at Balmoral... ♪ ...and would have to face her angry in-laws in the morning.

(bright music) While dealing with royal relationships might be complicated within palace walls, palaces can be the perfect backdrop for a royal portrait, instantly bringing a degree of grandeur, history, and magnificence to every frame.

♪ But sometimes the most memorable images are the ones that happen outside of the palaces, as fashion photographer John Swannell found out in the winter of 1994.

It was Anna Harvey who was Assistant Editor of Vogue Magazine I've known for a long time.

She phoned and said, "John, would you photograph a friend of mine and her two children?"

Said, "Sure," I said, "Who is it?"

She said, "Well, I can't tell you now."

On the day I was sitting cross-legged on the table in the studio, and I get this tap on the shoulder, and I turn 'round and face to face, nose to nose almost, she said, "I'm Diana."

(Dr. Dunlop) It sums up the understated charm of Diana, doesn't it really?

That she introduces herself.

I mean, this is a woman who only needs one name, Diana, and the whole world knows who she is.

(narrator) But Diana hadn't come alone.

She was accompanied by two other familiar faces.

Not just Diana, but greater than the sum of her parts, with her boys, and we all know that above all else Diana staked her identity on being a good mother.

This man had to capture that at one of the most challenging domestic moments in the Princess's life.

(John) It is in the back of your mind that these aren't ordinary people.

You know, they are the royal family, and, uh--so yes, you are on your guard a bit more.

There's certain rules attached to it.

(narrator) While Diana gets herself ready for the shoot, John Swannell is left with two bored princes.

To relax the boys, he decides to strike up a friendly game of ping-pong.

Most children I think probably, let's be honest, especially boys, don't really go bomb on the idea of a photoshoot, especially when you're royal and people are trying to take pictures of you all the time.

We know that William was notoriously wary of the cameras, ditto Harry.

So John has a bit of a sort of social work job -on his hands almost.

-I said, um, "Do you play table tennis, guys?"

And Harry said, "I'm really good at that."

And, uh, I said, "Okay, I'll tell you what: William, do you want a game?

I'll play you first.

And he said, "Okay," so we played each other and I beat him.

I beat him quite substantially, you know?

I said, "William, you're not that great, are you?"

He said, "Nah, I'm not very good," and Harry said, "Give me that bat."

And he wiped me off the table.

I mean, literally wiped me off, it was, like, 21-8, or something like that.

You know, I thought, "Well, at least I beat the future King of England."

(narrator) As for the actual shoot, it couldn't have gone any better.

(John) This is a very simple picture.

We shot it in black-and-white again.

White shirts, very simple, everything's very simple, and it worked, so all you concentrate is the faces, you just concentrate on what they're doing.

They just look happy in each other's company, and there's a complete absence of any royal protocol.

There's no stiffness, there's none of this sort of, you know, where someone is in the hierarchy of one boy being more important than the other, perhaps.

There's just complete equality and relaxation.

That was the thing that was so fresh and different about it.

Diana didn't ever have to say anything, she just had to be Diana in front of the camera.

Look at here there.

In that moment, the reaction, the chemistry, the maternal love, we all want to see that.

That's the moment that you see the essence of what this family was about, what this woman and her sons, what their relationship really was.

That's why it's something that people took to their hearts.

(Tessa) This was really a transition period for her.

The separation takes place in 1992, and then there is this kind of game of one-upmanship.

She's trying to find her feet outside an institution she's effectively been in since she was a teenager.

That is not an easy gig, especially when the world is watching on.

We've had earlier on in 1994 that revenge dress.

It needs no further explanation.

Later on in the year, it's gonna be her very last Christmas at Sandringham.

She's breaking free of the gilded cage.

She was making her own life and building her own world, and that's why these images are so iconic.

Her world was her two boys, and that was how she was going to build whatever she was going to do in the future.

(narrator) Coming up, we get under the skin of Brighton's Pavilion and discover its magnificent domes are hiding a secret.

(Jonathan) How do you create India in Sussex?

I mean, it's not obvious.

It's an illusion.

(narrator) And behind palace walls, Fergie faces the wroth of the royal family.

Essentially, the queen chucked Fergie out of Balmoral.

(narrator) And what did the queen order when she was unable to reach her palace and forced to seek shelter in a pub?

I know what she had, but I never told anybody.

(dramatic music) (narrator) Staying in a fairy tale royal palace is something most of us can only dream of.

(Daisy) I think just the word "palace" to most of us sums up fairy stories about royal families.

So the mystique and the desire to know what goes on inside a palace is still with us very, very strongly.

(narrator) But sometimes palace dreams can turn into nightmares as Sarah Ferguson found out at Balmoral.

♪ Lurid photos of the duchess had been plastered across the tabloids and the royal family were waiting to confront her.

(soft music) (Julie) Can you even imagine, out of all the places to be, you're there with members of the royal family, and they come down to breakfast and all the papers are, you know, on the table for them to pick out one by one, and there is Fergie with her toes being sucked.

Apparently Prince Philip himself walked in, threw a copy of the tabloids at her, and without a word, walked out again.

She also had a one-on-one with the queen.

She was very frank about it, describing it as possibly the most difficult moment of her life.

(narrator) Within hours, Fergie was pictured leaving Balmoral.

(Bidisha) Essentially, the queen chucked Fergie out of Balmoral.

She was like, "Pack your rucksack, take the bus, and go.

I don't want to see you again for a long, long time."

(narrator) Fergie's public standing also took a huge nosedive.

It did go to show that there were certain things the public expected members of the royal family to adhere to, certain standards, and once those slipped, then the public affection for you turned and, in Fergie's case, it turned quickly.

She is banned from all royal events.

That's it, she is done.

She is on her own, and the royal family made that crystal clear to her.

(bright music) (narrator) Being banned from the palaces would mean you'd lose access to some of the most beautiful buildings in the world.

(Jacky) None of them are alike, they're each incredibly individual, but together collectively, they tell this incredibly rich story of the history of Britain and its royal family.

(narrator) But of all the royal palaces, one has the visual swagger to stand out as truly unique: Brighton's Royal Pavilion.

(Tessa) It's a sort of wonderful eclectic mishmash.

It's sensuous, it's ridiculous, but there is something remarkable about the vision behind it.

(narrator) Built in 1815, its eccentricity comes from the prince and later king who built it, George IV.

(Lisa) George was a very contradictory character, and when he was 15 years old, his tutor, Dr. Hurd, said that he would be either the most polished gentleman or the most accomplished blackguard in Europe, possibly an admixture of both.

(narrator) It's not surprising that as soon as he was old enough, young George headed to Brighton.

(Tessa) Brighton was hip.

It offered an alternative lifestyle away from prying eyes, but it wasn't a downscale in terms of vibe and expectation.

Dear me, no, George could have a lot of fun and all right there in the sea air.

(narrator) It was here, amidst the seaside pleasures, that George decided to set up camp and convert a rather modest seaside pavilion into an Indian subcontinent masterpiece.

(Jonathan) At first glance, you think you're looking at a mosque rather than a residential building, but this is fun, it is seasidey, it's also more than a little bit weird.

♪ (narrator) The pavilion's most eye-catching feature is its roof, home to scores of minarets and nine huge onion-shaped domes.

An extravagant spectacle in seaside Sussex.

But these noble domes have a secret: They are not what they seem.

(Jonathan) How do you create India in Sussex?

I mean, it's not obvious.

It's an illusion, and the thing about illusions is that you need trickery, you need some secrets up your sleeve.

(narrator) To reveal how George's architect, John Nash, pulled it off, you need to go under the skin of one of those domes and see the revolutionary way they were supported.

(Jonathan) This is the drum that surrounds the upper part of the central saloon, and at first glance it looks like good, solid, load-bearing brick, but then every now and again, you see these red, vertical strips, and that is cast iron.

See, it's light, comparatively, to masonry, but it's also really, really solid.

(narrator) But the stone domes would still be immensely heavy and in danger of collapsing on the partying aristocrats below.

So Nash had another trick up his sleeve.

The secret is they're not stone.

They're, in fact, timber, and his trick was to cover this wooden structure with what looked like stone.

He had a mixture of tar and ground chalk, but he put sand in it, too, so it would have the texture of stone whereas, in fact, they're much, much lighter.

(narrator) The stone effect wooden domes created the illusion of Indian grandeur that George was hoping for.

But it meant that Brighton's Pavilion is architecturally closer to a Disneyland castle than a traditional palace.

(Lisa) Nobody really understood what Nash was trying to do, and it was seen as another instance of the prince's sort of extravagant taste and general disregard for public opinion.

(narrator) But its unpopularity was the least of George's problems, because within a few years, Nash's miracle stone effect coating cracked and the domes began to leak.

(Lisa) The Pavilion appeared to be this sort of floating paradise, a kind of Xanadu, but in fact, it was cold, it was leaky, it was crumbling, rather like the king himself.

(narrator) But after George's days were done, the Pavilion lived on.

And over the years, public opinion has changed.

(Lisa) I think the Pavilion sums up the spirit of the city of Brighton very well.

It's free-spirited, it's rebellious, it's beautiful, it's colorful.

I think it's the ideal monument to Brighton today.

(orchestral music) ♪ (bright music) (narrator) Every palace encapsulates the monarch that built them.

George IV stamped his identity on Brighton's Royal Pavilion.

♪ Queen Victoria transformed Buckingham Palace, and William III's redesign of Hampton Court turned it into a Baroque masterpiece.

But when Louis XIV put his stamp on the Palace of Versailles, orange trees and mirror halls were not the only things that took hold of the senses.

(soft dramatic music) ♪ (Kate) Versailles was beautiful, elegant, graceful, and one giant lavatory.

There were 10,000 people crammed into Versailles, sometimes another 5,000 people would come visiting.

And between this 10,000 to 15,000 people, you had the grand sum of 300 chamber pots.

Only the very top aristocrats got a pot for themselves at all.

Most people, particularly the servants and the visitors, got nothing.

And so the majority of people who come to Versailles, they will simply pretty much relieve themselves in the corner or behind a screen.

The women's skirts were so big and so much like a big cage that the women hoped that if they were urinating standing up, that it would all just get soaked up by the material and no one would see.

So women would just pretty much let it flow.

And it smelled horrendous.

And the actual pots, well, they had to be emptied quite frequently.

The servants didn't have time to go and empty them into the right ditch, so what they do is they just chuck it in the corner or chuck the stuff out of the window.

And in fact, the Queen, Mary Antoinette, was once walking around the inner courtyard and she was hit by flying human poo.

I mean, this is terrible.

So, Versailles is really a rather disgusting smelling place.

Louis XIV, well, he was a bit concerned about the fact that Versailles was getting a reputation for smelling dire.

So what he did was he tried to fix the smell.

He brought in orange trees so it would smell a bit better, and he also said that people who came in should be sprayed by the court perfumier to make them smell a bit better, that their unwashed clothes in which they'd possibly gone to the loo in just a few moments ago, they would be smelling nicer.

Certainly, when Louis XIV had conjured the idea of Versailles, of aristocrats from across the country being brought into one court with him to live, sleep, and eat with him, I don't think he'd quite reckoned on the fact that, on top of that, they'd also all have to go to the loo.

♪ (bright music) (narrator) Coming up, we discover the strange origins of Brighton's Pavilion.

♪ (Jonathan) It's extraordinary.

It's like a scene from Alien, you know, with Sigourney Weaver as her ribcage burst open and the beast emerges.

(narrator) Why the Queen went against tradition and invested in pop art for the palaces.

(Jacky) Andy Warhol actually said, "I want to be as famous as the Queen of England."

I think he would have been absolutely delighted that the Queen of England did indeed buy this set of prints.

(narrator) And who murdered the princes in the tower?

(Kate) Two princes who disappeared after their father's death conveniently so that Richard III could be king.

(energetic music) ♪ (narrator) Britain's royal palaces come in all shapes and sizes.

From classic castles to modest stately homes, no two alike and each has its own character, but they are all places the royals call home.

♪ (Bidisha) The palaces are the place where the royals can be themselves.

They can relax as much as a royal ever relaxes.

(narrator) But when the royals venture outside palace walls, events can overtake them.

They are no longer in control.

(soft, bright music) In the winter of 1981, the Queen was returning to Windsor Castle after visiting her daughter, Princess Anne, when the weather turned.

(Susie) The whole convoy was taken unawares by a sudden blizzard, and people were abandoning their cars in the road it was so bad, so there was no way she could have carried on.

And they found the nearest warm place with lights on, which, luckily for her, was a pub.

(narrator) With the weather predicted to get worse, Police Sergeant Colin Tebbutt directs the convoy to The Cross Hands public house and informs the landlord that he's about to receive a very special punter.

(Colin) There was a man sweeping the steps.

I took out my warrant card and said, "Now, look," who I was and what I was doing and didn't want any back chat.

He said, "I would like to inform you Her Majesty the Queen is outside.

Could you accommodate her?"

I can't imagine being a pub landlord and being told that the Queen's in the carpark and wants to come in straight away.

You've got a hundred people in the bar who are sheltering from the blizzard, the same blizzard that the Queen's got completely grounded by and that's why she's gotta come in.

(narrator) While the Queen was relaxing in the warm pub, Colin was outside trying to clear the snow so the royal party could continue on their journey.

(quirky music) (Colin) Me being the youngest sergeant there, I was told, "Colin, go out and see if you can get a cut-through through this snow."

Well, the snow was five, six, seven, eight feet high.

So, I then, over the next few hours, helped to cut a swathe through the snow.

(narrator) As the hours ticked by, Roberto's secret visitor took full advantage of the pub's hospitality.

We--we served her tea.

And then, later on, she called (unintelligible) and she said, "I want even a meal."

So I had to take the order, go down to the kitchen, prepare it, take it upstairs, and serve her.

Obviously, it was not like being in Buckingham Palace.

I mean, but-- I mean, we done the best.

Whatever she wanted, um, she ordered from the menu, what I suggested what she wanted, and we provided and we served her and she had, and that's it.

I know what she had, but I never told anybody.

(narrator) By the time the Queen was ready to leave, the secret was out about the pub's royal visitor.

(Colin) We got together, loaded everything.

There was about a hundred people, I thought it was about a hundred people, came down to applaud Her Majesty when we left.

And this was 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning, you know, which I thought was amazing.

(narrator) With the way clear, the Queen was whisked back to the safety of Windsor Castle.

But the experience of getting snowed into a country pub left its mark on the Queen.

(Colin) I was made a member of the Victorian Order.

I'm very proud of that, immensely proud.

Received my medal from her.

And she happened to remember of the day in the snow and spoke to me about it when she pinned my medal.

This was probably the Queen's first and last lock-in, because she's known to like a gin and Dubonnet, but we've never known her to be a shut-in in a pub before now.

(soft music) ♪ (narrator) Back in the safety of her palaces, the Queen can expect to enjoy some of the finest architecture and art in the world.

(Emily) We as the public expect to see glitz and gold and pomp and circumstance when we go and look around the palaces.

Otherwise we think, "Well, really, what are they for?"

(narrator) But in terms of avant-garde style, one palace sticks out a mile: The Brighton Pavilion,.

(bright music) ♪ When George IV built the palace in 1815, he had been inspired by a more ambitious structure he'd been building in the pavilion's garden.

(Jonathan) Well, the big surprise about Brighton Pavilion is that that famous view that's graced a million calendars would not exist were it not for that building.

♪ This dates to a decade earlier.

It's not designed for a king to be, not even for people.

That is the royal stables.

(narrator) Designed in 1803 by architect William Porden, the stables accommodated up to 60 thoroughbreds along with their grooms and stableboys.

George's horses lived like kings.

(Lisa) He was absolutely passionate about horse racing.

I mean, it's obviously something that's in the royal genes.

George IV, much like our present Queen, loved horses.

He was an equestrian nut.

It was his top hobby.

(Jonathan) George always had at least one eye on the Continent, so he was keeping up with his Continental rivals by building something that, with a decent pair of binoculars, you might even be able to see from France.

(narrator) Building the royal stables had cost almost £55,000, around £2.4 million in today's money.

A small fortune which cemented the Prince's growing reputation for shameless profligacy.

(Lisa) He'd also been heavily criticized for spending so much money on his partying lifestyle while the weavers of Lancashire and Glasgow were quite literally starving to death.

So it was a slightly misguided choice to build the stables.

(narrator) But George wasn't finished with spending other people's money.

He now felt the new sexy stable block completely outshone the main house.

Plans were immediately put in action to demolish and rebuild the Marine Pavilion with as many exotic domes as possible.

The neat little residence was buried beneath a new skin of domes and minarets that would now define it.

(Jonathan) This burst out of its skin, it's extraordinary.

It's like a scene from Alien, you know, with Sigourney Weaver as her ribcage burst open and the beast emerges.

That's what this is.

This is an architectural beast.

(narrator) And so the Royal Pavilion we see today was born.

A monument to extravagant self-indulgence, inspired by an overgrown house for horses and a royal who knew no bounds.

(classical music) The art that hangs in the royal palaces is some of the oldest and most famous in the world.

(Jacky) The Royal Collection is worth billions of pounds.

You could spend your entire life trying to see all of the objects in it across its numerous palaces and buildings and warehouses.

♪ (narrator) Every monarch contributes to the collection during their reign, adding their own unique perspective and treasures.

(Jacky) We know that our current queen, Elizabeth II, is fairly conservative in her taste.

But once in a while, something a little bit more exciting and new appears.

(vibrant pop music) (narrator) When the Queen decided to buy a series of four prints by Pop artist Andy Warhol in 2012, the art world was taken by surprise.

♪ They are estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds and are some of the most iconic images in the Royal Collection.

♪ She's wearing the Vladimir Tiara, she's got Queen Victoria's Jubilee Necklace on.

What Andy Warhol has done is completely simplify the image and flattened it and given the Queen these really masklike features.

He's asking the audience to question what you see in an image.

Do you see a real person?

Do you get any insights into what they're feeling, what they're thinking?

Or is it in fact an image of power, something that's being curated, controlled?

(cocktail jazz music) (narrator) In a nod to the Queen's regal position, Warhol also included a special ingredient.

♪ (Jacky) The prints hold this rather wonderful secret, because the screen prints are dusted with diamond dust, which is essentially cut or crushed tiny piece of glass that just glitter in the light, and it's a rather wonderful sort of addition for that extra sprinkle of glamour to these prints.

(lively music) (narrator) They may be a surprising addition to the royal household, but they are now one of the most famous artworks in the collection.

(Jacky) Andy Warhol was completely obsessed by celebrity all his life.

He actually said, "I want to be as famous as the Queen of England."

I think he would have been absolutely delighted, probably quite amused, to know that the Queen of England did indeed buy this set of prints.

♪ (narrator) The royal palaces span every period of British history since before medieval times, from castle fortresses and Georgian townhouses to Victorian Gothic.

(Wesley) It's amazing to have this extraordinary collection of buildings of every conceivable age, maybe going back a thousand years, and amazing things have happened in them, and in a way, the stories belong to us and the palaces belong to us.

(narrator) But there are some stories that the Royal Family will wish to remain secret forever.

(fantastical music) ♪ (harpsichord music) (Kate) In 1789, some lost workmen in Windsor almost solved one of the biggest mysteries in British history: Who killed the princes in the tower?

When Edward IV died, he had two remaining heirs, two boys.

They were invited to the tower by their uncle, Richard.

Then, those two young princes disappeared.

Many of us think they were assassinated on the orders of Richard III, because, certainly, the death of those two princes benefitted him, but we don't know for sure.

What happened to those two young princes?

Well, it was almost solved, because these lost workmen ended up by mistake in the vault of Edward IV and his wife, Elizabeth, the parents of the princes, and they saw two small coffins there for children.

Now, they thought, "Oh, that must be George and Mary," the children of Elizabeth and Edward.

George died age 2 and Mary died age 14.

So they bricked it back up and said, "George and Mary are in there."

But then, 20 years later, the plot thickened.

The real coffins of George and Mary were discovered.

So who were the other two coffins in the vault with Edward IV?

Was it the princes in the tower?

The rumor mill started to spiral and everyone started to say that they were in the tower.

Two princes who disappeared after their father's death, conveniently so that Richard III could be king.

Now, that's possible, but the thing is that we just don't know.

We haven't gone into the vault, we don't know for sure what the workmen saw, we don't know who is in those coffins.

It's a complete mystery.

(somber music) (regal music) (narrator) Coming up, on Secrets of the Royal Palaces: The grand palace plan which bit the dust because of an unexpected problem with the prince.

(Lisa) He'd grown so corpulent and heavy that he was unable to get up the stairs to use the room.

(narrator) And a grave constitutional crisis ensues as a stubborn queen refuses to name her successor.

(Kate) It was a moment of failure, because, despite everything she'd done, in the end, the ultimate judge on her came down to, "Did she have a child?"

(wondrous music) ♪ (narrator) The royal palaces have dominated the countryside and the cities they sit in for centuries.

Each one is as important as the next, and they demand respect.

(Lisa) We might think that the royal palaces represent this very sort of staid and steady institution, but actually, I think that they are just as architecturally exciting and diverse and dynamic as Britain itself.

♪ (narrator) But whereas most of the palaces are hidden behind walls, there's one place that you can visit on a daily basis.

♪ Brighton's Royal Pavilion.

(lively music) This palace is famed for its exotic interiors.

The banqueting hall, the music room, and the salon are among the most opulently decorated in all of the royal palaces.

But the seaside palace has a secret, a room that was perhaps intended to top them all.

It's hidden inside the Bottle Dome, the largest dome on the roof.

To get to it, you must endure a steep climb.

(Jonathan) So this elegant but dilapidated-looking staircase brings us up to the high point of this extraordinary royal building, and it brings us to a secret as well, because within here is this amazing array of windows.

They're all tear-shaped.

Every one's slightly different.

All handmade, glorious things, and they give you views out onto the roof of the building and to Brighton beyond and the sea.

And they're not just those four windows, they're through here as well, and then they go around, and all the way around this drum, 360.

This whole thing is a panorama in this room.

In some ways, it's the best room in the house.

This would be a really prime luxo penthouse flat.

But the thing is, it's all been subdivided.

There are walls now.

There are doorways.

Small rooms, little fireplaces.

What happened?

(narrator) Before the penthouse room was even completed, a problem arose: George, the playboy prince, couldn't get into it.

The prince regent's overindulgence was legendary.

But by his mid-50s, as the palace neared completion, the endless procession of fine foods and late nights had taken their toll.

(Lisa) He was overweight.

He'd grown so corpulent and heavy that he was unable to get up the stairs to use the room.

(Tessa) In many ways, George and his physique, which is ever-expanding, becomes a metaphor for his behavior.

His ever-expanding palaces, his ever-expanding stables, his ever-expanding list of women, his ever-expanding girth.

Of course, in the end, his ever-expanding girth prevents him from enjoying all of those things he's spent his life investing in, which is rather pitiful.

You know, how can you enjoy a good woman or a good horse if you can hardly get out of bed?

(narrator) But George's health problem gave his architects an opportunity to correct the palace's greatest design flaw.

(Lisa) The Royal Family had absolutely huge households.

I think it was Queen Victoria who considered that 60 servants was a skeleton staff.

So having a huge retinue was a way of showing to the public at large that the monarchy was very much in control.

(narrator) George had a staff of around 150 servants.

But at Brighton, the converted villa, there was not enough space set aside to house them.

(Lisa) The problem with the Brighton Pavilion was that it wasn't really built to house such an enormous household staff, and so it became crowded, dirty, and really rather squalid.

(narrator) The chance to exploit the unused penthouse space was quickly jumped at by the architects.

(Jonathan) Preparations suddenly shifted to the other end of the social spectrum.

The grandest room in the house became subdivided, with doors and fireplaces and domestic-looking wallpaper, so that a room that was once fit for a king became fit merely for servants.

(narrator) Given the extent of the opulent rooms below, it seems a shame that the nation has missed out on what would have been another epic royal interior.

But perhaps it's good to know that in Brighton's Pavilion, at least, those who serve got the best room.

(whimsical music) (stirring music) Royal palaces, by their very nature, display power and status and instantly transport us back to a bygone era.

The royal palaces are definitely the central point to royal life as we know it.

But they're also, in one sense, untouchable to the public, just like the Royal Family can be seen as untouchable.

(narrator) And one monarch went to great lengths to make sure she was untouchable and no one could deprive her of her palaces or her crown, right up to her very last days at her favorite residence, Richmond Palace.

(fantastical music) ♪ (somber music) (Kate) Elizabeth I. Gloriana.

The great, powerful queen.

Had no children, no heir.

No successor.

Elizabeth had constantly resisted marriage, despite how much it had been pressed upon her that she must marry and she must have a son.

But if Elizabeth gets pregnant, survives childbirth, the child that she has is an immediate threat to her, especially if it's a boy.

So Elizabeth does not get married to preserve her throne.

♪ When they realized that she was dying, they had a problem on their hands, because who was gonna come next?

♪ What Elizabeth's men want is a clear definition: Who is going to be the next monarch?

Because if she doesn't say, there could be lots of people who claim the throne, and there could be fighting between them, insecurity.

Scotland might invade.

She hadn't named an heir throughout her reign, because she knew that the minute she did, the plotters would circle around that person.

The nearest person to take her throne was James VI of Scotland, who was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, her great rival she kept in prison for so many years and finally executed.

When Elizabeth was very close to death, she raised her hand and she created a circle around her head.

Now, I think she was saying here, "I'm still queen," but they were desperate, and those around her said, "Oh yes, that's it.

She said it's James VI," and although it was a great moment of succession, England and Scotland would now be ruled by the same monarch, it was the beginning of unity, for Elizabeth, this moment on her deathbed, when she must give up her throne to the son of her greatest rival, Mary, Queen of Scots, her son, James VI, is to her, I think, a moment of great sadness.

It was a moment of failure, because despite Gloriana, despite everything she'd done, in the end, the ultimate judge on her came down to, "Did she have a child?

", which she had not.

(soft vocal music) (narrator) Next time: Princess Margaret escapes the palace -into a media storm.

-If you have got a royal story, there's a Union Jack plastered across somebody's genitals, then you'd be highly delighted.

(narrator) The magnificent clock in Kensington Palace almost doesn't make it -out of the workshop.

-He wanted it to be beat to pieces and entirely destroyed.

(narrator) And Louis XIV's doctors take extreme measures at the Palace of Versailles.

(Kate) ...including treating an anal fistula with a red-hot poker.

Poor guy.

(regal music) ♪ ♪ (bright music)