See The Face of The Queen Only a Few Know

Filmed up to 70 years ago, they are images that show the Queen as few will have seen her.

One set portrays her laughing with her husband, taking a horsedrawn sleigh ride in Canada in 1951.

Unknown to the then 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth, she was only a few months away from losing her beloved father, King George VI.

Other pictures show her in 1953, by now Queen, wielding cameras while on an official tour in New Zealand. And another shows her at Windsor in 1992 with a cow – called Elizabeth – from her herd.

The images will be included in an ITV series, The Queen Unseen, starting on Thursday to mark the monarch’s 95th birthday on April 21.

Using unseen home movies, intimate informal archive and recently digitised material from some of the 116 countries she has visited, it aims to show the Queen on holiday, as a mother, wife, cook, animal lover, farmer, and expert horsewoman.

And it will uncover her true passions and some of the unlikely, unknown friendships that she has forged away from the public eye.

The 1951 footage comes from a documentary movie called Royal Journey, the first colour feature film ever made in Canada – the rushes had to be flown to New York to be developed.

The young princess and the Duke of Edinburgh are seen covered in snow on their sleigh ride during the official tour, while in another shot she pats one of their horses.

One of the 1953 images shows her on Christmas Day in New Zealand, wearing sunglasses and smiling as she holds a cine camera.

There is a camera in her hand again on another picture from the time, when she and Philip were guests of the Governor General of New Zealand, Sir Willoughby Norrie, during a six-month world tour.

This article has been adapted from its original source.