It might be hard to picture Queen Elizabeth watching television, but just like any of us, the late Queen had her favorites when it came to game shows and even police dramas. Longtime friend of the Royal Family Gyles Brandreth revealed one of the monarch’s favorite programs in his book Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait, and he said that watching TV helped her relate to the public.
After Prince Philip died in 2021, the late Queen took up watching a surprising show, according to Vice-Admiral Sir Tony Johnstone-Burt, who was part of the royal’s bubble at Windsor Castle during the COVID-19 pandemic. “My principal duty with HM has been to keep her spirits up—so I’ve been watching Line of Duty with her,” he told Brandreth.
The crime drama follows a police anti-corruption unit, and Johnstone-Burt said his role was “the explainer,” adding it was “very funny” to sit down with the late Queen for an episode.
Brandreth wrote that Queen Elizabeth “laughed as she struggled to understand the convoluted plotting and sometimes incomprehensible dialogue” in the show, adding that the late Queen herself told him that there was one problem with watching TV.
“It keeps me in touch—when I can understand what’s being said,” she admitted to the author. “There’s an awful lot of mumbling on television now.” The late Queen added, “It’s not my hearing. They just don’t seem to speak as clearly as they used to.”
Along with watching Line of Duty, Queen Elizabeth reportedly hate-watched another police procedural series called The Bill. “I don’t like The Bill but I just can’t help watching it,” she once said, per the Guardian.
Her other favorites are said to have included Strictly Come Dancing, Dr. Who, quiz show Pointless and Downton Abbey—but she wasn't above a critique of the period drama. Brian Hoey, author of At Home With The Queen, said the late Queen loved to “point out things they have got wrong, partly because she is familiar with Highclere Castle, where it is filmed.”
