The Queen has instructed her lawyers to take action over the way a BBC programme trailer misrepresented her by suggesting she had stormed out of a photo shoot.
Farrer & Co, solicitors to the Queen, have written to RDF Media Group, the film company which made the programme for the corporation. It is understood the letter – and a similar one to the BBC – warns that the programme makers have put themselves in breach of contract by their actions.
Senior officials at Buckingham Palace now believe the programme has been “tainted” by the fiasco, which threatened to damage the Queen’s reputation. There is growing pressure on the makers of A Year With the Queen to scrap it.
The Queen’s lawyers have pored over contracts drawn up between the three parties – Buckingham Palace, the BBC and RDF – before filming began. One senior source said: “There are now serious doubts whether this programme will ever see the light of day.”
A spokesman for RDF told The Sunday Telegraph: “The [BBC’s] investigation is ongoing. [RDF’s chief executive] David Frank is in conversations with the lawyers and the BBC. He’s in contact with our lawyers and the Palace lawyers – he has been talking to everyone that has been in touch.”
