He actually is very candid at times, especially with some of the rare interviews or even offhand remarks that he makes. We had to find archival material that would fit under themes that we wanted to explore, which, in some ways, gave us great leeway, because he talks about a lot of different things over the years. Because there are no Morton tapes of Charles, we had to find a way to present different aspects of his personality: Who is he really? It was almost like a Rorschach test of, ‘Who is Charles, Prince Charles, now King Charles?’ Who will he be once it's all said and done on May 6? Is Charles as a subject matter more difficult than Diana? “We peel back the layer in the storytelling to get closer to the meat on the bone, which is Charles.”Īhead of the premiere of Charles: In His Own Words, which airs on National Geographic on April 28, T&C spoke to the filmmaker about the surprising similarities between a father and his rebellious son. So, we created a template that we followed,” says Jennings. “We were very conscious of the fact that Charles himself, even with all the access we had to rare or unheard material, couldn't give enough context to the bigger story. Often using the media perspective as an introduction to themes like “Charles, the rebel prince,” the story is fleshed out either by close confidants like the private secretary to the late Queen Elizabeth or a close school friend. “It would have made things much, much easier.” Instead, to dig deeper into the story of a man many think they know, Jennings uses rare clips of the monarch, ranging from newly digitized and previously unaired news footage from his trips to Australia to playtime with his young sons. “There are no Morton tapes for Charles,” he says. But when it was time to give the same treatment to Diana’s ex-husband, the soon-to-be-crowned King Charles III, Jennings had to employ a different playbook. His documentary was a success, begging for a follow up.

“For seven straight hours we sat, listening to these tapes as if Diana was sitting right in the room with us, telling us her life story.”

We went in a small writer's room, an assistant brought in a big tray of tea, because she knew we were going to be there a long time, and he hit play,” says Jennings. Andrew Morton’s publisher's office is, of course, something right out of Hogwarts. Having convinced British journalist and author Andrew Morton to allow him to use the tapes he acquired straight from Diana for his book, Jennings made his way to London. Documentary filmmaker Tom Jennings vividly recalls the early stages of his first royal doc, Diana: In Her Own Words, in which the late princess narrates her life story.

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