Princess Anne labels the Queen an ‘honorary man’ as she gives unique insight into her mother’s reign

In a new documentary, The Queen: Her Commonwealth Story, Princess Anne has given new details about her mother's long reign.

The documentary, which focussed on the Queen's role as head of the Commonwealth, gave new insight into the requirements of the job, and the ways the Queen had to adapt.

Among those talking was Princess Anne, who revealed that her mother was in possession of the skills needed to succeed as monarch.

“Her length of time in that position and her ability to listen and talk to those leaders is virtually unique.

She also commented that the Queen had assumed the position of "honorary man".

“She’s been in that position of being an honorary man for a long time."

Anne also spoke about the long periods of time that the Queen spent abroad on Commonwealth tours, especially the one she undertook in 1954, when Charles and Anne were 6 and 4 respectively.

"Her predecessors had travelled enormously, that was the expectation.

"And they'd been away for very long times and that again was part of the expectation.

"And of course it was made worse by her father dying so early on in her career that she didn't have the option really to spend more time at home."

Anne also revealed more details of what it was like growing up a Royal in the public eye.

She admitted she and her siblings were not a fan of Royal walkabouts. "We hated them, can you imagine as teenagers? Hardly the sort of thing you would volunteer to do. It gets easier but can you imagine? How many people enjoy walking into a room full of people you've never met before and then try a street."

She added, "I don't think many youngsters would volunteer to do that. Nowadays of course there are so many cameras you can't see the people, especially those who insist on using their iPads to do that, they haven't even got any heads, so that changes the crowd structure a bit."