BBC film on HM the King resurfaces
THAILAND: A three-hour-long BBC documentary made in the 1970s, and containing rare footage of HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej talking with a BBC reporter, has been rediscovered and posted on YouTube.
Jody Houton
Thursday 31 May 2012, 04:39PM
Soul of a Nation is unusual in that the BBC interviewer David Lomax was granted unparalleled access to the Royal Family and their home life.
Footage includes long and in-depth Q&A sessions between Mr Lomax and HM the King, with both sitting on the floor of the King’s private study surrounded by what, at that time, was state-of-the-art communications equipment.
Topics touched upon are varied and wide and raise issues that are still of concern today. Mr Lomax also accompanied the King on countryside tours where he was filmed talking with villagers.
At one point in the documentary Mr Lomax asks if development projects such as the buildings of dams is helping to win the battle against Communist insurgents, to which HM the King replies, “We are not fighting the people, we are fighting hunger.”
The documentary has, until very recently, never been seen in Thailand. Army chief Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha has already contacted the BBC to request the broadcasting of a much shorter edited Thai-language version of the documentary.
