On Tour with the Queen

Episode 4

Kwame Kwei-Armah visits Libya, Malta and Gibraltar before returning to London as he retraces the final leg of the Queen's 1953 Commonwealth Tour. The Queen visited Libya to honour the war dead buried in Tobruk and meet briefly with King Idris, who had been hand picked to serve British interests following Libya's independence in 1951. But Britain's efforts to maintain its influence over Libya would later come to an abrupt end with the emergence of a young Colonel Gaddafi. As the Queen left Libya, she was reunited with young Prince Charles and Princess Anne after six months of separation. Together they sailed to Malta to honour the sacrifices it had made during the war. But the Maltese soon began pushing hard for independence and, later, turned its back totally on the Queen by becoming a republic. Spain saw the Queen's visit to Gibraltar as a deliberate provocation and the trip sparked anti-British riots in Spain and the closure of their border with Gibraltar for 16 years. It's an issue that remains sensitive today. Finally, Kwame returns to London to attend the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Commonwealth at Westminster Abbey, where he gets to speak in front of - and meet - the Queen.