A clip of Bristol's Edward Colston statue being thrown into the harbour has been used at the beginning of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's new Netflix documentary. The first volume featuring three episodes of the anticipated Harry & Meghan series exposing the couple's alleged treatment by members of the royal family and the media aired at 8am on Thursday (December 8).
The couple has given Netflix producers unrestricted access to their lives and their relationship, alongside details about their childhoods through a "never before seen personal archive", the first episode states. Episode one explores Harry's experiences growing up surrounded by cameras, which he says intensified after the death of his mother, Diana, the Princess of Wales, as well as details of how the pair first got together.
Viewers in Bristol will notice a short clip of the moment the Colston statue was thrown into Bristol Harbour in June 2020 in the introduction to the first episode. Just over three minutes into the episode, the couple make reference to how they have been treated over the years from the moment their relationship was exposed to the public.
Read more: Harry and Meghan Netflix show airs, and starts with a disclaimer
"Unfortunately, in not standing for something, they are destroying us," Meghan says, on what appears to be a self-filmed video on a smartphone alleging the royal family's lack of intervention in the way the couple were treated.
"This isn't just about our story, this has always been so much bigger than us," Prince Harry says within the first few minutes of Episode one. The clip of the Colston statue, shown for only a second, is used as part of a collage of news footage seeming to refer to racial tensions in the UK in recent years. The footage is cut with audio from the 'Take Back Control' Brexit alongside a video of 'Believe in Britain' protesters storming Parliament Square in London.
"No one knows the full truth - we know the full truth. The institution knows the full truth and the media know the full truth 'cause they've been in on it," Harry adds.
In September 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex signed a deal with streaming giant Netflix to develop both scripted and unscripted series, film, documentaries, and children programming. Meghan announced in October this year that they were working on the series.
Filming for Harry & Meghan was completed by August 2022 and includes interviews with family, friends, historians, and journalists to shed light on their relationship and before the couple first met. Members of the Royal Family declined to comment on the content of the series. A further three episodes will be released as part of a second volume on December 15.
A source in contact with a Netflix production insider reportedly told the Mirror online: “I genuinely think it’s going to be worse than the royals can imagine. I’m told that it’s going to be utterly explosive and will be very damaging.”
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