Hampton Court: Behind Closed Doors

Go behind the scenes of preparations for Christmas at the palace, from cooking traditional Tudor recipes to harvesting mistletoe from the gardens. Joint Chief Curator Tracy Borman also explores royal Christmas traditions through the ages, including gifts from the past.

We discover the last surviving initials of Henry and his wife Anne Boleyn after he tried to have every mark of her ripped from the palace, track down the elusive royal deer in the vast parklands, and meet George, the first rare breed Shire horse foal to be born at Hampton Court in a generation.

Hampton Court's hedge maze gets a trim, a process that takes three weeks; chief curator Tracy Borman visits Father Anthony, chaplain of Hampton Court's Chapel Royal, who has found a prayer book on eBay that could have been used by Elizabeth I's priest; and warder Errol takes a look round the Haunted Gallery.