S6E8 · Ritz

Complete story — includes the ending

On Victory in Europe Day in 1945, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret join the celebrating crowds outside Buckingham Palace and find their way to the Ritz Hotel. Elizabeth ventures to a downstairs nightclub where she dances to jazz music with American servicemen; Margaret glimpses her and is stunned by her carefreeness. In 1998, Margaret suffers a stroke while vacationing in Mustique and returns home to England, where her doctors tell her she must give up drinking and smoking and undergo physical rehabilitation. Margaret suffers another stroke, severely burning her feet in the process, and returns to London where Elizabeth can care for her. At Margaret's 70th birthday party at the Ritz, she begins to tell the story of her and Elizabeth's night out in 1945, but Elizabeth stops her by proposing a toast to her sister's dutiful support of her. As Elizabeth cares for Margaret, Margaret says that no one who is unaware of their secret night out will ever understand how much Elizabeth had to give up when she became Queen. Margaret's health further declines after a third stroke, and an epilogue reveals she died in her sleep in 2002.