Queen launches her own YouTube channel

The Queen has set up her own special "Royal Channel" on the video website YouTube.

Her Christmas Day message will be posted on the popular site for the first time this year.

The new channel features archive and recent footage of the Queen and other Royals.

This year's Christmas message will appear at around 3pm on Christmas Day.

The Queen's decision to embrace the internet coincides with the 50th anniversary of her first ever televised December 25 speech, delivered live to the nation in 1957.

The Queen told the nation then: "I very much hope that this new medium will make my Christmas message more personal and direct."

Her Majesty continued: "That it is possible for some of you to see me today is just another example of the speed at which things are changing all around us."

The Youtube page bears the heading "The Royal Channel - The Official Channel of the British Monarchy".

There is also a photo of the Queen's Guards in their tall bearskin hats and red tunics stood in front of Buckingham Palace.

The Royal Channel shows video clips of garden parties, state visits, the Queen and Prime Ministers, investitures and a day in the life of the Prince of Wales.

There is also unseen footage of the late Tory MP Lord Wakehurst's film Long to Reign Over Us.

Lord Wakehurst was a keen amateur film maker and filmed historical events such as the death of King George VI, the Queen's accession and her coronation.

The Royal Channel also shows newsreel of Queen Alexandra's West End tour among the rose-sellers in 1917 and rarely seen news footage of the wedding of the Queen's parents.

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said: "The Queen always keeps abreast with new ways of communicating with people."