Release: King without a country

28 March 2007: Al Jazeera English will air an exclusive interview with Constantine II, the last royal to head the Greek state, in A King Without A Country on 20 April 2007. King Constantine will be interviewed by Al Jazeera English presenter, Elizabeth Filippouli, at his home in Hampstead, London. The in-depth interview is a rare look into the life of the former King of Greece, winner of the gold medal in sailing in the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. The programme, which airs to mark the 40th anniversary of military rule taking power in Greece (21st April 1967), documents his life from his accession to the throne in 1964 at the age of 23, to the military coup in 1967 and his subsequent exile.

With this Programme Al Jazeera English showcases Greece’s troubled passage from Monarchy to Democracy. It examines the policies of the main leading figures of the last decades, Constantinos Karamanlis and Andreas Papandreou.

King Constantine tells Filippouli: “The day I lost my father and this coup, were probably the worst days of my life. Every time a King has left his country it has always been in his mind that no bloodshed must incur because of him. I personally thought the counter-coup should have happened a few months later. The house in Tatoi belongs to my family, it was bought with money that my great-grandfather had brought in from Denmark and not from his salary as King. Constantinos Karamanlis had publicly said he was only recognising me as the legal Head of the Greek State.”

King without a country will be aired at the following times on Al Jazeera English:

Friday 20 April:        0030 GMT, 1230 GMT

Saturday 21 April:    0730 GMT, 1730 GMT

Sunday 22 April:      0330 GMT, 2030 GMT

 

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About Al Jazeera English

Al Jazeera English is the world’s first English language news channel to be headquartered in the Middle East. Broadcasting from within the Middle East, looking outwards, Al Jazeera English will set the news agenda and act as a bridge between cultures. With unique access as the channel of reference for Middle East events, and broadcast centres strategically placed around the world in Doha, Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington DC, Al Jazeera International will balance the information flow from South to North, providing accurate, impartial and objective news for a global audience from a grass roots level, giving voice to different perspectives from under-reported regions around the world.

Al Jazeera English is building on the ground-breaking heritage of its sister Arab-language channel – Al Jazeera, which was responsible for changing the face of news within the Middle East, now extending that fresh perspective from regional to global. 

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