The Mystery of Anastasia
This is Anna Anderson. She claimed she was the Grand Duchess
Anastasia, the youngest daughter of Russia's Tsar Nicholas II. Although history
says the whole family were shot in a cellar in Siberia in 1918, their remains
were never found until the 1990s. And then it transpired the body of Anastasia
was actually missing from the family mass grave. Some people who had known the
real Anastasia as a child believed that Anna Anderson genuinely was the lost
princess. We became involved in the two year scientific investigation to
determine the true identity of Anna Andersen.
Although by then Anna Anderson had died, some tissue of her's, a pathology
specimen, was found in an American hospital. The DNA profile of this tissue was
analysed and compared to the DNA profile of Anastasia's family living today
(the UK's Duke of Edinburgh amongst others) by the UK's Forensic Science
Service. The result was a disappointment to many. It showed Anna Anderson was
not Grand Duchess Anastasia after all, and in another DNA test commissioned by
Peninsula Films, it was determined she was a Polish impostor by the name of
Franzisca Schanzkowska.
Our film was a broadcast as an Equinox Special on Channel Four Television and
received a record audience for this type of programme. The programme has
enjoyed a continuing life as an educational tool in the UK's A Level school
history course.
