The Vatican has released film and photographs offering a rare glimpse of the private life of Benedict XVI.

The images show the Pope — who turned 80 last week — watching the evening news on a flat-screen television with Monsignor Georg Gänswein, his German personal secretary; eating lunch with his assistants in his private dining room; saying the rosary in the Vatican gardens; and putting on his vestments to say morning Mass in the papal chapel.

Father Gänswein is seen to be in charge of the TV remote control.

The pictures of the pontiff dining confirm that he enjoys a modest amount of wine with his meals, prepared by a staff of German nuns in what appears to be a high-tech papal kitchen.

The Vatican has been at pains to convey a more relaxed, “human” and media-friendly image of Pope Benedict XVI since his election two years ago, when he was filmed by Vatican Television taking possession of the papal apartments.

At Christmas it authorised the sale for charity of a calendar featuring photographs of the Pope playing the piano, reading and writing, and strolling through the gardens of Castelgandolfo, the papal summer residence.

Father Federico Lombardi, the Pope’s spokesman, told The Times that the footage had been filmed in response to a “huge number of requests” from television stations in the pontiff’s native Germany and around the world for images with which to mark his 80th birthday and the second anniversary of his election.

The pictures show the Pope riffling through a compilation of daily press cuttings assembled and presented to him by Father Mietek Mokrzycki, his Polish second-secretary, who was also personal assistant to John Paul II.

The film, extracts from which were broadcast on Italian television, also shows the pontiff consulting Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, his Secretary of State, or Prime Minister.

The Pope, who made a two-day visit to Pavia in northern Italy at the weekend to pray at the tomb of St Augustine of Hippo and meet patients at a local hospital, is preparing a gruelling trip to Brazil next month.