The Queen (film)

[GingerSkin]

It's on ITV now, does anyone think the queen is like this in real life?

I love how she's portrayed. Jumps in her landrover and drives it herself, doubts her part in pushing Charles and Diana's marriage etc

I was in my teens when she died so don't recall the anger towards the royal family but they appear to have had a hard time as they couldn't do right for doing for wrong in the circumstances.

Just me musing then

I love the film, didn't realise it was on ITV at the mo.

I think all the films about the Queen are necessarily fictional. Helen Mirren is also superb in The Audience playing the Queen at 5 different points in her reign. Balmoral looks bloody grim in that (it's a stage play so focuses more on the fact it has no adequate heating and less on the amazing scenery!). But no-one who really knows the Queen would ever speak to someone writing about her, and I doubt that will significantly change after her death. So we have a portrait of someone born in another era, who believes utterly in her duty (obvs the fact said duty comes with one of the largest fortunes in the world doesn't exactly hurt - but Her Maj is no shirker) and profoundly influenced by the abdication of her uncle. But she does indeed come across as a bloody good egg, happiest in her wellies and headscarf, and it humanises her in private as her TV appearance after Diana's death (eventually) did in public.

The anger at the time is because the Royal Family didn't adopt a posture of mourning that people expected. The flag didn't fly at half mast at Buck House (because the flag isn't meant to be up at all when the Queen isn't in residence, and anyway Diana was no longer a royal). They clung too closely to an outmoded form of protocol because its appropriateness had never been questioned by the people before. And I have no doubt that they were all profoundly distressed for Diana's children - losing a parent is terrible but losing your parent who is the most famous woman in the world and on the front page of every newspaper and at the top of every news bulletin is incredibly traumatic. I'm sure it was a truly dreadful time for them all - I can't bear to see the photos of William and Harry at the funeral. Having to mourn like that in public at such a young age - awful.

It was all stirred up in the press at the time, personally I think Helen Mirren's version of the queen is very stilted and the film is very corny, but perhaps things have changed incredibly since then, she probably wouldn't have pretended to skydive into an Olympic arena for instance.

I think they're a bit flattering to Cherie Blair in the film, plus it seems it was made before Tony Blair became the devil incarnate.

I think they've portrayed the Queen mother as a bit of an old soak too - very spitting image.

I recall there being an outcry that the Queen made no public statement following Diana's death and was more or less forced to do so by the press. I remember people rushing home from work to catch it on TV as it had been announced in advance ( might just have been where I worked though!).

It did seem very odd that the Queen (or at least Prince Charles on behalf of his sons) made no public statement. I don't think the Palace would make such a gaffe now. In fairness now they'd have their Twitter account make a statement, how the world turns.

Funnily enough I watched it too this afternoon - it did bring back memories of that week. We were out of the country, and it was all anyone was talking about. I think a lot of the anger was based upon the public generally feeling that Diana had been treated very shoddily by Charles and the rest of the Royal Family since she was 19.

Cherie did come out of it well, Charles seemed very wet (maybe he is?) and I agree that the QM and I think, Philip, were really played as caricatures.

I was trying to explain to DS how incredible the public applauding Charles Spencer was during the funeral - that would NEVER have happened before, and probably not for anyone else.

Made me smile how in their final scene, the Queen said something to TB along the lines of 'one day the people will turn on you too - happens to us all'. I think she's a pretty wise lady!

Although the film didn't show it, the applauding of the coffin all along the route to Althorp House was a fairly incredible scene. Flowers were thrown along the whole route.

I remember that too tribpot - quite extraordinary. Although she was a flawed human being, she was loved by many. I remember the hearse having to stop, so that the flowers could be removed from the windscreen.

I always remember the bit of film showing the boys being driven to church on that Sunday morning looking shell-shocked. Apparently there was no mention at all of Diana during the service and Harry asked in bewilderment afterwards "Is Mummy really dead?"

Yes, I seem to remember reading that as well, Clawdy. I can kind of see why they thought sticking to routine and going to church as normal was a good idea but I've a feeling there was some protocol reason for not mentioning her during the church service. Most certainly not the right decision and must have been surreal for the people in the church.

I understood that there had been a request (from the Royals?) not to mention her, so that the boys wouldn't be upset.

I'm sure everything they did was out of good intention, but is so far removed from how we treat our children nowadays.