Elizabeth: A Portrait in Part(s)

Members of the Elizabeth Company,

this is your beginners call. You'll begin this call.

Your call, please, Joe Ayew, Catherine Hampton,

Peter Marius and Jane Pipe.

Summon please, lighting, sound, stage management,

flies, costume, weights and stage crew.

Your beginners call, thank you.

In the White Drawing Room.

- I have moved the furniture. - Yes.

And I, um, have lit the fire

so that it looks quite sort of friendly like.

- Do you think they're ready? - Yes, ma'am, they are indeed.

Let me entertain you

Let me entertain you

Let me entertain you

Let me

Enter...

...tain you

Let me

Enter...

...tain you

Yeah, yeah

Yeah

- And a different sort of camera. - Electronic camera.

And, uh, that's the teleprompter which you will have...

- Is that far enough in for you? - No.

- No? - Because that's right in the way.

- - Oh, I see what you mean.

- It's for the radio version... - For the radio, I see.

- ...and a run-through -of the words. - Mm-hm.

Clothes wise, does it look alright with the background?

Yes, it does.

I mean, jolly lucky. I'd be awful if you'd said no

because I'd have to find something else.

Yes, it's alright for this.

Whenever you're ready, ma'am.

Red and green should never be seen, but never mind.

Over the years, I have dwelt on the happier side of life

in my Christmas Broadcasts.

We need reminding of it, particularly at Christmas time.

This year, there have been, I hope,

times of happiness and good cheer for most of us.

My family, for instance, has been celebrating

my youngest grandchild's christening.

...old documentaries about the Queen

and the new documentaries, her accent has changed.

She's more, you know...

Before it was, like, "Oh, la-la-la,"

but these days it's more like, "Ha-ha-ha-ha."

So it's more like a street language, as if she's rapping.

Ladies and gentlemen...

I want to tell you all

throughout the ages...

and in grateful memory...

for our enjoyment...

it will not be easy...

[dialogue overlapping indistinct]

But it is a fragile institution.

[dialogue overlapping indistinct]

...by merely dialing the right number

up to a distance of some 300 miles.

I feel that her own natural self

is not allowed to come through

And if she herself were allowed to speak,

the effect would be wonderful.

Do you expect the Queen to have qualities of a wit?

You would like her to be a better orator?

You would like her to be a TV personality,

in addition to being a diligent, dutiful

and devoted monarch and a mother?

What I was suggesting is,

is that spontaneity should be the key note,

even if they're prepared

from seeming to be the sort of speech that she would make.

That will teach you to insult the Queen.

...to terminate the interview,

I'm obliged to you for answering my questions.

Next week, at this time, there will be another edition of Impact.

Goodnight.

When speaking to the Queen

your first introduction should be addressed as "Your Majesty".

From then on you should address her as "ma'am".

- Ma'am. - Yeah.

Your Majesty.

- Ma'am. - Ma'am, right.

To go down on the stool, very simple.

The conversation, you'll know it's come to an end, handshake...

Put your left foot at the left side, reverse back.

And bend the right knee.

And if the Ambassador and the High Commissioners

can be on my right, their spouse is on their right.

Grasp the handle with your right hand.

If the President is on my right,

then you'll walk in two paces or so and stop.

When the doors open, and you're first there, little neck bow

or a little curtsey from the ladies, if you feel that appropriate.

Right, I want your heels on the edge of the curb.

Come forward. Get forward so your heels are on the edge of the curb!

To, uh, make sure that the seating provides the best possible mix

we color code the different sort of people, uh, categories of people.

At what point will we hand over the gifts?

There's no handing over of gifts. It's simply a viewing.

They're really just on display.

These'll arrive in advance of the--

- of the, of the visit, I would suggest. - Yes.

Are laid out on a table. And it's simply a walk past.

- There's no actual giving. - Oh, I see.

She says nothing.

So, once you have received the accolade, stand up,

and come round to the left-hand side of the stool.

This lady acts as the Queen's stand-in

at rehearsals for major events.

You've done Windsor, you've done the Cenotaph.

State opening of Parliament. VJ Day.

That was the best one because I rode in her carriage around Trafalgar Square

on a lovely sunny afternoon.

Everybody was waving at me.

It's very hard to smile for a long time, too.

It's quite difficult.

- There you are. -

Bless.

You did this last year, didn't you?

No, I haven't done it for about--

- I was Queen last year. - Deborah last year.

- You did it last year? - I did.

Duke of Kent. Prince of Wales.

The Duke of Gloucester in the middle.

Right, gentlemen, the Queen is coming down the stairs.

Good afternoon, Your Majesty. Commander Henry Duffy.

Captain of HMS Liverpool.

Very nice to meet you, Commander. Absolutely delighted.

Admiral, you need to chit-chat with the Queen here, now.

- Sorry? - You're gonna have to talk to the Queen.

- Small talk. - Small talk.

I think it would probably focus--

Talk about her dogs. How are her dogs?

- No. Louise, stop getting surreal. - Oh, sorry.

[ "Norwegian Wood by The Beatles playing]

I once had a girl

Or should I say she once had me

She showed me her room

Isn't it good Norwegian wood?

Basically a year's worth of insignia.

From terribly expensive stuff, which is used very rarely,

to things like MBEs and OBEs, which we probably get through a couple of thousand a year.

There you go. John Winston Lennon.

He came to an investiture at Buckingham Palace on the 26th of October, 1965.

And on the 26th of November, 1969, he returned it to us...

for various reasons.

And then she said it's time for bed

The Queen was very much part of our lives as we were growing up.

My mum liked the Queen.

You know, there was that sense of the Commonwealth

and the mother country.

And she came from Jamaica in the 50s.

She literally had this idea

that the Queen had invited her to come to Britain to work.

Now the end of their journey is near.

What will they find in the land they regard as an El Dorado?

Well, what do you consider are the dangers

of an increasing colored population?

There are many immediate evils of the colored invasion,

but in our opinion, the most important

is the long-term one of mass inter-breeding.

When I did the Royal Variety the first time,

and my mum being there on the same tier at the London Palladium

waving at her constantly.

"Hello, that's my son."

And my mum's here tonight.

Did the Queen wave back?

I think...

I think she might have called security.

- -

Coming up the river to the pool of London...

seeing Tower Bridge opening.

And we had the Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, with us.

And, uh, one saw this dirty commercial river as one came up,

and he was describing it as the silver thread

which runs through the history of Britain.

He saw things in a very romantic and glittering way.

So, perhaps one was looking at it in a rather too mundane way.

And then to come up the river in a small boat

with all the sides of the river completely...

people on each side.

Wonderful.

And so this day of days most memorable comes to an end.

And with it begins a new era. The new Elizabethan Age.

An age in which the love and faith and hope of all the Commonwealth

rests on the slim shoulders of the beautiful Queen who has just been crowned.

Long may she reign.

...part of Great Britain, capital city of a former empire

that embraced a quarter of the world's population and land area.

An empire, they said, upon which the sun never set.

But recently it has set.

Now it is part of the Commonwealth.

Some doubted whether this organization would succeed,

but she has assiduously supported it.

Growing it from just seven members in 1952, to 53 today.

She has played the leading role in building a unique family of nations

that spans every continent, all the main religions,