Film Brian McClinton A Very English Affair The King’s Speech

HE King’s Speech has re- here. According to many historians, ceived such swooning adula- he had a ferocious temper and Ttion that it seems churlish to could be quite rude. John Grigg strike a note of dissent. It is certain- wrote that there were times when ly very entertaining and brilliantly George “became so out of control acted by an all-star cast – Michael that he actually struck his wife”. Gambon, , Timothy Nor was his stammer as acute as Spall, , Claire the film suggests. But by distorting Bloom and join the the facts, The King’s Speech creates main trio of , Geoffrey a heroic struggle out of a more Rush and – mundane reality. and if that’s all you want from a Perhaps worst of all, the implied film, then you’ll be joining the cho- contrast between him and his broth- rus of acclaim. But a film, like any er is a fabrication. Far from Edward work of , should do more, and mocking him for his stammer, they here is where the doubts begin. were close friends. And, although he A narrative does not exist in a may not have been as pro-Nazi as vacuum. The artist(s) who creates it Edward, he was an appeaser and has a certain attitude to his work, Moreover, , Bertie’s father, supporter of Chamberlain. Even in whether conscious or unconscious. is played by Michael Gambon as an May 1940 when the latter resigned, This is particularly obvious if the unloving bully. Edward – a superb he still preferred the appeaser Hali- artist is dealing with historical performance by Guy Pearce – is a fax to Churchill as his successor. events. There is a presumed moral pro-Nazi playboy who mocks These truths, however, would get obligation to adhere, at least, to an Bertie’s stammer and talks about in the way of a film which aims to underlying historical truth. If not, himself and Mrs Simpson ‘making flatter the English and make them then the artist needs to justify his our own drowsies’. The Archbishop feel good about themselves, and that ‘poetic licence’ on superior moral of Canterbury is played by Derek is why it has been so popular. For grounds. In Amadeus, for example, Jacobi as a priggish snob, shocked what this clever piece of monarchist Peter Shaffer paints Mozart partly by Logue’s lack of ‘proper’ qualifi- propaganda is really saying is: “look as a crude, immature superbrat – cations. Bertie himself, despite his we are big enough to laugh at our- eine kleine McEnroe – but we ac- stammer, is pompous and distant. selves and our snobbery, class hierar- cept the image because we realise Overall, these upper class English are chy and deference, but these charac- that it is not always the ‘real’ hardly the most attractive of people. teristics have nevertheless served us Mozart we are seeing but rather the Yet the king’s apparent coldness well, and in a crisis we are all in it composer as viewed through the is revealed to be, at heart, a shyness, together for the common good”. jealous eyes of his rival Salieri. and what we are increasingly drawn At present, the English are ob- In any case, if you decide to ig- into is a profile in courage: the up- sessed with their past and in partic- nore or twist the facts, then you are lifting story of how a shy, sensitive ular the Second World War. They doing so for a reason. Thus in this man triumphed over a crippling keep replaying their part in it over film Churchill is presented as sup- handicap to become king and a and over again, rather than seeking porting ‘Bertie’ (George VI), where- symbol of national unity in opposi- to understand the present and pre- as in truth he backed Edward VIII, tion to Hitler. When, finally, the king pare for the future. They are even Bertie’s elder brother, and violently successfully delivers his radio speech happy to rewrite their history and opposed his abdication. Now, why at the beginning of the war, we are place the monarchy at the heart of is this fact distorted? The answer is: invited to applaud along with the Britain’s ‘finest hour’ in order to you daren’t criticise ANYTHING BBC staff who are producing it. perpetuate the national myth. These Churchill did because he’s a kind of It was not quite like that at all. are clear signs of a society that is God in the English psyche. The real Logue probably never ad- now deeply unsure of itself and its And that’s a clue to the conserv- dressed the king in familiar terms as place in the modern world. ative nature of the film as a whole. ‘Bertie‘ – his diaries certainly show As Christopher Hitchens sug- It is more subtle about the king, but a more formal relationship. But by gests (, 1st February ultimately no less respectful. At setting up a contrast between his 2011), The King’s Speech perpetu- first, it seems that, through the invented impertinence and the ates a gross falsification of history. mouth of cheery Aussie speech king’s reserve, the film can have its So, enjoy it, yes, but also engage therapist Lionel Logue (Rush), who cake and eat it by being both scorn- with it critically. Don’t be manipu- mocks Bertie’s stuffiness and obses- ful and reverential at the same time. lated or seduced into accepting its sion with protocol, we are given a Nor was the real king simply the obsolete values. kind of satire on British society. shy, uncomplicated man portrayed