Royal representations
Professor Kate Williams discusses her documentary that looks at how Elizabeth II is portrayed on stage and screen
An Audience for the Queen RADIO Radio 4 Scheduled for Christmas Eve
Kate Williams is in no doubt about the appeal of Elizabeth Windsor – not just to her subjects, but to people around the world. “The Queen is box office, she really is,” says the royal historian, whose new documentary explores representations of Elizabeth II. Yet this isn’t fame as it plays out in Hollywood. In an age of celebrities baring their souls for attention, the Queen is notable for what she doesn’t do and say. She’s one of the most famous women in the world, yet we know very little about her inner life.
“We don’t know her opinions and we don’t know her private thoughts, so when someone claims they have access to her private thoughts – usually they don’t – it creates a massive bombshell headline,” says Williams, “like Michael Gove allegedly declaring that the Queen didn’t like the EU, just before the Brexit vote, which I’m sure had an influence. There’s no evidence for that at all – she was just asking questions.
“She is attributed many thoughts and feelings in public life, and we don’t know if they’re the case or not,” Williams adds.
This lack of public utterances, rooted in the Queen’s constitutional role and the idea of standing above the political fray, creates huge spaces in which dramatists can work. In Netflix drama The Crown, for example, writer Peter Morgan – featured in archive recordings in Williams’ documentary – was able to imagine such scenes as Elizabeth meeting her uncle, the former Edward VIII; marital arguments with Philip; and the Queen directing annoyance at Jackie Kennedy after the first lady is rude about her, followed by empathy when JFK is murdered.
In itself, this tells us much about how the Queen’s reign has coincided with both the rise of mass media and also an age in which deference has broken down. Williams says that future historians will mine these dramas for source material as they trace the country’s story, “particularly the flowering of adaptations we’ve had at this point as we approach a change in monarchy. They will analyse what they show about Britain.”
As for what the monarch herself thinks, future generations may discover more if the Queen’s diaries are one day made public. “Imagine if she’d written in those: ‘Gosh, I was watching [VE Day drama] A Royal Night Out and it reminded me of when I was a young girl with Margaret’,” says Williams.
In an age of celebrities baring their souls for attention, the Queen is notable for what she doesn’t do and say