Queen hits back at royal critics to global audience of 70 million
1957
THE Queen’s historic first Christmas Day television broadcast to an estimated audience of 70 million throughout the world was a personal triumph.
Overseas comment centred particularly on what was regarded as the Queen’s forceful and effective reply to the recent criticisms of the monarchy as
IN AMERICA, freak atmospheric conditions caused U.S. police radio transmissions to interfere with the broadcast, and at one point some listeners heard an officer say: ‘Joe, I’m gonna grab a quick coffee.’
being too remote and stuffy. BBC and ITV officials last night estimated that 50 million people in the United Kingdom saw the sevenminute broadcast.
At least another 20 million will see telerecordings flown to the United States, Canada and Australia — possibly the largest audience ever achieved by a British telecast.
The 31- year- old Queen, it is understood, wrote the speech herself, helped by Prince Philip. She spoke naturally, with a new warmth, a new sincerity. Her words carried a ring of youth and confidence.
She tackled head on one of the most fundamental questions of the age: as Britain heads towards the 1960s, which traditions should we discard and which should we cling to?
The Queen, with effective simplicity, reminded us that we need ‘the kind of courage that can withstand the subtle corruption of the cynics’ — those ‘unthinking people who carelessly throw away ageless ideals as if they were old outworn machinery’.
Her Majesty said: ‘It’s inevitable that I should seem rather a remote figure to many of you . . . someone whose face may be familiar in newspapers and films, but who never really touches your personal lives . . .
‘ I do not give you laws or administer justice, but I can do something else. I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations.’
In New York, the Queen’s speech received a warm response — and complimentary reviews in the Press. The Americans liked her relaxed and intimate manner and the friendly freshness of her script.
The New York Times, which published the text of the speech in full, said: ‘Her words could have been the answer to the journalists who loosed a series of unaccustomed criticisms of the Monarchy in the Summer and Fall.
‘They said the Queen was remote from the people and hedged around by “tweedy” courtiers. They also mocked her voice and speaking style. She replied effectively.
‘Her voice was lower and she spoke more easily than in previous public appearances. Her manner was unstrained and natural.
‘ She merely glanced at her notes from time to time instead of reading solemnly from a script as she has always done in the past.’
At the end of the broadcast she smiled, not only to the viewers, but to Prince Philip standing out of range of the cameras.
The Queen, facing two cameras, sat at the side of a table in the Long Library at Sandringham. She wore a gold lamé dress and three rows of pearls, and had little make-up.
Prince Philip congratulated the Queen directly after her speech. So did the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret.