Royal Tidings
The Queen’s Christmas message has acted as a chronicle of global, national and personal events. Paul James recounts its fascinating history
The history of HM the Queen’s Christmas message
THE Queen’s annual broadcast on Christmas Day has become as much a part of our festive traditions as carols and turkey. It is almost as if we receive a personal message from the Queen, speaking to us in our own homes.
Indeed, that was the original intention. The very first Christmas message broadcast from Sandringham on the wireless by the Queen’s grandfather, King George V in 1932, began with the words, “Through one of the marvels of modern science, I am enabled this Christmas Day to speak to all my peoples throughout the Empire . . . I speak now from my home and from my heart to you all.” Twenty-five years later, in her first televised Christmas message, Queen Elizabeth II also broadcast from Sandringham, saying, “It is inevitable that I should seem a rather remote figure to many of you. A successor to the Kings and Queens of history; someone whose face may be familiar in newspapers and films but who never really touches your personal lives. But now at least for a few minutes I welcome you to the peace of my own home.”
The idea came originally from John Reith, later Lord Reith, who was then general manager of the BBC. In 1922 he proposed that the King should consider making a speech on Christmas Day. But radio was a new medium, and the King considered it to be a novelty that might not last.
Ten years later, Reith put forward the suggestion again in the hope that it would help promote the BBC’s new Empire Service (later renamed the World Service). By this time the PM, Ramsay MacDonald, could see the advantages and, with the help of Queen Mary, the King was persuaded.
The first royal broadcast was at
3 pm on Christmas Day, when the King spoke live from a small sittingroom at Sandringham House. His script had been written by Rudyard Kipling. Although the King disliked doing it and had a baize cloth on his desk to deaden any sound if his hands shook with nerves, the broadcast was an instant success. Over 20,000,000 listeners tuned in across the British Empire and so the tradition began.
George V continued with an annual message for the rest of his reign, always grumbling that it ruined his Christmas, but a press report of 1935 sums up the general feeling: “Its achievement places the King in a totally new relationship with the Empire, for how many of us, before the days of wireless, had ever heard the King’s voice? But to hear the actual voice of the man, speaking with intensely personal feeling to each of us in our own homes, is so poignant and individual, that the King has come far closer to his people through the medium of the spoken word, than ever before seemed possible.”
The broadcasts were made at 3 pm in England, because it was deemed to be the best time to reach most countries of the Empire by short wave radio, and at a reasonable hour for many countries to tune in – although for Australia and New Zealand it would most likely have been three o’clock in the morning!
George V’s final broadcast was a month before his death in January 1936. His successor, King Edward VIII, reigned for barely 11 months and was not on the throne during the festive season. His brother Bertie became the new King George VI, but was too shocked by events to even contemplate making a broadcast.
In December 1937 however, George VI was encouraged to resume the Christmas message. He had been crowned in May, and the popularity of the new family at Buckingham Palace – which included the “little princesses” Elizabeth and Margaret Rose – increased dramatically. Although it was an ordeal, the King spoke calmly into the microphone.
“Many of you will remember the Christmas broadcasts of former years,” he began, “when my father spoke to his peoples at home and overseas as the revered head of a great family. His words brought happiness into the homes and into the hearts of listeners all over the world. I cannot aspire to take his place, nor do I think that you would wish me to carry on unvaried a tradition so personal to him.”
George VI hoped that his 1937 message would be a one-off. Consequently, there was no Christmas message in 1938. But by Christmas 1939, of course, Britain was at war and it was felt that the King should offer words of comfort.
While the King and his advisors were drafting the speech, Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother) came across a poem by Minnie Louise Haskins, written in 1908. It was called
The Gate of the Year. The King could not have anticipated the effect that an extract from this poem in his speech would have. Thousands hailed the words as inspirational. They were printed in newspapers, magazines, books and even on souvenir postcards. In 1952, Queen Elizabeth had them engraved on the gates of the King George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle and they were read at her own funeral in 2002.
I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year,
“Give me a light that I may tread softly into the unknown.”
And he replied, “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be better to you than light,
And safer than a known way.”
As World War II dragged on, the King grew in confidence when broadcasting, and his Christmas messages continued to encourage and inspire.
“Remember this,” he said on Christmas Day 1940. “If war brings separation, it brings new unity also. Time and again, during these last few months, I have seen for myself battered towns and cities of England, and I have seen the British people facing their ordeals. On every side I have seen a new and splendid spirit of good fellowship springing up in adversity, a real desire to share burdens and resources alike. Out of all this suffering there is a growing harmony which we must carry forward into the days to come, when we have endured to the end, and ours is the victory.”
King George VI broadcast every Christmas Day of the war until victory came, and his messages grew longer each year.
“This Christmas is a real homecoming to us all,” he said in 1945, “a return to a world in which the homely and friendly things of life can again be ours. To win victory, much that was of great price has been given up. But the things that have been saved are beyond price.”
George VI broadcast on Christmas Day for the rest of his life to offer hope and encouragement in post-war Britain. His final Christmas message in 1951 on the blessings of Christmas was his shortest and pre-recorded. He was by then suffering from lung cancer. He died in February 1952.
The young Queen Elizabeth II continued the tradition. She sat in the same chair at the same desk as her predecessors. In her first Christmas message, live in 1952, she said, “Each Christmas, at this time, my beloved father broadcast a message to his people in all parts of the world . . . As he used to do, I am speaking to you from my own home, where I am spending Christmas with my family. My father and my grandfather before him worked hard all their lives to unite our peoples ever more closely, and to maintain its ideals which were so near to their hearts. I shall strive to carry on their work.”
As television ownership became
more widespread following the 1953 Coronation, in 1957 the Queen’s Christmas message was televised for the first time. The location was the Long Library at Sandringham House and many months of planning went into the seven-minute message.
It was produced and directed by Peter Dimmock – a senior BBC executive in the early days of television and a well-known sports commentator – and Anthony Craxton, who went on to become a leading royal broadcaster. One technological advance at the time was the use of a tele-prompter, which enabled the Queen to read her speech looking into the camera.
On Christmas Day the Queen told television viewers that she hoped “this new medium will make my Christmas message more personal and more direct”. Prince Philip remained in the room with the Queen for the broadcast and, at the very end, he smiled at her. The Queen smiled back. It was this beautiful, natural smile that so many viewers commented on afterwards. Looking back at that very first televised message, the young Queen appears relaxed and in command. Any nerves were well hidden.
The Queen actually only made two live television messages. In 1959 it was a sound recording only, as she was then heavily pregnant with her third child. Likewise in 1963 when she was expecting Prince Edward.
Since 1960, messages have been pre-recorded. This was partly because live broadcasts made Christmas Day a stressful time for the Queen, but it also interrupted the Christmas celebrations of the crew needed to make the broadcast possible.
The Queen records two messages each year, one for radio and the other for television. These are sent in advance across the Commonwealth so that they can be transmitted at a suitable time in each country. The Queen’s message of 2017 had to be re-recorded when a bird began singing outside the Palace window, and when filming at Windsor Castle, planes flying to and from Heathrow can sometimes interrupt proceedings.
Buckingham Palace keeps the contents of the Queen’s message secret until Christmas Day, but in
1987 BBC royal correspondent Michael Cole revealed snippets of the message at a journalists’ lunch. When his comments appeared in the tabloid newspapers, he resigned. In 1992 a writ was issued against The Sun newspaper when it published the full text of the Christmas message two days early. The Queen accepted an apology and a donation of £200,000 to charity.
Work on the script begins in the autumn, when her private secretary and senior staff members start to list possible themes. The Queen makes notes and a draft is drawn up that all feel happy with, and a copy will go to the Prime Minister for comment. No doubt Prince Philip also has input.
Each broadcast reflects current issues and concerns. During the Falklands War, when Prince Andrew served as a helicopter pilot, he and his fellow servicemen were the focus.
“The fact that the Queen, their Commander in Chief, had a concern and was thinking about what they’re doing, and as it were, was with them for those few minutes, gives you a tremendous buzz and a feel that ‘Oh, we’ve been mentioned, we’ve been thought about’,” he told ITV.
The Queen has also used the annual message to scotch rumours, as in 1991 when the press suggested that she might abdicate. She reiterated that she had pledged her life to our service.
We will never know how the Queen feels about the annual broadcast, but the Duke of York once revealed that occasionally she will leave the room and watch the programme on her own. Every year it provides an opportunity for Her Majesty to speak about her faith and what Christmas really means to her. She invariably mentions the strength that she obtains from the words and teachings of Jesus Christ.
While preparing the broadcast, how the Queen dresses has to be taken into consideration. When just on radio it was of little consequence, yet for her Christmas Day broadcast in 1953 Her Majesty was in New Zealand and spoke from Government House wearing an evening gown, even though listeners could not see her!
For the first televised broadcast in 1957, the Queen decided to wear one of her favourite Norman Hartnell dresses, but the broadcast was in black and white, so the style was more important than the colour. Today, the Queen’s outfit needs even more careful deliberation so that it does not clash with the background. For this reason, plain solid colour dresses are chosen with very little pattern.
Often the Queen will wear an outfit that has been seen already. In 2017 she wore a white dress with silver and gold detail seen by millions watching the Thames River Pageant during her Diamond Jubilee celebrations five years earlier. Another favourite mauve dress made for Ascot in 2012 was worn for the 2014 Christmas message.
“I must look reassuringly the same,” the Queen has said, pointing out that
she is not a film star.
Although the live broadcasts were originally from Sandringham, where the Royal Family spent Christmas, once the messages were pre-recorded it gave the option to film elsewhere. In 1975 it was filmed outside for the first time in the gardens of Buckingham Palace and in 1989 the Queen recorded her entire message in front of an audience of 2000 children at the Royal Albert Hall.
It was in this speech that Her Majesty spoke about the greenhouse effect, the destruction of forests, and the pollution of rivers and seas, adding, “It is already too late to prevent all forms of damage to the natural world and some species of wild plants and animals are sadly bound to become extinct; the great thing to remember is that it is not too late to reduce the damage, if we can change our attitudes and behaviour.”
In her 1965 message, the Queen spoke about the role of women in society; in 1974, the violence in Northern Ireland; in 1982, the Falklands War; in 1987 the Enniskillen bombing; in 1993 she commented on apartheid. In 1997, the shock of Princess Diana’s death; in 2001, the attacks on the World Trade Centre; in 2008 the economic downturn in the UK; in 2015, terrorist attacks and the refugee crisis. So, whilst the Christmas message may appear reassuring, the text is often surprisingly astute and topical. After the invasion of Iraq in 2003 the Queen recorded her message at The Household Cavalry Barracks, to pay tribute to British troops.
Over the years certain phrases began to stand out in the Christmas messages, particularly the Queen’s use of the words “My husband and I”, which will forever be associated with her. Richard Cawston, who produced the programme from 1970 until 1986 wickedly referred to the annual broadcast as “Corgi and Bess”.
In 1958 there had been demand to see Prince Charles and Princess Anne featured in the Christmas broadcast. In her message the Queen said, “We value your interest in them and I can assure you that we have thought about it a great deal before deciding against it. We would like our son and daughter to grow up as normally as possible . . . We believe that public life is not a fair burden to place on growing children.”
In 1968, however, a film crew led by Cawston followed the Queen and her family around for a year, showing them on a family picnic, the Queen shopping with Prince Edward, decorating the Christmas tree and playing in the snow for the revolutionary documentary, Royal Family. Princess Anne has since said that she hated every minute of the filming, but the Queen and Prince Philip became very used to the cameras and grew adept at retakes. Long after, if anything went wrong when the royal couple were on an official engagement, one might say to the other, “Where’s Cawston?”
In 1969 the Queen did not film a Christmas message feeling that with the programmes around the time of Prince Charles’s investiture, plus the documentary, the public might have seen too much of her. But people expressed disappointment, inundating the press office with letters.
When Richard Cawston began producing the Christmas broadcasts in 1970, they started to contain private footage of the Royal family. Now, Her Majesty’s message is interspersed with scenes from significant royal events that have taken place in the preceding months. In 1984, 30 million viewers saw private footage of Prince Harry’s christening.
The message was filmed exclusively by the BBC until 1997, when it began to alternate with ITN. In 2011 Sky News was added. It consistently attracts the most television viewers on Christmas Day. In 1980, 28 million viewers in the UK tuned in on the BBC. Today, viewing options include a podcast and the Royal Family’s YouTube channel, so TV viewers are now only a fraction of the audience.
In 2017 the broadcast began with a clip from the Queen’s first televised message in 1957. “Six decades on the presenter has evolved somewhat,” she said, “as has the technology she described. Back then, who could have imagined that people would one day be watching this on laptops and mobile phones.” The Queen’s theme, however, was that though technology may have advanced, one thing has not changed: the love of family, and why, at Christmas, so many return home.
She then referred to the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower and bombings at the Manchester arena, followed by footage of her meeting members of the emergency services and visiting survivors of both tragedies. The
Queen commented, “It’s very interesting how everybody has united.” Unwittingly she was echoing her own father’s words in 1940.
The monarch’s Christmas message is bound to survive through the reigns of Charles III and William V in one form or another. To the Queen and the Royal family, may we echo the closing words of so many broadcasts and wish them all a very happy Christmas.