Bertie and Elizabeth (2002) (TV)

Director:

Giles Foster

Writer:

Nigel Williams (writer)

Release Date:

2 April 2002 (New Zealand)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The duke of York, nicknamed Bertie, was born as royal 'spare heir', younger brother to the prince of Wales...

Plot Keywords:

Queen | Resignation | Great Britain | Windsor | Windsor Castle

Cast

James Wilby	...	King George VI, aka 'Bertie'
Alan Bates	...	King George V
Eileen Atkins	...	Queen Mary
Dolly Wells	...	Princess Mary
William Mickleburgh	...	James Stuart
Juliet Aubrey	...	Queen Elizabeth
Barbara Leigh-Hunt	...	Lady Mabel Airlie
Rupert Wickham	...	Equerry
Charles Edwards	...	David - Edward VIII
Alexandra Staden	...	Young Woman
Nicholas Pritchard	...	J.C. Davidson
Oliver Ford Davies	...	Archbishop Lang
Geoffrey Beevers	...	Earl of Strathmore
Deborah Cornelius	...	Thelma Furness
Michael Elwyn	...	Lionel Logue

Runtime:

USA:120 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Certification:

Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Bath Abbey, Bath, Somerset, England, UK

Company:

Carlton Television

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When Montgomery comes to the palace after the Battle of Alamein, Princess Elizabeth is wearing ATS uniform. Alamein was in 1942. Elizabeth didn't join the Army until 1945 (she was only 16 in 1942).

Movie Connections:

Follows "Edward & Mrs. Simpson" (1978)

Dreadful Wasted Opportunity

In the UK this was ITV1's big attraction for Jubilee night and came on a couple of hours after nearly 2m people had crammed the Mall to sing patriotic songs in front of the Queen.

This is the story of her parents' marriage and reign. I got the impression it may have been on the shelf for a few years, awaiting the death of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in March 2002, who was of course the Elizabeth of the title.

Covering a thirty year period 1922 to 1952 this fairly gallops through history and that is one of its faults. It would have been better as a mini-series over six hours rather than the two hours it was.

There is a fascinating story here, especially the less usual view of the 1936 Abdication Crisis from those like Bertie and Elizabeth who had to pick up the pieces. The late Queen Mother's deep and long lasting consequent hatred of Mrs Simpson is barely hinted at.

Unfortunately we were up against some fairly wooden acting and dreadfully superficial treatment of the known facts. I presume this was made with some American money hence the scenes with FDR (Robert Hardy and a large slice of ham) and the constant grating reference to the 'King of England' and 'English democracy' even by the monarchs portrayed themselves. No British monarch would ever thus describe themselves - they are monarchs of the United Kingdom.

Small incidents such as the Dutch Queen calling early in the morning to ask for fighter squadrons to fend off the German invasion of the Netehrlands and her subsequent arival loom large whilst the King's drawn out death from lung cancer, concealed from him and the people of the UK and Commonwealth for several years is glossed over. And the Queen Mother most famous remark after Buckingham Place was targetted by the Luftwaffe 'I'm glad we've been bombed, it means I can look the East End in the face' just doesn't appear.

Cockneys are portrayed all 'Cor love a duck' and Mrs Simpson as virtually a witch, when really she was probably out of her depth in a society she could not understand.

Alan Bates does give a good turn as George V and the bloke who played Edward VIII gave a good sly performance of a weak and superficial man.

Otherwise a wasted opportunity I'm afraid.