Most often, drama around Royalty takes place in the real world, not the big screen, but as Victoria & Abdul hits cinema screens this week, it’s interesting to consider just how many dramas have existed across movie history surrounding Royalty, and not just Queen Elizabeth the 2nd and her modern day crew either.
Set The Tape takes you back to examine five more Royal dramas to check out, if Stephen Frears’ latest gets your blue blood racing.
HENRY V (1944)
Let’s go back to one of the first major examples of British Royalty depicted in narrative: a certain playwright named William Shakespeare. At the tail end of the Second World War, the ‘Greatest Living Actor’ Laurence Olivier both directed and starred in this adaptation of the titular King Henry V titled ‘The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agin Court in France’. Olivier’s film was presented in glorious (at the time) technicolor and served very much as a morale boosting rallying cry to the British troops on the march to Berlin. Indeed, it was partly funded by the government for that very purpose. Olivier went on to win a special Academy Award for an achievement many considered to be the first commercially successful adaptation of Shakespeare for cinema.
Has it stood the test of time? Perhaps not as a piece of cinema compared to subsequent adaptations, as Olivier struggles to betray his theatrical roots, but his speech as Henry at the Battle of Agincourt remains a seminal moment in 20th century cinematic history.
THE LION IN WINTER (1968)
Some two decades after Henry V, taking place several hundred years before Shakespeare’s telling of Henry V’s battles, The Lion in Winter saw another British director, Anthony Harvey, adapt James Goldman’s celebrated Broadway play set in 1183 around political intrigue involving Henry II’s successor. Goldman’s play is entirely fictional – unlike Shakespeare’s version of Henry II’s descendants which had a certain basis in fact – but that makes The Lion in Winter no less compelling a piece of fiction. Fusing a sumptuous depiction of medieval France, a glorious star cast including Peter O’Toole (as the King), Katherine Hepburn, and a young Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton, not to mention a stunning John Barry score, it’s a Royal drama to remember.
The Academy thought so too; after becoming one of the biggest commercial successes of 1968, it scooped up three Oscars, including a Best Actress gong for Hepburn as Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine.
THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE (1994)
In what seems to be a trend for Royal dramas on screen, another play was adapted for the memorable Nigel Hawthorne-starring The Madness of King George in the mid-1990’s, with Nicholas Hytner directing Alan Bennett’s screenplay adaptation of his own successful play. More directly than either of the two previous examples, Hytner’s film tells the true story of late 18th century monarch George III in darkly comic tones, given the picture depicts his mental health in sharp decline around the period of the Regency Crisis in 1788-89. Hawthorne gives a bravura performance of powerful eccentricity as the ‘mad’ monarch, making the most of Bennett’s customary tragi-comedy, and inevitably was a critical success which picked up numerous Academy Awards and BAFTA nominations.
Interestingly, the title above was changed for American audiences from simply The Madness of George III, presumably because the less intelligent among punters may have been wondering why they missed The Madness of George’s I and II!
THE KING’S SPEECH (2010)
Speaking of George’s. The King’s Speech — probably the most celebrated Royal drama in recent years — focusses on the incumbent King George VI (father of our current ruling monarch) who battles to overcome a profound stammer with the help of Geoffrey Rush’s inspiring Australian speech therapist. Colin Firth comforts himself with the requisite dignity of a man who never expected to be King (thrust upon him after the abdication of his brother Edward VIII to marry Wallis Simpson) under Tom Hooper’s luxurious direction, building to a slightly jingoistic but enjoyable climactic beat as George overcomes obstacles to read a country-defining wartime speech in 1939. As you might imagine, awards and honours followed with the picture cleaning up at the 2011 Academy Awards after receiving 12 nominations, as well as being a commercial success with audiences.
Oddly, a significant backlash exists against The King’s Speech among film fan circles, with many asserting it is overrated and mawkish. Are they right?
DIANA (2013)
From one of the biggest Royal hits ever to one of the, if not the, biggest Royal flop in cinematic history. Diana is directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, who previously was feted for his take on Adolf Hitler in German drama Downfall. The story is based on a 2001 book by Kate Snell focussing on Princess Diana’s relationship with Dr. Hasnat Khan during the 1990’s before her tragic death. Diana was almost instantly decried as a failure of catastrophic proportions. It’s a claim hard to refute; Stephen Jeffreys’ screenplay is quite awful and Naomi Watts’ performance as the Princess, though clipped and precise, feels hollow and equally awkward at times.
Though not a grand biography of Diana’s life, cinematically speaking it certainly doesn’t do such a complex, controversial yet beloved modern British Royal figure justice.
What is your favourite drama based on British Royalty? Did we miss any? Let us know in comments or via social media.