The King's speech (Colin Firth)

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It’s twelve years since we first watched ‘The King’s Speech’. We recalled liking it very much, despite our general lack of interest in royalty. It’s the story of King George VI’s ascension to the UK throne, with Colin Firth brilliantly starring in the title role. His performance is flawless. 

The story starts when his father King George V is still alive, though elderly. Michael Gambon is excellent as the grumpy monarch who feels a lot of frustration with his two adult sons. David (Guy Pearce), the elder, heir to the throne, is something of a womaniser. And while that’s not unusual for royalty, if discreet, he is currently involved with Mrs Wallace Simpson, an American who has already been married twice. At the time it was unthinkable that a monarch could be married to someone who was divorced. 

But the King rather despises his second son, known by the family as Bertie. Bertie is married to the beautiful Lizzie (Helena Bonham Carter), who is elegant, and charming, and very supportive of him. They have two young daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret. Bertie is shown as a fond father and loving husband. But he has a speech defect: a terrible stammer, which has affected him since early childhood.

To make things worse, he has to make speeches in public, some of which are broadcast on the ‘wireless’, as the early radio was known. And he is very nervous of the microphones, which tend to echo back everything he says, making him even more inclined to stammer. As his father becomes frailer, Bertie has to make more speeches, and feels increasingly humiliated. 

Lizzie has persuaded him to try working with several renowned speech therapists, none of whom has been the slightest use. Then she finds Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), a specialist at Harley Street. His initial meeting with Bertie is not very encouraging, but Lionel is confident that he can help, if only Bertie will cooperate. He is very discreet, but insists on terms of equality. Although this leads to a lot of frustration at first, the two start to develop a relationship of trust, and eventually a real friendship. 

The story is superbly told, the pace exactly right to hold our interest, with some moments of mild humour which nicely contrast with the seriousness of the story. When David takes the throne as Edward VIII, he is unwilling to make any real decisions despite the likelihood of World War II breaking out. And he is torn, eventually (as is well known in 20th century history) abdicating for the sake of the woman he loves. 

So Bertie, who has been the Duke of York, has to take the throne. He adopts the name of King George VI, but he is not well respected due to his speech problems. Thus it becomes increasingly important for him to develop techniques that enable him to read a speech without stammering, particularly when he has to make important announcements over the radio. 

We see quite a few of the speech therapy sessions, in one of which Bertie is persuaded to swear since he doesn’t stammer while doing so. It’s the scene which has given this an ‘18’ rating in the US, as there are a large number of instances of ‘strong’ language. But, as our DVD says on the back, they are all in a speech therapy context, and the UK censors, rather more reasonably, have given it a ‘12’ rating. Were it not for this scene it might even have been PG, since there’s nothing else that would trigger warnings: no nudity or violence, and only hints at what Bertie’s brother is up to with Mrs Simpson.

We thought the principals were all extremely well cast: Jennifer Ehle as Lionel Logue’s wife Myrtle deserves a mention too; her expressions of shock are entirely realistic when she learns, unexpectedly, who her husband’s eminent client is. As for Helena Bonham Carter, we had forgotten that around the same time she was playing Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter series. We would not have recognised the same actress as the gentle, but firm young woman who was eventually to become known as the Queen Mother. 

However it was quite a jolt to see Winston Churchill played by Timothy Spall, looking almost exactly as he did when playing the traitorous Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter franchise. He did Churchill very well, as did the actors who played other important politicians and churchmen of the time. But it was a pity his face wasn’t made up to look more Churchillian.

That’s a very minor gripe in what was, overall, an excellent film that tells the true story in a believable and watchable way.   

We saw a couple of the ‘extras’ afterwards: a ‘making of’ documentary which was interesting, and a fascinating interview with the real Lionel Logue’s grandson, who had found a box of his grandfather’s diaries just a couple of months before the filming started.

I would highly recommend this film whether or not you have any interest in the British royal family.

Review copyright 2024 Sue's DVD Reviews