A Tribute to Her Majesty the Queen (2022) Movie Script

She wasn't born to be queen...
..but she died as one of the
most quietly influential monarchs
this country has ever known.
She reigned for almost
three quarters of a century
as the world changed around her.
She was a symbol of
unity in good times and bad.
Successful because she
knew her unique place
and she understood it.
The act of being
there, of being...
..you know, a...
..a continuing...
..reference point of
stability and endless duties
is something that I think is...
..is of the greatest importance.
It was really about service
and her definition of service,
and that was a lifetime.
Literally 24/7,
365 days of the year.
It was never something
you could turn off and turn on.
It was there all the time.
It is so strange to almost
everyone in this country
that she is no longer queen.
It will take a long while
to come to terms with that.
I declare before you all,
that my whole life,
whether it be long or short,
shall be devoted to your service
and to the service of
our great imperial family
to which we all belong.
As Queen Elizabeth II, she reigned
over more than 135 million people
and, as head of the Commonwealth,
a third of the planet's population.
Her Majesty was perhaps one of
the youngest leaders in the world
at a time of male domination,
and yet she led,
like Elizabeth I...
..and she was a fabulous queen.
The one thing that people wanted
was just to get as close
as they possibly could
to the lustre of her presence
and somehow
to share in it a bit.
I believe this nation would
not be as united as it is
had it not been for
her and her example.
Today, we need a
special kind of courage.
Not the kind needed in battle,
but a kind which
makes us stand up
for everything that
we know is right,
everything that
is true and honest.
The kind of courage
that can withstand
the subtle corruption
of the cynics...
..so that we can show the world
that we're not afraid of the future.
She was crowned
Queen Elizabeth II
on June the 2nd 1953,
after the early
death of her father,
when suddenly the pomp,
ritual and tradition of centuries
reached out to claim her.
Head of the United
Kingdom and Commonwealth
since the young age of 25...
..she was the most
famous woman in the world.
But above mere
celebrity, outside politics,
a constant background
figure in every British life.
When she was
born, in April 1926,
nobody expected that.
She was royal, but not
regarded as a future queen.
Here she is, Princess Elizabeth,
merely third in line to the throne.
Those who knew her spoke of a
child whose focus rarely wavered,
and, by the age of five,
at a photographic session,
already the object of
obsessive public gaze.
She never went to school
or had ordinary friends,
relying instead on
the companionship
of her younger sister,
Princess Margaret.
She was brought up with
the greatest care and affection,
but also, as Queen Mary
is reported to have said,
she was brought up sensibly.
She joined the Girl Guides
and the Sea Rangers -
a serious minded girl,
a king's daughter
from the age of ten,
striding into a strongly
military and hierarchical world.
Ready for inspection.
This was her first
public engagement.
Ceremony at Windsor Castle.
Princess Elizabeth
celebrated her 16th birthday
by inspecting the
Grenadier Guards
in her capacity as
Colonel of the Regiment.
After the ceremony,
there were presentations
and informal conversations.
And this final record
of the occasion.
And in 1944, at the Queen
Elizabeth Hospital in Hackney,
her first public speech
before the cameras.
I need not say how proud I am
to be associated with
the hospital in this way.
I feel that I have long
had very close ties with it.
But no speech embodied
her character and belief
more than the one she gave in
South Africa on her 21st birthday,
when she pledged herself as a
kind of sacrifice to the British state.
I declare before you all
that my whole life,
whether it be long or short,
shall be devoted to your service
and to the service of
our great imperial family
to which we all belong.
God help me to make good my vow,
and God bless all of you
who are willing to share in it.
She says, "I pledge
myself to serve you,"
and, by the way,
the "you" here is not just people
in London or even in England -
it is the whole...
..then empire, becoming
the Commonwealth.
We learnt from it that
the Queen's sense of duty
came above everything else -
above marriage,
above parenthood.
She is pledging
herself to serve.
But where did this
sense of duty come from?
Her early life was crucial.
She'd watched her grandfather,
the King-Emperor George V,
at his Silver Jubilee in 1935
and then, in dramatic, even
scandalous circumstances,
her father was called upon to
step into his brother's shoes.
This is Windsor Castle.
And now that I have been
succeeded by my brother,
my first words must be to
declare my allegiance to him.
But you must believe
me when I tell you
that I have found it impossible
to carry the heavy
burden of responsibility
without the help and
support of the woman I love.
It was as if a deep line
had been scored across
the history of these islands,
and also the history
of the monarchy.
Edward VIII's reign
lasted just 325 days.
He was the first British
monarch to abdicate.
He did so in order to marry
the twice-divorced American
Wallis Simpson.
With no children, the crown
went to his younger brother,
the Duke of York,
a quiet family man
whose happy marriage
to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
had borne the two girls,
Elizabeth and Margaret.
The abdication in December
1936 caused a political crisis.
It divided the nation
and there was talk about whether
the monarchy itself would survive.
But, I mean, it's a
tremendous shock
to a rather staid and
very settled society
and the institution
that is at the apex
of the political and
administrative systems.
So it's quite hard now, in a
secular age, more secular age,
and a more understanding age
about divorce and personal preferences
and all the rest of it,
to appreciate just what a
lightning flash December 1936 was.
When King George
VI came to the throne,
the princesses were moved
to Buckingham Palace.
When she was told, a
horrified Elizabeth replied,
"What? Do you mean forever?"
"Does this mean you'll be queen?"
asked her sister, Princess Margaret.
"I suppose it does."
She was born into
this really happy family.
They had dogs, they
had a lovely family life
and they were a very secure
little unit and a very loving little unit,
and then, suddenly, the security
of her life went out the window.
Leaving their comfortable
private home in Piccadilly,
the task was thrust towards them
and the whole family
had to learn to embrace it.
She took it very seriously.
I think the example that
she had from her father,
as well as her mother,
was absolutely crucial
to her understanding
of what being a
monarch actually meant.
She grew up watching her
father as he overcame his shyness
to become the face
of the Empire at war.
He'd arrange for
practical things,
Foreign Office papers she
would be shown and so on,
so she picked up from him
essential ingredients of kingship,
in the round, the whole lot,
but also she was aware
of the affairs of state.
AIR RAID SIREN WAILS
In 1939, when war broke out,
it was suggested that the
princesses Elizabeth and Margaret
should be evacuated
hurriedly to Canada.
Queen Elizabeth, their mother,
said, "I should die if I had to leave."
"The children
won't go without me."
"I won't leave the King and
the King will never leave."
In daylight raids, between
350 and 400 enemy aircraft
were launched in two attacks
against London and southeast England.
While her parents spent
their days working in London,
returning to Windsor
Castle at night,
Elizabeth watched as her
mother courted the press,
boosting the nation's morale,
and joined in
along with her sister
in their first radio
broadcast in October 1940.
Thousands of you in this country
have had to leave your homes
and be separated from
your fathers and mothers.
My sister, Margaret Rose,
and I feel so much for you,
as we know from experience
what it means to be away
from those we love most of all.
There was this sense that she
wanted to say that she understood
how difficult it had
been for others her age.
It's almost the first time
that we saw her reaching out
to her future subjects.
Four years later,
18-year-old Princess
Elizabeth joined the war effort
as a member of the
Auxiliary Territorial Service.
I think joining any branch of
the Armed Forces in a total war
would leave a very
great imprint upon you.
The comradeship, the
need for shared fortitude,
and also doing one's bit.
It's very, very important when
you have a family on the throne
that the family does its bit
with the rest of the
country at times of duress.
I think that Her Majesty herself
was affected by the experience
of that Second World War,
and I think she never forgot
watching the whole Commonwealth
come to the aid of
the United Kingdom
in its darkest hour.
BIG BEN CHIMES
It was on VE Day that the
King had broadcast his message
to the people of Britain,
the British Empire
and the Commonwealth of Nations.
The Queen and I know
the ordeals...
..which you have endured...
..throughout the
Commonwealth and Empire.
People came from the six
corners of the then British Empire
to volunteer to help the
United Kingdom remain safe
because they were seen
as the emblem of freedom.
Almost right up to the end,
London and southern
England had been under fire.
London certainly had as much
right as anywhere to celebrate victory,
and London certainly did.
On the 8th of May 1945, as
victory in Europe was announced,
the crowds shouted for the King.
The princesses could not resist
the lure of the swarming streets.
I think we went on the balcony
nearly every hour, six times,
and then when the excitement of
the floodlights being switched on
got through to us,
my sister and I realised we couldn't
see what the crowds were enjoying,
so we asked my parents if we
could go out and see for ourselves.
I remember lines
of unknown people
linking arms and
walking down Whitehall,
all of us just swept along on
a tide of happiness and relief.
After crossing Green Park,
we stood outside and shouted,
"We want the King."
I think it was one of the most
memorable nights of my life.
These new beginnings saw
the princess emerge from the war
as a woman in love,
having set her heart
on the naval officer
Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten,
an impoverished prince from
an exiled Greek royal family.
The first time that the
media caught on to it,
or decided to
make anything of it,
as it happened,
was at my wedding
in October 1946.
Meanwhile, at the entrance to
the abbey, Prince Philip of Greece
waits to escort the royal
family from their car.
And there's a famous
photograph which is often published
of him taking her fur coat
at the door of Romsey Abbey
and sort of looking
at each other,
and I think that
started a real interest
because I think people
thought, "Aha!" at that point.
The royal family and
Princess Elizabeth's fiance
have permitted these special
film studies to be made in response
to the rapidly mounting worldwide
interest in the forthcoming
royal wedding on the 20th of
November in Westminster Abbey.
In the evening, Londoners,
who had been waiting
outside the palace for hours,
made their feelings
perfectly clear
when the princess and her
fiance came out onto the balcony.
The day of the wedding
and immense crowds.
Thousands had
assembled overnight,
others had arrived at
dawn, all eagerly waiting
to see and to cheer
the royal procession...
The wedding was
a fantastic occasion.
If you think of a family wedding
and multiply it
hundreds of times,
it was that sort of atmosphere
that really spread
through the country.
I, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary...
Take thee, Philip...
..take thee, Philip...
..to my wedded husband...
..to my wedded husband.
To have and to hold...
To have and to hold...
..from this day forward.
..from this day forward.
WEDDING MARCH PLAYS
Following the King and Queen in
the procession were Queen Mary,
Princess Andrew of Greece,
the bridegroom's mother,
and King Haakon of Norway.
The wedding was the first
extravagant public display
after the war, drawing
scattered and out-of-work royals
from across Europe and
reminding the British of a grander age
they'd almost forgotten.
And how they cheered the happy pair
when they came out onto the balcony.
What a wonderful
picture the princess made,
looking most lovely in
her magnificent gown
and standing happily
beside her husband.
The two of them were
walking out together
into a life of
relentless observation.
She would lean on him heavily
for humour, advice and spontaneity
as they began a journey in
which every outside smile,
every turn of the head, every
wave was dutifully filmed.
It was an outstandingly
successful marriage.
The common bond is
that they loved each other
and went on loving each other.
And they had that
rather rare capacity,
both as individuals
and as a couple,
always to put other
people before themselves.
So I think they really
did think of themselves
as sharing a very important job.
He would never interfere
on constitutional issues,
on issues of... to do with sort of
government programmes, etc,
but he was incredibly
useful to bounce ideas off,
to get his views on things.
Leaving London airport on
Saturday in one of the Viking aircraft
of the King's Flight, on which
is blazoned the royal badge,
was His Royal Highness
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh,
lieutenant in the Royal Navy,
bound for Malta and service afloat.
It was on the island of Malta
that Princess Elizabeth and Prince
Philip spent their happiest days
as a young couple, relatively
free, relatively private.
I think, for the princess,
it was a marvellous experience
to be able to live a
fairly anonymous life
because people were very
sensible and realised that, you know,
they didn't want to
be treated differently,
and I think it was a very special
experience to be able to live
as a private
individual for a change.
In Malta, the prince
took up polo...
..and the princess found
a hobby of her own...
..and this is what she filmed,
capturing the greatest and
enduring loves of her life -
horses...
..and her husband.
Dynasties, of
course, need children,
and, on cue...
FANFARE
This is the first time for
two centuries that a prince
in line of succession to the
throne has borne the name Charles.
A year into their marriage,
private home movies captured
their newborn, a baby boy.
It was rare to see the princess
so relaxed, playful, unguarded -
a glimpse of the
ordinary life that she lived
behind the railings
and the ceremonial.
Private feeling and public
duty were always in tension.
Unlike her, Prince Charles
was a future king from his cot.
Two years later came the
birth of their second child...
For one-month-old
baby Princess Anne,
this was the first
public appearance,
but she appeared
blissfully unaware...
..but the family was about
to suffer a shattering blow.
In 1952, King George
VI was gravely ill.
He sent his daughter
and her husband on a tour
of Australia and New Zealand
with a private holiday in Kenya.
It would be the last time that
they would see one another.
In Kenya, Prince Philip
broke the news to the Queen
of her father's death.
Flying back to London,
she was said to have been in
tears, staring out of the window,
contemplating the future.
Official Britain was
waiting to claim her.
The death of the
King at the age of 56
meant that her life
changed forever.
The mother of two young
children came to the throne at 25.
Well...
..it must have been a
terrible shock, in many ways.
You could imagine at that age,
when presumably she'd hoped
that she'd have a chance to..
..to do other things
and, you know,
bring up her family and us,
and have more time to adjust.
God save the Queen.
CHEERING
It took 16 months to plan
but, on June the 2nd 1953,
Queen Elizabeth II's
coronation transfixed a country
which was still emerging
from austerity and rationing.
The barriers could hardly
hold back the multitudes
flooding into the great squares.
Every country of the Commonwealth
was represented in that vast crowd.
It was the first television
occasion in this country,
and BBC television was
the only television network
in Western Europe.
And it was an
extraordinary affirmative
and positive, moving event.
And at last, the coach, for
which all eyes have been waiting,
and all cheers as they
give forth full throated.
One of the things that
struck me most forcefully
was the very beginning of the
service, when the Queen came in
and went past the throne
on which she would sit
and, by herself, knelt in
prayer at the high altar -
and there's a profound
symbolism there
of the head of state
giving her allegiance to God
before anyone gives
their allegiance to her.
The Queen anointed,
blessed,
and consecrated.
You're anointed
under God and the law.
For her, that's the moment
you actually become Queen.
In a ceremony essentially
unchanged for over 1,000 years,
the Queen was crowned.
Zadok The Priest by GF Handel
Faith, the Christian faith
has been astonishingly
important to the Queen,
and it's been accompanied
by real discipline,
observation, churchgoing,
and, I think, has been
rooted in a life of prayer.
And I think one of the
interesting things about the Queen
is that she would always have
been surprised that other people
didn't take prayer so
much for granted as she did.
As this day draws to its close,
I know that my
abiding memory of it
will be not only the solemnity
and beauty of the ceremony,
but the inspiration of
your loyalty and affection.
I thank you all
from a full heart.
God bless you all.
It was a choice moment. It
was a moment to linger on.
It was a moment to savour.
And there she was with her
dazzling consort, Prince Philip.
It had the lot, you know.
Stardust doesn't sum it up.
27 million people had watched
the ceremony on television,
but not these private family moments
captured for the Queen herself
behind the scenes at
Buckingham Palace.
They remind us that monarchy
and family are the same thing.
Prince Charles,
now four years old,
was the first child ever to watch
his mother being crowned sovereign,
sitting on his
grandmother's knee.
Princess Anne was
too young to attend.
I shall never forget,
you know, when we were small,
having a bath and she came in
practising wearing the
crown for the coronation.
Marvellous moments
I shall never forget.
Now, she was sovereign of
the United Kingdom, Australia,
New Zealand and Canada,
and head of State of a further
14 independent territories.
Head of the Church of England,
the Royal Navy, the
Army, the Royal Air Force,
and, of course,
the Commonwealth.
The full weight and glitter
of one of the world's last
24-carat monarchies...
..and on slim young shoulders.
Her early reign
was a golden time.
She and Prince Philip set off on a
tour of Commonwealth countries,
including New
Zealand and Australia.
She first came in 1954,
when I was 14 or 15,
and it was the first ever
visit to Australia by
a reigning monarch
and it created
incredible interest.
It was a big event.
I think the reason people
responded to her so well
is the love that she had for the
Commonwealth was palpable.
Every particle of that
territorial empire she cherished,
as she did every particle
of her United Kingdom.
A monarch and a mother,
Queen Elizabeth II was the first
reigning British
sovereign to have a child
since the days
of Queen Victoria,
with the birth of
Prince Andrew in 1960.
Prince Edward was
born four years later.
Princess Anne is 15.
Prince Charles, 17.
As heir apparent,
Prince Charles received
the title of Prince of Wales
when he was still a boy.
To help him understand
its full significance,
the Queen required him to
be formally invested at 20.
I remember very well being
slightly nervous, to say the least,
of having to walk up
through the whole of the castle
and have this coronet,
which was of a slightly
revolutionary design,
plonked onto my head
and then go and kneel
in front of my mama
to take the oath.
I, Charles Prince of Wales,
do become your liege man
of life and limb.
It was a very proud and moving and
rather humbling moment, I thought.
In keeping with modern times,
they have come closer to
their peoples than ever before.
In the weeks before
his investiture,
a candid television portrait
of the royals was watched
by two thirds of the population.
It gave an insight into how the
royal family lived in 1960s Britain.
I was wondering if we couldn't
find something for the sapphires.
That, you could wear
with silver brocade.
Oh, quite easily, yes.
So can we remember that? Yes.
LOW SLIDING NOTE
Sounds like a tiger.
That's right.
GROWLING NOTE
Oh!
Shall we go and join the others?
Yes, shall we go
and join the others?
The Queen's juggling of
motherhood and monarchy
was much questioned
over the years
but not, it should be
said, by her children.
The holiday times were
pretty well kept, actually,
from our perspective.
Our holidays were... They
were nearly always around.
Partly because it included
all the things that she enjoyed
and that included the
countryside, the dogs, the horses,
and just being out and about
and being able to get away a bit
from that public gaze.
And I do have very happy
memories of childhood up in Scotland,
you know, Balmoral
in the summer.
And...
..yes, it...
Well, I was very lucky
to have her as a mother.
She was always the Queen,
because that was really important
for all of us,
but she was always my mother
so that is how you
would remember her.
The happiest times, inevitably,
that we'd spend together
would be on holidays.
So, Balmoral and Sandringham
stand out very, very clearly
as favourite places...
..because of the time that
we spent together as a family.
Oh! Why have you done
that? Save you the trouble.
She always took a great
interest in things I was doing.
I remember being... when I was
sent off to school and everywhere else,
I was always
accompanied by a note
saying I was to be treated
just like everybody else.
She was working and so we
didn't see much of her during the day
because of the duties.
But in the evening, just the
same as any other family,
we would get together.
We would always
see them at weekends,
we would always go
down to Windsor Castle.
We'll see if this is strong
enough to... Get off.
We weren't appendages that
should be seen and not heard.
We were definitely the priority.
What do you want
here? Good morning.
Ice cream.
Ice cream. This is
what he really would like.
They always go
straight for the ice cream.
The relationship was
patently about periods away,
doing things which
couldn't be altered,
programmes which were set,
and an attempt to always
have a sort of regular time slot
for the children.
Britannia was
particularly special.
Those were the times
when I probably felt that...
..you know, the Queen
was the most relaxed
and was the furthest away from
the pressures of the job and the state.
But there was, you know,
there was always a sense of
there were other things which
were extremely important,
which had to be dealt with
and places had to be gone to.
I certainly accompanied
her on tours in the early days,
and that was probably
the best way of realising
what was expected of
you and how to respond.
It wasn't necessarily very easy
because, of course, the
spotlight's on you from the word go,
so you didn't exactly
learn in the quiet.
Jump. Jump.
It was a very
special relationship
and, apart from
my three brothers,
we're the only people
who have that relationship,
so that's...
..that's how I remember her.
So, family first -
but only after hours.
Day after day, constitutional duty
almost overwhelmed the Queen's life,
starting with an endless
river of official documents.
We used to send her up
a red box every evening,
full of Cabinet papers,
intelligence reports, telegrams.
It would always come
back the next day,
read, ticked off.
Since the days of
Winston Churchill,
she knew every important
secret of the British state,
something shared by nobody else.
As head of state, only the
monarch has the power to summon
or end a session of Parliament
and appoint a Prime Minister,
and she appointed
plenty and knew them well,
seeing each in regular
weekly meetings.
The Prime Minister,
Your Highness.
Good evening, Ma'am.
I think all prime ministers
would say the same.
They're an immensely
therapeutic event.
Very nice to see you again.
Lovely to see you again. It's been...
It's sort of like a priest -
no matter how appalling
your confession may be
about what's been going on,
and... she had
heard it all before
and she had seen it all before,
and that was
immensely consoling.
It's the one place where a prime
minister can sit down with somebody
who is knowledgeable, as
the Queen was knowledgeable,
and know that nothing's going to
be briefed out from that meeting.
There won't be any
leaks from that meeting.
You're both just talking
to each other, one to one.
When things were
really tough and difficult,
you know, decisions,
war and peace or...
..even I found, if there was
a crisis within government,
those audiences were a
chance to talk to someone
with that acquired wisdom,
things that I literally could
not discuss with anybody else.
And she was brilliant
without ever giving an opinion
to nonetheless give advice.
Beyond regular meetings
with her prime ministers,
for most of her reign, the Queen
was engaged in a relentless
round of ceremonial duties,
from the Garter
Parade at Windsor
to garden parties at Buckingham
Palace and Holyroodhouse,
with more than 30,000
guests attending each year.
In her lifetime,
the Queen conferred more than
400,000 honours and awards.
As a token of thanks
and appreciation...
By her recognising the
work that they were doing,
the sense of pride
and self-worth that
she gave to people
is something that
is so valuable.
Each June saw the
celebration of her official birthday
at Trooping the Colour.
Until the latter
years of her reign,
the Queen turned up for
around 400 official engagements
every year in the UK
and across her reign she
made more than 270 foreign trips.
Monsieur le President,
mesdames et messieurs,
je rends hommage
a la nation francaise.
Each year, 1,000 diplomats
mingled at Buckingham Palace
in the presence
of the royal family,
with every single one of them
expecting at least a few sentences.
You're studying here?
Whenever we did engagements
which required all the family
to be together, we would
often discuss afterwards
funny things that had happened
and she loved to hear
all of those stories.
She had the most
wonderful sense of humour.
Well, Your Majesty,
you're looking well,
taking into account
your tight schedule.
Tomorrow I'm going
to see 16 people.
I may not look so good
tomorrow. LAUGHTER
In 1991, the Queen
was officially welcomed
by the United States
President, George Bush Sr.
Unfortunately, no-one
adjusted her podium.
Instead of the head of state,
the world's press and television
saw only the hat of state.
It is 15 years since our
last visit to Washington.
Mr Speaker, Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II,
His Royal Highness
the Duke of Edinburgh.
Two days later, at a
meeting of the US Senate,
the Queen made it quite
clear that she'd noticed.
APPLAUSE
I do hope you can see me
today from where you are.
LAUGHTER
During her long reign, there
were serious challenges.
To be queen meant to weather all the
storms of the changes of atmosphere
that blew in around her.
By the 1970s, a rougher and
more politically extreme decade,
overt Republicanism began to
be voiced, particularly in Scotland.
Some students started
banging on the window,
shouting, "Queen out."
Groups of students, many
drinking beer and wine,
were almost everywhere
the Queen went.
Obscene songs were sung
and a stink bomb was thrown
as students protested at the
amount of money spent on the visit.
The Queen appeared unruffled
and none of the students
actually reached her.
Her Silver Jubilee celebration
of 1977 was, in one way,
a test of the institution
of monarchy itself.
She easily passed it
with the help of the biggest
street parties ever seen
and an emotional statement,
reiterating the promise
she had first made
as a princess on a
birthday long ago.
When I was 21, I pledged my
life to the service of our people...
..and I asked for God's
help to make good that vow.
Although that vow was
made in my salad days,
when I was green in judgment,
I do not regret nor
retract one word of it.
She wasn't going to
flinch or step away.
Her resolution would be
tested time and time again,
and never more brutally
than when, in 1979,
the republicanism of the
Northern Ireland Troubles
came horribly close to home.
The man she called Uncle
Dickie, Lord Louis Mountbatten,
was murdered by the
IRA on a family boating trip.
A huge amount of
private grief for the Queen,
but she would have
known that, for Prince Philip,
for her husband, it would
have been devastating,
knowing that he'd lost probably
the second most
important person in his life.
I think it added a
sense of fragility, really.
Just brought home the reality
of the fact that actually the royals
and their supporters
could be targets
and that effectively rocked
the royal family to its core.
In her lifetime, the most serious
challenges to the status of monarchy
came not from external factors,
but internal family troubles.
Not a paradox, really,
because the House of Windsor,
the self-styled family monarchy,
prided itself on upholding
traditional Christian values.
After her own wedding, the Queen
gave a speech denouncing divorce -
but the modern monarchy
couldn't escape marital breakdown.
The first divorcee in the
Queen's close family circle
was her only sister,
Princess Margaret.
In 1960, she married
Antony Armstrong-Jones
and, in 1978, they divorced.
The Queen's first child to
marry was Princess Anne,
who wed Captain
Mark Phillips in 1973...
..and, in 1986,
the nation celebrated the wedding of
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson.
They separated in the same
year as Princess Anne's divorce.
1992 is not a year on which I shall
look back with undiluted pleasure.
In the words of one of my more
sympathetic correspondents,
it has turned out to
be an annus horribilis.
This year of upheaval also
saw Windsor Castle catch fire
on what was the Queen's
45th wedding anniversary.
The castle, occupied by a royal
family for almost 1,000 years,
was partially gutted by the
most humdrum accident -
a spotlight setting
fire to a curtain.
I don't think any of
us will forget the sight
of our diminutive sovereign
in that raincoat
and cape and hood,
you know, in the rain,
looking at the damage and
how it was being dealt with.
But 1992, this year
of royal trauma,
was overwhelmed by
the news of another,
more dramatic
marriage breakdown.
It is announced from Buckingham
Palace that, with regret,
the Prince and Princess of
Wales have decided to separate.
Separation then led to divorce,
something few people
thought possible back in 1981,
when Prince Charles,
heir to the British throne,
married Lady Diana Spencer.
With no expense spared,
this had been one of the
great public weddings of all time,
watched by a global
audience of 750 million people.
And what an extraordinary moment
for the new Princess of Wales
to look out at this
sea of human beings...
..who now will feel that
they, in some way, own her.
At the time,
the future of the monarchy
had never seemed more secure
than with the birth of Prince
William of Wales in 1982.
Two years later, a
second son was born.
Prince Harry appeared
for the cameras
wearing the christening
robe of Honiton lace
worn by generations
of royal babies.
For his father, Prince Charles,
it was an excuse to give
an instant history lesson
to young Prince William.
Granny was christened in this.
Great Granny. And Great Granny.
And I was.
But by the mid-1990s, the
final scenes and confrontations
between them were
being played out in public.
When it was clear that
they were going to separate,
I was very much, at that stage,
the intermediary with the princess.
The Queen was...
..looking at pragmatic
ways in which she could
help the princess in
establishing a new life.
I think the Queen accepted
that this was the
sad outcome of that.
She kept in close
touch with the princess.
Then, in August 1997, came news
which shook not only the monarchy
but the world.
Just after midnight,
the black Mercedes hit the kerb,
cannoned into a concrete
pillar of an underpass,
then bounced into the side wall.
Concussion, a broken
arm, lacerations to the thigh
shouldn't give enormous
cause for concern...
Stephen, I have
to interrupt there,
because, within the
last few moments,
the Press
Association in Britain,
citing unnamed British sources,
has reported that Diana,
Princess of Wales, has died.
Everything came
to a sudden head.
Much of Britain was
convulsed with grief -
publicly displayed grief,
an almost Mediterranean
outpouring of grief.
SHE SOBS
As the nation mourned,
it was the Queen herself
who was criticised
for staying silent.
That was a very difficult
time for the monarchy
because, frankly, there was a...
..there was a distance
that arose very sharply
between the public reaction
to Princess Diana's death and...
..the traditional
distance of the monarchy
and reserve of the monarchy
in situations like that.
And over the
days of that week...
..she was, I think,
genuinely wrestling
with what she felt was appropriate
and what she felt was necessary,
and was it possible to
find the right compromise
between those two things?
For four days
after Diana's death,
the Queen stayed with her grandsons
at Balmoral as public anger grew.
There were two young princes
who had lost their mother,
and how the family
coped with that
was very much in her mind.
I think it was one
of the occasions
when she put family
centre stage for a few days,
at the same time
as trying to work out
how the nation honoured,
if you like, the princess.
The Queen came back to London.
I remember that the atmosphere
was really threatening.
Large crowds of
people, but silent.
As the Queen's car came
to the end of Constitution Hill
to approach Buckingham Palace,
you began to hear a slight
applause amongst the crowd.
This is a tragic occasion.
Looks as though the
Queen is about to... She is.
She's getting out of the car,
Wes, and is going to talk to people.
It's extremely unusual.
- This is almost unprecedented.
- SOFT APPLAUSE
I think perhaps the last time that
the Queen was among her people,
outside the Palace, was the
day the war in Europe ended.
And from that moment, it sort of
felt that the Queen had come back,
that the criticism that had been
made had, in a way, been answered,
and the atmosphere
did change after that.
On the fifth day after
the princess's death,
the Queen finally
talked to the people.
In her calmly familiar voice,
she said something
difficult and unfamiliar.
It was a generous
admission of Diana's power.
What I say to you now, as your
queen and as a grandmother,
I say from my heart.
First, I want to pay
tribute to Diana myself.
She was an exceptional
and gifted human being.
In good times and bad,
she never lost her
capacity to smile and laugh,
nor to inspire others with
her warmth and kindness.
It was interesting
in the conversations
I had with her that week...
I mean, I could tell the
hesitation and the reserve.
But what came through
ultimately and predominated
was what she thought
was necessary and right,
not just for the monarchy,
but for the country.
She does duty, and her
duty was to lead the country
through a difficult time,
even if actually
some of the difficulty
and some of the antagonism
and anger was directed at her.
Six days after her death,
Diana's funeral took place
at Westminster Abbey,
and, as the coffin passed, the
Queen paid her respects in a way
she had never been
seen to do before.
I was standing right
behind the Queen
and, completely to my
surprise, the Queen gave a bow.
It wasn't a nod.
It was quite a bow.
It hadn't been discussed
beforehand at all.
And I think it was something
that came completely from her
and it was a wonderful gesture.
She was the queen
of the stiff upper lip.
She didn't like
displays of emotion,
particularly over what she
saw as personal private issues.
Monarchy meant to her
stability, dignity and continuity,
even in the face of
direct threats against her.
At the age of 55, during the
Queen's annual Birthday Parade,
Trooping the Colour,
despite the heavy presence
of troops and police,
a man fired directly
at the Queen six times.
- GUNSHOTS
- REPORTER: Duke of Edinburgh,
Colonel of the
Grenadier Guards...
She barely flinched, concentrating
on controlling her frightened horse.
The policemen immediately dived
at him, about half a dozen of them.
I think one soldier
got involved, at least,
because he lost his bearskin
and had to retrieve
it afterwards.
It turned out to be a
replica gun firing blanks.
The Queen, who carried
on with the parade,
had no idea whether she had just
narrowly escaped assassination.
But nothing highlighted her
vulnerability and calmness
more than the day in 1982
when she woke up to find
a disturbed, barefoot
intruder in her bedroom.
The man, Michael Fagan, had somehow
stumbled across the Queen alone
during his second
foray into the Palace.
He came in through a place
where the alarm kept going off,
so the...
..policeman in the police lodge
says, "Oh, it's that alarm again."
"Switch it off."
The policeman who was
on guard at the Queen's door,
and should have been there,
had some urgent appointment,
or so he thought, and he knew
his colleague was coming on
in a few minutes'
time, so he nipped off.
Startled, the Queen
was woken up by Fagan,
and after an exchange of words,
she managed to leave the room.
The Queen was unharmed
and Fagan was apprehended.
This steely character
was called upon
at moments of national
commemoration and crisis.
She never said very much,
but she was always
there to give witness
to what had gone before
and to hear the pain.
What was perhaps
underestimated was the personal toll
it took upon her.
When a coal tip collapsed
in the Welsh mining village
of Aberfan in 1966,
it engulfed a row of
houses and an infant school.
Of 144 people who
died, 116 were children.
The Queen waited
eight days before visiting -
something she reportedly
deeply regretted.
Perhaps that was why
she would return to Aberfan
several times during her reign.
And 30 years later,
when a gunman ran amok
in the Scottish
town of Dunblane,
killing a teacher and
16 schoolchildren,
the Queen knew
what was called for.
There we were in
Dunblane Cathedral
and the Queen had met the
emergency services and the councillors
and various representatives
of the community to commiserate
on behalf of the country,
and there had been a
moment set aside in the vestry,
a totally private room,
with nobody else present,
just the Queen and any
parents who were there.
To my astonishment,
there were some 20 parents,
including one mother who
was so prostrate with grief,
she could not stand.
I remember the Queen putting
her handbag deliberately down
and she physically
braced herself
before going into the room
because she knew
who was in there.
She knew that somehow she
was going to have to convey
the sympathy of the nation
and to react as a
mother and grandmother.
When terrorist bombs
hit London in July 2005,
the Queen expressed what is close
to being her personal philosophy -
keep calm and carry on...
I want to express my admiration
for the people of our capital city
who, in the aftermath of yesterday's
bombings, are calmly determined
to resume their normal lives.
That is the answer
to this outrage.
BIG BEN CHIMES
..making her presence felt
in an uneasy city
still alive to the threat.
On the Saturday of that week,
we had a huge parade
on Horse Guards.
As part of that parade,
the Queen's programme,
which was all set, all agreed,
was that she would
go down The Mall
in an open-top Land Rover,
and I remember vividly
this immediate reaction
as London was locked
down, this question of,
"Well, what on earth do
we do about the parade?"
and her instinctive view
was the parade goes ahead.
Life was going to go on and she
was not going to be cowed by terrorism.
BAND PLAYS
Being seen is essential
to the monarchy's survival.
"I have to be seen to be
believed," she once said,
and it's been calculated
that the Queen personally met
more than three million people.
In the 1970s, she invented
the royal walkabout -
a way of meeting as
many people as possible -
and it became a signature
feature of her reign.
She opened up the doors
of the occupied palaces
to paying visitors
and she introduced theme
days to promote British culture...
Gosh. To be in
Buckingham Palace!
Never in my wildest dreams
did I ever feel I would be here.
I wish my wife
was here to see it.
..but behind her public face
was a side of her character
known only to the few.
Underneath everything,
she was quite a shy person,
without any sense
of sort of ego,
which is extraordinary,
if you think of her life, if
you think of her upbringing,
if you think of her role.
I would often see her entering
a room, which would fall silent.
People would, as a
reaction, fall back, as it were,
creating a space around her.
I think she found that
actually very difficult.
Difficult or not,
she did it all her life.
Her reward was that the landmark
occasions proved her popularity.
For the Golden Jubilee in 2002,
a poor turnout was
predicted by the press,
and yet people crowded
into central London.
CHEERING
In fact, it was the
largest gathering there
since the end of the
Second World War.
The year saw her visit
Jamaica, New Zealand, Australia,
Canada and 70
British towns and cities,
culminating in the
Party at the Palace
to mark the Queen's
50th year on the throne.
National Anthem
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
The Queen was overwhelmed
by the enormous outpouring
of public goodwill, and she
watched the crowds in The Mall
utterly astonished by how
many people had turned up.
But 2002 was a year
of mixed blessings,
one that dealt her a
double personal blow.
In February, Princess
Margaret died at the age of 71.
The Queen's younger sister could
hardly have been more different,
known for her glamorous
and extrovert nature -
but throughout life, the two
had been constant companions.
I have been so touched
by the kindness shown
by so many of you over
these recent months.
At Easter, the Queen
Mother died at the age of 101.
Almost as much of a national
character as the Queen herself,
and certainly much
more of a personality,
with her cheerful
reputation for extravagance
and her wry, sometimes
shocking sense of humour,
she had long been a foil to her
more serious-minded daughter.
Do you know that I haven't watched
from a pair of binoculars for ages.
Look at it. Pouring
with tears. Oh, dear!
I always watch on the television.
It's the emotion, perhaps.
No, no. I watch
on the television.
No, Mummy. If you look
into the wind like that.
It's like looking for deer.
After the deaths of the
two women closest to her,
the Queen almost
inevitably carried on working,
though with a renewed
awareness of her place in life.
My grandmother, I'm sure, was
a grand influence on my mama.
Whatever she felt, or whenever
ill, whenever difficult or exhausted,
she always went out
and did what was required,
and that does rub off, I think.
So, of course she
was going to go on
because there's something...
..you know, wider and
greater that has to be...
..has to be taken care of.
Her reach was far and wide.
She was the first British
monarch to set foot in Russia
since the days of
Tsar Nicholas II...
..the first ever to visit China
and to officially receive
a Pope on a state visit.
And in 2011, the Queen
became the first British monarch
to set foot in the
Republic of Ireland.
100 years earlier, her
grandfather, King George V, visited
when this soil was
unified with Britain -
but this was the Queen in green,
the Irish-speaking
mistress of tact.
A Uachtarain
agus a chairde.
When the Queen stood
up and made that speech,
the first words of
which were in Gaelic,
it just melted
the entire country
with huge affection for her.
APPLAUSE The fact
that she was in Ireland,
in the Republic, and given
such a great reception,
and there she was, the
embodiment of everything
that going back half a century,
going back to the time
when she first began to reign,
would have been
thought of as impossible.
To all those who have
suffered as a consequence
of our troubled past,
I extend my sincere
thoughts and deep sympathy.
That whole visit and the dignity
with which she did everything
and the visit to Croke
Park and the war memorials
was immensely powerful.
Coming, you know, at the end of
so many years and after so much hurt
and pain was a
wonderfully healing,
reconciling moment,
which I think...
..had a profound effect and
has made a fantastic difference.
Looking further afield, her
most important international role
was clearly head of
the Commonwealth,
embracing a third of
the world's population.
Being head of the Commonwealth,
she is head of a worldwide
multiracial organisation that
brings people of different races,
religions, backgrounds,
cultural dispositions together.
We have 2.4 billion people, 60%
of whom are under the age of 30,
all of whom come from
different economic backgrounds,
and because she's known so
many of the leaders throughout
that period, she's brought
wisdom and judgment
and a historical perspective
that I think no-one else
has been able to give.
I think as a head of
the Commonwealth,
she has given inspiration,
she has given encouragement..
She came to my country, Port of
Spain, when we hosted CHOGM in 2009.
She was in Port of Spain then,
and she's gone to any
part of the Commonwealth.
Thank you very much.
The Queen will always be
remembered as the person
who gave the continuity
to the Commonwealth
through all of the decades
when she was the leader of it.
It's something which can never
be replicated, I think, in history,
in any other organisation.
Where else have you got a person
who's been meeting a 36-year-old
Prime Minister from Dominica,
and the same person was sitting
alongside Nehru and
Menzies and Churchill?
So, the combination of
that longevity and wisdom
has meant that people have been
able to ask her about tricky situations
because she's been
through so many of them.
The last decades of the Queen's
reign saw her as a revered mother,
grandmother and
great-grandmother.
This was a period of
gradual, careful modernisation.
One potential future problem for
the monarchy melted away in 2005
when she gave her blessing
for the wedding of Prince Charles
to the divorcee
Camilla Parker Bowles.
CHEERING
Here he is,
His Royal Highness,
the Prince of Wales,
and Her Royal Highness,
the Duchess of Cornwall.
The years that followed
saw the newly titled Duke
and Duchess of Cornwall
take on more of the engagements
traditionally associated with
a now more elderly Queen,
including visits to many of
the more distant countries
and shouldering
more responsibility
at Commonwealth summits.
I've watched as my
mama has carried out
all these Commonwealth
duties for a long time.
It must be quite
difficult for her not going.
I learnt a lot from it
and tried, I hope,
to fulfil it in a way
that she might have been
quite proud of, I don't know.
And the next generation
continued to move centre stage.
We love William! We love Kate!
We love William! We love Kate!
When the Queen's
grandson Prince William
married Catherine Middleton,
it was a spectacular example
of modernity mixed with tradition.
Flags and foliage inside
Westminster Abbey,
more than half a century on from
the Queen's own wedding there.
By welcoming such an authentically
modern middle-class recruit
in Catherine, the Queen
continued the long-term strategy
of constantly
restitching the monarchy
into the changing social
fabric of the country.
Hip, hip!
Hooray!
Hip, hip!
Hooray!
Hip, hip!
Hooray!
In 2012, the Queen
reached a historic milestone.
The only other British monarch to
have reached 60 years on the throne
had been Queen Victoria.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Your Majesty...
..Mummy...
..this is our opportunity
to thank you and my father
for always being there for us,
for inspiring us with your
selfless duty and service,
and for making us
proud to be British.
National Anthem
The Diamond Jubilee year also
brought evidence of a sense of fun,
and buttoned lip, with the opening
of the 2012 London Olympics.
During the opening ceremony
of the Olympic Games in London,
there was Daniel Craig as James
Bond arriving at Buckingham Palace...
..and everybody looking, going,
"Oh, so he IS going
to Buckingham Palace.
"Who's he going...? Is he
going to meet the Queen?"
And as it went further
on, "He IS going to..."
Mr Bond, Your Majesty.
And everybody, wherever
you were in the world,
was thinking exactly
the same thought...
..who will be playing the Queen?
HE CLEARS HIS THROAGood evening, Mr Bond.
Good evening, Your Majesty.
Music For The Royal
Fireworks, La Rejouissance by Handel
CORGIS WHINE
And it had the same effect on
everybody who was watching.
They just couldn't believe it.
James Bond Theme
The fact that my mother
kept that completely to herself
and the team that were
there and didn't tell anybody
was just brilliant.
Her Majesty the
Queen in this Diamond Jubilee year
proving that she certainly
has a sense of humour...
..and preparing to
open these Games
as her father, King
George VI, did back in 1948,
and her great-grandfather,
Edward VII, in 1908.
While upholding tradition,
she clearly wasn't
constrained by it,
and was always willing
to welcome change.
In 2018, there were smiles all
round as the Queen's grandson
Prince Harry married
Meghan Markle -
American, divorced
and of mixed race.
Harry and Meghan's
wedding, I think,
can be summed up as
the ultimate fairy tale.
There was jubilation
that a very popular prince
had finally found the one.
The sun was shining.
There was the glorious nature of
the carriage ride down The Long Walk,
which was hugely iconic,
but also this idea
of a new beginning.
This was the first
mixed-race woman
to marry into the
British royal family.
You know, they had hopes
and ambitions and dreams
and people talked about how
this brought the royal family
more into the 21st century.
It was definitely
ground-breaking
and it was just a
really, really joyous day.
Her own marriage gave
the Queen great joy -
for 73 years married
to Prince Philip,
the Duke of Edinburgh,
with most of her life
defined by that union.
The Queen has said very
often throughout her reign,
Prince Philip was an
enormous part of her life
and an unbelievable part
of the success of her reign.
He was her strength and stay.
I don't think that she could
have possibly done the job
that she did for all those years
without him by her side.
Elizabeth II became
queen in her 20s
and lived to become the
longest-reigning British monarch.
She understood very
well her unique situation.
She taught herself ways
of handling herself in public,
and she stuck to them.
But who knew her thoughts?
A rare occasion when her private
voice was heard was in Elizabeth R,
a BBC film marking her
40th year on the throne.
Most people have a job
and then they go home.
In this existence, the job
and the life go on together
because you can't
really divide it up.
I mean, luckily,
I'm a quick reader,
so I can get through a lot of
reading in quite a short time.
Though I do rather begrudge
some of the hours that I have to do
instead of being outdoors.
And in 2018, she shared her
memories of wearing the crown
at the Coronation.
Heavy? Well, I think it's
three pounds or something.
Quite heavy.
Comfortable, ma'am? No.
Nothing like that
is comfortable.
A little after that, she
allowed herself to be filmed
strolling through the gardens
of Buckingham Palace
with her fellow nonagenarian,
Sir David Attenborough.
All the countries of the
Commonwealth... Have agreed.
..to allocate parts of
their native forests... Yeah.
..for conservation. And it's
called the Queen's Canopy.
Well, that'll be marvellous.
A wonderful legacy.
She did it so marvellously that it
was a conversational exchange.
I was going to say, a sundial
neatly planted in the shade.
Isn't it good? Yes.
HE LAUGHS
Amazed to hear myself saying
I thought the sundial was
perhaps not well placed,
bearing in mind it was
under the shade of a tree.
That's pretty cheeky, really.
But she laughed.
Had we thought of that, that
it was planted in the shade?
It wasn't in the shade
originally, I'm sure, but...
HE LAUGHS
..maybe we could move it.
The final years were a
masterclass in dedication to duty.
No matter what occurred,
the Queen maintained her diplomatic
composure throughout public crisis
and difficulties closer to home.
Good evening. Prince Andrew,
who's been engulfed in controversy,
has announced that he will
not undertake any royal duties
for the foreseeable future.
In 2019, the Queen's
second son, the Duke of York,
stepped back from public duties
over serious allegations
about his private life,
which caused what
he described as
"a major disruption
to my family's work".
CHEERING
In January, 2020,
the Duke and Duchess of
Sussex, Harry and Meghan,
announced their sudden
departure from life as senior royals
to forge a new future
in North America.
They are going
with the best wishes of the Queen.
In a statement from
Buckingham Palace, she said...
"Harry, Meghan and Archie will
always be much-loved members"
"of my family."
She went on, "I recognise the
challenges they have experienced"
"as a result of intense
scrutiny over the last two years"
"and support their wish
for a more independent life."
But the greatest challenge
of 2020 - to the whole world -
came with the deadly
coronavirus pandemic...
..which forced
populations into lockdown.
The Queen herself was placed
into quarantine at Windsor Castle
from where she
addressed a fearful nation.
I'm speaking to you at what I know
is an increasingly challenging time,
a time of disruption in
the life of our country,
a disruption that has
brought grief to some,
financial difficulties to many,
and enormous changes
to the daily lives of us all.
When there were difficult times,
she was incredibly important
and perhaps never more so in
recent times than during Covid.
She was able to reach people
in a way that no politician
could have hoped to do.
A lot of the bringing of the
nation together was through her.
We should take comfort that while
we may have more still to endure,
better days will return.
We will be with
our friends again.
We will be with
our families again.
We will meet again.
It was a rallying call
invoking the wartime spirit...
..and just weeks later, with
all public events cancelled,
the Queen marked the 75th
anniversary of Victory in Europe
with another address drawing
parallels between the two events.
BELL CHIMES
I speak to you today at the
same hour as my father did
exactly 75 years ago.
His message then was a salute to the
men and women at home and abroad
who had sacrificed so much
in pursuit of what he rightly
called a great deliverance.
The war had been a total war.
It had affected everyone and
no-one was immune from its impact.
Never give up, never despair -
that was the message of VE Day.
"Never give up, never despair"
could be described as a
theme of the Queen's reign.
In June 2020, her official birthday
ceremony, Trooping the Colour,
saw a pared down, socially-distanced
affair in Windsor, not in London.
Right... turn!
Coping with relentless
imposed changes
while keeping the
spirit of tradition visible -
that was the Queen's task
through 70 years of shifts
in society and technology...
..something she reflected
upon annually at Christmas.
Today is another landmark
because television
has made it possible
for many of you to see me in
your homes on Christmas Day.
These techniques of radio
and television are modern,
but the Christmas
message is timeless.
We need reminding of it...
This was the Queen on
matters closest to her heart -
the Commonwealth, the
military, religion and family.
Of course, for many, this time of
year will be tinged with sadness,
some mourning the
loss of those dear to them
and others missing friends and
family members distanced for safety,
when all they really want
for Christmas is a simple hug
or a squeeze of the hand.
And shortly afterwards, the Queen
would experience her own loss.
In February, the Duke of
Edinburgh was hospitalised,
not because of Covid,
but for longer-term issues.
After a month, he returned home
for what became his final weeks.
He died peacefully at
Windsor on April 9th 2021,
aged 99.
The ceremonial royal
funeral at Windsor Castle
was modified due to
government restrictions.
Present... arms!
Nonetheless, it had military at
its heart, as the Duke had wanted.
It was as unique a
farewell as the man himself.
Forward... march!
BAND PLAYS AND BELL TOLLS
Despite the pomp and ceremony,
only 30 people were
allowed to attend
the service itself...
..all of them
socially distanced...
..leaving the enduring image
of the masked monarch alone,
grieving the death
of her husband.
For the first time since
coming to the throne,
the Queen would reign
without her consort...
..and after a period
of official mourning,
she was straight back to work.
FANFARE
My Lords, pray, be seated.
The Queen continued
to lead the nation,
I think we would all now say,
with an affection
and respect for her
that grew and developed.
She didn't get left behind.
As the world endured a
second year of pandemic,
the Queen carried on
fulfilling engagements...
..although not always in person.
Good morning, Your Majesty.
Your Majesty.
Good evening.
Ah! There you are.
It's a great honour for the Armed
Forces that you've taken the time
to meet some of our people
serving around the world.
She was able to still do
and still have conversations
that she would have had if she
had been physically visiting places...
I'm currently in Curacao
at the moment, ma'am.
We've gone past Montserrat,
the British Virgin Islands,
and it's been absolutely incredible
seeing all these different places.
Well, I'm very glad to have
been able to meet all of you,
and the best of luck.
..and I think that was
really important to people
that she was still
there for them.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
The Queen's enthusiastic
connection with the people
was clearer than ever
at her Platinum Jubilee.
As she appeared on the
Buckingham Palace balcony,
it was the climax of a spectacular
four-day summer celebration.
This was quite a feat, unmatched
by any other British monarch -
70 uninterrupted years.
Her decline in health meant
the Queen was largely absent
from Jubilee events, so it was
her family who took centre stage.
Never the slightest doubt, however,
who remained the central focus...
CHEERING
..and the 96-year-old had lost
none of her sense of humour
or capacity to surprise.
Perhaps...
..you would like a
marmalade sandwich?
I always keep one
for emergencies.
So do I.
I keep mine in here...
Oh!
..for later.
Summing up the remarkable mood,
her son Charles made
a warm personal tribute.
Now, ladies and gentlemen,
I know the Queen is watching
these celebrations
with much emotion,
having, I hope, finished
her marmalade sandwich...
LAUGHTER
..including immense regret
that she cannot be here in
person with us this evening.
But Windsor Castle is
barely 20 miles away,
so if we cheer loudly enough,
she might - might - just hear us.
So, let's all join
together... CHEERING
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
As an individual,
she wrote her
own job description.
As Queen Elizabeth II,
she held the survival of
the monarchy in her hands.
In a world which has
changed beyond recognition...
..she was always there.
The Queen is dead.
But in the most direct
way, she lives on.
She leaves her children,
grandchildren,
great-grandchildren.
And this is a less
remote royal family...
..who now face the
journey without her...
..into unknown waters.
And the future of the House
of Windsor lies in their hands
and their judgments...
..and, of course, in ours too.
In the end, the Queen's strength
as a constitutional monarch
was fundamentally
strength of character.
In an age of self-gratification,
she never forgot her duty.
She didn't take
herself too seriously,
but she took her role
very seriously indeed.
She wasn't like anyone else,
and she knew it -
we knew it -
and there will never be
anyone else like her again.
If we said "the Queen",
everyone knew we were talking
about Queen Elizabeth II,
and I think she'll
always be the Queen,
the best, I think, that
this world has to offer.
She had this kind of talismanic,
magnetic ability to make people
feel better about themselves
and people came away
from being with her...
..chuffed to bits.
I think she genuinely was also
an immensely happy
and positive person
and that communicated
itself to everyone.
In her time as Queen, we
moved from imperial decline
and leaving empire...
..to the kind of
country we are now -
and the Queen
has led through that.
That is an often
unmentioned but extraordinary,
remarkable achievement.
I think it was her
sense of duty.
It's something that
money couldn't buy.
It's either within
you or it's not,
and it's something
that she had in spades.
I think it was instilled
in her by her parents,
and it's something
that she continued.
I don't think that she ever...
..stopped learning.
Huge experience
after that length of time.
She had this... this...
..innate ability to be able to
come up with the right four words
and to be able to be in the
right place at the right time.
The expression "mother" takes
in so many aspects of your life
and your experience.
Which part of that is most
important I'm not quite sure -
but the very fact that
she was your mother
and she was
there all the time...
..you miss that.
She was always there,
representing this country...
..and indeed many other countries
in the Commonwealth or the realms.
You know, I'd go and talk to
her about this, that or the other,
and that's always been
something, I think, that's...
Well, it'd be very difficult not to
have, if you know what I mean.
All that she could
do, she has now done.
A constant presence in
all of our lives has gone
and Britain becomes a
different place without her.
I would like to read you a few
lines from Pilgrim's Progress
because I'm sure we can
say with Mr Valiant-For-Truth,
these words.
"Though with great
difficulty I am got hither,"
"yet now I do not repent me
of all the trouble I have been at"
"to arrive where I am."
"My sword I give to him
that shall succeed me"
"in my pilgrimage,"
"and my courage and
skill to him that can get it."
"My marks and
scars I carry with me,"
"to be a witness for me"
"that I have fought His battles,"
"who now will be my rewarder."