Queen feared republic would end reign

Published on Saturday 21 November 2009 20:00

THEY were the darkest days of her reign, when she feared the monarchy was in peril. The Queen, a TV series on Her Majesty's life, will reveal the monarch spent much of the 1970s desperately concerned about the rising tide of republicanism.

Elizabeth II will be shown reeling from attacks on her family's expenses and character from anti-monarchists such as Willie Hamilton, the former Fife Labour MP who dismissed her as a "clockwork doll", her sister Margaret as a "floozie" and son Charles as a "twerp".

The Queen famously said 1992 – when her Windsor Castle home caught fire and three of her children split with their partners – was her "annus horribilis". But the five-part Channel 4 series, which begins next Sunday, makes it clear she felt the real threat to her position came two decades earlier.

Producer Marion Milne said: "The 1970s were a very volatile time. A lot of it came down to money and, of course, Willie Hamilton was incensed by the idea that, as he saw it, a Royal Family whose duties were purely ceremonial were going cap in hand to ask for more money from Harold Wilson, the then prime minister.

"We know from good sources that the Queen found the scrutiny very uncomfortable."

The programmes explore key moments in the reign of the monarch who ascended to the throne as a young woman in 1952. The style is a mix of documentary footage, interviews and dramatic reconstruction. One episode portrays the Queen, played by Samantha Bond, Miss Moneypenny to Pierce Brosnan's 007, at Balmoral with Wilson. She turns to her prime minister and – with the programme makers' nod to current events – says: "How would politicians feel if someone went through their expenses?"

The Royal Family, in the 1970s, when Britain was suffering from miners' strikes, power cuts and the three-day week, were pleading for more cash for the Civil List and were far from flavour of the day.

Prince Philip told American television the money provided by the taxpayer for the royal household was so inadequate he might have to sell some of his polo horses. Support for a Republic shot up to 48 per cent.

Milne, who said the Queen's concerns over republicanism were reflected in the film in a "subtle" way, added: "When you have got the IRA very active, when you have got Scottish republicanism and extremely active trade unionism, there was a feeling that what the royals represented felt anachronistic. With the monarchy, it can go either way. Sometimes in a situation, the stability of the Royal Family is seen as a great bonus. At other times, it isn't."

Bond, who grew up in the 1970s, suggested that familiarity with royals in the period had bred contempt. The actor said: "The Royal Family had just let cameras into their lives for the first time. They had thought that the nation would see how normal they were but, of course, half of the country thought, 'How odd,' and, 'Don't they all sound funny?'."

The 1970s episode is the second of the hour-long shows. Each will feature a different actor as queen and a different challenge facing her reign. The first deals with the monarch in her late 20s handling her sister Margaret's relationship with Group Captain Peter Townsend, a divorced servant of her father, George VI.

The third, set against the backdrop of Edinburgh's 1986 Commonwealth Games, documents the Queen's fraught relationship with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Prince Philip, in one scene, refers derisively to the head of Her Majesty's Government as "that bloody grocer's daughter" and in another the Queen asks: "Why does she always say 'we' instead of 'I'?" The fourth depicts the events of the Queen's annus horribilis. Milne produced and co-wrote the final episode, set in 2005 as the Queen came to terms with Prince Charles marrying Camilla.

The experience of writing and researching the film, she said, had turned her into something of a fan. "We start with the Queen not wanting to hear Camilla's name because the idea of Camilla was against everything she stood for. Yet we go from there to the point where the Queen is making a speech at Charles and Camilla's wedding."

The film, Milne believes, is the first attempt to trace the Queen's changing views as she first acknowledges then finally sanctions her eldest son's relationship.

Milne said: "All credit to the Queen for changing. I have come out of this project thinking, this is a class act."

The first episode of The Queen will be broadcast on Channel 4 next Sunday, at 9pm.