Just finished watching Stephen Frears' film 'The Queen' - well made and moving. Reminds me of two times my path crossed royalty.
When I saw Princess Diana at the premiere of 'Hear My Song', Adie Dunbar's movie, at the Odeon Marble Arch. Old Joseph Locke got up on stage and sang Danny Boy to her.
The other occasion was when I met Prince Phillip at a Barnardo's conference at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre in Westminster (The Wife's Conference Centre for him i guess). I knew, even when he was right over the other side of the room, that he was going to come over to me. His yellow teeth would have been stinky on anyone less rich. He asked me what I was doing there, I explained I made films for Barnardo's. "Do they pay you properly then?" he asked.
The Queen I've only ever seen when I walked onto Fleet Street one day only to see the whole royal family drive by on their way back from Saint Paul's from some kind of memorial service.
I remembered, watching the movie, being in Nevers in France when Charles married Diana and not being bothered to watch the wedding, which surprised my French hosts. I had republican tendencies even at that tender age.
The night Diana died I had been at a party at Maggie O'Kane's in Tufnell Park. I heard the sad news at around 5 in the morning on the radio in my bed at 19 Carleton Road - where, the following week in the living room I watched the funeral procession leaving London through Hendon and my childhood manor. When I went back to Maggie's house the next day to pick up something, her husband, also a Guardian journo, already had a conspiracy theory. That's journos for you.
It must have been that Sunday we were in town, lunching at an Italian restaurant in Covent Garden, when I read one of the Sunday papers, the Mail i think - inside was the usual critical stuff about Diana (less topical, feature-type pieces), in direct contrast to the breaking news on the front which was already canonising her. That's journos for you.
As Blair says in the film, she made a lot of people happy. And she did a lot of good. So I suppose it's good to have those strange days captured in this film. Those strange days when my Irish Republican sister-in-law went down to the sea of flowers at Buckingham Palace.
Posts
2 comments:
The one character not developed in the film was Diana herself. The "people's princess" remains the icon of superficial popular culture. But the Royal family knew a very different Diana -- the one behind the facades of glamour and pseudo-compassion.
Both Diana and her brother, Charles Spencer, suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder caused by their mother's abandoning them as young children. A google search reveals that Diana is considered a case study in BPD by mental health professionals.
For Charles Spencer, BPD meant insatiable sexual promiscuity (his wife was divorcing him at the time of Diana's death). For Diana, BPD meant intense insecurity and insatiable need for attention and affection which even the best husband could never fulfill.
Clinically, it's clear that the Royal family did not cause her "problems". Rather, she brought her multiple issues into the marriage, and the Royal family was hapless to deal with them.
Her illness, untreated, sowed the seeds of her fast and unstable lifestyle, and sadly, her tragic fate.
An interesting perspective and plenty of material there for a whole other film from Mr Frears or one of his peers
Post a Comment