broke out. What made his role harder still was that he was a reluctant king, forced to the throne after Edward VIII ( Guy Pearce) abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson. George's wife -- the Queen -- is played, with coquettish hauteur, by Helena Bonham Carter. Tom Hooper (who made The Damned United and superb TV drama Longford ) directs with nuanced restraint. The result is outstanding and unexpectedly moving. At the film's heart is the relationship between the King and Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), a maverick Australian speech therapist. Their friendship (the screenplay drew on Logue's diaries) is unorthodox and indispensable. Friendship was also key to the making of the film. Hooper maintains that the friendship that developed between him and his leading men makes The King's Speech what it is. And it is true that when I meet Hooper and Colin Firth at a Soho hotel, their rapport is evident. They are animated talkers. Hooper himself points out the greatest irony: "Colin Firth is one of the best raconteurs and most engaging conversationalists I know... playing a man who cannot speak." How did you learn to stammer, Colin? Colin Firth: No one taught me. But I have had it explained -- this is common to everyone who struggles with stammering: all you want is to get to the end of a sentence. To speak is your dream, content is often secondary. You'll order fish instead of beef at a restaurant because you can't get the "b" out. Tom would