The Queen

Rating: 6/10 (3 May 2020)

Peter Morgan definitely got a germ of an idea of doing The Crown Saga for Netflix from this. This is high gloss camp.
Made by Granada, it does feel like a drama documentary made for television.
The Queen is portrayed by Helen Mirren who won a best actress Oscar. Britain looks fundamentally changed to her when her former daughter in law, Princess Diana dies in a car accident in Paris.
Just a few months earlier, Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) became Prime Minister as New Labour won a landslide in the 1997 General Election.
The British public feel angry that the Royal Family appear to be aloof during the days following Diana's death. Too wrapped in protocol rather than display any grief.
It is left to Blair and his press secretary Alistair Campbell to persuade the Queen that they need to show a more touchy feely side. Something that does not come naturally to Prince Philip (James Cromwell.)
Although in 1997 it really did feel like Britain has at last modernised, but you can never count out the Ancien Regime. Britain has had a government of public school toffs since 2010 the public just loves them. They cannot get enough of austerity. Not to worry there is plenty of more of that coming.
Of course the truth was even the nation's grief over the death of Diana was hyperbole. I went to work on the following Monday and everyone carried on as normal. Just sad that two children lost their mother.
You will never get an inkling of that ordinariness in this movie. It is just a rehashing of news footage with both Blair and the Queen reasserting the monarch's authority with some smart public relations.