Q:Build a movie plot around this: Who was always present at King George VI's speeches during the war? Logue
A:
The film opens with Prince Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI), known to his wife and family as "Bertie" (Colin Firth), the second son of King George V, speaking at the close of the 1925 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Stadium, with his wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) by his side. His stammering speech visibly unsettles the thousands of listeners in the audience. The prince tries several unsuccessful treatments and gives up, until the Duchess persuades him to see Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), an Australian speech therapist.In their first session, Logue requests that they address each other by their Christian names, a breach of royal etiquette: Logue tells the prince that he will be calling him Bertie from now on. At first, Bertie is reluctant to receive treatment, but Logue bets Bertie a shilling that he can read perfectly at that very moment, and gives him Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy to read aloud, with music blaring so that he can't hear himself. Logue records Bertie's reading on a gramophone record, but convinced that he has stammered throughout, Bertie leaves in a huff, declaring his condition "hopeless." Logue gives him the recording as a keepsake.Later that year, after Bertie's father, King George V (Michael Gambon), makes his 1934 Christmas address, he explains to his son the importance of broadcasting for the modern monarchy in a perilous international situation. He declares that Bertie's older brother, David, Prince of Wales, will bring ruin to the family and the country when he ascends the throne, and demands that Bertie train himself to fill in, beginning by reading his father's speech into a microphone for practice. After an agonizing attempt to do so made worse by his father's coaching, Bertie plays Logue's recording and hears himself reciting Shakespeare fluently, amazing both himself and the Duchess.Bertie returns to Logue's treatment, where they work together on muscle relaxation and breath control, as Logue gently probes the psychological roots of the stammer,...