Question: Build a movie plot around this: What does the Queen hear in the distance? a gunshot
Answer:
The film begins on the eve of the 1997 British general election, which sees Tony Blair (Sheen) elected as the United Kingdom's first Labour Party Prime Minister in 18 years. While posing for an official portrait, the Queen (Mirren) talks with the artist and expresses her regret about not being allowed to vote. She is slightly wary of the new prime minister and his pledge to "modernise" the country, but Blair promises to respect the independence of the Royal Family. When Blair visits Buckingham Palace to kiss hands, the Queen follows custom and asks him to form a Government in her name.Three months later, during a visit to Paris, Diana, Princess of Wales is killed in a car accident in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel along with her companion Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul. Blair's director of communications, Alastair Campbell (Mark Bazeley), immediately prepares a speech in which he describes her as "the people's princess." Blair gives the speech the next morning and the phrase catches on immediately. Over the next few days, millions of British people in London erupt in an outpouring of grief, as they flock to Buckingham and Kensington palaces to leave floral tributes and notes.Meanwhile, the Royal Family are still on their summer residence at Balmoral Castle, the Queen's estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Diana's death immediately sparks division among senior members of the family; while the Queen is saddened by Diana's death, she and her husband differ with Prince Charles, Prince of Wales over what arrangements should be made. The Queen observes that since Diana divorced Charles (Alex Jennings) a year earlier, she is no longer a member of the Royal Family. Consequently, she insists that the funeral arrangements are a "private affair" and are best left to the princess's own family, the Spencers. A visibly grief stricken Prince Charles, however, argues that Diana was mother of the future King and that the Queen's suggestion is dismissive of this fact. Following her mother's suggestion, the Queen eventually...