The King’s Speech

Lesson Sequence

What is the role of Royalty in modern times?

One of the ideas the film portrays is the changing role of royalty during the interbellum period
(between WWI and WWII). Britain, as with most the world, had to adapt quickly to advancements in
technology and the threat of war in Europe from Nazi Germany. In 1931, the Statute of Westminster
recognised the dominions of the Empire as separate, independent states within the British
Commonwealth. But what role does royalty play in this time in a post-colonial context?

Watch: The Queen’s address regarding COVID-19:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJP95WKJQjg

1. Imagine what effect the Queen’s speech would have on the people of Britain who listened to
it a year ago. Support your ideas with x2 quotes.
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2. What powers does royalty have? And how to they use them?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiDCwqpupj8

I think: Now I think:

What is the role of Royalty in modern times?

Close analysis: The King’s speech

Changing values #1: The Royal Family

Watch 0.00 – 5-13: https://clickv.ie/w/M1ym

Individually:

1. How is Bertie’s speech pathology established in the opening scene through cinematic
devices:
a. Identify and explain how Hooper conveys Bertie’s feelings and the crowd’s reaction
through x4 cinematic techniques (x2 for each).
b. How is the significance of Bertie’s position in society established – he’s not just some
low ranking minister, after all.
c. What was the effect of Bertie’s failure to speak at the British Empire Exhibition on
British subjects, given the context of the role of royalty. Provide evidence (x2
quotes).

Read British Empire Exhibition

Adapted from Brent

The film opens with Prince Albert addressing the audience of the British Empire
Exhibition at Wembley Stadium in 1925. The exhibition, open from 1924 to 1925, was
intended to show off the industry and natural resources of the British Empire to "to
stimulate trade, strengthen bonds that bind mother Country to her Sister States and
Daughters, to bring into closer contact the one with each other, to enable all who owe
allegiance to the British flag to meet on common ground and learn to know each
other.”

Questions
Research more about the Exhibition.

1. What is the most interesting aspect of the exhibition to you?

2. Why was it held?
3. Considering the time of history this exhibition was held in, why do
you think it was so popular with the citizens of England?
Homework: What was Harley Street famous for?
Adapted from The King’s Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy by Mark
Logue and Peter Conradi

Harley Street was considered the heart of Britain’s medical establishment. Most of the buildings in
the street dated back to the late eighteenth century, but it was only decades later that the name of
Harley Street became synonymous with medicine. One of the first medical men to set up shop there
was John St John Long, a notorious quack, who arrived in the 1830s – and was subsequently
convicted of manslaughter after one of his treatments that involved wounding a young lady patient
in the back went horribly wrong. Others followed, attracted not just by the proximity of well-to-do
clients in surrounding streets but also ease of access to railway stations, which brought in patients
from elsewhere in the country. By 183, thirty-six doctors had addresses there; by 1990, the street’s
medical population had swelled to 157 and ten years later to 214.

Harley Street, in short, was already well on the way to becoming a brand rather than just an address.
Location within the street was everything, though. Generally speaking, the lower the number and
further south towards Cavendish Square, the more prestigious the address. Logue’s building was
right up towards the northern end, close to the junction with the busy Marylebone Road that runs
east to west across London.

Yet Harley Street was still Harley Street. What the street’s other celebrated dwellers made of this
rough-hewn Australian in their midst has not been recorded. By the time Lionel Logue arrived, the
quacks of old had given way to modern, properly qualified doctors. Logue, by contrast, had no
formal medical training at all. But none of his neighbours would have known how to advise people
with speech impediments or to understand the distress it caused them.

Lionel Logue charged hefty fees to the rich, with which he subsidized treatment for the poor.
Changing Values #2: The science of speech pathology.

What we want to do here is compare the progressive psychological treatment of disorders against
the traditional physiological treatments.

How did the established traditional practitioners, and status-quo in general, view this new scientific
branch – psychology? Was it celebrated, seen as a load of quackery or something in-between?

Watch 5.13 – 7.50: “Mouth Full of Marbles” https://clickv.ie/w/32ym

1. How does Hooper position the viewer to understand the established treatment of speech
pathology? Support your ideas with quotes and cinematic techniques.

Watch 17.40 – 28.15 https://clickv.ie/w/M1ym

2. How does Hooper convey the unconventionality of psychological treatment in early 20 th

century England? Support with quotes and evidence.

3. Describe how Bertie responds to the first round of treatment with evidence. How might this
capture the collective feeling towards psychoanalytical treatment?

Changing Values #3: Class structure: Two types of people

We’re going to go back and see what we missed: We’re going to compare two types of people – the
Royals and the middle-class, the upper against the lower echelon, the aristocracy against the
bourgeoise.

The contextual value we’re going to be looking at is related to CLASS STRUCTURE. Before The Great
War, class structure was describes as rigid and immobile. You were likely to marry and stay with the
class you were born – and social interactions with the class above was near non-existent.

As we watch the whole film, see how that rigidity between the Upper and Middle classes begins to
dissolve – just a little. It was a bid deal back then – in fact, it was still a big deal a few decades ago.

Then and now:

Reflect: How do you think the relationship between the Royal Family and the public has changed
over the past 100 years? Write down some brief ideas (1 minute)

Pre-watching:

1. What impression do you get of the royal family when watching this archival footage from
late 1950’s: Write down anything that comes to mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=dnedBk5m_YA

2. What impression do you get of Princess Diana from 1987.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Kr_qfeAnTY – original footage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Kr_qfeAnTY – retrospective documentary

 3. Compare how the relationship between the Royals and the public has shifted in a table. Post
on Class Google Doc.

Class structure in the film: Two types of people.

Watch 5.13 – 17.39.

1. How does Hooper distinguish the class differences in 1920’s England through the two
leading characters?
Keep in the front of your mind: How does he convey the shifting class values later – what are
they?)

a. Describe how Bertie and Lionel are characterised by Hooper. What kinds of
fathers/husbands are they? What values do they share or disagree/diverge on?
Support ideas with quotes and cinematic devices.

Changing Values #3: Class structure

Re-watch Watch 17.40 – 28.15 – the first consultation with Lionel. https://clickv.ie/w/M1ym

This time, we’re going analyse how this scene conveys the rigid social barriers between the upper
and middle class, rather that looking at the evolving practice of psychology.

1. How does Hooper portray the tension between Bertie and Lionel – and hence, the
contextual value of rigid class barriers?

Practice questions:

1. “We’re not a family, we’re a firm” – Bertie.

Use the above stimulus as a starting point to explore the changing contextual values of
1930’s British society in ‘The Kings Speech

2. The King’s Speech captures a turbulent time in British history with cinematic clarity.
To what extent do you agree? Refer to contextual values studied in class.

3. Evaluate whether The King’s Speech accurately reimagines the contextual issues of
Modernity for 21st century audiences.