![]() ![]() Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Maybe I Do’ on Hulu, A Rom-Com Trying To Capture That Nancy Meyers Magic Treat Williams Represented Both Sides of the American Character: The Violent Dreamer and The Handsome Rogue Shop Disney: Marvel, Star Wars, More Pride Collections for Pride Month 2023 Stream It Or Skip It: 'John Early: Now More Than Ever' On HBO Max, The Comedian Goes Rock Star Diva Mode Although there were fraught moments along the way, the effort to make us interact with the icon rather than the person was a success: by George, the old king was right.Let’s Get Loud! 7 Movies to Stream on Netflix in Celebration of Pride Month 2023ħ LGBTQ+ TV Shows to Stream in Honor of Pride Month 2023 The last portraits of her are dutifully overanalysed, the experts joining in with the pretence of believing they reveal something of Elizabeth’s character. This extraordinary woman”, but is also then referred to by two consecutive contributors as “an enigma”. ![]() Elizabeth is described with heart-clutching reverence as “This woman. Hovering vampirically behind her is a thirsty Rupert Murdoch.Īt the film’s close, the royal historians and correspondents who have served as talking heads snap back into respectful tribute mode. But it does show us a great shot of Elizabeth on a meet-and-greet somewhere in Wapping. A Life through the Lens doesn’t really know what to do with the image-saturated modern phase of ruthlessly papped royalty, so it skips over it. Then, as a new kind of tabloid press arrived in the 1980s, someone else was shaping that narrative. It was extremely popular on its first airing in 1969, but was later taken out of circulation by the palace because it was lifting the veil too high: it was too close to allowing punters to possess their own informed view of what the Windsors were like, which would mean they could no longer be told. That dilemma became a crisis after the BBC broadcast Royal Family, a documentary two years in the making that showed Elizabeth and co’s everyday, domestic lives. When the endless footage of foreign visits led to the public getting the impression that Elizabeth was a neglectful mother because she was constantly off attending the openings of municipal buildings in Ceylon or Bermuda, photographs were commissioned of her family at home, doing ordinary, relatable things such as picnicking on vast lawns or leaning on castle walls in matching kilts. Elizabeth herself had a good line on this: “I have to be seen to be believed.”īut, as The Thick of It taught us, much of the business of spin consists of undoing the unintended effects of the previous PR stunt. ![]() By the end of her reign, millions of people felt directly connected to her because they’d met her, or at least been waved at from 20 yards away. ![]() Having ascended to the throne and married Philip – we are shown how carefully marshalled photojournalism remodelled an unfamiliar Greek interloper as an earthy, manly, steadying influence, just like good English husbands – the young Elizabeth II embarked on a world tour in the early 1960s, stepping out of the motorcade and focusing on the walkabout. How much the monarchy’s subjects should be allowed to actually taste the Kool-Aid was, however, a difficult question. Like brand-loyal consumers who feel a sense of investment in a product despite owning no stake in the company, or religious believers who think impure thoughts may be punished, royalist Brits were persuaded that they bore a responsibility to vocally support the crown. The speech, co-written by a Times journalist, was a brilliantly effective piece of propaganda: it reimagined royal life as “service” or “duty”, creating the illusion not only of heroic sacrifice and hard-working excellence, but of an endeavour shared. “I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service … but I shall not have strength to carry out this resolution alone.” Then, in 1947, on her 21st birthday, the princess delivered an address that was mainly heard at the time on radio but is seen here on film. The first conscious effort to manage citizens’ view of Elizabeth came in wartime, when the privations suffered by ordinary folk prompted a move away from the rich prettiness of her earlier photoshoots. ![]()
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