Original subtitles

it's 1936 and Europe is in the grip

about of hit an emerging dictator who

will soon have the world at war

in the UK the royal family is also in

turmoil the King Edward the Apes is in

love with a married woman and it said

he's sympathetic to the Nazi cause

[Music]

his brother the Duke of York will soon

inherit the throne and a nation in

crisis but he has little ambition and a

stutter which made speaking in public

terrifying I had the greatest pleasure

in in declaring it open can the Duke

conquer his demons and overcome his

timidity to take on the Third Reich as

Britain's wartime king for the second

time in the lives of most of us we are

at war

[Music]

you

the exhibition is an empire

I'm to take you

the man who was soon to become King

George the six had a problem which was

worrying his advisers

I'm the Commonwealth of Nations they

called it the King's Speech I have the

greatest burger and because he startled

by that you carry open a result of a

hidden childhood trauma which meant the

pre-war battle of rhetoric has been won

by millions flocked to see him and radio

and newsreel footage carried his

messages of hate around the word

the power of speech had become a vital

part of the propaganda war George could

not compete but his thermo

could be tamed by this man Lionel Logue

an unorthodox Australian speech

therapist Logue took George under his

wing and subjected him to a tough regime

of intensive vocal therapy they've had a

very good show here tonight and I thank

you all very much

and that was your good night few knew

about it at the time it was a well-kept

secret but 90 years later loges efforts

were revealed in the hit movie The

King's Speech which won four Oscars and

many other awards the fundamentals of

Lionel's technique was no matter who you

are from what station of life because he

was also working because World War one

returned soldiers with what we would now

call post-traumatic distress syndrome

optically that generation of men in 1937

and the obstacles and their suspicions

of therapy and maybe the suspicious of

all psychology really Lionel Logue died

in 1952 that left behind a legacy his

transformation of a stuttering George

into a regal King possibly the most

startling piece of evidence which Loeb

died a year after the king but his

Diaries helped his grandson write a book

about the relationship it was his

grandfather's own words that helped

colin firth learn about the nature of

the Kings stammer

he says contracts teeth and mouth and

mechanically closes throat gets chin

down and closes throat at times and so

you know an extraordinary habit of

clipping small words and in on and of

saying the first syllable of one word in

the last of another so this all helped

informed in very useful yeah the real

George the Saints never expected to be

giving speeches as King that is his

elder brother Scott I have determined to

announce the firm to which I succeeded

on the death of my father

and I am now communicating this my final

and irrevocable decision

when Edward quit his throne to be with a

woman he loved her America's Wallis

Simpson George was suddenly thrust into

the harsh glare of the Royal Knight no

one was less suited to be a monic than

the then Duke of York his brother had

previously captured their headlines a

dashing figure

while George led a relatively quiet

preparing to spend his time at a modest

London home with his young daughters

when he did have to appear in public he

relied heavily on his wife Elizabeth no

way

was he classic King material he was born

Albert Frederick Arthur George on the

14th of December 1895 at Sandringham in

Norfolk a huge estate that had been a

royal retreat since 1862 it was the age

of the Victorians his great-grandmother

Queen Victoria would reign for another

five years he was christened Albert but

the family shortened this to Bertie

a nickname that stuck with him for life

Bertie had four brothers and assisting

the eldest Edward being third in line to

the throne

they all lived in a mansion called York

cottage where Bertie was born it became

their prison controlled by their father

who would become king george v on the

death of his father edward the sentence

he treated his five sons like lower

ranking naval officers and was obsessed

with discipline punctuality and

obedience at the age of 13 Bertie who

had developed a stutter because of his

father's abuse was sent to Naval College

it turned out to be the making of him he

was put under the care of the school dr.

Louie Gregg a former captain of the

Scottish rugby team Greg was physically

imposing and tough but unlike the king

he did not bully Bertie for 20 years

Greg guided Bertie through life

after college they both joined the Navy

and fought alongside each other in the

Great War

this is rare footage of the Battle of

Jutland the only significant naval

battle of the war between Britain and

Germany the result was inconclusive

Bertie was in the thick of the action

manning a gun turret after the war bird

he turned to the air force and quickly

qualified as a pilot but the risks

associated with flying were too much for

the royal family and he was persuaded to

pursue a less dangerous life Cambridge

University where Louie Craig continued

to keep an eye on him Cambridge provides

a Bertie with a golden opportunity to

indulge his passion for sport mostly as

a spectator but he did become a fine

golfer

he also played tennis at the highest

level

in 1926 at the age of 30 Bertie became

the first member of Britain's royal

family to take part at Wimbledon

partnered by Greg he played in the first

round of the doubles it didn't go well

he and Lois were trout's in straight

sets my British opponents who had

previously won the championships

Greg's influence on Virgil extended

beyond the military and sport he helped

turn the Duke into one of the world's

most eligible bachelors the Roaring

Twenties

brought a huge sexual revolution women

got the vote on both sides of the

Atlantic

becoming mistresses of their own destiny

and that included overturning the

traditional battle of the sexes once a

year the bathing Belle take a sweet

revenge all the other 364 days they

spend their time parading in front of a

lot of men to be judged for beauty or

something now they're in the judges

place in the beach lifeguards are being

judged aren't they cute

maybe take about they'd like that button

[Music]

the winner is a man named Ken Griffith

they call him up and then hunt him up

music heated things up to jazz crossed

the pond to London and fun-loving women

became flapper girls as they did the

Charleston in the middle of his room was

Bert single and fancy-free

as was his brother the Prince of Wales

the pair had become inseparable and

equally outrageous they took up with a

pair of married women and called

themselves the for dues because they

could do whatever they wanted this

photograph shows the carefree casual

side of the gang it was hard they really

saw themselves Bertie was smitten by his

boo

an Australian socialite Sheila Chisholm

but the affair was doomed his father the

King demanded an end to it offering

Bertie the title the Duke of York

provided he gave up she he chose royal

duty over love but admitted to being

heartbroken but not for long

within weeks another young woman had

come into his life a member of the

British aristocracy who would turn his

world upside down

[Music]

Bertie's new girlfriend was nineteen

year old Elizabeth bowes-lyon the ninth

child of the Earl of Strafford a noble

line that stretched back to the 14th

century Elizabeth had been raised in

gloms castle an ancient pile in the

Scottish lowlands 1920 she moved to

London to become part of the Royal

Society scene she became a debutante and

called birdies I it wasn't love at first

sight as far as Elizabeth was concerned

but she did become his tennis partner

they became a regular fixture on the

double circuit it took 32 years and two

goes at proposing to her before she

finally agreed to marry him she later

told a friend that she married Bertie

out of duty only later did she fall in

love at their wedding in Westminster

Abbey huge crowds gathered it was the

first royal wedding to be turned into a

spectacle and be substantially filmed

previously the Royals had been married

quietly in private channels but the

ravages of the Great War had left

Britain battered and depressed it was

thought a bit of pomp would share things

up the black-and-white newsreel doesn't

do justice to the colorful turnout

Bertie cut a dashing figure in his Air

Force blue dress uniform his new wife or

a medieval-style lace dress

in 1923 radio was king and written but

the BBC was prevented from relaying the

ceremony because the then Archbishop of

Canterbury feared it might be listened

to in disreputable pubs and bars it was

to be three years before the royal

couple had their first child during that

time birth his wife became hugely

popular and earned herself a nickname

the smiling Duchess the York's were a

happy family their daughters Elizabeth

and Margaret grew up with only minimal

press intrusion movie newsreels were few

and far between but all that was about

to change the King's life we moving

peacefully towards its glow the reign of

George the pits

had come to an end death has come

peacefully to the king at 11:55

Edward Prince of Wales was now king and

his younger brother next in line

[Music]

326 days later

unexpectedly Bertie became king he chose

the name George rather than Albert by

his side sat his faithful wife now Queen

Elisabeth their daughters were now heirs

to the throne in Europe war was on the

cars the Hitler Youth were holding

training and recruiting camps in Germany

preaching intolerance and Aryan values

Britain's King meanwhile was organizing

very different rallying call to

galvanize the nation's workers Bertie

had set up summer camps to help boost

morale and the virtues of equality

alongside him in his newsreel footage

his wife and daughters Princess Margaret

and the future Queen of England

Princess Elizabeth in Germany Hitler's

words were also seduced in members of

George's family in particular his

brother Edward now known as the Duke of

Windsor

[Music]

much to the annoyance of the British

government he and while his Simpson

visited Hitler and the Fuhrer about to

return him to his throne if Germany

succeeded in conquering Britain Edward

wasn't the only one who thought Hitler

could be a friend here in Bavaria mr.

Chamberlain was accorded a row of tiles

from the crown

his listen of peace was greeted with

enthusiasm by the people of Germany when

I come back I hope I may be able to say

as what's verses inhibitor forth out of

this little danger appeasement of course

didn't work and Britain needed neither

one with power and influence the new

king found himself in America at the

White House

charming President Franklin D Roosevelt

recently our nation has had the pleasure

of a visit from King George the sixth as

a courteous recognition of the

cordiality and the goodwill that

prevailed between two greatly its

significance lay in fact that friendship

could exist between the two countries

without fear of any an act of aggression

by the one against the other

Hitler was now the aggressor and the

king and the president formed a lasting

friendship but their joy was short-lived

first the French failure then mr.

Chamberlain for Britain rejected Hitler

so-called peace offer the Kossoff is

based on the old recipe of the Virgil

making friends with the police after he

got what he wanted we know now what Nazi

promises are worth whoa

forge a new friendship for the King

Winston Churchill have replaced Neville

Chamberlain as Prime Minister the fate

of Holland and Belgium like that of

Poland Czechoslovakia an Oscar will be

decided by the victory of the British

Empire and the French Republic the whole

world is against Hitler and Hitler ISM

Churchill became the voice of Britain

but if anybody liked to play rough we

can play rough too wild Churchill led

from the front the king led by example

by subjecting his family and the staff

in buckingham palace to food rationing

turning off the central heating royal

parks were dug up and planted with much

needed crops and the King saved water to

no bath in the palace could have more

than five inches of hot water

bird he moved his daughters to the

relative safety of Windsor Castle

but he and his queen remained in

Buckingham Palace to face the German

Blitz with the rest of London it wasn't

long before it became a target and they

had a close call this was the effect of

a time bomb that exploded in the grounds

of the Kings London home it fell only a

few feet from the palace building those

for the Kings sitting-room the king and

queen were in the sitting room

with the windows open when the bomb went

off

had they been closed the royal couple

would have been shredded by flying glass

truly this is a wall of all the people

we're all in it the attack while shaking

the Royals proved a massive propaganda

boost not even a direct hit on the

palace could bring down the monarchy and

in the Queen's words they could now look

the East End in the eye

which is exactly what they did the

morning after the night before often saw

the king queen in East London amongst

the devastation burgees wife became more

than just a symbol of the bravery of the

people in the face of Hitler's own sort

she became a champion for the women of

Britain who she felt were often

underrated by the war effort many of you

have had to see your family life broken

up your husband going off with a massive

task

your children are there creating the

places to play the same thing we know

less than men and well and vital work to

do to us also is given the proud

privilege of serving our country in her

hour of need

the hour of need also meant her husband

wearing military uniform for almost six

years when war broke out he vowed not to

wear civilian clothes in public again

until the fight was over

Bertie relentlessly toward the battle

lines and Garrison's to personally thank

his men

to show she was right behind them the

mood of the country about its king was

captured by the singer Farrell in who

had become the forces sweetheart

she sang about the day she met the king

[Music]

just like his majesty when Hitler

committed suicide in his Berlin bunker

on April the 30th 1945 the war was all

but over a week later Bertie and his

family were able to take to the balcony

of buckingham palace to lead a nation's

rejoicing 5 years ago I promised you

blood toil tears and sweat and your

untiring response brought us in the end

victory over Germany

even though it was very much Churchill's

our the crowds who flocked to Buckingham

Palace made it clear who they wanted

[Music]

the people of Britain had spent a long

time fighting for they came to the

country

seven years later Bertie was dead

at the age of 56

a 40-year smoking habit had helped kill

him but it was the long years of war

that were most to blame

his devotion to duty almost certainly

cost him his life

his 14 years on the throne coincided

with the most destructive war in history

the end of an empire which once covered

a quarter of the Earth's surface and a

third of its population when he was born

there were few cars on the road man had

yet to fly

homes were lit by candles or gas at his

death there were more than 4 million

cars in Britain the world's first

commercial jet airliner the comet was in

service and over 20 million people would

tune in to watch his personal legacy on

television

the coronation of his daughter queen

elizabeth ii

you