Why "The King"s Speech" Couldn't Be Made While the Queen Mother Was Alive
LONDON (CBS) It may be getting a lot of Oscar buzz this season, but the soon-to-be-released Colin Firth movie, "The King's Speech," has no fans in Buckingham Palace.
The movie , directed by Tom Hooper, chronicles the life of Britain's King George VI, father of the current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.
As the title suggests, the film centers on the king's effort to overcome a childhood stutter, once he assumed the throne after his brother, King Edward VIIL. abdicated.
The script by David Seidler is based on never-before-published medical notes on George VI's battle with his stammer. It also focuses on how the late Queen Mother's beloved "Bertie" was suddenly thrust into the spotlight, making his stammer all the more noticeable in endless World War II radio broadcasts heard by millions around the world.
The Queen Mother often referred to her husband's stammer as "dreadfully painful."
Although insiders of the Royal palaces have yet to see the final cut of the movie, it is not, I can reveal, going down that well within Royal circles. The Queen, in particular, is less than thrilled with the idea of her beloved father, whom she cared for so deeply, becoming an "open book" for the world to view.
Palace insiders also believe the movie could never have been made while the Queen Mother was still alive. The Queen Mother was the most loved member of the royal family and even the mere mention of her name today can bring a misty-eyed tear to her greatest fan, the Prince of Wales.
To be released in late November, the movie stars Firth as the king and Helen Bonham Carter as the Queen Mother. Guy Pearce is King Edward VIII, known as the Duke of Windsor after his abdication, and Geoffrey Rush plays the speech therapist called in to aid the king.
Firth has said he almost begged to play the role and he thinks that " it will bring a greater understanding to the royal family and their own plights that, of course, have remained private for many years."