The Queen

Another Diana biography, this time by the irrepressible Tina Brown, has just hit the stands; princes William and Harry are organising a grand concert as a tribute to their mother; and Tony Blair, whose first challenge and achievement as prime minister was to see a nation through the shock of the princess8217;s untimely death, is on his way out.

Has anyone heard from the Queen?

Is anyone asking?

Ten years after princess Diana died in a Paris tunnel, and as effortlessly got crowned in death as in life as the People8217;s Princess, the woman whose life she impacted the most has again been relegated to behind high palace walls. As the film cleverly notes, few driving past Buckingham care to look up to even check if their Queen is in residence fewer know that if the Royal Standard is up and fluttering above the Palace, she is. A ceremonial presence, the Queen is to be rarely seen, and rarer, heard.

But, in that one week following Diana8217;s death on August 30, 1997, Elizabeth II was required to suddenly change all that. Where she believed the people needed their Queen to be composed, dignified in tragedy, she was told she was 8220;heartless8221; for not joining the public display of grief. Where the Queen felt it best to not let the two princes fly to Paris to see their mother for the last time in order to 8220;spare them8221;, people who barely knew Diana sobbed openly on the streets. Where Elizabeth thought that flying to see an 8220;ex-royal family member8217;s8221; body by a personal aircraft would be an extravagance that would invite criticism from the people, she was made to realise that the very same people wanted a funeral fit for a queen for Diana.

Now there was no tragedy if not on live TV and, ultimately, it was all about opinion polls 25 per cent then said they wanted the monarchy ended for being so aloof to Diana8217;s death.

Pitted against one of the most liked women in the world, the Queen had no option but to bend. This included taking tips from leading the country from one of the world8217;s youngest prime ministers, accepting that her speech would be edited by the prime minister8217;s aides, and stopping by to read the cards and flowers left by mourners for Diana outside the palace gates. And, amid popping flashbulbs, reading in those cards that people considered her to be Diana8217;s murderer.

Try and imagine Elizabeth8217;s plight: the last time the Queen had similarly thought the need to mingle with the crowds was after the World War II ended in Europe in 1945.

Stephen Frears, based on an original and incisive screenplay by Peter Morgan, tries to explore that week of September 1997 from the perspective of the woman who could do no wrong but who could suddenly not do anything right. It also shows how Blair Sheen8212;the man who happens to be in Elizabeth8217;s shoes right now8212;while no great admirer of royalty to begin with, tactfully steered it through that tragedy and became more popular than Churchill momentarily in the process.

Interviewing people close to both Blairs and the palace, Morgan who also wrote the screenplay for The Last King of Scotland strings together a compelling story. It8217;s an authentic and intimate portrayal, taking a considerate look at almost all the parties to the events of those days. Be it the impetuous prince Philip Cromwell who stands rock solid by wife Elizabeth, the hesitant Charles Jennings part prompted by fear of people8217;s anger and part by affection for Diana to do 8220;the right thing8221;, and the earnest Blair who is not as upstart as he seems initially to the Queen.

However, it is Mirren as the Queen who steals the show. Putting aside the physical appearance, it is the emotional empathy that she shows for her character that comes through in the film. Elizabeth8217;s hurt, confusion, natural modesty, intelligence, dilemma but above all her sense of duty and strength are conveyed marvellously by the actress, who won an Oscar for Best Actor for the role.

That Elizabeth is weighed under what she finds incomprehensible is conveyed by Mirren by just the way she receives a telephone call. That she has the strength and humour to come out of it, the reason why 8220;modernist8221; Blair realises the country still needs her, comes across as effortlessly. She can only allow herself to be weak in the vast anonymity and expanse of a Scottish countryside.

At one point in the film, an exasperated prince Charles, reading all the bad press coming the Queen8217;s way, bursts forth: 8220;Now they the Palace will know what I was up against all these years. There is really no connection between the Diana we knew and the Diana that the public saw.8221;

Ironically, it seems, the same can be said of Queen Elizabeth II.