The Queen

Yesterday I went to see "The Queen", the Stephen Frears movie about the reaction of the British Royal Family to Lady Diana's death in 1997.

I liked the movie which has humour and character. Of course, the story is fiction, as no single normal mortal will ever know what exactly happened in Buckingham Palace, Balmoral Castle and Downing Street 10 during the week after Diana's death.

Helen Mirren plays a very genuine looking Queen, who as a result of her upbringing, 40 years on the throne and the typical British stiff upper lip has lost contact with "her" commoners. But I liked Michael Sheen even better as Tony Blair. When he first appeared my reaction was "very un-like Blair", but as the movie progresses you forget that Michael is not the real Blair. Excellent acting. In the movie, Blair has by far the best judgement of the situation and he comes accross as an excellent politician. It is a pity he was still in office in 2003 and had such bad judgement in supporting Bush's war in Iraq.

Good fun and money and time well spent.

I also remembered that on the Sunday morning that Diana died I woke OS up to tell him the news. (OS had been out late on Saturday night in iT). He opened one eye and said "I know already". He had come home late and had seen the news life on TV before he went to sleep. Where were you when Diana died?