The 1978 Broadcast

Location:  Buckingham Palace

Produced by:  BBC

Theme:  Using previous Christmas broadcasts as a means of looking back to see forward, Elizabeth II talks on the subject of the future.  Her Majesty observes that faith in the future, beginning with the birth of Christ, is a recurring theme in Christmas broadcasts since King George V began the tradition in 1932.  The Queen turns to the younger generation and remarks that, despite problems and uncertainties, faith and confidence in the future, while following Christ's example, is as important now as it was in the past.

Commentary:  Unusually, this is in a sense a Christmas broadcast about Christmas broadcasts.  Despite there being no obvious anniversary relating to the annual tradition, its history is well show-cased in this Message.  Early in the Broadcast we hear audio clips from King George V's first Christmas broadcast in 1932; George VI's Christmas message at the beginning of the Second World War in 1939 and his Christmas Day broadcast at the end of the war in 1945; as well as Elizabeth II's own first Christmas message in 1952 and the first televised Christmas broadcast in 1957.

The arrangement of the Regency Room is almost exactly the same as the previous year.  On the table next to the Queen stand the original microphones used by George V in his first Christmas Day broadcast in 1932;  these are usually kept on display in the BBC's Broadcasting House.  The presence of a few cards on the table in the background add a festive touch.

Specially-shot footage of the Queen with her daughter Princess Anne and first grandchild Peter Phillips (who was born in November 1977) are shown in this production, chiming with the theme of the younger generation and the future.  Exclusive sequences featuring members of the royal family would become more common as the 1980s and 1990s progressed.

Trivia:

Since Princess Anne insisted that her children should not have royal titles, Elizabeth II's eldest grandchild was generally, in a formal context, referred to by the somewhat antiquated courtesy title of 'Master Peter Phillips' during his childhood.

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The 1979 Broadcast

Location:  Buckingham Palace

Produced by:  BBC

Theme:   

 

In the International Year of the Child,  Elizabeth II speaks about the plight of children in the world, especially those in South East Asia where she highlights the work of her daughter Princess Anne as President of the Save the Children Fund as well as the volunteers who were helping children caught up in the conflict in Cambodia.  Her Majesty also stresses the importance and responsibility every generation faces of raising children in all walks of life:  'Children are born with a mixed package of emotions, talents and handicaps, but without knowledge or experience. As they grow up they have to learn to live with their parents and families; and they have to adjust to school, including the discovery of leisure activities and learning to handle their relationships with their contemporaries and with strangers.'

Commentary:   

 

Dressed in a warm, 'mustardy' gold, Queen Elizabeth II speaks from the sofa in a softly lit Regency Room.  At the end of the 1970s the Broadcast had moved away from the stereotype of a remote figure speaking from behind an enormous desk and the more 'homely' feel to the production was by now well established.  The Queen's camera style is also notably more relaxed and confident, perhaps a result of the reflective glow of the Silver Jubilee celebrations two years earlier, which had strengthened the bond between Monarch and subjects.

 

As God Save the Queen is played at the start of the programme, we see aerial footage of Buckingham Palace as the camera pans round the Palace, gardens and the Mall.  Such impressive scenes were increasingly routine as television production standards developed.  Also becoming more familiar by the end of the 1970s was the use of interspersed footage, sometimes specially shot, in the Broadcasts.  During this production we see an unprecedented amount of exclusive material:  the Queen talking to Commonwealth leaders at the Heads of Government meeting in Africa;  Prince Philip and Prince Andrew on the Africa trip discussing with children from the Commonwealth where they come from and their ambitions;  the Queen talking to schoolchildren in London about what the Commonwealth means to them; Princess Anne visiting refugee children in the Far East in her capacity of President of the Save The Children Fund;  the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh arriving at a huge children's party in Hyde Park attended by 80,000 youngsters and finally more scenes of the Queen, Prince Philip and Prince Andrew being welcomed and entertained by schoolchildren while in Africa. At the end of the Broadcast, aerial footage of Buckingham Palace is again played, with an echoed reprise in the background of the sound of the schoolchildren in Africa singing 'Sing Hosanna to the King of Kings'.

At a little over seventeen minutes in length, this is probably the longest of all Elizabeth II's Christmas Broadcasts.  The reason for this is almost entirely due to the large amount of interspersed footage of the Queen and members of her family, often seen in conversation with people in Britain and the Commonwealth (the bulk of which being filmed on their African tour).  These extended scenes account for more than half the programme.  Untypically long Christmas Broadcasts would almost always be due to a particular focus on the Commonwealth and foreign tours undertaken by the Queen, as could be seen again in years such as 1983 and 1999.

 

Notes:

In another technical milestone, this was the first Christmas Broadcast to include subtitles for the hard of hearing through the BBC's Ceefax teletext service.

1979 had seen tragedy for the royal family as Lord Louis Mountbatten, uncle of Prince Philip, had been murdered by the IRA on his boat while on holiday in Ireland in August.  Other members of Mountbatten's family had been killed and seriously injured in the bomb attack.  The royal family had been deeply affected by the event but the Queen, ever sensitive to political situations, made no mention of it in her speech.

The clichéd popular view of the Queen delivering her annual address from behind a large desk has, historically, actually been the exception rather than the rule.  If anything, the 'default' look is of Elizabeth II sitting alongside a small table, first seen in the very first televised Christmas message in 1957 and many times since.  Nevertheless, the image of the desk-bound monarch has persisted.  Ronnie Barker satirised the format (and even the Queen's speaking style) in the 1984 The Two Ronnies Christmas special, with his 'HM Quinn' Milkman's Speech.  In more recent years, the enduring stereotype has been parodied by, amongst others, the BBC's Dead Ringers comedy show and even the PG Tips 'Monkey'!

Elizabeth II would return to the theme of the work of Princess Anne and the Save the Children Fund ten years later in the 1989 broadcast. 

 

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The 1980 Broadcast

Location:  Buckingham Palace

Produced by:  BBC

Theme:  Recalling the eightieth birthday of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and the celebrations across Britain to mark the Windsor matriarch's longevity and devotion to duty, Elizabeth II reflects on the spirit of service.  Speaking of her mother, the Queen observes, 'The loyalty and affection, which so many people showed to my mother, reflected a feeling, expressed in many different ways, that she is a person who has given selfless service to the people of this country and of the Commonwealth.'  Her Majesty then pays tribute to those who unselfishly give service to their communities in various different and important ways, such as caring for the sick, through churches and religious communities and in government and security.  The Queen particularly remembers those who may not even realise they deserve thanks.

Commentary:  The first broadcast of a new decade and the newly octogenarian Queen Mother is very much the star of the show.  The production begins with images from the birthday celebrations of the royal family waving from the balcony of Buckingham Palace, then shortly after Her Majesty begins speaking extended footage is shown from the service of thanksgiving at St. Paul's Cathedral which had taken place earlier in the day to mark the royal milestone.

The 1980s ultimately turned out to be a dramatic and fast-moving decade in terms of style, but there are no major innovations in this first production of the decade.  Producer Richard Cawston sticks with the cosy, lamp-lit 'sitting room' look to the Regency Room that he had developed over the course of the 1970s.  Visually, the look is very similar to the 1977 and 1978 productions, with Her Majesty sitting alongside a small table, with a lamp and flower arrangements in the background. 

However, Cawston's approach was popular.  In the United Kingdom, the 1980 Broadcast attracted an audience of 28 million, which remains a record to this day.  This was the golden age of television and Elizabeth II's annual message was an established part of it;  for many in Britain and the Commonwealth, Christmas Day without watching the Queen was unthinkable.

Trivia:

On the table next to the Queen is a photograph of the Queen Mother, along with pictures of Elizabeth II's two younger children, Prince Andrew and Prince  Edward, who during the course of the year had celebrated their twentieth and sixteenth birthdays respectively.

Although the oldest senior royal, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother was not the oldest member of the royal family living at the time.  Queen Victoria's last surviving grandchild, Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, died on 3rd January 1981 (a little over a week after the 1980 Message was broadcast) at the age of 97.  Princess Alice remains the longest lived Princess of the Blood Royal.

On publicity photographs from the 1980 production Elizabeth II's dress looks light blue, while on surviving film footage it appears pale green.  It seems likely that the photographs have aged better and that Her Majesty was indeed wearing blue.

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The 1981 Broadcast

Location:  Buckingham Palace

Produced by:  BBC

Theme:  Elizabeth II begins by describing the 'joy' of 'a very special year for us', the marriage between her eldest son the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer, which had proved to be the royal event of the year, if not the decade.  The Queen then moves on to the theme of courage, particularly the courage of disabled people, in what had been the International Year of Disabled People.  The Queen recalls a garden party at Buckingham Palace in the summer attended by three and a half thousand disabled people and their families as well as a more recent event in the same venue where other disabled people had been presented with the keys to special mobility-adapted cars.  Her Majesty goes on to praise the courage of the armed forces, police and emergency services as well as ordinary civilians who put their own lives at risk to help others.  The Queen concludes by observing that Christian faith can help sustain us in the 'courage of our convictions' and that on the Cross, Christ 'showed the supreme example of physical and moral courage.'

Commentary:  There is a serene contentment about Queen Elizabeth II in the 1981 Broadcast.  Her eldest son and heir Prince Charles had at last married his glamorous young princess and the future of the dynasty seemed secure.  The wedding in July had been the most extravagant royal 'spectacular' since the 1953 Coronation and it had worked;  a worldwide television audience of hundreds of millions had got caught up in the excitement.  The extravaganza had been the culmination of a period of less than five years which had also seen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1977 and the Queen Mother's eightieth birthday in 1980.  If the Windsors had been thought by some to have become slightly dull and stodgy during the 1960s and 1970s, the royal family were now firmly back at the heart of public affection.  As Her Majesty closes the Broadcast with the words 'so to you all I say God bless you and a very happy Christmas', breaking into her warmest natural smile, one cannot doubt her sincerity.

 

No time is wasted in showcasing the new royal superstar.  The Princess of Wales is at the centre of the footage shown during the Broadcast of a reception held at Buckingham Palace for a disabled charity a few weeks earlier, where she is seen with other senior royals including the Queen and Prince Charles. Diana appears to be left pretty much to her own devices, which some may regard as the first wisps of the storm clouds which would gather a decade later already appearing on the horizon.

 

 

According to Majesty magazine editor and royal biographer Ingrid Seward, 'the Queen decided to put the garden party and disabled people at the centre of her speech, because at the time the event was hardly noticed by the media, as all they cared about that year was Charles and Diana.  She believed that the important work done by the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind, which had helped to restore sight to a million people, needed her public support, and the Christmas address was one time when she could be sure of the uninterrupted attention of her nation' (Seward, The Queen's Speech, 2015).

This was the second time the Queen had broadcast her Message out of doors, speaking from the terrace of Buckingham Palace.  The dual purpose seems to have been to provide a change from the Regency Room as well as to link the narrative with the interspersed footage of the event which had been hosted in the same place.  It is certainly an improvement on the grim visual effect of 1975;  Her Majesty wears a bright pink coat and there is a cheerful blue sky behind her.

Trivia:

It could be argued that Elizabeth II displayed her own fine example of courage during 1981.  At Trooping The Colour in June, blank shots were fired at the Queen by a disturbed youth as she rode down the Mall to Horse Guards Parade.  The Queen immediately controlled and calmed her startled horse, Burmese, and continued with the procession undaunted.  

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