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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