The 1956 Broadcast

 

Elizabeth II and her family from their 1956 Christmas card

Location:  Sandringham

Produced by:  BBC

Theme:

Elizabeth II blends three topics into a general theme of 'family':  the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph which relates directly to the story of the first Christmas;  the nuclear family, as she recalls her own husband, who had preceded the Broadcast with a message of his own to his wife and children, spending Christmas away from home on an overseas tour;  and the 'family of nations', which is one of the Queen's favourite ways of describing the Commonwealth.  Her Majesty speaks of the importance of 'friendship', 'tolerance' and 'comeradeship'.

Commentary: 

1956 would prove to be the last year of the Royal Christmas Message as primarily a radio broadcast.  It had also proved to be a somewhat testing year in the United Kingdom and for the royal family personally.

The disastrous outcome of Britain's intervention in Suez in the autumn had severely damaged Britain's international prestige and the optimistic afterglow of the Coronation a few years earlier had dimmed considerably.  The attempt by British Prime Minister Anthony Eden, in collaboration with Israeli and French forces to regain Western control of the Suez Canal from Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, who had recently nationalised it, was politically controversial and had divided opinion in Britain, the Commonwealth and even the Royal Household (Pimlott, The Queen, 1996).  It was rumoured that the Queen herself had privately expressed reservations about the military exercise (Pimlott, 1996).  By Christmas, it was clear that the campaign had been a humiliating failure and, given the divisions in the Commonwealth, Elizabeth II had a tricky balancing act to perform in her speech.

Complicating matters further had been the decision that the Duke of Edinburgh should embark on an extended solo world tour, meaning that he would spend Christmas away from his wife and would be separated from his two young children for the second Christmas in four years.  This sparked rumours of a rift in the royal marriage which Buckingham Palace, some thought unwisely, was quick to deny (Seward, The Queen's Speech, 2015).

The solution was that Elizabeth II avoided the subject of Suez entirely while sticking to optimistic, unifying themes about the Commonwealth in an attempt to heal the growing divisions.  This was blended with a clear show of 'Happy Families' with the Duke of Edinburgh.  In an unprecedented move, Elizabeth II's Broadcast was introduced by Prince Philip speaking live from the Royal yacht Britannia.  During his message, the Prince speaks personally to his family:  'I hope all of you at Sandringham are enjoying a very happy Christmas and I hope you, the children, are having a lot of fun.  I'm sorry I'm not with you, but it is nice to think of you doing usual things in familiar surroundings.'  In turn, the Queen is gushing in praise and admiration for her husband:  '...of all the voices we have heard this afternoon none has given my children and myself greater joy than that of my husband.  To him I say: "From all the members of the family gathered here today our very best good wishes go out to you and to every one on board Britannia, as you voyage together in the far Southern seas. Happy Christmas from us all."'

 

Perhaps because of the turbulent nature of the year, Elizabeth II came in for unusual criticism after the 1956 Broadcast in the press.  Some described her speech as 'unreal' and filled with 'ponderous platitudes' while others complained that it painted a false picture of the Commonwealth as 'one big British happy family.'  Others compared the speech with that of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, who had used the opportunity of her 1956 Christmas message to issue a tirade against those who had attacked her and her husband.  Such an outburst, while undoubtably entertaining, would have been considered unthinkable from a British monarch.  In fact, most of this criticism of Elizabeth II seems opportunistic and unfair.  What exactly did these people expect from a politically neutral constitutional monarch?  True, the Queen had always had a tendency to gloss over divisions in Britain and the Commonwealth, precisely because she sees herself as a unifying force.  Throughout her reign Elizabeth II would continue to stick with non-controversial topics in her Christmas Messages and her continued popularity would be in no small part due to the fact that nobody really knows what she thinks.

Perhaps a more pressing criticism at the end of 1956 was that Elizabeth II was considered by many to be dragging her feet on the issue of a televised Broadcast.  The television age had begun in earnest some years earlier and although the Christmas Message was broadcast live, sound only, on television channels, people were increasingly expecting to see Her Majesty 'in vision'.  This was the fifth Christmas Broadcast of Elizabeth II's reign;  audience figures were slipping alarmingly and there was a genuine fear that the novelty of the annual radio message was starting to wear off (Pimlott, 1996).  As King George V had embraced the radio age, it was now time for Elizabeth II to welcome the television age.  By the spring of the following year the decision had been made and preparations were already underway for what would become the famous Broadcast of 1957, which would breathe new life into the festive tradition.

Notes:

Although from 1957 the Christmas Broadcast would be consided a predominently television affair, a radio verson is still recorded to this day.

Anthony Eden would resign as prime minister on 7th January, 1957, officially due to health concerns but heavily influenced by his loss of reputation after the Suez debacle.  Eden's disastrous policy is generally regarded to have been largely motivated by an obsessive hatred of Nasser.

Unusually, Elizabeth II wishes listeners a Happy New Year at the end of her Message

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