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| Victoria Jones/Getty images |
Location: Windsor Castle
Produced by: ITN
Theme:
In a highly personal Message, Queen Elizabeth II pays tribute to her late husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, who had died the previous April. Her Majesty acknowledges that this year she particularly understands how difficult it is at Christmas for those who have lost loved ones and how she has drawn comfort from the public response to Prince Philip's death. The Queen praises the Duke's service and humour and speaks of how the royal family will miss his 'mischievous twinkle', yet concedes: 'But life, of course, consists of final partings as well as first meetings; and as much as I and my family miss him, I know he would want us to enjoy Christmas.' Elizabeth II says that the family will find 'joy' in Christmas even 'with one familiar laugh missing this year'.
More positively, the Queen looks ahead to her upcoming Platinum Jubilee year and the 2022 Commonwealth Games, as well as reflecting on the 'wonder' of the Christmas story through the eyes of young children.
Commentary:
2021 was a dreadful year for Elizabeth II. The death of her beloved husband of seventy-three years; ongoing negative publicity surrounding the Dukes of York and Sussex; her numerous reported health problems after so many healthy years - a back problem at Balmoral forcing her to give up riding; cutting back on alcohol for health reasons; being seen using a walking stick in public 'for comfort' on two occasions for the first time since her knee operations of the early 2000s; being ordered to rest by doctors for several weeks following a brief hospitalisation for an undisclosed ailment; then being forced to miss her Remembrance Sunday appearance at the Cenotaph in November due to a back injury - and at the end of all that, Her Majesty felt compelled to cancel her planned family Christmas at Sandringham because of ongoing uncertainty and chaos due to the British Government's approach towards Covid restrictions and the Omicron variant spreading in the UK.
However, the Queen does not dwell on her other problems and it is the late Duke of Edinburgh who takes centre stage in one of Her Majesty's most poignant Christmas Messages to date. There might be a slight air of fragility around an Elizabeth II who is now the last remaining senior royal of her generation, but the Queen appears reassuringly well and largely unchanged from the previous year's Broadcast. Seldom have we seen Her Majesty use such personal phrases as 'my beloved Philip' or 'that mischievous, enquiring twinkle was as bright at the end as when I first set eyes on him.' Her Majesty seems to speak in even more emotional terms than in her 2002 speech - the year her mother and sister died just month before her Golden Jubilee commemorations were due to start. Indeed, the Monarch's personal tone was much commented on in the press.
In addition to the affectionate tributes in the text of the message, the Duke of Edinburgh also has a visible presence in the Broadcast. Dressed in festive red for the first time in a decade, the Queen also wears her Sapphire Chrysanthemum Brooch which has many associations with her husband. Her Majesty famously wore it on her honeymoon pictures in 1947, at the christening of her second child Princess Anne and numerous other occasions in Prince Philip's presence. Elizabeth II also wears the brooch in the photograph at her side, where she is pictured with the Duke of Edinburgh in 2007 in a photograph (a re-creation of the honeymoon pictures) taken by Fiona Hanson to mark their Diamond Wedding.
The production rota reverted to ITN, who produced their first Christmas Broadcast since 2016. The Queen speaks from the White Drawing Room of Windsor Castle (last used as the location of a Christmas Broadcast in 1997). The 'set' is rather more luxurious than the previous year's pared-down 'lockdown' Message; with more flowers and decorations, better lighting and Her Majesty appears to have had her usual Christmas Broadcast professional 'makeover' (which she does not seem to have had in 2020). However, there are no 'roaming' camera angles and the Queen is only shown in two shots - wide-angle and close-up.
The programme begins with The Central Band of the Royal British Legion playing God Save the Queen in the grounds of Windsor Castle. A wide-angle shot of the rear of the Castle is shown before a montage of footage and photographs of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh is seen, with a voice-over of Elizabeth II praising her husband at their Golden Wedding celebrations in 1997. The last of these is a close-up of Fiona Hanson's Diamond Wedding photograph at the side of the Queen, before Her Majesty begins her 2021 speech. The message is interspersed with the customary relevant footage; this year relating to the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Scheme, senior members of the Royal Family (including a brief clip from the Christmas segment of the 1969 Royal Family documentary) and the Commonwealth Games. As the Queen ends, she quotes a line from the carol O Little Town of Bethlehem to lead into the carol itself being sung inside Windsor Castle's St. George's Hall by the Singology Community Choir. The closing shot is an impressive view of the rear and gardens of the Castle with bright sunshine behind.
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| Queen Elizabeth II's 'Cop 26' Message, Windsor Castle, November 2021 |
Notes:
This is the third consecutive Christmas Broadcast to be filmed at Windsor and the sixth consecutive speech to camera by Elizabeth II to be recorded at the Castle. The Green Drawing Room was used for the previous two Christmas Messages, while the White Drawing Room was used for the three non-Christmas recordings made since April 2020.
There seems to be a 'nod' here to the 1997 Broadcast, twenty-four years earlier. 1997 was the year ITN first produced the Message and was the year the restoration of St. George's Hall was completed following the 1992 fire. Both the White Drawing Room and St George's Hall were seen in the 1997 Broadcast, as they are here.
This is Queen Elizabeth II's seventieth Christmas Message (including the written Message of 1969) and her sixty-ninth Christmas Broadcast (including seven 'sound only' Broadcasts).
This was Elizabeth II's second 'speech to camera' of 2021. A video message was shown to the assembled world leaders and dignitaries gathered at the 'COP 26' climate summit in Glasgow, as the Queen was forced to cancel her personal appearance following medical advice. This message was also recorded in the White Drawing Room of Windsor Castle, though the arrangement of the room is very different.
Instead of the usual selection of ornate antique chairs Her Majesty usually uses for her Christmas Messages, the Queen is seen here seated in a more modern, more comfortable-looking chair. It appears to be the same chair and cushion used by the Queen in the 'Cop 26' message the previous month (though the cushion's presence is more discrete in the Christmas Broadcast). The change could be due to the Queen's reported back problems, cited earlier.
In the 2021 Broadcast, Elizabeth II wears her brooch on her right, rather than her left, which she usually does. A change of this nature is normally only made by the Queen when the design of an outfit requires it, but that is evidently not the case here. This detail was also noted by The Court Jeweller. I agree with this blogger that the change is probably to do with the 'framing' of the image - to bring the brooch closer to the photograph where the Queen also wears the Sapphire Chrysanthemum - rather than because of some hidden meaning. Elizabeth II has only worn a brooch on her right in two previous Messages: 1967 and 1993.
Queen Elizabeth II once again topped the Christmas Day ratings in the United Kingdom with combined viewing figures of 9.1 million. This is considerably up on the 8.4 million who tuned in the previous year. Many would have been interested to hear what Her Majesty had to say about the death of her husband, while others would have been curious to see how she appeared following her reported health issues in the autumn.
The Christmas tree in the background is decorated with over one hundred gold and white stars, specially made by children and staff of the Royal School, Windsor.
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