The 1964 Broadcast

Location:  Buckingham Palace

Produced by:  BBC

Theme:

Elizabeth II discusses the Commonwealth, its problems and its aspirations.  The Queen reflects on her meetings with Commonwealth prime ministers and argues that 'the thread which runs through our Commonwealth is love of freedom'; a freedom which has its framework in inherited traditions and institutions and is maintained by 'a thousand invisible forces, self-discipline, the Common Law, the right of citizens to assemble, and to speak and argue.'  The Queen ends with an impassioned call to the young people of the Commonwealth, in whom the future of the world rests: 'You have brains and courage, imagination and humanity; direct them to the things that have to be achieved in this century, if mankind is to live together in happiness and prosperity.'

Commentary:

The return to a televised broadcast after the break the previous year meant a dilemma for producers;  there was the alarming, not to say embarrassing problem of the drop in ratings for the 1962 Broadcast to contend with.  Part of the problem was obvious;  the loss of spontaneity which came with pre-recording.  It wasn't that Elizabeth II's subjects didn't love their Queen, but there was perhaps a public perception that, if Her Majesty's speech had already been said and 'canned', then if she had said anything particularly of note it would already have been known, or at least the main points could be caught up with on news bulletins.

Then there was the problem of the location.  The grand state rooms of Buckingham Palace may look impressive 'in the flesh', but they certainly didn't lend themselves well to an age of monochrome television.  In fact, they looked quite dark and imposing;  this was particularly evident in the Broadcasts of 1960 and 1961.  It was a stark contrast from the cosy intimacy of Sandringham.  In her first televised Christmas message in 1957, Her Majesty had said that it was 'inevitable that I should seem a rather remote figure to many of you'.  The danger now was, with her notoriously camera-conscious style an added complication, Elizabeth II was looking more 'remote' than ever:  perilously close, perhaps, to coming across like an 'ice queen' speaking from her draughty Palace.

A solution had to be found to try to make the Queen appear more relaxed and accessible to her people.  Disappointing it  may have been to some at the BBC, but there was no question of returning to a 'live' broadcast.  Also, if the Queen could ever be persuaded to speak from the comfort of her own private sitting room, it certainly wasn't in 1964.  A compromise was needed and the Bow Room 'set' was born.

Ironically, the Bow Room is one of the most public rooms in Buckingham Palace; certainly it was so in the days before the state rooms of the Palace were opened to paying visitors. During the summer months, thousands of guests invited to the royal garden parties pass through its huge doors to reach the Terrace and it is anything but a quiet, cosy sitting room.  The room is, however, an ideal location for a television or film 'set' because of its size.  It allows for a camera crew and technicians, as well as plenty of space to create a suitable 'arrangement'.

The whole effect may be entirely contrived, but it works.  The sofas in the background, as the Queen speaks from alongside a small table, allow for a homely look which had been missing since the Sandringham broadcasts.  This is balanced by the impressive, gold-edged doors in the background;  a reminder that this is the Queen speaking from her Palace. Also, from now Elizabeth II would be dressed in 'daywear' - smart, unfussy, comfortable;  the formal dresses and evening gowns of earlier productions were gone.  The production team were evidently pleased by the changes because the Bow Room 'set' would remain for the next five years, although with a few modifications (especially as the age of colour arrived in 1967).

Notes:

Of particular interest in this Broadcast is the elegant nature of the Queen's prose, which verges at times on the poetic.  A case in point is Her Majesty's dreamy opening image:  'As I begin my Christmas Broadcast to you, the people of Great Britain and of the other Commonwealth countries, my mind travels far away, and for one moment I seem to be with you in many countries, which are now almost as familiar as my own native land'.  Later she adds reflectively (with perhaps a little help from her sailor husband!), 'all of us who have been blessed with young families know from long experience that when one's house is at its noisiest, there is often less cause for anxiety. The creaking of a ship in a heavy sea is music in the ears of the captain on the bridge.'

In her Message, Elizabeth II does not refer explicitly to the birth of Prince Edward during 1964, as she had done when Prince Andrew was born in 1960.  Prince Edward would receive more attention in the following Broadcast.

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The 1965 Broadcast

Location:  Buckingham Palace

Produced by:  BBC

Theme:

The Queen looks at the family through the lens of Christmas which she describes as 'the great family festival', tracing Christmas back to the Holy Family, who had endured hardship on the way to Bethlehem.  Her Majesty tells listeners that it should be remembered that: 'in spite of all the scientific advances and great improvements in our material welfare, the family remains as the focal point of our existence.'  Elizabeth II also looks at the wider human family and recalls that Christmas is the time of 'peace on earth and goodwill towards men' - aspirations which should not be forgotten or given up on in a troubled world.

Commentary:

The Queen takes the festival of Christmas as the framework around which she builds her speech.  Perhaps surprisingly, at this stage in her reign Her Majesty did not always refer explicitly to Christmas in her annual broadcasts, except to convey her good wishes to her subjects at the end.  Many of  Elizabeth II's Messages of the 1950s and 1960s give only a passing reference to the festival; though in the post-Millennium era we are far more used to the Queen talking more overtly about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.

For the first time, the same 'look' is adopted for consecutive Broadcasts, as the artificial Bow Room sitting room 'set' returns; the production team were presumably confident that they had found the appropriate balance of comfort and grandeur that was required.  The main difference is that the Bow Room curtains are different from the previous year and are opened, revealing that the programme was recorded in the late afternoon or evening.

At the start of the production, mighty Big Ben solemnly strikes 3 o' clock, while Buckingham Palace is shown  in broad daylight on a summer's day;  the camera then cuts to the Queen inside the Bow Room, where it is clearly dark outside!  Moments of drama like this would have a purpose if the Broadcast was live; but since it clearly isn't, such sloppy continuity only serves to emphasise the loss of spontaneity in this age of pre-recording.

At the end of the production, Elizabeth II's theme of 'family' is underscored by the playing of specially-shot footage of her own young family, now complete following the birth of Prince Edward in 1964, accompanied by a particularly frenzied choral version of God Save the Queen.  This sequence is the highlight of the Broadcast, showing the Queen, her husband and children walking through the gardens of Frogmore House at daffodil time, with baby Prince Edward in his pram being the centre of attention.  The whole family make a fuss of little Edward, with the exception of five-year-old Prince Andrew, who plays merrily in the grass.  The closing shots are of a serene and contented looking Elizabeth II with her youngest child, who looks tired and grumpy (as every parent knows, babies do not smile to order!).

The closing sequence demonstrates the opportunities of pre-recording as opposed to the obvious down-sides.  In the live 1958 message, Elizabeth II had explained the reasons why she and the Duke of Edinburgh had declined requests that their two older children appear in the Broadcast.  Now editorial control was possible and the Queen and her husband relented. Increasingly, in subsequent years the annual Broadcast would be an opportunity to show exclusive footage of the Queen and her family in informal situations.

Notes:

Frogmore House is situated near to Windsor Castle in Berkshire.  Once a favourite country retreat of George III's consort Queen Charlotte, it is not currently used as a royal residence, though the present royal family still use it for entertaining.  It is perhaps best known for the ornate mausoleum in the grounds where Queen Victoria and her consort Prince Albert are buried.  The Royal Burial Ground, where less senior members of the family are interred, is also situated here.

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The 1966 Broadcast

Location:  Buckingham Palace

Produced by:  BBC

Theme:

Elizabeth II discusses the value of women and the increasingly important role women are playing in society.  Her Majesty reflects on some of the important social changes of the preceding decades, including women getting the vote and the influence that the 'gentleness' of women has had in humanitarian changes: 'The struggles against inhuman prejudice, against squalor, ignorance, and disease, have always owed a great deal to the determination and tenacity of women', she says.  While noting that women are 'beginning to play their full part in public life', the Queen also praises 'the devotion of nuns and nurses', 'the care of mothers and wives' and 'the service of teachers'.

The Queen ends by praising those who are trying to build a happier and more peaceful world.

Commentary:

On the home front it may have been the year when people celebrated the triumph of eleven Englishmen, but as the 'women's lib' movement spread through the western world, Elizabeth II chose to highlight the importance of women.  This isn't a necessarily 'feminist' speech as we may understand it today -  Her Majesty speaks of the 'gentleness' of women, championing a traditionally feminine quality, and is happy to praise nuns, wives and mothers in addition to acknowledging the increasing numbers of women active in public life - but it is a nod in the direction of women's rights;  the Queen is saying that all women, whatever their role or station in life, have a value.

Mention the year 1966 to most English people and they will automatically think of winning the World Cup.  Elizabeth II had attended the Wembley final and presented the Jules Rimet trophy to England captain Bobby Moore, so it may seem extraordinary to many that the Queen of England doesn't mention the achievement at all in her annual Message.  Perhaps this shouldn't seem all that strange to us;  Elizabeth II is, after all, Queen not only of England but of many other countries as well.  As a woman who is resident in Scotland for ten weeks of the year, Her Majesty may be acutely aware that not all parts of the United Kingdom appreciate being reminded of the sporting successes of the other component parts!  Also, in the Commonwealth beyond, the success of  England's footballers was unlikely to have much resonance.  When Elizabeth II talks about the importance of sport in her speeches, she likes to do so in a way which encourages unity rather than division;  so it was that England's greatest footballing achievement went unmentioned.

It is well known that Elizabeth II has scarcely changed her hairstlye since her Coronation in 1953.  However, at this point she seems to have entered the spirit of the 'swinging Sixties' to a limited extent and appears to be sporting quite an impressive bouffant;  in fact, there is almost a mini 'beehive' going on here!  The Queen reached forty in 1966 and her 'look' is subtly different from the previous year.

The arrangement of the Bow Room looks essentially the same as the previous two years although a sturdier desk has been brought in to replace the smaller table used in 1965.  The basic arrangement would remain when the Broadcast moved into colour the following year.

Notes:

Trying to get Elizabeth II to appear more relaxed on camera was still an issue.  In this year, Philip Gilbert, working on the second of three 1960s Broadcasts as an assistant producer, encouraged the Queen to smile: 'I put my face next to the camera and smiled to see what would happen. Her natural reaction was to smile back. But you can only do that once before someone knows what is coming.'  Gilbert would go on to produce the Broadcast from 1991 to 1996.

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The 1967 Broadcast

Location:  Buckingham Palace

Produced by:  BBC

Theme:

In the year of the centenary of its Confederacy, Elizabeth II discusses Canada at length and praises its achievements, recalling her five-week tour with the Duke of Edinburgh earlier in the year.  The Queen also recalls her visit to another Commonwealth member, Malta;  a colony when she first stayed there in the early years of her marriage during the Duke of Edinburgh's naval career, but by this time self-governing.

The Queen went on to praise Sir Francis Chichester, who she had knighted in 1967 after he had become the first person to sail single-handedly around the world via the clipper route in his ketch Gipsy Moth IV, achieving the fastest circumnavigation.  Also, in a year of the Commonwealth Games, Her Majesty praises the athletes of the Commonwealth.

Commentary:

Only a lucky minority would have noticed the difference on Christmas Day 1967.  Britain had become the first European country to regularly provide colour programming earlier in the year (the BBC initially producing four hours per week), while the technology had not yet reached most parts of the Commonwealth.  Even in the UK, few people would have possessed a colour TV;  the vast majority of viewers would have had to make do with the usual black and white (even by March 1969, well over a year later, there were only 100,000 colour television sets in use in the United Kingdom).  Nevertheless, ten years on from the first live, monochrome televised Christmas message, the Broadcast began what would become a tradition of being at the forefront of improving technology.

Those of Elizabeth II's subjects who were fortunate enough to have colour television at Christmas 1967 were in for a dazzling experience. The Queen shimmered gloriously in a gold dress, while the sumptuous, gold-edged walls of the Bow Room were visible in colour for the first time.  Colour co-ordinating was now of vital importance and Elizabeth II blends in seamlessly with the pale blue drapes and pink sofas.  The basic Bow Room 'set' was actually much the same as it had been for the previous few years, but those who watched in colour could not have failed to notice the single most dramatic development in the history of the Christmas Broadcast.  Adding to the spectacular colour-'fest' was interspersed footage from the Westminster State Opening of Parliament; the first to be attended by Prince Charles and Princess Anne.

Perhaps not wishing to make the large majority of viewers feel left out, the Queen herself makes only a characteristically vague reference to the technological revolution taking place in a speech otherwise dominated, as so often, by Commonwealth matters: "Modern communications make it possible for me to talk to you in your homes and to wish you a merry Christmas and a very happy New Year. These techniques of radio and television are modern, but the Christmas message is timeless.  You may have heard it very often but in the end, no matter what scientific progress we make, the message will count for nothing unless we can achieve real peace and encourage genuine goodwill between individual people and the nations of the world."  It is, perhaps, one of Elizabeth II's skills as a natural diplomat that those who know what she is talking about know what she is talking about, while to everyone else her words make perfect sense in other ways!  As it happened, the Queen had first inspected experimental colour television at the BBC way back in 1953, so was fully aware that it was taking a long time to catch on.

Notes:

The preparations for this first colour Broadcast were painstakingly meticulous.  The BBC created a replica 'set' at Television Centre and former BBC secretary Mrs Binnie Marcus was chosen to stand in for the Queen because she had similar facial features and colouring, enabling technicians to experiment with different lighting and make-up to achieve the best results.


Trivia:

The knighting of Sir Francis Chichester was a flamboyant affair, stage-managed almost to the point of being a publicity stunt.  Instead of announcing Chichester's knighthood through one of the usual honours lists and inviting him to an investiture at Buckingham Palace or Windsor, the Queen was persuaded to travel to Greenwich, meeting Chichester upon his return to England after his solo circumnavigation and dubbing him on the spot, using the same sword Queen Elizabeth I had used to knight Sir Francis Drake!

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The 2017 Broadcast

Location:  Buckingham Palace

Produced by:  Sky

Theme: 

Using the over-arching umbrella of 'home' as a framework, Elizabeth II covers a number of diverse topics.  The Queen remembers the victims of the terrorist attacks in London and Manchester and the Grenfell Tower fire which had occurred during 2017, recalling her meetings with survivors  Her Majesty pays tribute to her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, with whom she had celebrated seventy years of marriage the previous month and who had retired from public life earlier in the year.  The Queen also references her first televised Christmas broadcast, live from her Sandringham home sixty years earlier in 1957.  Elizabeth II looks ahead to 2018, saying she looks forward to welcoming 'new members' to her family, while she will host 'a different type of family' as Commonwealth leaders arrive in the UK for a summit.

Commentary:  

Production reverted to Sky News, who had last produced the memorable 2012 Broadcast.  Stylistically, the look is pretty similar to the ITN broadcasts of the previous two years, with the Queen seated alongside a desk, surrounded by family photographs and with a large flower arrangement in the fireplace.  The choice of room was the 1844 Room in Buckingham Palace, last seen in the first Sky-produced Broadcast of 2011.  This is the seventh consecutive Broadcast to be filmed at Buckingham Palace:  the Sky-BBC-ITN rota has now gone full-circle without moving beyond the 'default' location.  This is the fifth consecutive time that Her Majesty had delivered her message from a seated position after having stood for ten consecutive Broadcasts.  The 'seated' look seems far more natural now than it did when it returned in 2013.

Given the theme of 'home', there are even more family photographs than usual around the Queen:  wedding and 70th Anniversary portraits of the Queen and Prince Philip take pride of place along with photographs of her Cambridge great-grandchildren Prince George and Princess Charlotte.  Further out there is a photograph of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, marking the Duchess' 70th birthday and, at the far left of the camera view, an engagement portrait of Prince Harry and his fiancée, American actress  Meghan Markle.

The production opens with God Save the Queen performed by the Commonwealth Youth Orchestra and Choir.  The segment was recorded at the Guildhall in London. The camera then cuts to the front of Buckingham Palace in watery winter sunshine;  then a shot of the London skyline behind the Royal Standard flying from the Palace flagpole gives an impressive view before the Queen appears.  A few moments are played of the Queen's first televised Christmas Broadcast sixty years earlier (though not to the extent of the 50th anniversary in 2007).  Footage, which had been released at the time of the tragedy, is played of the Queen meeting victims and families of the Manchester bombing.  At the end of the production, the Commonwealth Youth Orchestra return to sing the carol It Came Upon A Midnight Clear;  this is interspersed with a montage of senior members of the royal family at work during the year, including the Duke of Edinburgh's final official engagement and the engagement photo call of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Many media outlets commented on the Queen's decision to 'welcome' Meghan Markle to the royal family by referring to 'new members' joining in 2018.  Of course, the oblique reference can also be extended to include the arrival of the third child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, due in April.

Notes:

Elizabeth II's Christmas Message was available on US television for the first time through the Britbox 'best of British' streaming service.

Elizabeth II is described as wearing an ivory white dress by Angela Kelly, which she had first worn for the Diamond Jubilee Thames River Pageant in 2012. The dress is 'threaded throughout with silk ribbon. Embroidered with gold, silver and ivory spots, the garment was embellished with Swarovski crystals and a silk organza frill.'

With an estimated 7.6 million viewers in the UK, the Queen topped the provisional Christmas Day ratings for the fourth consecutive year, beating competition from the Mrs Brown's Boys, Strictly Come Dancing and Doctor Who Christmas specials.

The Queen is not exactly one of her family's most notable public joke-tellers, but she makes particular use of humour in this Broadcast, albeit delivered in her customary 'deadpan' manner.  Regarding her 70th wedding anniversary, Her Majesty observes 'I don’t know that anyone had invented the term “platinum” for a seventieth wedding anniversary when I was born. You weren’t expected to be around that long.'  After the brief clip of her first televised message in 1957, the Queen, referring to herself in the 'third person', quips about her inevitably changed appearance: 'Six decades on, the presenter has ‘evolved’ somewhat, as has the technology she described.'

There was some social media speculation that, by referencing her first televised Christmas speech, the Queen was acknowledging that she watches the Nexflix series  The Crown, a fictionalised dramatisation of the early years of her reign.  The speech was recreated in series two, with Claire Foy playing the monarch.  Sorry to disappoint, but the Queen had paid even more attention to her first televised speech back in 2007, the fiftieth anniversary, when The Crown had not even been conceived!

Trivia:

We don't usually consider Her Majesty to be the 'presenter' of her annual ten minutes of television; if we did, Queen Elizabeth II would hold the British record as longest-serving presenter of a single television programme by some distance, eclipsing Sir Patrick Moore's impressive 55 years fronting The Sky At Night.

Intriguingly,  this was the first time since 1990 that the Queen had delivered her Message without spectacles.

Most of the photographs surrounding the Queen had already been publicly released.  The photograph of Prince George was taken by Chris Jackson to mark the prince's fourth birthday;  the portrait of Princess Charlotte was taken by her mother, the Duchess of Cambridge, to mark her second birthday;  the photo of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall was taken by Mario Testino in 2017 to mark the Duchess' 70th birthday;  the 70th wedding anniversary portrait of the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh is one of a series taken by British photographer Matt Holyoak.

Some media suggested that Elizabeth II hinted in her Message that she intends to follow the Duke Of Edinburgh into 'retirement', on the somewhat tenuous grounds that she chose to pay tribute to her husband, who had stood down from public life in 2017.  Britain's Mail On Sunday had been pushing Regency rumours throughout the summer, standing by their source even after it became apparent that they were flogging a dead horse.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was Mail Online who first picked up on Her Majesty's comments!

It emerged in the 2018 ITV documentary Queen of the World that the radio version of the 2017 broadcast had been gatecrashed by the sound of a chirping bird, forcing Her Majesty to re-record the speech from the beginning.

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The 1968 Broadcast

Location:  Buckingham Palace

Produced by:  BBC

Theme:  Elizabeth II discusses 'the brotherhood of man'.  Recalling that Christmas it the time when Christians celebrate the birth of Christ, the Prince Of Peace, the Queen talks of the importance of peace, friendship and co-operation.  Her Majesty states that the concept of 'the brotherhood of man' should not remain in the abstract: 'Each of us can put it into practice by treating one another with kindness and consideration at all times and in spite of every kind of provocation.'

Commentary:   This second colour Broadcast is described by Ingrid Seward as 'arguably one of [the Queen's] most political to date (The Queen's Speech, 2015).  At a time which saw early signs of problems in Northern Ireland and industrial unrest in many parts of the United Kingdom, it is not difficult to understand why the Queen thought it important to address serious matters.  Though she does it in her customary unifying and non-partisan way, raising these topics still required a considerable amount of delicacy.  British prime minister Harold Wilson, sensitive about the devaluation of the pound, took exception to a reference in the original draft to Britain's 'economic difficulties', which was later changed.  Similarly, when Her Majesty suggests that 'we should seek to support those international organisations which foster understanding between people and between nations', although well intentioned, such obliqueness runs the risk of being left open to political interpretations.

Buckingham Palace's Bow Room is used for the fifth and final consecutive time.  In the age of colour television, greater attention had to be paid to colour co-ordination and the avoidance of clashes;  also it is important that the Queen is not seen to be wearing the same colour for two consecutive years!  The Bow Room is given its most sumptuous make-over yet;  the drapes and carpet are different from the previous year, though the chairs and sofas are apparently the same.  The colour scheme gives the impression of a rather stylish, late 1960s west London flat rather than a royal palace; but the antique chairs and table - and of course the ornate gold edging on the walls - give the game away!

The Broadcast begins with images of busy London thoroughfares - Westminster and The Mall - in high summer.  Traffic moves busily by as the titles state grandly (albeit in a fashionably sickly yellow) in sequence - "London, 1968...A Christmas Message...To The Peoples of the Commonwealth..." and finally, as Big Ben, surrounded by trees in full leaf chimes 3 o'clock, "...Her Majesty the Queen".  Big Ben finishes its chimes;  Buckingham Palace appears (also surrounded by trees in full leaf, with traffic breezing by);  the camera cuts to the Queen.  It is a curious illusion as it is plain for all to see that the opening shots are anything but live;  it is hard to imagine central London on Christmas Day afternoon itself looking more different with its deserted roads, grey skies and bare trees.  The Palace made no pretence about the Broadcast being anything other than pre-recorded, but it does seem rather odd to give the impression that it was recorded months, rather than only a few days, in advance!

The Queen speaks the entirety of her message in camera view, uninterrupted in these early days of colour by interspersed footage.  The camera pans slowly in and out while she speaks before moving in for a dramatic close-up for her  closing remarks.  Her Majesty is clearly using an autocue, but glances at her script periodically to break the monotony.

At the end of the production, a rousing choral version of God Save the Queen is played while footage is shown of the royal family leaving the service at St George's Chapel, Windsor on Christmas Day the previous year.  As the anthem ends we are treated to some audio as the Dean of Windsor, Robin Woods, greets members of the family as they leave.  This could be a precursor of the landmark Royal Family documentary which would be shown the following year, although most of what we can hear is the ingratiating manner of the Dean (perhaps a prerequisite of the job when one is in charge of a royal peculiar):  'yes, I saw you were talking to...', the Dean says heartily to the Queen as Her Majesty gesticulates as though hailing a taxi.  'The Lord be with you...and in the New Year!' he says to the Queen Mother,  gripping her hand tightly as she descends the last few steps.  The programme ends with impressive long shots of Windsor Castle's Round Tower .

Notes:

The first draft of the part of the text that Harold Wilson's Government had objected to read: ' Every individual and every nation have their problems. Some are more pressing than others. Britain is not the only Commonwealth country contending with serious economic difficulties. Fortunately there are others who are enjoying better times, and this is certainly the moment for us all to do our utmost to help each other.'  This was later changed to: 'Every individual and every nation have problems, so there is all the more reason for us to do our utmost to show our concern for others.'

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1969 - No Broadcast

Elizabeth II's written Christmas message, 1969

Ironically, 1969 is one of the most famous years in the history of the Christmas Broadcast, for the simple fact that there wasn't one.  Few potted histories of the annual Message seem to get by without an honourable mention of this year.  It was the first time in more than thirty years that there had been no Royal Christmas Message aired on Christmas Day, and remains, to date, the only year of her reign in which Elizabeth II has not broadcast.

The Buckingham Palace postmen, already trying to cope with the extra the seasonal mail, must have been positively groaning under the strain of the extra sack loads from concerned subjects wondering what had gone wrong.  Then, a few days before Christmas, the redoubtable Mrs Mary Whitehouse of the National Viewers and Listeners Association, best remembered for her tireless efforts to purge our television screens of what actually was on rather than what wasn't, turned up at the gates of Buckingham Palace with a 20,000-strong petition comprising letters from members of the public 'regretting' the Queen's decision not to broadcast on Christmas Day.

Mary Whitehouse and friends with a very British protest;  December ,1969

The official reason for the absence of a Broadcast of any form in 1969 is that, given the presence of the Royal Family documentary that year (which was being repeated on Christmas Day), offering an intimate portrait of the Windsors at work and at play; and also the televised investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of  Wales, the Queen felt that the public had seen enough of her on television for one year.  Her Majesty had probably seen enough of film crews for one year, too.  It has also been put forward that the Broadcast may have been shelved as a sign of the Queen's displeasure at interference in the content of the previous year's speech from prime minister Harold Wilson.  Also, given concern about declining audience figures during the 1960s, it is also possible that the break was a way of "testing the water" as to whether people still wanted the annual Broadcast.

Elizabeth II and her children, Christmas 1968. From the documentary 'Royal Family'

 The Palace were clearly taken aback by the scale of the public response, so much so that at the beginning of her short written message, released from Windsor Castle on Christmas Day, Elizabeth II acknowledges the many messages she had received on the matter and offers a reassuring hint that the break is temporary, while assuring her subjects that 'my good wishes are no less warm and personal because they come to you in a different form.'

Notes:

The Royal Family documentary of 1969 is subject to a certain amount of collective cognitive dissonance from commentators.  It is regarded as both hugely successful and a mistake.  On the one hand, there was a significant popularity bounce for the monarchy and a massive amount of interest in the British royal family, who were portrayed as an ordinary, happy family.  However, therein lay the problem - the Windsors perhaps came across as too ordinary, thus risking the magic and mystique that monarchy depends upon as well as opening the family up to a scrutiny which it had hitherto unknown.  As a result, the programme has never been shown again in its entirety and remains locked away in a BBC vault on the Queen's instructions.   Nevertheless, the family must have enjoyed a rapport with the documentary's producer, Richard Cawston.  The following year Cawston was asked to take charge of the Christmas Broadcast, and continued as producer until his death in 1986.