Olivia Colman reads a letter from Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother 

So heartwarming (because of resilience and stoicism) ❤❤❤& heartbreaking (because of the war).

It was actually: “The princesses will never leave without me ……. “

How brave and wonderful! It shows real spirit.

@@dorothyyoung8231 with all due admiration to their majesties for their wartime efforts and sacrifices, none of the other european royals ( the "royalty" of other countries, as you insultingly call them - why the quotation marks?) ever "abandoned" their countries before the countries themselves were occupied, not even the kings (or queens) who were subsequently forced to abdicate, such as king peter of yugoslavia. when the sovereigns opted to remain in their occupied countries, it was rarely successful - the only example (in europe) i know of is the case of hm king christian of denmark. all the rest (the kings of romania, bulgaria or, especially, king leopold iii of belgium or prince louis ii of monaco) failed horribly. had the uk been invaded, the king would, as a matter of constitution and tradition, have been evacuated because in order for there to be a government in exile there needs to be a head of state in exile. in a monarchy, capturing a king (or indeed his heir(s)) is (or rather, can be) a serious constitutional issue. that is why, for instance, prince andrew was allowed to participate in the falklands war, similar to prince harry being allowed to take part in recent military actions, whereas the prince of wales or prince william would have never been allowed to do so. i recommend you read a bit about the lives and wartime efforts of hrh the grand duchess (charlotte) of luxembourg, hm king haakon vii of norway or queen wilhelmina of the netherlands. even nowadays, when they are, legally, no longer obliged to do so, the romanovs have not abandoned russia, king constantine has not abandoned greece, king simeon has not abandoned bulgaria, nor have the karoađorđevićs, habsburgs, bourbons or savoys ever abandoned their homelands, even in the long decades when they were not allowed to even visit them.

This woman is an icon of living history.

Well, it was a letter from the Queen Mother, not her daughter, to her own mother in law, but I agree with what you're saying in essence.

@@susangamble6038 She was not the Queen Mother at the time. She was Queen Elizabeth, which Dave Land correctly identified her as. The current Queen is not known as "Queen Elizabeth" but simply "The Queen".

@@rah62 The late Queen was introduced as Queen Elizabeth II

She is Reading a Letter from The Queen Mother, Elizabeth, Not HRH Elizabeth II. QE2 Did not ascend the Throne until 1952. This Letter was to Queen Mary, King George's Mom.

I mean she played the Queen Mother on a film before The Crown

Clearly spent enough time in Blighty for understatement to become a habit :)

😄😄

@@timeodaneosetdona Oh, rest assured, understatement is not a foreign concept in French; no need to have to live in Britain to master it. ;)

"France will rise again" and it did. Qui vivra verra. Vive la France! Vive l'Angleterre!

I love the implication that the Chef reminded her of his conviction at every opportunity...

I think it was a sort of ironic comment, sense the British royal family, in a way, is of German descent :)

Choice of German-style quotation marks Checks Out.

@@Nunov103 Indeed, they adopted Windsor during WW1, from their historic name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

@@davidw.2791 That's not a choice it's how his keyboard is set-up. A US keyboard has no £ symbol. And I bet you can't ask a question in Spanish since you don't have the inverted question mark. (Yes I know you can change the configuration or call up the ASCII code etc)

Not only are the royal family of German descent as others have mentioned, but if I heard correctly she made the comment to a man named Ehrlich. Nobody but Germans in this scenario! ;-)

This is Queen Elizabeth, mother to Queen Elizabeth II. As they have the same first name, it can be confusing, but this was not written by our last monarch, who was only a teenager at the time.

She was a damn good writer, as well. Her description of the bomb approaching and then landing was superb. Only an intelligent and skillful writer could have produced that imagery.

@Michele Engel You're right, of course, but it's helped by Colman's impeccable delivery. She is an outstanding actress.

Exactly.

It's sweet that she went to check on everyone, rather than only caring about her own safety and rushing into the shelter to hide. I wouldn't have blamed her for going straight to her shelter, but I respect that she didn't!

@@302DianeWithout the cut class accent though, read in a more ‘working class’ accent, would there have been any laughter? Strange that an accent once respected and even desired, has become something to ridicule. Sad too.

Phenomenon-singular Phenomena-plural According to the Queen’s English 😊

@orandaadnaro this was our Queen Mother

The Queen’s mother wrote it to her mother

Thevqueen mother wrote it to her mother in law, old queen mary

@@cankerbloom9015 Yeah, Her Majesty The Queen Mother was also a Queen, and was THE Queen at the time she composed the letter.

@Sanctus Paulus 1962 Yes she was. She was Queen Consort (which is different from Queen Regnant, like her daughter) and she was referred to as Her Majesty until her death

​@@raynemichelle2996 Queen consort vs Queen Regnant. Given that the title is currently held by a queen regnant, Queen Elizabeth II, saying "The Queen" as a title refers to Elizabeth II not the Queen Mother, similarly to how you might refer to Elizabeth I, not as "The Queen", but as "Queen Elizabeth I", so therefore, no, the Queen Mother is not "The Queen", she is "The Queen Mother" a queen of past, and not even a queen regnant like Elizabeth II so there is little room for your equivalencies. By the way, your CAPITALIZATION for EMPHASIS make you look arrogant

reminds me of how they gave nazi salutes not long before this

@@lotuseater7247 Well, that really proves it, doesn't it? They were all Nazi spies and collaborators all along. Not very good ones. But, still....

@@Vic82toire Facetiousness built on hyperbole doesn't mean you made a good point, or added anything that disproves mine. It just means you made up something in your head ,and thought you said something clever. The OP said they showed genuined care. They don't. They're rotten inside and the cracks are finally being exposed these days.

@@lotuseater7247 They were not the only people from around the world duped in giving the Nazi salute, many did thinking the Nazi's were making Germany peaceful so your point is mute and baseless from any blame. Instead of recognising the strife people were in at the time it is you with the hyperbole that has got to put negativity all over it.

@@anglewoden looks like I triggered a pro Royal. Well what you’ve done is just string some words together and then defended them based on ignorance of the time. What I’ve stated is not hyperbole it’s merely fact. Another fact is that they are supposed to avoid showing any stance on world politics. They have more in common with the Nazis than they’d care to admit; both believe in an Ordained right to power. Harry went so far as to don a Nazi uniform decades later .

No it isn't, it brought tears to my eyes too. I do feel that those people where made of much stronger stuff than today, Some sections of today's society all over the 'Western civilisation' ten to bend over too quickly if you know what I mean.

@@anglewoden I completely agree. My granny was born in 1921 in a village in Scotland and moved to London in 1941 along with her newborn baby. Her husband was off fighting in WWII. She moved, completely alone except for her newborn, to Ealing. Her street was bombed more than once. She recounted a story of hearing air raid sirens and then immediately after the sound of plane engines, knowing she would not be able to reach the Anderson shelter in time. She flung herself under the kitchen table on top of her infant son (my uncle) as the bombs fell and blew out all the windows. The way she told this story was so matter-of-fact. I doubt many of us today would be as able to cope in such circumstances.

It got me too.

We love you too cousin. Thanks for coming in our aid, and saving our arses LMAO

@@anenglishmanplusamerican7107 It's been you lot helping us out since then. You're pretty good in a fight. 😉

Yes, very much so. It is touching, really. I enjoyed it even though I am a foreigner I have nothign to do with the English but that I am also a human being as they and we all are.

My mother was in the ATS and was given a lift bt Queen Mary!

@@elizabethradford4909 That’s fantastic! It just proves that in times of crisis it doesn’t matter whether one is Prince or pauper….everyone is in it together.

@@luvhart I think Queen Mary was known for giving lifts to service people. Mum said she asked how much food they got, where they were stationed and what conditions were like. Needless to say she and her friend Peggy were on best behaviour and gave their smartest salute as QM drove off.

@@elizabethradford4909 I've heard about Queen Mary always giving lifts to anyone in uniform that she saw. So nice to hear it from someone with a family experience.

It was the comment about "our servants are behaving marvellously" - for almost everyone now the thought of servants is anachronistic, but at the time for middle and upper class families it was as normal as owning a mobile phone.

I think, like myself, the audience knew of the Queen Mother quite well growing up and so found her way of putting things funny in an odd way. Very sad at the end though.

It is because these people would have never survived a twisted ankle on their own, let alone the Blitz. Their marvelling at the competence of their servants -- people who worked for a living all their lives, without recognition or retirement -- is hilarious in its unaware awfulness.

@@Yaspis That's not entirely accurate. During WW1, the home of the future wife of KGVI was turned into a hospital for the wounded, which Lady Elizabeth helped to run, and assisted with patient care. In WW2 The future QE2 joined the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, where she became a driver trained in auto mechanics. This meant she was capable of taking apart engines and changing tires. They were very capable practically.

@@Yaspis I think it is more factual to say people like you and the 'woke' mind set people of today would not have survived back then, you would surrendered a long time before.

Yeah war really brings out the best in us. Seriously do you think before you speak or do you just set your pullstring to “public school Churchill” and go about your merry way?

@@Thomas-ee7ud I understand your frustration (which is also, beautifully worded) but it is hard to refute that the Royals of that time were trying as hard as they were able/allowed to connect with people and share in their experiences of war. I am far from a Royalist, but I struggle to imagine many such doing the same now. The necessity of duty was instilled in the current monarch in the UK by this woman. Her degree of detachment is not so marked as to make her contemptible. It is - and was - a complicated situation 😕

@@Thomas-ee7ud Your cynical take is playing out marvelously in the West today. But i doubt you would take credit for that.

@@dontbefatuousjeffrey2494 amen!

Bertie and Elizabeth were, without any question at all, exactly the right people to lead Britain through the living hell that was WWII. I mentally shudder at the thought of his elder brother as King during that time and am profoundly thankful that shallow, self-centered fool abdicated. I do feel horrible for Bertie, being forced to take the throne the way he was, but he was unquestionably far better suited to be King. If only he'd been the elder brother....

An d, then, heartrendingly, there is Markle & her dumb, fanny-struck Harry, & Andrew. Sigh!! Families can be such a disappointment & quite vexing.

I liked her too. Though by the time I could really appreciate her she had passed away. I take great delight in the Queen though. Some of the stories that come out about her teasing makes me laugh.

She was terribly racist though

@@raynemichelle2996 So were most people of her generation. Get over it.

@@kevinmorgan8534 no I will not

@@raynemichelle2996 And that is the problem, people hold grudges.

Nope, it's still an insensitive and meaningless thing to say. She IS stating that she feels she's experienced what they have, but when you have numerous residences and only a small part of a massive palace is damaged, you cannot say that you can now look Eastenders in the face. When she ends up on the streets because her only residence has been destroyed, along with all her personal belongings, not to mention the loss of several if not all members of her immediate family THEN she could say that.

@@novakingood3788 It must be a terrible affliction to go through life incapable of parsing meaning from words, and in a permanent state of baffled rage because of it. I can only pity you.

Oh please. Pick yourself up off the floor.

@@TesterAnimal1 It must be just as disabling to be subject to infantile fantasies about the effect of meaningless jibes on the internet. What she said, she said, and it was what she meant to say. It will stand forever, whereas what anyone, including me, says here or anywhere will be dust on the wind in ten minutes.

@@novakingood3788 Actually it's not meaningless and she did lose a family member in the first World War. Her older brother Fergus was killed in action and she never found out exactly where he was buried. If you knew even one thing about her you'd know this as this is why SHE started the Royal tradition of leaving Royal wedding bouquets at the grave of the unknown soldier in Westminster Abbey. Because she didn't know where her brother was buried. It's now believed that he was buried in a quarry, so his "gravestone" says "buried nearby", but the Queen mum never knew that in her lifetime. As for "looking the East end in the face", she meant that she felt bad because she visited a lot of bomb sites with the King to commiserate with those who had lost everything and thats why she felt bad, because although Buckingham Palace was a known target, it hadn't yet been hit, and until it had she felt terrible for visiting in her nice clothes, and the Germans weren't always very accurate, especially at the start, so often they hit things in error. There's actually a quote somewhere of her being overheard asking someone whether she shouldn't have dressed so nicely, the first time she saw the damage that the bombs had done. But a local woman said to her, "no, people expect you to be dressed nicely and it shows they (the Germans) haven't beaten us yet" And after that she always wore nice, but appropriate clothes.

@@MrMurraymanson Facts? Evidence? Your lack of intelligence is only compounded by your ignorance. When your voice and balls drop, come back for a man to man talk.

@@MrMurraymanson when have the current Royal Family murdered anyone? The Queen is after all not responsible for the war crimes of the UK government, nor is she in a viable position to speak out against them, nor is she necessarily entirely aware of them, nor is she responsible for historical crimes perpetuated by her distant family members, who were mostly long dead by the time she was born.

Pity she was such a bitch to her staff and to many others.

yes, I was wondering what was funny in this letter when she said the servants were magnificent... I still don't get it.

I thought a bit patronising re the staff but I suppose that is with looking at it from 21st century eyes

Exactly this👆🏽

ok, I understand better, but actually we can witness a lot of patronising attitudes in some big enterprises still in this century but nobody dares to laugh (while it is really laughable).

@@annemoncrieff3875.... No, it was patronising then too.

It was literally her home. I think she's allowed to be grateful it wasn't destroyed.

And St Paul's Cathedral. Seemed to have an invisible forcefield around it as it remained untouched throughout, despite being deliberately targeted on one particular raid. Apparently German bomb aimers and Star Wars stormtroopers were cut from the same cloth!

@@occamsrayzor I think the idea is, because Buckingham is the seat of the head of state of England, England still stands and that’s the most important thing.

@@themicoism That is the point

@@mikes5637 Think of the volunteer firemen who hung off the dome during the bombings

Not HRH but Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

Tommyrot. Brit here and got it.

@@annettewalter2273 title nazi!

@@mortalclown3812 these people have nothing to do but pick at other.

Your comment made me feel better, as i found the laughter quite insensitive.

The first time I went to Germany I remember feeling amazed England and Germany had fought - they are the same people!

Perhaps you haven't noticed a war is being waged against we the people, not just in Britain but world wide. If you're waiting for some official notice of this, you've missed it. It came into effect 16th March 2020 and is being waged against us by exactly the people who "claim" they're our saviours/representatives etc.

We are part of Europe and I loved my time in Germany, but I'm not so sure about re-joining the EU, perhaps after Switzerland joins.

@marquisdemoo1792 The Swiss will never join anything their neutrality forbids anything of the sort (also they were not as effective as a tax haven and money laundering and hiding place inside the eu) But we would be delighted if the UK or any part of it (looking at Scotland) joins again with the eu as together we all are stronger and Europe should stand united in the modern world we have fought each other enough and now there are more powerful dangers from outside as well.

@@the_godfather9974 I think @marquisdemoo1792 was being sardonic.

Back at you sir from England

You are so right. My grandma was a lorry driver in the wrens and worked alongside our late queen. My grandad had a reserved occupation so wasn’t called up, but he volunteered as an ambulance driver. Neither ever spoke of there experiences only found out from my dad.

Hi didn’t want to concern her, what a darling man.

Wonderful anecdote! Thank you. She was a game old girl for sure.

They could have: and did not. That is well worth considering.

I think she was a very likeable Woman. Canadian here... Monarchist and from what I have read about her she was great fun! Always loved a tipple of G&T and got along swimmingly with some of the Staff who were Gay - she liked her party time!

a bit demeaning to actual veterans to call her one

@@land2097 Are YOU a veteran of your nations armed forces?

You weren't the only one.

It's up on screen for a couple of seconds at 00:11, it's also in the description.

If I'm correctly remembering the quote attributed to the Queen Mother, she answered questions about possibly sending her daughters to Canada with, "The princesses won't go without me. I won't go without the King. And the King will never leave."

The jokes come from her technique, change in speed, our historical interpretation and where she places the accent. But also in-part Elizabeth that is setting her mother at ease. "Ah, a-german". '

This isn't a comedy?

I think the people who laughed were British - so had a greater understanding of what had been written and its extremes .

There were lighter moments where a smile was indeed appropriate, but not laughter - Ms Colman misjudged the tone of the letter, I think. It was very moving to hear the intimate details of ordinary life, alongside the dangers which the British people were exposed to daily; their suffering and resilience, and the reciprocal sense of unity with the King and Queen. Imagine the staging of the writing of this letter, in a bleak and blacked-out set of a room at Windsor, the scratch of the fountain pen on paper, the King quietly reading some official papers by the meagre light of a lamp then looking up and exchanging a smile and a look of encouragement with wife. Cut to scenes of a bomb-damaged Palace and the rows of destroyed homes and lives in the streets of London. Cut to the Queen, with superimposed footage of St Paul's Cathedral and a damaged but still-standing Buckingham Palace. Cut to a grave-looking Queen Mary with the letter in her hand. Cut to the Queen. As she writes the last line, she looks up from the page with moistened eyes, then raises her head and smiles briefly... with courage and hope. All to the background music of 'The Crown's' Duck Shoot.

@@DouwedeJong Her family was Scottish. The king was a combination of British, Danish, and German. As for the rest of your diatribe, the less said the better.

Wrong Elizabeth, it's the Queen's mother Elizabeth, Eliz II took the throne in 1953.

I @petegleeson1 I know that Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953. I also know that her mother was named queen Elizabeth and was King George VI's wife. In 1940/41 the future Elizabeth II was Princess Elizabeth. Are you saying that Queen Elizabeth was writing this letter to her mother-in-Law the Dowager Queen Mary? If that's what you mean, then you are correct. I was confused when the letter was signed as 'Your daughter-in-law Elizabeth." Still what I said in praise of the future Elizabeth II was correct and accurate.

Absolutely. It's practically impossible for any of us to appreciate or even imagine what life was like during WWII.

@@StonyRC The Ukrainians are certainly getting a reminder, and so will the UK if the Russians aren't stopped soon.

@@TheAmazingAdventuresOfMiles - NOT what this comment stream is about. Keep it on-point.

@@TheAmazingAdventuresOfMiles that’s true, they can appreciate and imagine now what it’s like. This video is a timely and important reminder that the cruelties and danger of war continues. Love the way it was written about by the Queen, in any event.

There should be a different audience response if this were to be read today. When you see it on TV every day now - the explosions, the destruction, the blood and the death - not that humorous.

There was definitely very targeted laughter at the line "France will rise again."

Because these are normally comic people were trying to find the joke. It really is that simple. Kind of sad honestly.

It was very bizarre. I can only suppose they weren't listening, thought the letter was supposed to be funny, and just laughed where they thought they should like trained seals. (Or they'd been on the booze before they came in.)

The delivery for one, And the irony of it being so matter of fact..

What do you mean? British kindness and stoic sacrifice is on display everyday. Dont let a rose tinted view of the past obscure the work of an army of nhs staff, the teachers and civil servants struggling on low pay out of duty, the selfless and thoughtful actions of doctors and experts such as Chris Whitty during the pandemic, or even our unwavering support for Ukraine as American support wavers! There are plenty of horrible acts commited by the british then as there are now, but dont let that hide the good, stand up and do what you can ❤

Everyone from the dominions at the time, also. We were one empire then.

I'm sure you know, this is why so many Americans are Anglophiles....

She gave Phillip such a hard time though. She wasn't all sweetness and light.

@@juliaforsyth8332 Indomitable people don't tend to be... I think her enmity towards Philip was as much to do with her, and King George's, feelings towards his uncle (Lord Louis Mountbatten).

@@juliaforsyth8332 True, thousands of very nice men have baulked at the prospect of failing the mother-in-law test

I grew up in East Ham. My Mum, as a child, was playing on a makeshift see-saw with a friend, when they heard the unmistakable sound of a doodlebug. The sound stopped, and a few seconds later they were blown off their see-saw into the dirt, fortunately unharmed. The V1 had detonated directly on the old White Horse pub, completely destroying it. The big crater was still there when I was a kid in the 1960s, with the remnants of the cellar walls still visible. My friends and I used to play in it.

@@occamsrayzor I’m reading these comments, imagining them in a British accent. So chipper really.

My M-I-L Grew up in Hawaii and saw the Zeros flying to Pearl Harbor to attack.

I can't even imagine what terror people must have felt hearing the unmistakable doodlebug's engine cut out and then just having to wait to see if it fell on you or your neighbour's house. I went through the dreadful Christchurch earthquake and all those awful strong aftershocks that woke us up in the middle of the night (that's if I managed to sleep at all). But even if I was so scared by the shakes, at least I knew our dear old house would protect us - at least we weren't going to be killed. People must have been so much more stoic in those days.

@@queenbeekeeper Yes, horrifying.

I don't. I find her irritating.

Love her so much.

There’d better not be, and if there is, they don’t deserve to be on the same planet with her.

@@huolalupin6008 everyone is entitled to their opinion even if it's wrong ;)

@@huolalupin6008 You are quite possibly the only person on this planet who thinks that. She is absolutely adorable & lovely. I adore her lol & she’s such a good actress 😄

She played at least 2 different english queens in the last 5 years and had vocal coaches for both of them. She knows how to speak like a royal ^^

It's not her natural accent, so I am not sure what you mean? (She is as always fabulous)

That's definitely more posh than her usual way of speaking, but seeing that she's played various queens before it's almost second nature to her.