Royal Destiny

Produced by British Movietone for “Her Majesty’s Central Office of Information” (HM does not usually precede Central Office of Information but here it is obviously appropriate), Royal Destiny traces Queen Elizabeth II’s young life up to her ascension to the throne. From the outset we are reminded that she was “called to be Queen, sovereign head of a great commonwealth of nations” at the tender age of 25. Elizabeth and her younger sister Margaret are shown with their parents enjoying a carefully managed and sheltered childhood. Her active role during WWII is then touched upon, followed by official royal duties such as the launching of an aircraft carrier. The now famous South African speech (echoed by the Queen in her Diamond Jubilee year), in which the monarch to be declares that her whole life “shall be devoted to your service” is held up as a pivotal moment in her early life. Marriage to Prince Philip, the birth of Charles and an overseas tour of Canada and the USA are also covered. It was on another tour, in Kenya en-route to Australia and New Zealand, that Elizabeth first heard that she was to be Queen following the death of her father. Film of a series of family and social occasions, along with constitutional events such as the state opening of parliament, reveal the “wisdom and strength of character” of the newly enthroned Queen.

Scripted by Movietone’s editor in chief Gerald Sanger and voiced by the frightfully dapper Leslie Mitchell (an immediately recognisable staple of British Movietone News, Mitchell worked as a commentator for the company from the 1930s to the mid-1970s and was in addition the very first BBC television announcer when it began broadcasting in 1936), this officially sanctioned film is understandably supportive and markedly uncritical of the Queen and her family. The emphasis here is very much on ‘destiny’ and ‘duty’; republicans make of that what you will but on the level of an efficient and neatly spliced together piece of filmic propaganda Royal Destiny does exactly what is asked of it.