Both Queen Elizabeth II’s early life and her 70-year reign were eventful to say the least—packed with incidents, from the abdication of her uncle and the subsequent Second World War to the assassination attempt made against her in 1981 and a staggering security breach at Buckingham Palace the following year, which demonstrated the former monarch’s remarkable strength of character. It’s no wonder, then, that so many of those episodes have been the subject of big- and small-screen dramatizations over the past two decades, from stately, Oscar-winning biopics and light-hearted romps to a no-expenses-spared Netflix extravaganza.
Vogue – September 16, 2022
Helen Mirren in The Queen (2006)
As played by a steely, no-nonsense Helen Mirren, the queen grapples with the death of Princess Diana and the constitutional crisis that threatens to follow in Stephen Frears’s gripping drama. It offers a compelling and nuanced portrait of a woman who became a national figurehead with great reluctance—one who feels bound by duty and protocol but also understands the need to adapt to changing times, an instinct which has helped to preserve the monarchy for much of the last century.
Freya Wilson in The King’s Speech (2010)
Alongside Colin Firth as George VI and Helena Bonham Carter as the future Queen Mother, Freya Wilson takes on the part of the young, ringleted Princess Elizabeth as she watches her father succeed his brother as king in the wake of the abdication in Tom Hooper’s tender tearjerker. You can see the apprehension in her eyes as the role begins to take a toll on him, and she comes to realize what will be expected of her in due course.