This movie is set during a week in 1997 that most of us can remember. At the beginning of the week Princess Diana, the divorced wife of the Prince of Wales, was killed in a car accident. Tony Blair, the newly elected prime minister, appeared on television with with a statement that eulogized her as “the Peoples Princess”.
As the nation mourned the popular princess, Queen Elisabeth and her family remained in seclusion at Balmoral Estate in Scotland. The Queen had been trained from childhood never to display any emotion or other weakness in public, and she presumably also wanted to keep her grandchildren away from the press whose paparazzi had played a major role in their mother’s death.
But as the Royal Family remained silent, public opinion began to turn against them. A poll published at the end of the week showed 25% of the respondents in favor of abolishing the monarchy. At that point the queen reversed herself, brought her family to London, and addressed the nation on television. This quickly restored her popularity and soon everything was forgotten and forgiven.
(Forgive me for giving away the ending, but I’m assuming that everyone already knows this.)
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