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a fundamental condition of royal influence that it remains private,’ a recent
constitutional authority stated. 2 It is for this reason that the Palace presents such a
consistently negative attitude towards ‘out-siders’. One former Press Secretary remarked
of the Press Office that it was the ‘no comment’ office.
An unusual feature of this film and one which presented Elizabeth as a person rather
than a puppet is that she did the voice-overs in a conversational tone unlike the stilted
sounds we are accustomed to hear on Christmas broadcasts or occasions like the State
Opening of Parliament. She was pictured opening letters – she gets 200 – 300 a day:
Being rather remote it gives one an idea of what’s worrying people and how they think I can help – [she
said], and sometimes I can help… pass things on to the right authorities or organizations. I’ve always had the
feeling that people are writing to me and I like to see what they’re writing to me about. There is a feeling that
the buck stops here… A man wrote that I was the only person who could stop the circle he was in – I rather
liked that…
Elizabeth is fascinated by ordinary family situations. On shoots at Balmoral she will
often sit beside a soldier from one of the Scottish regiments assigned to protection duty
there, who also act as beaters, and question him about his life. The soldiers, down-toearth
Scots often from the slum estates of Glasgow, have no hesitation about telling her.
Later on, at dinner, she will startle an officer from the same regiment by expressing her
concern about Private X’s wife or girlfriend.
She is thirsty for information, she likes to know. She can ask virtually anyone she likes
in for a private conversation. ‘Audiences are my way of meeting people without anyone
else listening,’ she said, ‘and that gives one a broad picture of what’s going on either in
Government or the Civil Service. They feel they can say what they like and that’s the
basis of my information.’ She was seen at work signing remissions of prison sentences.
It is not merely a formality for her – she is interested in the circumstances and asks
about them: ‘Oh,’ she will say, ‘these are about Strange ways [a much-publicized prison
riot]…’ Investitures are another way for her to meet people. While the protocol for
knighthood is often complicated – rehearsed beforehand with the stool on which the
recipient is to kneel before Her Majesty, he is told, ‘Grasp the handle with your right
hand, stand on your left leg and bend your right knee on to the stool. Afterwards, the
Queen’s handshake is the signal your time’s up’ – for Elizabeth, it is not just an
antiquated formality but another chance for her to glimpse a different world. ‘I’m
always fascinated by people who come and the things they’ve done,’ she said.
Sometimes, however, her queenly slip shows. At Windsor Castle, President Walesa of
Poland, the former electrician from Gdansk, arrived among the panoply of a carriage
procession up the Long Walk to the Castle, preceded by the Household Cavalry, in
immaculate uniform, booted, spurred and wearing gleaming helmets with nodding
plumes. Elizabeth seemed surprised that Walesa, once accustomed to life in a tiny,
crowded flat in a tower block, should find Windsor Castle so big (‘so sweet’, she told
Princess Anne), and equally that a man brought up behind the Iron Curtain in