The Queen Page #4

20.

TONY:

What have I got on this week?

INT. DOWNING STREET - SAME TIME

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL, Press Secretary to TONY BLAIR, is dressed

and already in Downing Street. Also watching television. (WE

INTERCUT BETWEEN THE TWO LOCATIONS AS NECESSARY).

ALASTAIR:

You’re writing your maiden Conference

speech as Prime Minister.

TONY:

Well, let’s cancel everything else.

This is going to be massive.

(a beat)

I’d better make a statement in the

morning.

ALASTAIR:

You’ll be pleased to know I’ve already

started coming up with ideas.

On CAMPBELL’s knee, a pad of paper. We pick out the words,

“

People’s Princess.”

TONY:

God, she’s only been dead an hour!

ALASTAIR:

Would you prefer I didn’t do my job?

INT. BALMORAL - CHILDREN’S CORRIDOR - NIGHT

The QUEEN’s FACE in close-up. Her eyes flicker as she watches

something intently.

We REVERSE ANGLE to see: a half-open door. SILHOUETTES

inside. The sound of male voices. Whispering. Speaking

softly.

It’s the moment the BOYS are being told. We make out the

SILHOUETTES hugging. The sound of tears. Soft voices. CHARLES

repeatedly kissing his SONS.

Our CAMERA stays on the QUEEN’s FACE. A distant flicker of

pain at the unrestrained intimacy and affection between them.

Presently, the door opens, and a red-eyed PRINCE CHARLES

emerges.

21.

CHARLES:

They’re going to go back to sleep.

(clears his throat, speaks

with difficulty)

Well, try anyway.

The QUEEN goes up to CHARLES and stiffly, poignantly, tries

to touch him. But cannot. Is unable. She withdraws her hand.

CHARLES:

(reading the message)

My Private Secretary’s office has

found a travel agency open in New York

that will sell me a flight to Paris

with an hour’s stop over in

Manchester.

CHARLES contains himself with difficulty..

CHARLES:

Perhaps now you might consider whether

it’s still an extravagance to bring

back the mother of the future King of

England in one of our planes?

ELIZABETH:

(after a long pause)

All right.

CHARLES’s eyes burn. He turns, and walks out.

The QUEEN is left alone. She stares for a moment, then

leaves, passing a FOOTMAN.

ELIZABETH:

(to FOOTMAN)

I don’t want the boys to see the news

and get upset. First thing tomorrow

morning, I want the radio taken out of

their bedroom, and the television

taken out of the nursery.

The FOOTMAN bows..

INT. BALMORAL CASTLE - QUEEN’S BEDCHAMBER - VERY EARLY DAWN

The QUEEN sits in bed, writing her diary, in a bedchamber

w

here the decor is unchanged in a hundred years..

Outside, the sound of bird-song. The first rays of light.

The DUKE OF EDINBURGH sticks his head around the corner. He

looks at the QUEEN..

PRINCE PHILIP:

Well, well, well.

22.

ELIZABETH:

Ye-es.

PRINCE PHILIP:

Are you all right?

A silence.

PRINCE PHILIP (cont’d)

Your sister called about an hour ago.

From Tuscany.

ELIZABETH:

I hope you told her to come back? Cut

the holiday short?

PRINCE PHILIP:

I did.

ELIZABETH raises her eyebrow..

ELIZABETH:

Can’t imagine she was pleased.

PRINCE PHILIP:

That’s putting it mildly.

ELIZABETH:

What did she say?

PHILIP smiles to himself recalling MARGARET’s words..

PRINCE PHILIP:

Something about Diana managing to be

even more annoying dead than alive.

The QUEEN looks up..

ELIZABETH:

Just make sure the boys never hear you

talk like that.

PRINCE PHILIP:

Of course.

PHILIP produces a bottle of pills from his dressing-gown

pocket, and shakes them..

PRINCE PHILIP (cont’d)

Something to help you go down?

ELIZABETH:

No. I’m going to do my diary a little

longer.

PRINCE PHILIP:

Fine. I’ll sleep next door.

23.

(MORE)

PHILIP touches her on the shoulder. But she doesn’t

reciprocate. He goes. The QUEEN appears to continue writing,

but our CAMERA slowly turns to reveal her PEN is not moving.

Nor writing.

She’s staring in thought.

E:

XT. MYROBELLA - DAY

A Victorian, red-brick house. In the driveway, the

incongruous mix of a grey Renault Espace people-carrier and

two POLICE VEHICLES.

In the modest garden: two ARMED POLICE OFFICERS are playing

football with three young CHILDREN..

INT. TRIMDON - BLAIR KITCHEN - DAY

Inside the plain, unfashionably decorated house..

The TV plays in the corner of the kitchen. CHERIE BLAIR,

visibly upset, watches TV while cooking breakfast.

TONY is not wearing his Newcastle shirt.

TONY is reading out his statement which is written on a pad

of paper, filled with crossings-out..

TONY:

“..that’s how she will remain. In our

minds, our hearts, forever.”

(looks up)

OK, got it.

INT. DOWNING STREET - SAME TIME.

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL is in Downing Street, sits in an office,

feet on a desk, staring at the TV..

ALASTAIR:

Where will you do it?

TONY:

I thought at church. On the way in.

ON TV:
breaking news: Diana’s brother, EARL SPENCER, makes a

s

tatement from the gates outside his house in South Africa..

SPENCER (ON TV)

...this is not a time for

recriminations, however I would say

that I always believed that the press

would kill her in the end.

24.

SPENCER(cont'd)

But even I could not imagine that they

would take such a direct hand in her

death as seems to be the case. It

would appear that every proprietor and

editor of every publication that has

paid for intrusive and exploitative

photographs of her has blood on his

hands today...

ALASTAIR:

Not the press, mate. You’ve got the

wrong villain.

An AIDE appears in the doorway, catches TONY’s eye, and

indicates her watch..

TONY:

I’ve got to go.

ALASTAIR:

You about to speak to the Queen?

TONY:

Yes.

ALASTAIR shoots a mischievous look..

ALASTAIR:

Ask her if SHE greased the brakes.

TONY:

Now, now..

TONY hangs up, crosses to the study, making sure the doors

are shut so he won’t be disturbed. We notice his shirt has

no. 10 on the back, under the name, ‘BLAIR’.

INT. BALMORAL - DINING ROOM - DAY

The QUEEN, PRINCE PHILIP and the QUEEN MOTHER sit in silence

at the table, eating breakfast, stoically listening to radio

coverage, soberly flicking through newspapers..

The QUEEN is the only one who is fully dressed, (the others

in bathrobes), and she wears black. She is reading “The

Sunday Times”.

All around them the QUEEN’s (elderly) MAIDS perform the

choreography of service as the radio coverage continues. One

MAID pours tea. Another brings fresh toast.

Also present is the rather smarter VALET and MAID belonging

to the PRINCE of WALES, and his separate HOUSEHOLD. They have

a

separate, (and more stylish), uniform of their own.

They set CHARLES’s place and his breakfast, (nuts, grains,

healthy food).

25.

A flamboyant napkin is folded into an elaborate fleur-du-lis,

(traditional symbol of the PRINCE OF WALES). The QUEEN turns

to Charles’s VALET..

A knock on the door, JANVRIN enters, and bows in respect to

the QUEEN..

JANVRIN:

I’m sorry to disturb, Ma’am, but I’ve

the Prime Minister, for you. From his

constituency.

QUEEN MOTHER:

(privately rolls eyes,

without looking up from

newspaper)

Lucky you.

ELIZABETH:

Thank you, Robin. I’ll take it next

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