The Real King's Speech Page #2

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The Duke of York was 30 and

had been stammering for 23 years.

I can remember him being quite tall.

"Hello, George, good to see you, come

and sit down, sit down over here.

"How are you feeling now?"

And it was very gentle

and very...welcoming!

George Metcalfe was nine years old

when he first began treatment

with Lionel Logue.

It started when I was three. My dad

shouted at me, "Don't stammer!"

and from then on,

I started to stammer.

It was like a tic,

but it was worse than a tic,

so if I can demonstrate,

it was, "Urgh!" Like that.

And I literally used to bang my head

on tables, if there was a table

in front of me, or I would bang

my head into the porridge

or into the soup.

Logue's record card of his

first appointment with the Duke

revealed his methodology.

He was concerned with

the Duke's physical appearance,

which he believed contributed

to his stammer.

"Well built with good shoulders,

"but waistline very flabby.

Good chest development.

"Top lung breathing good. He's never

used his diaphragm or lower lung.

"This has resulted through

non-control of solar plexus

"in nervous tension with consequent

episodes of bad speech, depression."

For two and a half months, Bertie

visited Logue nearly every day

and practised intensively.

One day, I got there,

the Duke was coming out,

and I didn't know

that the Duke was being treated.

And I think Logue told me about it.

I probably asked a cheeky

question when I got upstairs.

He would lean across from his chair

and put his hand on my stomach.

He'd say, "Right,

what you've got to do, George,

"is to breathe from your diaphragm."

Hand just above the belly button

and making sure

that you were lifting the hand

the whole time...

..to create an unbroken

column of air up your windpipe

"That's the key to it all,

breathing from your diaphragm,

"so let's practise a few breaths."

So here we would go...

(BREATHES IN AND OUT)

DOORBELL RINGS:

Once the Duke had control

over his breathing,

Logue taught how letters

and sounds are formed.

Pip, pop, pap.

The mechanics of sound,

how you actually make a sound.

Going somewhere.

Going.

# Aaah. # That's easy, cos

there's nothing holding it back.

Mother, naughty,

right up in the nose.

G-G-G... Goodbye.

E... Open your mouth wider

to let the E come out.

You can go, "Huh, huh!"

You can cough.

I hope that hasn't upset

your sound equipment.

Some of Logue's methods

had the whiff of the West End,

rather than Harley Street.

"Let's see how it feels like if you

sing it. Maybe you should stand up,

George. Now, let's try that."

"And...yeah, you've got stuck

on that C, let's do that again."

And it was always not forceful, like

areally good director in a film.

'With the Royal tour

only weeks away,

'Logue prescribed the Duke

an hour of exercises a day.'

Fish, fine, fat, funny.

'A lot of homework to do every day,'

practising.

'The Duchess of York

'was fully involved in

her husband's treatment.'

She helped with the therapies.

She went along

'to the consulting rooms,

'was there

learning how to breathe'

so that when they went away

on their foreign tours,

she could keep the exercises going.

'By the time the Duke and Duchess

set sail in January 1927,

'Bertie had confidence

'in himself and his therapist.'

Everyone else was relaxing on deck.

He was sitting there doing his

gargling, doing his tongue twisters,

practising his

different vowel sounds,

'and writing back, telling Logue

'how well he was doing his homework,

like a child'

trying to please

their teacher. Extraordinary.

'For six months,

the Duke and Duchess

'represented the Crown down under.

The trip was regarded as a success,

'but Logue knew that

it was a problem managed,

'rather than a problem solved.'

'It was always going to

be a problem,'

it was never going to go away,

because the stammer

never went away in its entirety.

He did manage to overcome it to a

very large extent, but not entirely.

'The Duke's stammer affected

his life in other ways too.

'I think there was

a great tension in him,

'and I think the stammer was

a source of great frustration,'

and I think it would build up

in him and then it would explode.

He would kick

corgis across the room.

It was disconcerting

when it happened.

On one occasion,

he picked up the knives and forks

and threw them about, and

Princess Margaret came to his rescue

by saying, "This is a good game,

let's do this,"

and jokingly also threw knives and

forks around and it all calmed down.

'The Duke and Duchess

had two daughters -

'Elizabeth, the present Queen,

and Princess Margaret.

'Their upbringing was very

different to their father's.'

Here, actually, with the Yorks

and their two little daughters,

you have the first facsimile

of a middle-class royal family.

'They were a very loving,'

genuinely loving foursome,

'a unit, referring to his

wife and his daughters'

as "us four".

'Papa, Mummy, Lillybet, Margaret.'

CROWD CHEERS:

'For ten years, the Yorks

had an uncomplicated family life.

'All that changed

on 20th January, 1936

'with the death of King George V.'

(BROADCASTER) 'Behind the casket,

in solemn procession,

'marched Edward with his brothers.

'Now he was King.

'Edward had been prepared

for kingship all his life.

(BROADCASTER) 'With pride

and humility,

'Edward lifted up the burden.

'But he was infatuated with an

American divorcee - Wallis Simpson.'

He was called The People's King

and although he was widely adored,

when it came down to it, I think

he didn't care much about anybody

except Mrs Simpson.

'If Edward married Wallis,

it had consequences.

'Suddenly abdication

was a possibility.

'The Duke of York watched

with increasing horror.'

Here, at this crucial stage,

Edward VIII wasn't

taking him into his confidence,

not until about a week before

did they know that he was going.

'When the Duke of York realised

he was going to abdicate,

'he walked three times

around St James's Park.

'He realised'

that enormous burdens

were going to be put upon him.

RADIO STATIC:

(BROADCASTER) 'He had made this

heart-breaking decision...

'A few hours ago,

'I discharged my last duty

asKing and Emperor.

'You all know the reasons which have

impelled me to renounce the throne.

'The Duke of York

drove to Marlborough House'

and sobbed on his mother's shoulder

for an hour.

'His brother's reign

had lasted just 327 days.

'This unprecedented crisis forced

the Duke of York onto the throne

'in December 1936.

'There was this whispering campaign,

'that George VI

simply wasn't up to it,

'that he was weak and feeble

and was never going to'

make the role of kingship his own.

'Behind the scenes,

people were thinking, "Help!"

'He'd never seen a state paper,

he knew nothing'

about the business of government, he

knew nothing about how it all worked.

'They are terrified that the

British public won't want them.

'They feel they might be considered

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