Bertie & Elizabeth is a 2002 television film directed by Giles Foster and produced by Carlton Television. The film explores the relationship between King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth from their first meeting to the King's death in the winter of 1952. Bertie & Elizabeth was commissioned especially for the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II and was first broadcast on ITV1 on 4 June 2002, only two months after the death of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The role of Queen Mary was portrayed by Dame Eileen Atkins, a role she again played in season one of The Crown in 2016.
Plot
The film begins with the initial meeting between the then Duke of York and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. The television drama then moves on through their courtship, marriage, and succession to the throne after the abdication of Edward VIII. We also see the two royals dealing with the events of the Second World War, as Buckingham Palace is hit and partially destroyed by a Luftwaffe bomb.
The film portrays Bertie's struggle to overcome his stammer, the fear he felt towards his father and the punishing stress the Duke was placed under during the abdication crisis of 1936.
Cast
James Wilby as Bertie, later King George VI
Juliet Aubrey as Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth
Alan Bates as King George V
Eileen Atkins as Queen Mary
David Ryall as Winston Churchill
Charles Edwards as David, later King Edward VIII, then Duke of Windsor
Paul Brooke as Tommy Lascelles
Oliver Ford Davies as Archbishop Lang
Corin Redgrave as General Montgomery
Robert Hardy as President Roosevelt
Michael Elwyn as Lionel Logue
Amber Rose Sealey as Wallis Simpson
Barbara Leigh-Hunt as Lady Mabell Airlie
David Burke as Lord John Reith
Helen Ryan as Queen Wilhelmina
Elisabeth Dermot Walsh as Princess Elizabeth known as "Lillibet", the future Queen Elizabeth II Denis Lill as Clement Attlee Deborah Cornelius as Thelma Furness Dolly Wells as Princess Mary Terence Harvey as Sir Clement Price Thomas Jeremy Child as Sir Samuel Hoare Anthony Smee as Ernest Simpson Geoffrey Beevers as Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne
See also
The King's Speech, a film about George VI's stammer and his efforts to reduce its effect. The Crown (TV series), Eileen Atkins reprised her role as Queen Mary in season 1, while Charles Edwards took a role of Queen Elizabeth II's private secretary Sir Martin Charteris in seasons 3 and 4.